Character Analysis

Character accuracy:

Joe and Valerie worked closely on the set of Fair Game; they were present when many of the scenes were filmed. They comment on how well Naomi Watts and Sean Penn captured their lives and true character during the documentary voice over of Fair Game. Here are a few quotes from Valerie and Joe when talking about Sean and Naomi:

Joe: "He seems to have tried to capture all my mannerisms; from smoking cigars to looking over the top from my glasses."

Valerie: "I remember telling Naomi when she went to film [the scene in Jordan], ‘be sure to cover your hair'". This shows how Valerie was involved in the accuracy and filming of this movie. She wanted the movie to portray as best as it could, real life.

Joe: "I think the thing about Naomi; every time I watch this is how well she captures you. Your mannerisms, strength of character, and how you approach things.”

Valerie: "Well we got to know each other on the set, and we've kept in touch."

Valerie Plame Wilson Character Analysis:

Valerie is depicted as an undercover CIA operator specializing in weapons of mass destruction. This is in fact true, as stated specifically by Valerie (as well as mutliple government officials) as seen in her 60 minutes interview with Katie Couric.

  Valerie, in the movie is also a mother of a little boy and girl, which is true. However, those two children are Joe and Valerie’s; they also have another boy and girl from Joe’s previous marriage that are not included in the film to portray a more “normal” family situation.

     When Valerie’s name is leaked in the movie, she is dismissed from all of her cases, and they were all entirely shut down. However, according to Valerie and other intelligence, even though she was immediately dismissed from her cases does not mean that they were all necessarily shut down. This however is a hard fact to confirm, considering it is the CIA, and very little information is open to the public.

     Generally, Fair Game depicts Valerie Plame Wilson fairly accurately besides the “glamorous spy” facade to make the movie more interesting and “Hollywood”. Considering that her job was undercover and very little information was accessible to movie makers, the movie generally stuck to whom Valerie was and what she was trying to accomplish before and after the leaking of her name.

To learn more about Valerie join her Facebook page

Or read her book, also entitled “Fair Game”

Joe Wilson Character Analysis:

After doing research on Joe Wilson we have come to find that the way they portrayed Joe Wilson in the movie Fair Game was fairly accurate. In the Special Features Documentary on the DVD of the movie Fair Game, Joe Wilson and his wife Valerie talk about how closely they worked with the actors to help them be able to portray them as accurately as possible. Joe Wilson even gave the actor portraying him his wedding ring and a wristband that Joe wore.

In the movie it tells you that Joe is a retired diplomat for the U.S. and that he had started his own business. All of these facts are true. In the Special Features Documentary on the DVD of the movie Fair Game,

Joe talks about how he and his wife read the script before the filming ever started and because a lot of the information given in the movie was true, they agreed to work with the actors and the director to help the film be as accurate as possible. The film even went as far as to have the actor [Sean Penn] style his hair the same way as Joe Wilson. It is clear that the utmost care was taken to make sure that Joe Wilson was portrayed as accurately as possible.

Scooter Libby Character Analysis:

Scooter Libby was not a major part in Liman's film, Fair Game, but we felt that he played an important role in the Plame case.

Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was born in 1950, in New Haven, Connecticut. He is married and has 2 children. Following a 22-month-long investigation, Libby was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice in October 28, 2005. On March 6, 2007, Libby was found guilty in a 5-count indictment. He was the only person indicted in the Valerie Plame case. Even though he plead not guilty, he was charged with lying about his role in leaking Plame’s identity, two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements, and one count of obstruction of justice.

Libby had commissioned a memorandum in an effort to rebut criticism of the White House from a New York Times article written by Joseph C. Wilson. Judith Miller of the New York Times finally testified against Libby after spending 85 days in jail for refusing to identify her source. Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald held that Libby untruthfully testified to a grand jury and federal agents, when he claimed that he learned about Ms. Wilson’s C.I.A. employment from reporters, rather than Dick Cheney and several other officials. One reporter Libby claimed gave him his information was NBC correspondent Tim Russert, who denied that. The New York Times asserts that Cheney may have been the first source of Libby's knowledge about Plame, according to documents. After the charges were announced, Libby resigned his post.

On June 5, 2007, Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a fine of $250,000. However, on July 2, 2007, after appealing his conviction for lying to federal investigators, President Bush commuted Libby’s prison sentence, and he was acquitted of one count of lying to the FBI, concerning his conversation with Matthew Cooper. Meanwhile, Libby has asked for large amounts of classified government information to show that he did not intentionally lie about his discussions with reporters regarding Valerie Plame. Libby’s attorneys argue that his inaccurate statements are based on mistakes or forgetfulness caused by his exhausting employment dealing with national security issues. On November 1, 2012, Libby's voting rights were restored by Virginia Governor Bob Mcdonnell.

Richard L. Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, told authorities back in October 2003 that he himself was the primary source behind the July 14, 2003 column by Robert D. Novak, which identified Valerie Wilson as a C.I.A. operative. Because of this, there continues to be much controversy in editorial pages and in legal and political circles over whether prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald ruled unfairly against Libby.

Scooter Libby's part in Fair Game

Because of the lack of evidence, it is difficult to compare Lewis “Scooter” Libby to his character portrayed in Fair Game. While we are familiar with Libby's trial events, we don't know a lot about what happened behind the scenes. In this article David Andrews, who played “Libby” in the movie, stated: “While everyone is familiar with that image of Scooter Libby getting out of the black car and walking into the courthouse, in terms of interviews or recordings, the only single thing I was able to find was a 2002 interview of him by Charlie Rose, publicizing the paperback publication of a novel he'd written some years earlier. Libby was someone who worked behind the scenes and didn't particularly seek the spotlight.”

Although the story about Libby being indicted was accurate, the statements his movie character made were mostly made up. The following article says, “Several scenes feature invented dialogue from prominent administration figures such as Rove and, of course, Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby.”

However, some of the situations in Fair Game involving Libby actually took place, and the character he portrayed was fairly accurate. For example, in the behind-the-scenes dialogue of the movie, Valerie said that Libby did go to David Addington to ask him if the president can declassify information, as seen in 59:24 of the film. And 29:34 minutes into the movie, while commenting on Libby's interview with one of the men at the C.I.A., Joseph said that one of the tactics “they” use when requesting information from the analysts was to keep asking the same questions until they got the answer that fit their already drawn conclusions. At 25:17, Joseph said that the analysts he spoke with were overwhelmed by the pressure “from [those] guys.”