Original-Cin Q&A: Golda Director Guy Nattiv Talks Helen Mirren and Israel's Past as Present
Golda, the latest offering from Oscar-winning Israeli director Guy Nattiv (Skin), focuses on a history-making world leader, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
The movie is set during the tense 19 days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Prime Minister Meir (Helen Mirren), faced with the potential of Israel’s complete destruction, must navigate overwhelming odds, a skeptical cabinet, and a complex relationship with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber), with millions of lives in the balance.
Her tough leadership and compassion would ultimately decide the fate of her nation, and leave her with a controversial legacy around the world.
Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with Guy Nattiv about his passion for bringing Golda’s story to the screen.
Helen Mirren as Golda Meir and Liev Schreiber as Henry Kissinger in Golda
CLICK HERE to read Karen Gordon’s review of Golda.
Golda opens In theatres on Friday, August 25.
ORIGINAL CIN: Having gone to Hebrew Day School as a kid, I was 10 years-old when the Yom Kippur War broke out. But I clearly remember learning all about Golda Meir. What made you want to tell her story now, because as strong as she was, she was far from perfect.
GUY NATTIV: Wasn't she? (Laughs). To be honest, it was an open assignment for directors to compete to direct this project and I came with a pitch. The original script was 80% focusing on the war and 20% about Golda Meir. My pitch was to change the equation. Let's do 80% Golda and 20% of war because we've seen war.
We've seen plenty of war films. You need a giant budget to make this massive war film. So I thought it would be better to see more about Golda, this woman who was running a country and was at the thick of it. Golda was not able to go to the front. She was too sick and too old.
I wanted the viewers to get into her head, to her psyche and basically, feel the war exactly like she felt it from sound bites, from drones, from her nightmares, and to feel her loneliness and grit.
O-C: You get to see her determination, but also her flaws and what she went through trying to steer this war to keep her country.
NATTIV: Yes, it was important to me to show this woman, who was tough, but also a grandmother who was sending thousands of young people to war and how that took a toll on her.
So after I pitched my idea, I went home and I said, they will never do it but they called me after a month and they said, “We want you. And just to let you know, Helen Mirren is attached to this project.”
O-C: Talk about a gift!
NATTIV: Right? So I met with Helen in the middle of the pandemic. She came to my house in Los Angeles and I pitched her my approach and she loved it. She said, “Let's do it. Let's go under her skin and really show people who this woman was.”
Director Guy Nattiv
From that point, I worked with Nicholas Martin on the script to make it more about Golda and less about other people and less about the war. I was also given access to the real sound bites from the war to use during the War Room and other scenes.
O-C: That was chilling. To listen in and to be privy to the actual war recordings gave me goosebumps. Experiencing that reality, what went on during that Yom Kippur War. It was devastating. I don't know how you got through some of those scenes.
NATTIV: I also played it on set for everyone to hear and experience together. So just imagine how powerful it was for them.
O-C: We have to talk about Helen Mirren because, in my opinion, the woman can play just about anyone. When the initial picture was released of her as Golda I had to do a double take. The likeness was uncanny. What was it like to see her daily transformation and work with her?
NATTIV: Let me tell you something. That woman is unbelievable. She is a 78-year-old woman who woke up at 4 a.m. every single day for this film. She was in the makeup trailer for three-and-a-half hours and came out as Golda. The rest of us were basically just waking up and we went to the set and there was Golda. Not Helen, Golda.
When we finished shooting, she went back to the trailer, took off all her stuff and we went to the hotel and she went to sleep super late. So you have to understand this is a woman who never complained. She did this every day and was the consummate pro.
O-C: We also know that Golda Meir was a chain smoker. Cigarette after cigarette, how did Helen handle that?
NATTIV: Yeah, well it got to a point where Helen told me listen, I cannot smoke anymore. I'm about to vomit. Then we agreed that she would just hold the cigarette in her hand and not smoke it. It still got the point across. (Laughs).
O-C: I'm wondering from your perspective on how you feel this might be received, especially with the climate of what is going on in Israel politically right now?
NATTIV: I'd be more extreme if I could. But I think it's best to be democratic. I think these movies symbolize the deafness and blindness of the leaders in 1973. And I think what is going on now, it's a full circle. It's coming back again.
Benjamin Netanyahu and his team are extreme, are blind and are leading us to catastrophe. I really hope that a high court will block Netanyahu and he will obey, because otherwise it will be another Trump. When we see everything that happened in 1973 and now you see what is happening in 2023, 50 years later it’s the same. We have gone back in time and it scares me.
O-C: Liev Schreiber is also fantastic in the film as Henry Kissinger. The scenes between him and Helen were fantastic. How did you envision him as Kissinger?
NATTIV: Well, first of all, Liev can do anything. He's brilliant in every role he takes on. He actually met with Henry Kissinger in his apartment in New York two days before shooting his scenes. So he has a lot of admiration for him and was full of inspiration.
He actually changed some stuff in the script. There’s a scene when Kissinger tells Golda, “You know, first I am an American, second a Secretary of State and third I'm a Jew.” Then Golda retorts, “But in Israel, we read from right to left.”
This was something that Henry gave him. It's an anecdote and he brought it to the script. So it's because of his meeting with Henry he was able to bring a lot to the table.
What can I say? To see those two award-winning actors play off each other was mind-boggling. I just sat in my seat in front of the monitor and I said I don't even interfere here. Just you go. You guys go, do your thing.
O-C: How does one direct Helen Mirren?
NATTIV: I feel that with geniuses, you need to let them play and step out of the way so that you’re not interfering.
But they still need my guidance and my vision. When she feels that she could rely on me or come to me about anything, and she feels that I know what I'm doing. It gives her security to do what she's doing.
The one thing that I constantly had to tell her was to slow down. Golda was a very slow woman, she walked and moved like a turtle, not a bunny. So I had to pull her back. I pulled her back and made her big. She came ready to do this role. She did her preparations for a year and it really shows.
O-C: What do Golda’s relatives think of Helen’s performance and the film in general?
NATTIV: They are thrilled. I have a photo here of them hugging Helen. The grandkids hugging Helen at the Jerusalem Film Festival in front of 6000 people.
They are in awe because also they're happy that this film is fixing the narrative that did her wrong. She was the pariah of the war. She was the woman to blame, you know? The face of a failure.
No one else, they just blamed Golda. And now it's fixing it a little bit - which some people are angry about but it's okay.