Wall Christopher Street

Academy Award winner Oliver Stone interviews Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black in the new issue of INTERVIEW magazine. In the piece, Black discuses politics, his directorial debut, "What's Wrong With Virginia?," and his next screenplay, "Hoover," directed by Clint Eastwood, who Black believes went overboard as a result of his closeted self-loathing (if ONLY this story were relevant to today's politicians).

STONE: I'm excited about your script for the film on J. Edgar Hoover. What are you going to do there?

BLACK: He's the reason the FBI is listening in on this call, right? [laughs]

STONE: Are you going to have Hoover dressing-up in drag? Is there evidence that really happened?

BLACK: I'm going to let Clint [Eastwood] decide what he wants to do with the film, but the script is done. I didn't find a lot of proof that Hoover cross-dressed. I think it was more a form of homophobia against him. Do I think J. Edgar Hoover was gay? Yes. Do I think he cross-dressed? No. I think that was just one of the ways people tried to bash him because they probably had the sense that he was gay. Did he ever put on a dress? Hell, I put on my mom's undergarments when I was a kid. I didn't find much credible evidence that Hoover went out socially dressed up in women's clothes. But a script is 90 percent research about the person, and then so much about yourself ends up being in there, too. Anyone who says a movie about history is a historical document is crazy. It's a document that incorporates who that person was and who I am now.

STONE: Milk was a hero to many people. What attracted you to Hoover?

BLACK: The attraction to Milk was pretty obvious. He's a father figure. I thought it might be worth investigating the opposite of Milk-what a cautionary historical figure would be like. This is a tale of a closet case, as opposed to an inspirational tale of a man brave enough to come out. It's almost the flip side. I'm always interested in getting to know people, and that means vilified people as much as those celebrated. You find out that heroes aren't always so heroic, and villains have some bit of humanity in them. As much as I went into this project not really liking Hoover and feeling upset with so much of what he did and what civil rights he violated, there is a person there, a human being. If you don't humanize him and try to show why he did the things he did, then you are left with this cardboard figure of Hoover-whether it's one with the "G-Man" machine gun or in a dress. I wanted to figure out who the guy really was.

STONE: You do admit that he wrecked many lives during the blacklist days of the McCarthy era?

BLACK: He did heinous, heinous things-often in the name of trying to hold on to the country's admiration. I do think he truly had a deep-seeded hatred of communism. I don't think he was just using his power opportunistically. But clearly he went way too far with it. And there was a side to him that did know that it was helping him in the PR department. But listen, it's like if I told you, "You're never going to be allowed to publicly and openly love anyone or have anyone publicly and openly love you." That leaves a hole in a person, and they might fill it with the country's admiration.