Billy Campbell plays Lincoln, whose abolishment of slavery won him many enemies at the end of the Civil War. (National Geographic Channels)
John Wilkes Booth (Jesse Johnson, rear, and at right) aims for Lincoln (Billy Campbell) with the president’s wife (Geraldine Hughes) nearby. (National Geographic Channels)
Jesse Johnson portrays John Wilkes Booth (National Geographic Channels)
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Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis are a tough act to follow. Their blockbuster movie, “Lincoln,” has grossed a ridiculous amount of money at the box office — more than $170 million — but the producers of “Killing Lincoln” were not intimidated or deterred. In their eyes, there’s more than one way to tell the story of America’s 16th president.
Based on the phenomenal best seller by Fox News fixture Bill O’Reilly, “Killing Lincoln” traces, in minute-by-minute style, the last days of both the president and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Tom Hanks makes a surprise appearance as an emotionally invested narrator, who reminds viewers, once events are set in motion, just how little time each man has to live. History was happening, and it was happening fast.
After a segment that portrays the events of April 2, 1865, Hanks, seated in a comfy arm chair, stares into the camera and says, “Abraham Lincoln has 13 days to live.” As Booth escapes on horseback from Ford’s Theatre, Hanks similarly gives the assassin’s countdown: “John Wilkes Booth has less than 12 days to live.”
Like Lincoln and Booth, the production had a tight deadline. Shot in just 15 days in Richmond, Va., the film uses several historic sites, such as Jefferson Davis’ Confederate White House, to tell a compressed version of the well-known story of what happened when Lincoln abolished slavery at the end of the Civil War. Southern zealots like Booth, a leading actor who managed to find a spot on the White House steps as Lincoln made his second inaugural address, were enraged. Booth first planned to kidnap the president. Then his plans changed.
The pedigree behind the project is top-notch. Erik Jendresen, who worked with Hanks on HBO’s landmark miniseries “Band of Brothers,” is the writer and executive producer. He knew the Spielberg movie was in the works, and he was under the gun to make a familiar story seem fresh.
“I wanted to take the opportunity to advance the medium in the way we tell true stories. Typically, in Hollywood, you fudge the truth for a dramatic moment, or a phony baloney docudrama reenactment,” Jendresen says. He packed the script with historical facts. The books on the table in the bedroom of Secretary of State William Seward were the same, for example. He says his research became obsessive but useful.
“All of history says Booth broke his leg when he jumped from Lincoln’s box at the Ford Theatre. But according to eyewitness testimony, he didn’t limp off the stage,” Jendresen says. “He broke his leg when his horse fell while he was escaping.”
Securing Hanks’ participation solved some problems. It lent the project the authority of Hollywood’s most dedicated American historian, whose miniseries “Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific” and “John Adams” racked up one award after another. It also didn’t hurt that Lincoln is Hanks’ ancestor.
“Nancy Hanks Lincoln is Lincoln’s mother,” Jendresen says. “So Tom is Lincoln’s third cousin, four generations removed.”
But the Oscar winner also respected the integrity of Jendresen’s script. “That facts and authenticity were leading the way as opposed to drama won him over. He was so stimulated, he was like a kid in a candy store,” he says.
Jendresen knew his choice to star in the movie was going to be compared to Day-Lewis, but he didn’t sweat it. “Lincoln is the most recognized face and character in history. Whoever you pick is going to be compared to someone else. In our case, it was Daniel Day-Lewis. I was just trying to find the best man available for the job.”
With Campbell, Jendresen got the resemblance, but also the humanity. Like Lincoln, the actor is also 6-feet-4, but Jendresen appreciated the way Campbell captured the “intelligence and the humanity and the intensity of the man. The moment when he sits down in Jefferson Davis’ chair and asks for a glass of water. He acknowledges the solemnity of the occasion.” Jendresen adds, “If it hadn’t been for a particular restaurant in Richmond,” Campbell would have shed more weight for the role. “Lincoln lost a lot of weight in the 1860s.”
Campbell was coming off two seasons on AMC’s “The Killing,” where he played embattled politician Darren Richmond, when he got the call to head the cast. “I found about the job five days before I was supposed to be there,” he says. Campbell, who grew up in Charlottesville, Va., knew the summer weather in Richmond would be brutal when he had to wear three layers of wool and a top hat during a riverbank scene in which Lincoln walks with some freed slaves. Even so, the scene that was most unsettling for him was the one where Lincoln was in his box at Ford’s Theatre.
“Knowing that Booth was standing behind me with the gun, and then having all the people swarm in and attempt to revive me, was a pretty strange feeling,” Campbell says.
Campbell didn’t have time to read O’Reilly’s book before he started production, but says the script had all the information he needed.
“Most people think Lincoln sounded like Gregory Peck. I didn’t go for Gregory Pack, but tried to do some voice close to mine,” Campbell says. “I didn’t know how I would sound until I opened my mouth. But I think it turned out really well.”
The relatively unknown co-star in “Killing Lincoln” is Jesse Johnson. As John Wilkes Booth, he’s more than a mustache-twirling villain. Jendresen says that Booth, who was born to a famous acting dynasty, was the “Al Pacino” of his day, a performer with a reputation for surprising theatergoers — something he certainly lived up to in real life. The executive producer met Johnson at a birthday party thrown for him at the house of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, and was struck by his charisma and physical resemblance to Booth.
“John Wilkes Booth was always very dramatic, as if he was watching himself. He did have this magnetism. I forced Jesse to audition for it,” he says.
Jendresen knows he had enough material to make a “six-hour miniseries” in the style of “Band of Brothers,” but is satisfied that his approach will make the story of Lincoln’s assassination seem dramatic and nerve-wracking, with an ironic twist.
“Jefferson Davis said the greatest tragedy to befall the South was the death of Abraham Lincoln,” he says.
KILLING LINCOLN
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