James McAvoy Says 'The Conspirator' Has Modern-Day Relevance

Parallels between 19th-century drama and recent U.S. politics exist because the film was 'true to itself,' says McAvoy.
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

James McAvoy
Photo: MTV News

Robert Redford's "The Conspirator" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. The film focuses on the fallout from the 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, but the political intrigue within could be seen as relevant to present-day politics.

In the film, which hits theaters in spring 2011, fresh-faced lawyer Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) is charged with defending the assassination conspiracy's lone female defendant, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright); over the course of the trial, Aiken becomes increasingly convinced of Surratt's innocence. Eventually, he realizes that the imprisoned woman could be serving as bait to draw out one of the conspiracy's other central figures.

Given the tenuous political climate — not to mention the political bent of Redford's other movies, like "Lions for Lambs" — it's easy to spot the similarities between the politics of "The Conspirator" and those of the past decade. But according to McAvoy, the parallels aren't intentional.

"I think when they wrote the script, they literally just wrote the script off what happened [during the trial]," the actor told MTV News. "A lot of the dialogue was lifted from speeches that were given — my closing speech, for example, and what I say in defense of Mary Surratt [were] just lifted from what [my character actually] said.

"At the end of that, we were left with a script that was incredibly resonant and relevant and kind of walked a very clear, parallel line with stuff that's been happening [in modern times], but that was only because it was true to itself; it wasn't designed to do that," he continued.

McAvoy noted that Redford's directorial ability resulted in a subtle presentation of the parallels between the politics of the mid-19th century and those of the early 21st.

"I don't think Robert felt that we shouldn't tell the story because it's resonant and relevant," he said. "What he did say is that we shouldn't be trying to look for the parallels and highlighting them, because it will be abundantly clear to the audience if they want to see them. And if they don't want to see them, they'll just get the story of something incredibly important that happened in their country anyway."

Check out everything we've got on "The Conspirator."

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