Thirteen Days Articles
|
Kennedy ties helped actor seize 'Days' role
USA TODAY
January 17, 2001
NEWS & VIEWS:
When he got the script for Thirteen Days, the new movie about his Kennedy uncles, actor Chris Lawford says, he "fully intended to hate it. I knew the story. I wasn't convinced it could be a feature (film). But I couldn't put it down. It was literally one of the most exciting movies I had read." He adds, "The other thing, frankly, was it really showed President Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy to be American heroes, and they were during that crisis." So Lawford signed on to the saga of the 1962 crisis in which JFK battled U.S. military chiefs about a Soviet missile buildup in Cuba. Lawford says his relatives, including mom Patricia Kennedy Lawford, were "really happy" with it, not always the case with portrayals of the famous family. Lawford, 45, plays William B. Ecker, the Air Force captain who led a dangerous, low-flying mission to get photos of Soviet missile installations. Kevin Costner is Kenny O'Donnell, the JFK aide who warns Ecker that if he gets shot down, or even shot at, the incident could trigger a war. Ecker, now in Florida, got a Medal of Honor for his mission. Lawford, son of the late actor Peter Lawford, has rarely talked to career military men, "and I was struck by how incredibly dedicated these guys were." Lawford recalls that as a 6-year-old he raised the presidential flag outside the Lawfords' Santa Monica home when Uncle Jack visited. "That was my job. On other days it was the regular flag." He doesn't have strong memories of JFK or RFK, who was killed when Lawford was 13, but his generation of cousins is close. "I loved growing up in a big Irish brood, with lots of aunts and uncles around. I feel really blessed." He has heard those who knew the Kennedy brothers well say the movie portrayals, by Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp, are excellent. And he was struck by "these two guys, younger than I am, with everybody from Dean Acheson (former secretary of State) telling them to do something, and they refused, and basically saved the world." Lawford also will be seen in the 10th episode of the new A&E series 100 Centre Street, has A&E and HBO movies upcoming, and is seeking more projects he can produce. "I'm hoping to be in Ocean's Eleven," the remake by Steven Soderbergh. "It's my favorite movie of that era." The 1960 Las Vegas caper starred Lawford's dad with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.
USA Today 1/17/01