During his lifetime, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) would rise to be the most powerful man in America. As head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 50 years, he would stop at nothing to protect his country. Through 8 presidents and 3 wars, Hoover waged battle against threats both real and perceived, often bending the rules to keep his countrymen safe. Hoover was a man who placed great value on secrets – particularly those of others – and was not afraid to use that information to exert authority over the leading figures in the nation.

Understanding that knowledge is power and fear poses opportunity, he used both to gain unprecedented influence and to build a reputation that was both formidable and untouchable. He was as guarded in his private life as he was in his public one, allowing only a small and protective inner circle into his confidence. His closest colleague, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), was also his constant companion. His secretary, Helen Gandy (Naomie Watts), who was perhaps most privy to Hoover’s designs, remained loyal to the end…and beyond. As seen through the eyes of Hoover himself, ‘J. Edgar’ explores the personal and public life and relationships of a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it during a life devoted to his own idea of justice, often swayed by the darker side of power. Directed by Clint Eastwood, ‘J. Edgar’ also stars Judi Dench, Josh Lucas and Ken Howard. The film is released in cinemas January 20th in the UK.

What was the biggest challenge for you taking on this biopic, especially as it’s someone who’s as prominent and contentious as J. Edgar Hoover?

Clint Eastwood: Biopics bring their own set of problems, as far as how much you want to imitate or emulate the characters? But Hoover was a very important character, a controversial character, so with that it’s important to get it somewhat accurate. The actors all pretty much studied and read every biographical book or took in any piece of material they could find once they got the roles. I think they all enjoyed that, I think they enjoyed diving in on it.

How much research did you have to do personally?

Clint Eastwood: I had a really good script from Dustin Lance Black, so I really just had a look back over the material he took it from and had to make sure there wasn’t anything missing. And for instance, there was a speech by Nixon, who does a eulogy to Hoover, and with that Dustin had paraphrased it a little bit. But when we got to doing it, we had a film clip of the actual eulogy by Nixon, so I just put that one up and told the actor, “Do that one.” You have to vamp as you constantly take in information on the characters. Listening to congressional interrogations on Helen Gandy after they wanted to know what happened to all the files, there was a big curiosity about that. And she just said that she boiled them (laughs), she shredded them all up. There was a lot of interesting things we learnt.

It seems that Helen Gandy was a devotee to service and sacrifice. Is that the backstory you gave to her? Did you see your character as sacrificing her life?

Naomi Watts: Yes, I did. Unlike Hoover’s character, there was very little information about Helen available. All we really knew was that she worked for him for 50 years. She was not married and she devoted her life to her job, the rest sort of had to be filled in. These were questions of mine in that when I read the script for the first time, I was like, “Why did she do that?” This was not common for women of that time, to go into her career saying, “This is all I want,” so she was ahead of her time. That’s an inspiration for all women to see, a woman thinking and moving differently from those around her. I liked that it was set up, in a way, that perhaps she was going to be a love interest but it just wasn’t who Hoover was despite wanting to please his mother. In terms of Helen Gandy, she wanted that career and she just went after it. She loved serving her country and making those sacrifices and she had unbelievable loyalty, and that’s what I love about the tone of the whole film. It’s a big subject in the film, the loyalty.

How did you research her?

Naomi Watts: A lot was there in the script, but they sent me this great package, massive package of endless DVD’s, a lot of documentaries, a lot of stuff on the FBI, a lot of stuff on J. Edgar Hoover himself. I used a lot of books, the internet, a lot of stuff on Youtube….I was always trying to find more information about Helen Gandy but the very nature of her job was to be in the background of this mans life. There was a couple of photographs, not much at all. It was about piecing it all together. I did manage to find the transcript of her testimony in the Library of Congress through a friend that works in government – that was actually one of the most telling pieces of information that I found, because it just reiterated what was already in the script; her level of commitment, her absolute need to service her country, her sense of duty, and even way after he passed away and her career was finished she still kept her word.

What was it about Leonardo DiCaprio that made you think that this is the guy to play J. Edgar Hoover?

