Question Everything – “When Hollywood Tells The Truth” Host: Brian Reed | Date: December 25, 2025

Episode Overview

On this episode of Question Everything, Brian Reed brings together four acclaimed directors—Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), Antonio Campos (The Staircase), Tina Satter (Reality), and Tobias Lindholm (The Investigation)—to explore the intersection of investigative journalism and dramatic filmmaking. The panel discusses the complexities of transforming true stories into narrative film or television, the ethical boundaries of portraying real events and people, and the pursuit of truth within fiction. The conversation delves into the directors’ research processes, their relationships with the real people behind their stories, and the role of emotion and authenticity in bringing journalism to the screen.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Draw of Real Stories for Filmmakers

• Antonio Campos on Adapting True Crime
  • Not every true crime story calls for dramatization; some are best left as articles or documentaries.
  • “There’s certain times when these things spark and you’re like, oh, there’s something here that inspires—that could benefit from dramatization, that creative liberties could get you further, potentially closer to the truth than what a documentary could.” (06:24, Antonio Campos)
• The Layers of the Real Story in The Staircase
  • Discovery that one of the French documentary's editors fell in love with the murder suspect, Michael Peterson, made the narrative more complex and cinematic.
  • Campos insisted on meeting real people involved for authenticity: “Well the truth is always stranger than fiction.” (09:37, Antonio Campos)

Ethical and Emotional Challenges in Dramatizing Real Lives

• Portraying Real People and Dealing with Fallout
  • Some participants in real events (e.g., Sophie, the editor) had complicated or upset reactions to their portrayals.
  • Campos admits: “You’re dealing with real people and in dramatizing it, you have to kind of get to sort of the essence of it.” (11:33, Antonio Campos)
• Tina Satter on Reality Winner and Verbatim Storytelling
  • Satter sourced her film’s script from the FBI interrogation transcript of Reality Winner, preserving every word and cough: “We treated—it was like Shakespeare. Like, it’s all on the page. What does it tell us, like, half sentence by half sentence?” (16:06, Tina Satter)
  • Satter’s conversations with Reality Winner, and Winner’s family's reaction, reinforced the power of letting someone’s actual words stand: “There is this power in showing our daughter in her words, not pushing an agenda too much.” (19:18, Tina Satter)

The Search for Truth: Research and Accuracy

• Tobias Lindholm on The Investigation
  • Chose to reject sensationalism common in press coverage of the Copenhagen submarine case. Sought the unreported, procedural aspects.
  • “What can I leave out? That story was overtold in Scandinavian press… I felt polluted… entertained by these details and the speculation of a case that had just happened and a young woman had lost her life.” (20:13, Tobias Lindholm)
  • Met with the victim’s parents, who wanted their daughter remembered as a journalist, not a victim: “Their daughter Kim should be remembered as a journalist and not as a victim of a sexual crime. That made total sense to me as a father.” (24:58, Tobias Lindholm)
• Extremely Specific Recreation for Authenticity
  • Lindholm used the real police, detectives, dogs, and boats in the film to precisely reconstruct events, both as a shield against accusations of exploitation and as a storytelling approach:
  • “All the divers, the dogs, the exact location—because I insisted, I spent a tenth of the budget to build a submarine with the right weight.” (26:21, Tobias Lindholm)

Navigating Fact and Drama

• Blending Factual Constraints with Creative Process
  • Tom McCarthy: Some writers thrive in the world of real stories, others in pure fiction. “Some people love it and some… The constraints are too much or it’s too wide open.” (29:11, Tom McCarthy)
• Role of Imagination
  • Lindholm shares his discomfort with ‘pure’ invention: “I realized very early on in my life that I was not a fan of my own imagination...” (29:42, Tobias Lindholm)

Accidental Discoveries and Accountability

• Uncovering New Truths While Dramatizing
  • McCarthy describes finding evidence during Spotlight’s research that the Boston Globe had previously buried a story on abuse: “And we left. And Josh is like, I’m going to the Globe. … and he found it.” (39:53, Tom McCarthy)
  • The emotional difficulty of confronting the real-life reporters with these findings:
    • “Suddenly we’re like, this isn’t good. This doesn’t read well.” (40:53, Tom McCarthy)

Why Movies Can Transcend Journalism

• Emotional Impact and Transportation
  • Satter notes the unique ability of narrative to instill understanding and emotional connection in a way that journalism sometimes can’t achieve:
    • “Until I saw Spotlight… I could feel it in my molecules… But that movie made me understand and then feel a kind of rage that was actually really upsetting to finally fully feel emotionally...” (43:09, Tina Satter)
  • McCarthy: “It seems like there’s a chance with narratives to actually transport people to a place in time… you’re gonna breathe it, you’re gonna touch it and you’re gonna feel it.” (43:24, Tom McCarthy)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On dramatizing the unresolvable:
  “At some point, I realized, oh, I’m not going to figure it out. And it’s okay. And it’s okay to sort of live in this space of not figuring out.” (09:09, Antonio Campos)
• On the difference between film and journalism:
  “You can take an audience—like, okay, you know the story, now I’m gonna put you in it. Now you’re gonna breathe it.” (43:24, Tom McCarthy)
• On scripts from transcripts:
  “Not a redaction, not a cough… We treated—it was like Shakespeare.” (16:06, Tina Satter)
• Ethical anxiety in true crime storytelling:
  “I became very obsessed with details… I would hire the exact police officers and dogs…” (25:11, Tobias Lindholm)
• On regret and fictional liberties:
  “Maybe an ocean that looked like the Indian Ocean could have been all right.” (32:15, Tobias Lindholm, after a dangerous shoot)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 05:12 – Introduction to the roundtable, directors introduce their connection to journalism and film
• 06:24 – Campos describes how and why he adapted The Staircase
• 12:10 – Tina Satter on discovering Reality Winner’s story and using the FBI transcript
• 17:04 – Tom McCarthy and the power of found language in transcripts
• 20:17 – Lindholm on the aftermath and ethics of the Copenhagen submarine murder case
• 24:12 – Meeting with the victim's parents and the quest for responsible storytelling
• 26:29 – Lindholm discusses the drive for real-world accuracy in production
• 28:16 – Philosophical discussion about using real facts as creative constraints
• 32:15 – Lindholm recounts a risky commitment to authenticity during filming
• 35:24 – Tom McCarthy details the challenge in turning Spotlight into a film
• 39:51 – Discovery of a buried story in Globe archives during Spotlight’s research
• 43:09 – Satter on the unique emotional power of narrative film versus journalism
• 43:24 – McCarthy: The transportive capacity of film for the audience

Conclusion

This episode is a masterclass in the tensions and kinships between journalism and dramatic storytelling. Each filmmaker details their meticulous, and sometimes nerve-wracking, research process, their ethical anguish about real-life subjects, and why dramatizing facts can make audiences feel truths that journalism alone cannot always convey. For listeners fascinated by the power—and the perils—of adapting true stories, this is essential listening.