A fall 2005 meeting with James G. Robinson, the head of the production company Morgan Creek, would seal the production deal. Levinson and the producer had known one another for decades, but not worked together on a project. Over lunch, Levinson discussed his screenplay, Man of the Year, and the two agreed that Robin Williams signing on to play the lead role would galvanize Levinson’s idea into a green-lit film. Robinson responded to the fact that “the script is a reflection of our culture. Tom Dobbs is an honest everyman who has some very big decisions to make about the power that’s been granted to him.”

The producer felt audiences would enjoy not only the sometimes dry, often ribald, humor but also the film’s “innocence and optimism. Humans are by our very nature optimists, and we want to believe things can get better.” That doesn’t stop him from admitting, however, that the film should very much make fun of politics and politicians. “Sometimes you have to bring ’em down to Earth a bit,” Robinson chuckles.

Levinson has often written the films he has directed, including such personal titles as Diner and Avalon. The director comments he enjoys the flexibility that comes with pulling double duty on his movies. “At a certain point, you try not to make a distinction between whether you are the writer or the director,” he says. “As a director, however, it’s an advantage to be able to fiddle and make changes more quickly than if you are the writer only.”

He created a central character in Tom Dobbs that would allow his audience to not only laugh at the hypocrisy of the political process but also challenge themselves as participatory members of their government. “Tom finds ways to allow humor in, so discussing accountability and responsibility becomes more palatable,” the filmmaker offers.

For his comedian-turned-contender, Levinson wrote about a man who—once he realizes that he’s an actual candidate—retains his comic roots. After Tom understands he has a legitimate voice in the process, he jumps at the chance to shake up the system. But he begins to sound like the clone candidates with empty vows. Levinson reflects, “It’s only when Tom comes back to his real essence—his comedy—that he suddenly has credibility.” And that’s when the humor, not the preaching, takes center stage in the film.

“The point of the movie is that it’s not about liberals, conservatives, Democrats or Republicans,” Levinson continues. “There is something wrong in a system when people begin to feel disconnected as if there isn’t some type of representation. Dobbs is saying, ‘We have bigger problems. We don’t seem to have leadership. We don’t have the guidance necessary. The average Joe doesn’t feel his government is responding to his needs.’” And a likeable comic actor like Williams is just the one to deliver the message. Theme and funding set, the production team was next off to find just the right actors to play rabble-rousers, pundits and agog voting techs.

Levinson knows there is a distinct reason why Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher have amassed devoted audiences who tune in nightly to get their takes on life in our country: viewers like a fresh take on the silliness that often permeates politics…delivered by very sarcastic, funny people. It makes news relatable and real. When it came time to cast the film, Levinson had some of his players already chosen in his mind, while casting other roles had eluded him. As a director, he feels he is simply “an orchestra conductor. As different as the individual sounds are, it’s my job to get all of the sections to play together. You always want the audience to be fascinated by the performance.”

When selecting his players, Levinson admits that he has learned from past experience that his films functioned best when there was a “controlled freedom” on the set, and he needed trained actors who could well thrive in that setting. “I don’t like to inhibit actors up front. I want them to fully explore their characters.” His on-set attitude is to give his performers a script in which he feels completely confident, while interestingly providing a structured environment where the actors feel “there are no controls presented at all.”
Of Levinson’s choices, producer James G. Robinson says, “Casting is dead on for the film. When it comes to choosing and directing actors, I’ve never seen anyone better than Barry.”
Interestingly, in the first few drafts of Man of the Year, Williams was not Levinson’s inspiration to play his sharp-tongued comic. “Originally, I had much more of a Nader-like character in mind. But I thought, ‘That doesn’t give me enough to play with.’ And then I considered a late-night talk-show host type, a Jon Stewart. I thought, ‘That’s more fun to work with.’ And then Robin came to mind.”
Levinson and Williams had long been familiar with one another’s style. “I’ve known Robin for years, so I write the way I would hear him speak. I think, ‘I can make this livelier, lift it off the carpet a bit and play with it.’ But the heart of the film is a serious premise with a character who has the ability to be humorous. Dobbs doesn’t take a sitcom approach to the world he’s entered.”
Discussing his leading man, Levinson notes, “Robin reads everything he can about what’s going on in the world. He’s smart enough that you can picture him running in politics. Blending into this character a guy who can be extremely funny, smart and serious makes for a formidable person and performance.”
Williams was interested to work with his old friend as soon as they discussed the project. According to the actor, he responded to the theme that “Barry’s main point is that politicians distract you with emotional issues while avoiding actual ones.” Williams felt he could do justice to Tom Dobbs, a man he felt wanted to “run using whatever celebrity he had to draw people into talking about the issues again.”

