Jon Stewart and Maziar Bahari talk humor and journalism of Rosewater

Yet, his relationship with that program and its host Jon Stewart would continue for long after that sit-down.

He was subsequently arrested by the Iranian government and charged with being a spy.

Part of their absurd charges rested on his interview withThe Daily Showwhere Jason Jones called himself a spy.

As a result, Stewart felt he needed to write and film that story for a wider audience.

The result isRosewater, a new film that opens this weekend.

Last week we sat down at a press conference with both Stewart and Bahari to talk about the film.

Can you talk about how [your collaboration] on making this film came about?

Jon wanted to be a producer on the film.

[Laughs]

MB:Exactly.

He started to write the script, and we collaborated on the script.

Did he have something to do with the script?

Jon, were you nervous about making this film considering how the Iranian government treats journalists?

MB:I think hes going to keep it a secret.

[Laughs]

JS:Good point!

You cant control how people see your work or what their reaction is to it.

And Ive learned a long time ago that you cant outsmart crazy.

How did you go about choosing the moments to let the humor shine through?

JS:So much of that is organic.

Maziars not a spy.

Hes done nothing wrong, so theyve got to create this scenario that implicates him in some way.

There is an absurdity that regimes have this monopoly on the truth.

I think what the film shows is the importance of citizen journalism around the world.

Could you talk about your opinion on that and how you wanted to showcase that as a filmmaker?

But then at the same time, its important to demonstrate what that ideal might be.

Or was it like the guy fromBig Daddy wants to make a serious movie?

JS:Its interesting you say that.

There was a lot of the guy fromBig Daddyis here.

[Laughs] Whenever I would go to a movie.

Whenever I go to a restaurant, The guy fromBig Daddywants a cheeseburger!

I think partobviously I think it helped that I had some profile.

So, they could view it as an added value to a project like that.

So, by the time I went to them looking for finance, I had a script.

And I was only in LA for a weekend!

Send this to five or six independent financiers that you think might appreciate or take to the material.

And if they are interested, Ill meet with them that weekend there.

And by the end of that weekend, we had our money and we had our timeframe.

My experience with the process is that you just always wanted to be in the game at each stage.

I wanted to be able to go get enough money that we d still be in the game.

At each stage, you just want to keep it alive.

Could you talk about the aesthetics and the beginning of the film opening on rosewater?

JS:The scent of rosewater is something thats used in mosques to mask the perspiration of the devout.

And so, we just thought itd be a beautiful image to show the production of it.

To show how it was made.

But as I would watch it, the explicitness of it became kind of overwhelming.

So whats your movie about?

It isnt so over the head.

And Maziar would say very calmly, But dont you want people to see it?

[Laughs] So, those are the decisionsI always kind of deferred.

If he was okay, I was okay.

I had to embrace my limitations.

My ear is not tuned to that accent, so I had to create a kind of generalized palate.

This is not a Southie movie where everybodyits about how well someone can capture just that one particular accent.

The idea was to create a template that could fade back and let the story come to the fore.

That was the general practice at every point in the movie.

My immediate thought was the cable news coverage of ISIS.

JS:My next movie is about Ebola.

I think thats the wrong approach.

One was a physical battle that I knew I had lost from the beginning.

I was a prisoner; I had a blindfold on; he was stronger than me.

So, to get to take advantage of that superiority, I had to humanize him.

I recognized this guy is an employee.

He could be a dentist, he could be an accountant, a bookkeeper, or whatever.

He had a boss.

So, he had to give something to his boss.

I started the massage stories, and of course in the book we have many more massage stories.

How long was it before you felt comfortable enough to inject humor with him?

I did not know what to do.

Which made me laugh about it, but is punishable by death in Iran.

I did not have relationships with these women.

So, maybe 74 lashes?

Could you talk a little bit about casting Gael Garcia Bernal?

JS:I saw a lot of actors, and there is somethingthis is a really dark story.

The thing about Gael that he had from the first audition is agility.

If you remember theres one scene where Maziar is being told to call his wife for the first time.

And that all takes place in two and a half minutes.

And I felt Gael was the one guy who captured that one ability.

Even within the audition, he had glimmers of Maziars mischief while still doing scenes of real duress.

So, it was for me, a very clear choice.

Rosewater is in select theaters on Nov. 14th.

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