Clint Eastwood: I’d watched his career advance, playing a lot of different kinds of roles. He desperately wanted to do this, he had a great instinct for it. So I think anybody who wants it that bad, and is as good a performer as he is, it was to my benefit. I would have been a fool to not advance that one. He even brought his own make-up person to construct the older Hoover, and that was a very arduous situation putting all that on every day, it would take 5 hours to put it on, 3 hours to take it off. He’s very bright, he likes doing off-beat parts. He’s interested in roles that stretch imagination. I think that’s very admirable, I like that.

Throughout your career, I’d imagine you’ve come into proximity with people of enormous power, politically and otherwise. How did you take those observations that you’ve made from your own experiences and apply them to Hoover’s story?

Clint Eastwood: Well, with people in high office, they go into the extreme, which is absolute power and absolute power corrupts and what have you, so there’s always the corrupting thing with the 48 year stint as the director of the Bureau of Investigation. And because he formed it all and he had the trust of various executives along the way, they just relied on him and nobody could remove him. We at least approached it from that way, there are so many parallels in society today that you can use, whether it’s the head of a studio or a head of an organization, a major newspaper, a major factory or company, of people who stay too long, maybe, and overstay their usefulness.

The nature of the storytelling is non-linear, the way it shifted through the different time periods. Why did you think that was an important or an effective way to tell the story?

Clint Eastwood: I found it interesting. That was Lance’s original impression of the way to put it together, and I found it interesting that way. It was an interesting way to go back and forth in time and show him and his present day attitude and how he was when he was younger, just starting out with all kinds of vigour and ready to roll. I think we stuck pretty well with the formula and it seemed clever to me. By the same token it helped to justify all these characters. Hoover, I’m sure, felt that he was right in everything he did and even the things that we don’t like about his character. Everybody always feels that they’re right even if they’re wrong, and that’s what a whole actor’s career is built around – rationalizing your way into whatever character you’re playing. So it was great fun.

Then Helen Gandy, for instance, I’m just deviating a little bit but I’ll get back to it. When I went to the FBI, she was sort of legendary as far as running the place, and even Robert Mueller who’s the director today says, “Oh yeah, Helen Gandy, she ran the place.” She was one of those women that there were quite a few of in those days that would come into a job and after a period of time everybody would come and go and pretty soon everybody was relying on her. We listened to the tapes of her talking to the Congressional Committee after Hoover passed to the whereabouts of all of the so-called files. She stood her ground and you could tell she was somebody who was very confident after 50 years of being on that job. Nobody could burn her down. She just had her story and she stuck to it. Those kind of characters all made it interesting. You get this collage of people that all come from a different place. You ask yourself about Hoover and his relationship with Helen Gandy and his relationship with Tolson, where did it come from? With Tolson, was it just because of lack of trust? Other people come and go and rumours fly in a big organization like that. He had one or two people that he trusted and that was the extent of it probably.

During his lifetime, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) would rise to be the most powerful man in America. As head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 50 years, he would stop at nothing to protect his country. Through 8 presidents and 3 wars, Hoover waged battle against threats both real and perceived, often bending the rules to keep his countrymen safe. Hoover was a man who placed great value on secrets – particularly those of others – and was not afraid to use that information to exert authority over the leading figures in the nation.

Understanding that knowledge is power and fear poses opportunity, he used both to gain unprecedented influence and to build a reputation that was both formidable and untouchable. He was as guarded in his private life as he was in his public one, allowing only a small and protective inner circle into his confidence. His closest colleague, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), was also his constant companion. His secretary, Helen Gandy (Naomie Watts), who was perhaps most privy to Hoover’s designs, remained loyal to the end…and beyond. As seen through the eyes of Hoover himself, ‘J. Edgar’ explores the personal and public life and relationships of a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it during a life devoted to his own idea of justice, often swayed by the darker side of power. Directed by Clint Eastwood, ‘J. Edgar’ also stars Judi Dench, Josh Lucas and Ken Howard. The film is released in cinemas January 20th in the UK.