The actor also liked his character’s 180-degree behavioral turn once Dobbs realizes he has left one of his most powerful weapons behind on the campaign trail: humor. In a pivotal moment during the debate, Dobbs turns to the incumbent and his fellow challenger and fully lets loose his wickedly funny arsenal of jokes. Audiences have responded to this scene in early screenings with vocal enthusiasm, cheering what they have never quite witnessed in real life.

With the influx of entertainers commenting on and entering the political arena, Williams agreed Man of the Year could explore very timely territory. He says, “Al Franken runs for state senate in Minnesota. Dennis Miller, at one point, floated the idea of running for California senator. I think the guy from Dukes of Hazzard was actually a congressman. Are you voting for the celebrity or the person?”

For Williams, the message of the movie is simply: “Look around you. Engage your mind when you vote!” The actor has long used comedy to bring attention to social issues, including his decades-long affiliation with Comic Relief, one of the primary national fundraisers for America’s homeless. He feels comedians have a unique opportunity to satirize without alienating the majority of their audience. “Politically minded comics like Jon Stewart or Bill Maher simply point out the contradictions in our government, and that make you laugh,” he relates.

While it is often written in production notes about a director and actor, truly the first person Levinson considered for the role of the dutiful voting tech Ellie was actor Laura Linney. “Laura has a smart and serious side,” the filmmaker contends. “There’s something about her in which she can pull off humor without pushing it. I thought she could play a formidable character and not just a victim…someone who has a certain integrity.”

The Oscar®-nominated actor was intrigued by the project because “it’s a great character-driven piece.” Linney enjoyed the fact that playing opposite Williams was easy because he “acts with you as opposed to acting at you. It’s not a razzmatazz, manic comedian thing…he’s terribly connected to everyone around him,” she shares. The director was adamant that Tom Dobbs’ sounding board and manager not be the typical show business type seen in movies of the past…complete with clichéd trappings of heavy jewelry and manic screaming. “I thought of Christopher Walken as a producer/manager/mentor who would give an interesting dynamic to Robin as Tom. He brings a very fresh look to it all.”

Oscar® winner Walken spoke with Levinson about the creation of his character before production began. He offers, “I’ve been in show business my whole life. Comedy is very good business, and I felt that Menken and I had a great deal in common—we believe in comedy.”

Regarding his choice of actor Lewis Black for the part of Dobbs’ head writer, the director says, “I interviewed him for a previous project, but I didn’t have a role that was right for him then. I was thinking of him when I wrote this draft, and fortunately, the timing was great. You can see from the way Lewis’ mind works how he could write certain jokes for Dobbs to say.”
Black bluntly puts it, “I’m like Lassie as an actor. There’s a certain range that I’m in. If you want a collie, you get Lassie. If you want a German shepherd, you get Rin Tin Tin. If you want somebody who is cranky and angry, you look for me. Isn’t that good?” He deadpans, “Well, the Actors Studio loved that f*^%&^$ answer.”

Also important to the filmmaker was to infuse Man of the Year with a suspenseful sub-plot, as Eleanor is hunted by the very company that she used to serve, Delacroy Voting Systems. To round out his cast, for the lead attorney of the manipulative Delacroy, Levinson knew he did not want to create a character who was a true, stereotypical villain. Rather, he wanted to explore “business people caught in a situation that gets out of hand. They’re trying to protect a company worth billions of dollars.” For the role of Delacroy’s chief legal counsel, the director would choose an actor who could blend sly humor and sarcasm with a villainous tint better than anyone: Jeff Goldblum. “I had seen Jeff in the play Pillow Man after I had written the script for this film,” recalls Levinson. “I wondered if this character would intrigue him. Fortunately, it did.”

Goldblum, who had acted in the classic Annie Hall with fellow Man of the Year castmate Christopher Walken, is a keen political follower and found Levinson’s script timely and full of relatable comedy. After the director approached him with the role of the devious Alan Stewart, Goldblum found he couldn’t say no. A welcome addition to the film, as James G. Robinson refers to the affable actor as a “prince to work with.” Now off to production, the cast and crew were ready to keep warm laughing while attempting not to freeze in the icy winds of the Northeast.

Design And Style Of The Film

Filming for Man of the Year commenced on November 28, 2005, and wrapped on February 11, 2006. The majority of the comedy was lensed in the Northeast, and key principal photography occurred in New York City and the District of Columbia to capture the signature shots available in the two capitals that helped fashion American democracy. Above all, Levinson felt two things were crucial to setting the tone of the film: specific camera work and balance of improv with his carefully scripted comedy. He chose British cinematographer Dick Pope to give a documentary-style feel to the production, and he worked with his actors, particularly Williams, to get the perfect level of scripted and improv jokes that would make the comedy feel seamless.

