Ice cream, Mandrake!
More than 60 years later, Im watchingArmando Iannuccis reimaginedDr.
Strangeloveat the Noel Coward Theatre in London.
Armando Iannucci, photographed at the Noel Coward Theatre in London in October, says his work is “about who’s in power, and what’s going to happen when they’re not.“GEORGE MUNCEY/The New York Times
The fluoride line gets some giggles, but not from me or an American couple sitting nearby.
It has a real sense of relevance now.
And America has sort of disabused itself of that with Afghanistan and Iraq.
I do think I embrace pathos more than him.
It creates a nice kind of creative of tension.
Theres a kind of a surgical quality to what he does.
Iannucci comes honestly to his cynicism about those in power.
His father spoke out publicly against Mussolini and the fascists in Italy before immigrating to England.
You could say his approach is now Kubrickesque.
Its about whos in power and whats going to happen when theyre not in power, says Iannucci.
And social media has sort of exacerbated that.
We want our hits faster.
Weve become addicted to those highs.
So the whole thing about nuclear weapons is, Havent we sorted that?
Wasnt there a wall that came down between Reagan and Gorbachev?
But the weapons are still there.
Youre a huge Dickens fan.
You made a documentary on Dickens in modern Britain and directed acritically acclaimedversion ofThe Personal History of David Copperfield.
I thinkLittle Dorritis the one that comes across as the closest to now.
You have Merdle, thats the banker, the financier, whos at the center of it.
Hes a kind of cold fish, difficult to know.
Hes the Peter Thiel of the Dickens universe.
[Merdle dies by suicide and his financial schemes bankrupt many.]
I would have liked to have seen him writing about Trump and Musk.
Its such rich material.
Youve been working on a new project with social media at its center.
What do you make of that whole world sinceElon Muskbought Twitter?
Its frightening, because Musks statement of X being a new source of journalism is bollocks.
They dont have any journalists.
Its left to you to try and work out which one is correct.
And hes now been saying news is the aggregate, the sum total, of what people say.
His algorithm pushes him as the first post, the first thing you read in the morning.
He praises the algorithm and the methodology as being neutral, but its not.
Any independent news source must be separate from power, but hes in power.
So, how does that work?
Newspapers here all have their different slants and you understand them.
And the whole part of him being in charge of government efficiency.
And he probably wont stay for the effects of his cuts.
But hell be gone by then.
Trump and Musk wont last.
Someone I know said they are like two tomcats in the sand.
And it never works.
It always ends up in a disaster.
I spent some time covering the presidential campaign and you had candidates intent on not creating aVeepmoment.
It becomes this whole Oh, I cant say that.
I wanted to say that, but I better not say that.
Its fear of what the others might make of it.
I dont think that goes through Trumps head.
I dont think it goes through Vances head.
And the way the media operates is that it smells fear.
It becomes almost like a self-fulfilling thing: the panic not to say anything becomes the story.
Tell us what you want to do.
Were not going back.Yes, that is not enough.
Tell people whats wrong with his policies and tell them what your policies are.
But she didnt do that.
We are finding that here with [Prime Minister Kier] Starmer.
Labour got in with a big majority.
But they got in by playing things very safe, and it won them the election.
But the problem is, what do we do now?
Because they said so many things they wouldnt do.
Now they have very few options left.
Whereas Kamala Harris is onstage with Beyonce.
Theres a reality to him in that you know where hes coming from.
Handling the media is impossible now, because everybodys the media.
Everyones got a phone.
Everyone tweets something or posts something.
And thats what the internet has done with it.
Its made everything look as valued as everything else.
So, a mocked-upNew York Timeswebsite looks just as polished as a mocked-up pretend news website.
That gets to the people he wants to speak to.
So, he does the podcasts, he does the Fox News.
And thats their way of saying, Well, weve gone on the media.
Weve spoken to a reputable outlet, so we dont need to go on BBC.
I couldnt write Malcolm today.
Hed be thrown out of his job for bullying.
But with Trump, the bully is actually the guy in charge.
He has no pretense of being presidential and letting his minions do his dirty work.
Elon Musk the other day was tweeting about somebody [Lt.
Colonel Eugene Vindman)] saying, Hes a traitor.
So, hes asking for him to be killed.
I wanted to know, how does this work?
How did that happen where everyone was opposed to it?
This is what you’re able to do.
This is what it’s possible for you to say.
Just carrying out the instructions and passing out the instructions.
Thats what Malcolm represents.
And its fascinating what people do to just be in the proximity to power.
ForVeep, we got a tour of the West Wing.
Obama was still president.
His wingman, Reggie Love, showed us around.
And I just remember how small the West Wing was.
But people want to go home and say, I work in the West Wing.
That was his office, because he wanted to say, I work in the West Wing.
Some of them are bullies, some of them are just ill-prepared.
They might have been doing well in another field like the military, but now they oversee policy.
And then theyre just thrown into these situations, like the countdown inDr.
Because there just isnt time to have a long, thought-out process.
Its made all these jobs impossible for any sane human being to do.
Which is why most of them I think go insane after about four or five years.
We made the leaders jobs crazy jobs that will make you crazy.
You must be crazy to want to do it anyway, and therefore you have the right qualifications.
Their default mode is to play to the gallery.
No, that sounds too conscious.
I think its to have an effect.
Its to be performative.
Theyre happenings, thats what they are.
Well, have you read the policy?
Have you seen the pros and cons?
Have you weighed them out?
Youre either anti it, or else not talk about it.
You cant go, OK, immigration actually does help with growth.
So, how do you make the judgment call?
But no ones prepared to talk across the aisle about how you make that judgment call.
So again, everyones retreated into, Lets get rid of all of them.
Or, Let all of them in.
From a writers point of view, how does this go?
What are some of the absurd options?So, the big question is, are we collectively nuts?
Its a question I think will be answered over the next two or three years.
They must have just been mad.
They must have been mad to have done this.
And you realize its not an instant thing.
Because at that point, far too many of us may already be in that situation.
And by then it might be impossible to take that step back.
