Hugh Jackman on how 'The Front Runner' reflects the changing face of U.S. politics
If you’re bold enough to mix politics and turkey this Thanksgiving holiday, The Front Runner should be your movie of choice. After opening in limited release on Election Day, Nov. 6, Jason Reitman’s political drama expands nationwide this week, giving 21st-century moviegoers an opportunity to experience a seismic moment in 20th-century American political history. The film stars Hugh Jackman as Colorado senator-turned-presidential candidate Gary Hart, whose high-flying 1987 campaign imploded following allegations of infidelity. “It was a week where things were moving at dizzying speed,” the actor tells Yahoo Entertainment of Hart’s very public fall from grace. (Watch the video above.)
The escalated pace of Hart’s campaign collapse, and the intensity of the media coverage surrounding it, is the main similarity that Jackman sees between 1987 and 2018. What has changed in the intervening decades is the extent to which campaigns feel the need to acknowledge these stories instead of ignoring them. “Many people in the Gary Hart campaign thought it would blow over,” Jackman says of the 1987 headlines hinting at a relationship between the candidate and model, Donna Rice. “And I think there is not a person in politics today who would think that situation would blow over unless it was handled head on.”
Reitman notes that another major difference between Gary Hart’s Washington and Donald Trump’s Washington is the nature of the relationship between politics and journalism. “We open this movie at a moment in which politicians and journalists knew each other personally,” the director says. But those close relationships have fallen by the wayside, in part because Hart has become a cautionary tale within the nation’s capital. “I imagine it’s very hard as a journalist to get to know who the hell a politician is in a real way,” Reitman muses. “And that’s the whole job! Now more than ever, it’s really hard to know who these guys are.”
The Front Runner is currently playing in theaters.
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