What was the biggest challenge when taking on this role? I can’t think of many people over the last century who have been as important and controversial in American history.

Leonardo DiCaprio: The biggest challenge was something that was very clearly defined in the screenplay for me….not necessarily sympathise, but how do you emphasize with this human being, not even emphasize, but how do understand his motivations and how that manifested itself into politics? It was very intriguing to discover Dustin Lance Black’s screenplay, because for the first time I kind of understand what motivated him; at a very young age his mother wanted him to rise to great power in politics, to carry on the Hoover name to great glory. He was a young genius, he came into this bureau and really transformed the United States, really organised modern forensics, captured all the outlaws, really put a face on a federal system of police enforcement that to this day is incredibly intimidating.

After your research what were your thoughts of him?

Leonardo DiCaprio: My politics aren’t inline with his (laughs). I think he had a very right-wing puritan view on how to protect democracy in our country, by any means necessary. But I believe in his heart he believed he was a great patriot, he believed he was there to protect the US at all costs, but I think he stayed in power for way too long, which was the great tragedy of his career. 50 years and 8 presidents, he should have been gone long ago. By the time the civil rights movement was coming about the US was changing for the better. He went at and politically attacked Martin Luther King and tried to take down that movement, amongst others, label it as a communist uprising, which was absurd.

J. Edgar Hoover’s mother really helped drive his ambition and political views…

Leonardo DiCaprio: She was a very powerful force in J. Edgar Hoover’s real life. She influenced a lot of his decisions politically, influenced his ambition, fuelled his ambition. She was the rock solid moral high-ground that he constantly went to in times of despair and confusion. She really drove him politically, she was almost like a stage mum in a lot of respects.

He was obsessive in how he shaped his agents, and in making the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency.

Leonardo DiCaprio: He was obsessive, compulsive…compounded by being a germaphobe in the way he wanted his G-Men to look (laughs). These were straight-laced FBI men, they needed to have a certain amount of hair on their head, they needed to have the certain stature, clean shaven, they needed to wear suits, they need to have College education, they needed to be able to speak with a certain directness, and they needed to be able to handle themselves almost like young politicians. He developed an army of these men that still to this day remain an incredible mystery to the general public. We don’t know how they operate or what they do behind closed doors – but you know that they are omnipresent.

What was the make-up process like for you?

Leonardo DiCaprio: It was probably six hours everyday, it took away from some of the shooting time and it was very complicated to try to inhabit that older version of J Edgar Hoover. It wasn’t just the make-up and the prosthetic, to be able to walk into a room and talk to Robert F. Kennedy as if he was a young political upstart who didn’t know the first thing about the state of the world, or politics to begin with (laughs), to have that political command was the most challenging thing. But I took a lot of inspiration from Clint Eastwood, he helped me out a lot, he told me how I should move, how I should act, he was the main inspiration for a lot of us, he was great.

Speaking to Clint Eastwood and Dustin Lance Black about the film, they talked about how it was very much a collaborative effort in shaping the characters. What was that like for you?

Leonardo DiCaprio: This is an incredibly important American figure to take on, so we needed the incredible amount of research that Dustin Lance Black had done before hand. Also I think he needed my interpretation with how I was going to put that up on screen, the sort of tone that we were going to reflect this mans life – which goes through so many different eras in American history, it takes on so many different important events, how to humanise that? Clint Eastwood really partnered up with the both of us, he really asked for our input, he really wanted to make this a collaboration.

During his lifetime, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) would rise to be the most powerful man in America. As head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 50 years, he would stop at nothing to protect his country. Through 8 presidents and 3 wars, Hoover waged battle against threats both real and perceived, often bending the rules to keep his countrymen safe. Hoover was a man who placed great value on secrets – particularly those of others – and was not afraid to use that information to exert authority over the leading figures in the nation.