Pope, a longtime collaborator of Mike Nichols, comes from a documentary filmmaking background. Levinson’s interest in working with his DP to shoot the film with handheld cameras allowed them to keep the momentum going while Tom Dobbs plugged along on the campaign trail, speaking on stage to an audience or one on one on his American tour. This decision often allowed Pope and Levinson to eliminate the need to stop and fix film.
The director didn’t want an overly produced look or slickly shot visuals for the comedy, rather he wanted to tell the story organically. Together with Pope and production designer Stefania Cella, the team created sequences that were more evening news than sweeping drama. “I didn’t want a film that’s very handsome looking,” notes Levinson. “That would not be correct to the type of movie we are doing. It would work against this project.”
The weather on set would not always cooperate for the players. Shooting in the Northeast region of the U.S. during the dead of winter led to many bitter cold days for the production. “Laura was running around in pajamas and a coat for part of the movie,” recalls Levinson. For the scenes where she had to make a quick getaway from her motel, the crew was shooting in temperatures that were three degrees below zero.

Fortunately, Levinson wasn’t one to dawdle in the freezing winter weather while he took signature shots. “We did a lot of work in the cold,” recalls Lewis Black. “We’re walking across this tarmac to a plane in a scene where Tom Dobbs’ team boards a plane. After the first take, we were out of there. Barry’s good at getting it right the first time.”

Producer James G. Robinson also liked the shooting style ways of his director.
“He’s a pro,” Robinson notes. “Barry’s not afraid to say, ‘This seemed like a good idea yesterday. Maybe today we should shoot it differently.’”

Laura Linney had a particularly interesting scene for an actor as cinematographer Pope captured her “meltdown” in long, extended sequences. Out to disprove Ellie as a psychotic, her company, Delacroy, hires a thug to dose her with a cocktail that would send the voting tech into a spinning rampage in the company cafeteria. “It was quite fun,” Linney offers. “Films are not like plays where you must consistently keep your body warm and keep ‘actor fit.’ If you have an opportunity to work in front of the camera all day long on a big chunk…grab it, do it.”
To prepare his actors for the shoot, Levinson asked they watch the 1992 debate with the then-incumbent George H.W. Bush, Texas billionaire Ross Perot and a young Arkansas governor by the name of Bill Clinton. Williams recalls of the session how he was struck that Perot came out very strong and Clinton strategically chose to not become defensive, winning him the debate. “Clinton dealt with questions directly, honestly and the others seemed lost,” offers Williams. This would prove a valuable lesson he would take into his character of Dobbs.

While the majority of the shoot was scripted, Levinson would play around with improv, especially for Williams. “When you have a political candidate in front of an audience, you want to take advantage of spontaneity,” Levinson offers. “You have to create that when drafting the script because you want to make it seem as if everything was made up. Improvisational moments have to fit in so well that you can’t tell them from the scripted moments.”
Directing a rapid-fire comic like Williams was old hat for the director. With a history that spans over 20 years, Levinson notes of his star, “Robin’s like a Ferrari. He can’t always be in full motion. A lot of times you need him to just idle. Then sometimes you have to say, ‘Hit the gas and take off.’ When he’s in front of an audience, he does that.”

Capturing Williams’ signature style was, according to the filmmaker, akin to the two playing football on a sandlot. “It’s not what you might call free improvisation,” Levinson offers. “Between takes, Robin and I would walk through ideas and tweak them. I’d say, ‘Listen, if you go out here, I’ll throw this ball over.’ I’d throw out some ideas and so would he. Some get into his head, then, he’s off to explore those concepts to make them funny.”
He continues, “Whenever we took a break between sets, Robin would stay and start talking and fooling around with the audience until we were ready to shoot again. For him, it’s not an effort. It feeds him, and there’s no reason to try and stop that.”
“Barry is a comic,” Williams returns. “He understands funny, political humor and setting things up without putting a lot of spin on them. He’ll pick the best of our work, and that’s what’s comforting as a comic and an actor.”
Principal photography wrapped, editing finished and cast and crew fully thawed, the two old friends had a bit of time to reflect on the film they’d created and the state of American politics and comedy in fall of 2006.

Williams proposes that “in the process of doing comedy, we try and talk about these issues and still be funny. We’re pushing the idea of democracy, but we’ve lost track of the idea that it is participatory.” Of that perceived disinterest in the process, he shares, “I hope this film snaps people out of our national boredom. I want us to vote for someone inspiring and charismatic, someone who can make unpopular decisions and help us join the 21st century rather than trying to roll back to the Norman Rockwell years.”

It is important to Levinson that the film both provides a message and gives a positive slant to the world he views. The filmmaker concludes, “A lot of times when we make political pieces, there’s a tendency to be cynical. At the heart and soul of this film, you have two people, neither of whom could be corrupted.” He liked the idea that “some man with integrity, some woman with integrity will both step forward, and that will be the beginning of change. I want to celebrate that somewhere in human nature, virtue rises up. The alternative is unimaginable.”
 

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