Description: In a revelatory look at power, the presidency, and truth, award-winning actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith goes to Washington and beyond to decipher what the leaders of our country are really saying.
Review Quotes: From Talk to Me
To me, the most important doorway into the soul of a person is her or his words, or any other external communication device. I am a student of words. The theater gave me Shakespeare, Moliere, Adrienne Kennedy, Sam Shepard. Life would give me other kinds of characters, nestled in the speakings and misspeakings of the people that I met in all walks of life. I supposed that words could also be the doorway into the soul of a culture. After almost thirty years of my journey, I went to Washington, D.C., with my tape recorder. It was my objective to capture the American presidency in its words. The words of the American presidency are now, more than ever, mediated by the press. For this reason, I determined to look at the relationship of the press to the presidency. I knew that I knew nothing about the president, or any public figure, for that matter, that the press didn't tell me.