Understanding that knowledge is power and fear poses opportunity, he used both to gain unprecedented influence and to build a reputation that was both formidable and untouchable. He was as guarded in his private life as he was in his public one, allowing only a small and protective inner circle into his confidence. His closest colleague, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), was also his constant companion. His secretary, Helen Gandy (Naomie Watts), who was perhaps most privy to Hoover’s designs, remained loyal to the end…and beyond. As seen through the eyes of Hoover himself, ‘J. Edgar’ explores the personal and public life and relationships of a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it during a life devoted to his own idea of justice, often swayed by the darker side of power. Directed by Clint Eastwood, ‘J. Edgar’ also stars Judi Dench, Josh Lucas and Ken Howard. The film is released in cinemas November 9th in the US and January 20th in the UK. Check out my interview with Leonardo DiCaprio for the film here.

What was the biggest challenge for you taking on this biopic, especially as it’s someone who’s as prominent and contentious as J. Edgar Hoover?

Clint Eastwood: Biopics bring their own set of problems, as far as how much you want to imitate or emulate the characters? But Hoover was a very important character, a controversial character, so with that it’s important to get it somewhat accurate. The actors all pretty much studied and read every biographical book or took in any piece of material they could find once they got the roles. I think they all enjoyed that, I think they enjoyed diving in on it.

How much research did you have to do personally?

Clint Eastwood: I had a really good script from Dustin Lance Black, so I really just had a look back over the material he took it from and had to make sure there wasn’t anything missing. And for instance, there was a speech by Nixon, who does a eulogy to Hoover, and with that Dustin had paraphrased it a little bit. But when we got to doing it, we had a film clip of the actual eulogy by Nixon, so I just put that one up and told the actor, “Do that one.” You have to vamp as you constantly take in information on the characters. Listening to congressional interrogations on Helen Gandy after they wanted to know what happened to all the files, there was a big curiosity about that. And she just said that she boiled them (laughs), she shredded them all up. There was a lot of interesting things we learnt.

What was it about Leonardo DiCaprio that made you think that this is the guy to play J. Edgar Hoover?

Clint Eastwood: I’d watched his career advance, playing a lot of different kinds of roles. He desperately wanted to do this, he had a great instinct for it. So I think anybody who wants it that bad, and is as good a performer as he is, it was to my benefit. I would have been a fool to not advance that one. He even brought his own make-up person to construct the older Hoover, and that was a very arduous situation putting all that on every day, it would take 5 hours to put it on, 3 hours to take it off. He’s very bright, he likes doing off-beat parts. He’s interested in roles that stretch imagination. I think that’s very admirable, I like that.

Throughout your career I’d imagine you’ve come into proximity with people of enormous power, politically and otherwise. How did you take those observations that you’ve made from your own experiences and apply them to Hoover’s story?

Clint Eastwood: Well, with people in high office, they go into the extreme, which is absolute power and absolute power corrupts and what have you, so there’s always the corrupting thing with the 48 year stint as the director of the Bureau of Investigation. And because he formed it all and he had the trust of various executives along the way, they just relied on him and nobody could remove him. We at least approached it from that way, there are so many parallels in society today that you can use, whether it’s the head of a studio or a head of an organization, a major newspaper, a major factory or company, of people who stay too long, maybe, and overstay their usefulness.

The nature of the storytelling is non-linear, the way it shifted through the different time periods. Why did you think that was an important or an effective way to tell the story?

Clint Eastwood: I found it interesting. That was Lance’s original impression of the way to put it together, and I found it interesting that way. It was an interesting way to go back and forth in time and show him and his present day attitude and how he was when he was younger, just starting out with all kinds of vigour and ready to roll. I think we stuck pretty well with the formula and it seemed clever to me. By the same token it helped to justify all these characters. Hoover, I’m sure, felt that he was right in everything he did and even the things that we don’t like about his character. Everybody always feels that they’re right even if they’re wrong, and that’s what a whole actor’s career is built around – rationalizing your way into whatever character you’re playing. So it was great fun.

