Ben Affleck and Chris Terrio explain choices behind “Argo”

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:00:00 +0000

In an interview issued by TheWrap today, director-writer duo Ben Affleck and Chris Terrio talked about the challenges and scene-by-scene decisions they made when working on the critically acclaimed film "Argo." (Note: The interview and this post contain spoilers.) Set during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, the film tells the true story of six Americans who escaped under Iran's watchful eye on the premise that they were actors in a Hollywood film, an outlandish plan concocted by CIA agent Tony Mendez (Affleck).

Affleck and Terrio explained that the most intriguing aspect of the story -- its Hollywood twist -- also gave them the biggest challenge: combining, as Affleck stated, "the absurdity of the blue Wookie and the guy with his skintight suit saying, 'Fire the thrusters!' and then the propaganda, and seeing how the hostages were brutalized...."

In the excerpts below, Affleck and Terrio elaborate on some of their key concerns with the film.

On balancing the conflicting moods of the movie, Affleck said:

Salon.com > chris terrio

Ben Affleck and Chris Terrio explain choices behind “Argo”