‘Jackie’ Star Billy Crudup On His Role As “The Journalist”

Billy Crudup talks about working on Jackie alongside Natalie Portman & more!

BackstageOL’s Dave Morales sat down with Billy Crudup in this backstage interview to talk about his role as “The Journalist” in the first-lady biopic Jackie.

Crudup portrays Time reporter Theodore H. White, though is only credited as “The Journalist” in the drama. White is largely known for interviewing Kennedy shortly after the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963.

“The approach that Pablo wanted me to take, was one where he was much more dubious of Jackie and what her motivations were,” explained Crudup of why Chilean director Pablo Larraín chose to keep the journalist nameless.

“In the Theodore White piece, she was friendly with him and it wasn’t confrontational,” continued Crudup. “Pablo, as an outsider, wants to look at the American legacy with fresh eyes. In the study of it through his film, Jackie becomes an even more substantial figure. It took him creating a journalist who was a little bit more wary of her motivations – and that was a little bit different than Theodore White.”

The film’s official synopsis:

JACKIE is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Natalie Portman).  JACKIE places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband’s assassination.  Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well.

Watch the full interview with Crudup below: