In his life, [Dalton] Trumbo uses wit and comedy to fight these very high-stakes battles.

Sometimes I would like the opportunity to do character-driven comedy and that's really what I was trying to do in Meet The Parents. I think in a way this is a more old fashioned type of comedy.

[Lyndon Baines Johnson ] technique in negotiation would be that he'd lean into you and take away your personal space, it didn't matter your party affiliation when he was trying to convince you of something.

I think we'll all keep pushing each other, which is a great thing.

Even modern wars are fought like revenge tales from some petty grievance.

When something so unjust as the black list happened, [Dalton Trumbo] would come to life in a certain way.

I do love DVD and I've always taken them seriously. You know, on the Austin things, we really put a ton of work into them because there's so much design involved. And in this one, we thought a lot about it and what could go in.