When Hollywood Tells The Truth - with the directors of Spotlight, The Staircase, Reality, and The Investigation

We’re taking a short break over the holidays and will be plopping in front of the TV to watch some movies and shows. Maybe you’re doing the same? Check out one of our favorite episodes of Question Everything, where Hollywood directors gather after hours at a wine shop to drink and commiserate. They talk about the perils – and power – that come when you’re straddling fact and fiction. 

Featuring Tom McCarthy, who won an Oscar for Spotlight; Antonio Campos, creator of The Staircase for HBO; Tina Satter, who directed and co-wrote Reality starring Sydney Sweeney; and Tobias Lindholm, director and writer of HBO’s The Investigation.

As we know alcohol is not always conducive to factual precision, so here are some corrections and clarifications from our fact-checker, Maggie. Though honestly the crew this time did impressively well! All we have is that the name of the New York Magazine story that inspired Tina Satter to dramatize Reality Winner is called “The World’s Biggest Terrorist Has a Pikachu Bedspread" (not “America’s Biggest Terrorist Has a Pikachu Bedspread”). And it was a National Security Agency contractor, not a former FBI agent, who alerted the FBI about Reality’s leak.

Here’s the NY Mag story. And here’s a Vanity Fair interview with Sophie, the editor of The Staircase documentary.

“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

This episode originally aired on December 18th, 2024.

Propagandist? Truth teller? Influencer? Question Everything unravels the contested work of journalists and the moral complexities surrounding the stories that impact us all.