When you’re creating a character out of nothing, you have to make all the guesses as to how they walk, how they talk, how they think. It was all there on the table for us to pick and choose for Murrow.

I don’t think I could’ve carried the weight that Murrow carried.

If it’s a role like this one, an actual live person, a legend, there’s lots of material laid out.

It’s either the Amendment or this Confederate peace. You cannot have both.

You work enough with someone and you develop a shorthand. You know how he likes to work through the day and he knows where you’re vulnerable and where your weaknesses and strengths are, so it makes for a good team, a team that knows who’s over there behind your back.

He paid a lot of dues to get where he is, and now there are a lot of doors open to him. The one he has chosen to walk through throws down a gauntlet. He has the good luck, the charm and the guts to do what he wants, and this film is what he chose to do.

I do believe he was a guy who could sit down and have a good time, spin a yarn and drain a bottle. People say he wasn't quick to smile, but when he did, it was bright, and he was fully engaged. But at this particular time (when the film is set), they were walking on eggshells and lots of risks were involved. There wasn't much time for frivolity; they were engaged in battle.

I feel kind of like a deer in the headlights. It's quite a big dance and it's my first time on the floor.

But I find it's usually a collaboration. Very rarely does a lead exist without someone else holding on to the leash, so to speak.

In this film George presents issues that are important, essential and vital, whoever you are, about constitutional rights and the bedrock of a democracy. I am drawn to those kinds of stories because they inspire me - they are responsible to a populace and responsible to man.