Then Helen Gandy, for instance, I’m just deviating a little bit but I’ll get back to it. When I went to the FBI, she was sort of legendary as far as running the place, and even Robert Mueller who’s the director today says, “Oh yeah, Helen Gandy, she ran the place.” She was one of those women that there were quite a few of in those days that would come into a job and after a period of time everybody would come and go and pretty soon everybody was relying on her. We listened to the tapes of her talking to the Congressional Committee after Hoover passed to the whereabouts of all of the so-called files. She stood her ground and you could tell she was somebody who was very confident after 50 years of being on that job. Nobody could burn her down. She just had her story and she stuck to it. Those kind of characters all made it interesting. You get this collage of people that all come from a different place. You ask yourself about Hoover and his relationship with Helen Gandy and his relationship with Tolson, where did it come from? With Tolson, was it just because of lack of trust? Other people come and go and rumours fly in a big organization like that. He had one or two people that he trusted and that was the extent of it probably.

During his lifetime, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) would rise to be the most powerful man in America. As head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 50 years, he would stop at nothing to protect his country. Through 8 presidents and 3 wars, Hoover waged battle against threats both real and perceived, often bending the rules to keep his countrymen safe. Hoover was a man who placed great value on secrets – particularly those of others – and was not afraid to use that information to exert authority over the leading figures in the nation.

Understanding that knowledge is power and fear poses opportunity, he used both to gain unprecedented influence and to build a reputation that was both formidable and untouchable. He was as guarded in his private life as he was in his public one, allowing only a small and protective inner circle into his confidence. His closest colleague, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), was also his constant companion. His secretary, Helen Gandy (Naomie Watts), who was perhaps most privy to Hoover’s designs, remained loyal to the end…and beyond. As seen through the eyes of Hoover himself, ‘J. Edgar’ explores the personal and public life and relationships of a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it during a life devoted to his own idea of justice, often swayed by the darker side of power. Directed by Clint Eastwood, ‘J. Edgar’ also stars Judi Dench, Josh Lucas and Ken Howard. The film is released in cinemas November 9th in the US and January 20th in the UK. Check out my interview with Leonardo DiCaprio for the film here.

What was it like to work with Clint Eastwood?

Armie Hammer: He’s as cool as you think he is, he’s nicer than you think he is, he’s tougher than you think he is, he is an icon of a human being – they broke the mould after that guy for sure (laughs)! The way he works, the fact that he’s stripped filmmaking of all of the noise, all the extraneous riff-raff, all the crap, he’s reduced it to the point of, “Put the camera there, you guys stand there….go! Ok, put the camera there, you guys stand there….go!” No nonsense, it just made the days fly, it was all about the work, everybody was there to facilitate everybody getting their job done because he’s ready to move on so quickly that if one persons not….you get called out, you have to be ready. That made everybody so focused, it was a great environment to be in.

Naomi Watts: Working with Clint Eastwood, it had been a personal dream for me for a long time. I’ve always thought that film is a directors medium, and you want to be in the work place with great directors. They’re our teachers, it’s all about their vision, so you really have to team up with the right people – he’s definitely one of them! It’s great he’s so no nonsense, you just go in there and get it done. I wish I had more days on the set, it was great.

How did you research Helen Gandy, this trusted confidant and secretary?

Naomi Watts: A lot was there in the script, but they sent me this great package, massive package of endless DVD’s, a lot of documentaries, a lot of stuff on the FBI, a lot of stuff on J. Edgar Hoover himself. I used a lot of books, the internet, a lot of stuff on Youtube….I was always trying to find more information about Helen Gandy but the very nature of her job was to be in the background of this mans life. There was a couple of photographs, not much at all. It was about piecing it all together. I did manage to find the transcript of her testimony in the Library of Congress through a friend that works in government – that was actually one of the most telling pieces of information that I found, because it just reiterated what was already in the script; her level of commitment, her absolute need to service her country, her sense of duty, and even way after he passed away and her career was finished she still kept her word.

She really stuck by him, like you said, even after he passed…

Naomi Watts: Yeah, that was really my big question, “How? How do you do that? Is that really because you’re just serving your country or does she have a place in her heart for him?” I don’t know….in the end they were all my decisions to make up because there weren’t any facts available about her personal life and beliefs.

