STACK NZ June 2015 Issue 63

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with BENNETT MILLER.
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B ennett Miller first came across the
story in a newspaper article. “The
circumstances seemed comical
and absurd, but the outcome was horrible
and real,” he says. “The deeply strange
things that happened on the du Pont estate
were unlike anything I had personally
experienced, and yet they felt familiar.
There was something about the story – or
perhaps something beneath the story – that
wasn’t strange at all. In fact, the opposite.”
To bring this true-life tale to the screen,
Miller embarked on extensive research into
the case, a process that took a number of
years and went beyond simply determining
the plot. “I needed to learn what hadn’t
been known about the story and that takes
time,” he says. “My first undertaking was
authoring and engineering the moments
and sequencing what would become the
film – a process that allowed the film to
continue to reveal itself all the way through
to the last detail in post-production.”
Miller also conducted interviews with
those directly involved, including Mark
Schultz and his fellow wrestlers, Nancy
Schultz, employees of du Pont, and the
police officers assigned to the case.
“This story harbours some uncomfortable
truths,” he says. “Everyone I spoke
with seemed to be guarding some
aspect of what happened.” It then fell
to screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan
Futterman to sort the fact from the fiction
and build a complex, character-focused
narrative.
“Making a film like this, which is not
a predetermined, connect-the-dots kind
of project, requires a leap of faith on the
part of the producers and actors,” Miller
explains. “It’s almost like going into a
documentary, where you don’t know
exactly what form it will take when it’s
finished. The only way for the film to
become what it needs to become is to go
into it with a question mark.”
Undoubtedly the most fascinating player
in the Foxcatcher saga is John du Pont, the
fiercely patriotic “ornithologist, philatelist,
philanthropist”, coach and benefactor to
the US Olympic wrestling team through the
establishment of the Foxcatcher training
facility and his generous financial
contributions to the sport.
“He was highly competitive and
yearned for respect,” notes Steve
Carell, whose disquieting portrayal
of du Pont in the film was rewarded
with an Oscar nomination. “I think
he wanted people to look up to him
in the way they looked up to Dave
Schultz. He wanted to be one of the
guys yet still be held in a
somewhat higher regard
than others. Ultimately
he was unable to earn that
kind of esteem and admiration.
“I don’t see him as a monster,” he
continues. “He’s someone who was
suffering from mental illness and did
something terrible. He was a very sad,
damaged human being.”
This story harbours some
uncomfortable truths.
Everyone I spoke with
seemed to be guarding
some aspect of what
happened.