Movies - TV
Oliver Stone Was Happy To 'Clash' With Eric Bogosian On The Set Of Talk Radio
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
Oliver Stone's 1988 film "Talk Radio" was based on the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play by Eric Bogosian which was, in turn, inspired by the book "Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of Alan Berg" by Stephen Singular. The movie is an intense and rough look into the then-rising tide of AM radio hosts who were coming to express more and more extreme right-wing viewpoints.
In a 2015 interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Stone admitted that achieving that intensity was no easy task, largely because he and Bogosian constantly butted heads on set. Even though the two bickered, the director seemed to have preferred it that way — Stone felt the fights were fruitful, and they allowed him to sharpen his view of Bogosian’s character.
Stone also understood why he and Bogosian fought: one of them was an actor who authored the material in question, the other was a film director attempting to bring his own take to that material. Bogosian and Stone were both resolute, strong-minded artists, and neither wanted to hear the other's interpretation — but the final product spoke for itself.