How was the research process for you Armie?

Armie Hammer: I done tonnes of research, I actually hired a researcher because I couldn’t find anything, I basically said, “Give me everything you can,” and she did, god bless her (laughs). I had more information on Clyde than I could personally find on J. Edgar Hoover – I had a ridiculous amount of information.

You both worked incredibly closely with Leonardo DiCaprio on this film, how was he to work with?

Armie Hammer: He’s so focused, so driven, so determined, he doesn’t get distracted for a second. He knew the amount of work going into this that he had to put into it, and he exceeded it, he was never not focused for a single second during the day. It was super impressive.

Naomi Watts: His work before had time and time again blown me away. He’s got great range, he’s got great charisma, he’s just wildly talented. And then being on a set with him, it just escalated my admiration for him. He takes his work very seriously, he works really really hard.

During his lifetime, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) would rise to be the most powerful man in America. As head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 50 years, he would stop at nothing to protect his country. Through 8 presidents and 3 wars, Hoover waged battle against threats both real and perceived, often bending the rules to keep his countrymen safe. Hoover was a man who placed great value on secrets – particularly those of others – and was not afraid to use that information to exert authority over the leading figures in the nation.

Understanding that knowledge is power and fear poses opportunity, he used both to gain unprecedented influence and to build a reputation that was both formidable and untouchable. He was as guarded in his private life as he was in his public one, allowing only a small and protective inner circle into his confidence. His closest colleague, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), was also his constant companion. His secretary, Helen Gandy (Naomie Watts), who was perhaps most privy to Hoover’s designs, remained loyal to the end…and beyond. As seen through the eyes of Hoover himself, ‘J. Edgar’ explores the personal and public life and relationships of a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it during a life devoted to his own idea of justice, often swayed by the darker side of power. Directed by Clint Eastwood, ‘J. Edgar’ also stars Judi Dench, Josh Lucas and Ken Howard. The film is released in cinemas November 9th in the US, and January 20th in the UK.

What was the biggest challenge when taking on this role? I can’t think of many people over the last century who have been as important and controversial in American history.

Leonardo DiCaprio: The biggest challenge was something that was very clearly defined in the screenplay for me….not necessarily sympathise, but how do you emphasize with this human being, not even emphasize, but how do understand his motivations and how that manifested itself into politics? It was very intriguing to discover Dustin Lance Black’s screenplay, because for the first time I kind of understand what motivated him; at a very young age his mother wanted him to rise to great power in politics, to carry on the Hoover name to great glory. He was a young genius, he came into this bureau and really transformed the United States, really organised modern forensics, captured all the outlaws, really put a face on a federal system of police enforcement that to this day is incredibly intimidating.

After your research what were your thoughts of him?

Leonardo DiCaprio: My politics aren’t inline with his (laughs). I think he had a very right-wing puritan view on how to protect democracy in our country, by any means necessary. But I believe in his heart he believed he was a great patriot, he believed he was there to protect the US at all costs, but I think he stayed in power for way too long, which was the great tragedy of his career. 50 years and 8 presidents, he should have been gone long ago. By the time the civil rights movement was coming about the US was changing for the better. He went at and politically attacked Martin Luther King and tried to take down that movement, amongst others, label it as a communist uprising, which was absurd.

J. Edgar Hoover’s mother really helped drive his ambition and political views…

Leonardo DiCaprio: She was a very powerful force in J. Edgar Hoover’s real life. She influenced a lot of his decisions politically, influenced his ambition, fuelled his ambition. She was the rock solid moral high-ground that he constantly went to in times of despair and confusion. She really drove him politically, she was almost like a stage mum in a lot of respects.

He was obsessive in how he shaped his agents, and in making the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency.

Leonardo DiCaprio: He was obsessive, compulsive…compounded by being a germaphobe in the way he wanted his G-Men to look (laughs). These were straight-laced FBI men, they needed to have a certain amount of hair on their head, they needed to have the certain stature, clean shaven, they needed to wear suits, they need to have College education, they needed to be able to speak with a certain directness, and they needed to be able to handle themselves almost like young politicians. He developed an army of these men that still to this day remain an incredible mystery to the general public. We don’t know how they operate or what they do behind closed doors – but you know that they are omnipresent.

