SUBMITTED BY Timbo

March 16, 2004 — Director Sydney Pollack talks to CNN about how filming for "The Interpreter" is going at the United Nations, a place he had never visited until a recent first location scouting trip.

While the United Nations is an integral part of the movie, Pollack stressed that "The Interpreter" is first and foremost a thriller and a love story with chases and people in jeopardy.

Kidman's character comes from a fictional African country called Matobo "with a lot of civil strife, ethnic cleansing, a country whose leadership has changed fairly radically," Pollack said. Penn plays a secret service agent trying to prevent the leader of a country from being killed.

The two see the world through different eyes: the interpreter "believes very much in the power and sanctity of words, and ... believes that if they're used properly they can be as powerful as bullets or weapons; the agent has "the mentality of a cop" who only reads people through behavior and has contempt for words, Pollack said.

In addition to entertainment, he said, every film has an underlying theme.

"It's a film that very much is anti the use of violence for settling problems between people and between countries," Pollack said.

Asked whether Penn's strong stand against the U.S.-led war in Iraq could taint the movie, Pollack said, "He's taken very strong positions about the Bush administration and about the war in Iraq. Whether that will have anything to do with an audience reaction to the film or not, that remains to be seen. I don't know."

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