- Interviews
Frank Langella : “ We live in a corrupt world”
Frank Langella knows a thing or two about sucking the life out of an individual. You see, he played Dracula, the title character in John Badham’s 1979 darkly romantic horror film adaptation of the Bram Stoker vampire tale. So, when Aaron Sorkin was casting for the ensemble drama Anyone who followed the actual case of the infamous Chicago 7, which ran from April 1969 to February 1970, would have witnessed Hoffman as an abrasive and biased magistrate, frequently steering the case in a direction he seemed to have already decided. Langella handles this assignment with delightful aplomb, demeaning the defendants of the case as if, like Dracula, to suck the life out of them.
A stalwart of the American stage, having received four Tony Awards for his acting, Langella, who graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor’s degree in Drama, has been applying his command of the craft for nearly sixty years. His first appearance in the film, Diary of a Mad Housewife, netted the Bayonne, New Jersey native his first Golden Globe nomination (for Most Promising Newcomer). He would receive his next one in 2008 for Frost/Nixon. So he comes to Sorkin well equipped.
Actors at times are given the chance to be either a protagonist or an antagonist in a story. In this film, you dive headfirst into being the antagonist. How surprised were you at how contentious this man was?
Not terribly. We live in a corrupt world. It was as corrupt in 1968 as it is today. The only difference is that today it is out there in a way that it never was before. Aaron’s script is beautifully drawn. Hoffman is, to put it bluntly, a son-of-a-bitch with no redeeming qualities. He was in the pocket of the politicians of the day and determined to convict the Seven. Nothing was stopping him. He was never affected by anything in the trial, not even Bobby Seale. He was a heinous man, but beautiful to play.
Have you ever run across a judge like this man? Have you ever faced an imbalance of justice?
Well, if you have been divorced as many times as I have in my country, you do experience the incredible frustration of any legal system. But in any other respects, no I haven’t. I have never been arrested. I have been a pretty good citizen all of my life. So, I haven’t been caught up with anything that would make me converge with the legal system.
You are one of the few participants of the film who was actually alive during the actual trial. What do you remember about it?
I am sorry to give you this answer, but I was totally unaware of it. I was 30. I was just divorced and in an acting career that was just in its beginning days. I was looking around for a mate, as young actors do. So, it just flew by me. I was more caught up in Kent State and the hippie movement, which I wasn’t a part of. Those things grabbed my attention. I did know who Abbie Hoffman was. But I didn’t watch the trial. I didn’t see it and I wasn’t aware of it.