What was the make-up process like for you?

Leonardo DiCaprio: It was probably six hours everyday, it took away from some of the shooting time and it was very complicated to try to inhabit that older version of J Edgar Hoover. It wasn’t just the make-up and the prosthetic, to be able to walk into a room and talk to Robert F. Kennedy as if he was a young political upstart who didn’t know the first thing about the state of the world, or politics to begin with (laughs), to have that political command was the most challenging thing. But I took a lot of inspiration from Clint Eastwood, he helped me out a lot, he told me how I should move, how I should act, he was the main inspiration for a lot of us, he was great.

Speaking to Clint Eastwood and Dustin Lance Black about the film, they talked about how it was very much a collaborative effort in shaping the characters. What was that like for you?

Leonardo DiCaprio: This is an incredibly important American figure to take on, so we needed the incredible amount of research that Dustin Lance Black had done before hand. Also I think he needed my interpretation with how I was going to put that up on screen, the sort of tone that we were going to reflect this mans life – which goes through so many different eras in American history, it takes on so many different important events, how to humanise that? Clint Eastwood really partnered up with the both of us, he really asked for our input, he really wanted to make this a collaboration.

Warner Bros. Pictures has debuted these six new clips from Clint Eastwood’s Leonardo DiCaprio-starring J. Edgar Hoover biopic ‘J. Edgar.’ The film co-stars Armie Hammer as Clyde Toulson, Hoover’s second in command, and secret lover. Judie Dench plays Hoover’s mother, Anne Marie Hoover, Jeffrey Donovan stars as Robert F. Kennedy, and Naomi Watts will play Helen Gandy, Hoover’s loyal secretary for 54 years from 1918-1972. Lea Thompson, Josh Lucas, Damon Herriman, Ken Howard and Ed Westwick also star. Clint Eastwood directs from a script by ‘Milk’ Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black. ‘J. Edgar’ is released in cinemas November 9th in the US, and January 20th in the UK.

Based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the man often credited with making the FBI what it is today: an efficient, crime-fighting organization shrouded in secrecy. Hoover founded the organization in 1935 and remained director until his death in 1972. As America’s top cop for five decades, J. Edgar Hoover oversaw the creation of the FBI, helped popularize fingerprints and other forensic evidence, and wielded nearly unchecked authority to manipulate evidence and investigate supposed enemies of the state such as Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Now director Clint Eastwood is turning the tables, prying into Hoover’s life in a big-screen biopic that would doubtless make the notorious G-man squirm. Look out for interviews with the cast this week.

Warner Bros. Pictures has debuted these three TV spots for Clint Eastwood’s Leonardo DiCaprio-starring J. Edgar Hoover biopic ‘J. Edgar.’ The film co-stars Armie Hammer as Clyde Toulson, Hoover’s second in command, and secret lover. Judie Dench plays Hoover’s mother, Anne Marie Hoover, Jeffrey Donovan stars as Robert F. Kennedy, and Naomi Watts will play Helen Gandy, Hoover’s loyal secretary for 54 years from 1918-1972. Lea Thompson, Josh Lucas, Damon Herriman, Ken Howard and Ed Westwick also star. Clint Eastwood directs from a script by ‘Milk’ Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black. ‘J. Edgar’ is released in cinemas November 9th in the US, and January 20th in the UK.

Based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the man often credited with making the FBI what it is today: an efficient, crime-fighting organization shrouded in secrecy. Hoover founded the organization in 1935 and remained director until his death in 1972. As America’s top cop for five decades, J. Edgar Hoover oversaw the creation of the FBI, helped popularize fingerprints and other forensic evidence, and wielded nearly unchecked authority to manipulate evidence and investigate supposed enemies of the state such as Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Now director Clint Eastwood is turning the tables, prying into Hoover’s life in a big-screen biopic that would doubtless make the notorious G-man squirm.

Warner Bros. Pictures has debuted these two posters for Clint Eastwood’s Leonardo DiCaprio-starring J. Edgar Hoover biopic ‘J. Edgar.’ The film co-stars Armie Hammer as Clyde Toulson, Hoover’s second in command, and secret lover, Judie Dench plays Hoover’s mother, Anne Marie Hoover, Jeffrey Donovan stars as Robert F. Kennedy, while Naomi Watts will play Helen Gandy, Hoover’s loyal secretary for 54 years from 1918-1972. Lea Thompson, Josh Lucas, Damon Herriman, Ken Howard and Ed Westwick also star. Clint Eastwood directs from a script by ‘Milk’ Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black.  ‘J. Edgar’ is released in cinemas November 9th in the US, and January 20th in the UK.

Based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the man often credited with making the FBI what it is today: an efficient, crime-fighting organization shrouded in secrecy. Hoover founded the organization in 1935 and remained director until his death in 1972.

As America’s top cop for five decades, J. Edgar Hoover oversaw the creation of the FBI, helped popularize fingerprints and other forensic evidence, and wielded nearly unchecked authority to manipulate evidence and investigate supposed enemies of the state such as Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Now director Clint Eastwood is turning the tables, prying into Hoover’s life in a big-screen biopic that would doubtless make the notorious G-man squirm.

Closely following the release of the films debut trailer earlier in the week, the good folks over at Warner Bros have now liberated this TV spot for Clint Eastwood’s Leonardo DiCaprio-starring J. Edgar Hoover biopic ‘J. Edgar.’ The film co-stars Armie Hammer as Clyde Toulson, Hoover’s second in command, and secret lover, Judie Dench plays Hoover’s mother, Anne Marie Hoover, Jeffrey Donovan stars as Robert F. Kennedy, while Naomi Watts will play Helen Gandy, Hoover’s loyal secretary for 54 years from 1918-1972. Lea Thompson, Josh Lucas, Damon Herriman, Ken Howard and Ed Westwick also star. Clint Eastwood directs from a script by ‘Milk’ Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black.  ‘J. Edgar’ is released in cinemas November 9th in the US, and January 20th in the UK.

Based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the man often credited with making the FBI what it is today: an efficient, crime-fighting organization shrouded in secrecy. Hoover founded the organization in 1935 and remained director until his death in 1972.

As America’s top cop for five decades, J. Edgar Hoover oversaw the creation of the FBI, helped popularize fingerprints and other forensic evidence, and wielded nearly unchecked authority to manipulate evidence and investigate supposed enemies of the state such as Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Now director Clint Eastwood is turning the tables, prying into Hoover’s life in a big-screen biopic that would doubtless make the notorious G-man squirm.

Warner Bros have unveiled this debut trailer for Clint Eastwood’s Leonardo DiCaprio-starring J. Edgar Hoover biopic ‘J. Edgar.’ The film co-stars Armie Hammer as Clyde Toulson, Hoover’s second in command, and secret lover, Judie Dench plays Hoover’s mother, Anne Marie Hoover, Jeffrey Donovan stars as Robert F. Kennedy, while Naomi Watts will play Helen Gandy, Hoover’s loyal secretary for 54 years from 1918-1972. Lea Thompson, Josh Lucas, Damon Herriman, Ken Howard and Ed Westwick also star. Clint Eastwood directs from a script by ‘Milk’ Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black.  ‘J. Edgar’ is released in cinemas November 9th in the US, and January 20th in the UK.

Based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the man often credited with making the FBI what it is today: an efficient, crime-fighting organization shrouded in secrecy. Hoover founded the organization in 1935 and remained director until his death in 1972.

As America’s top cop for five decades, J. Edgar Hoover oversaw the creation of the FBI, helped popularize fingerprints and other forensic evidence, and wielded nearly unchecked authority to manipulate evidence and investigate supposed enemies of the state such as Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Now director Clint Eastwood is turning the tables, prying into Hoover’s life in a big-screen biopic that would doubtless make the notorious G-man squirm.