Dave

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Kevin Kline has played a variety of parts - including his AcademyAward-winner as the deranged Otto in A Fish Called Wanda- but none was as bizarrely demanding as the lead in Dave (Warner Home Video) as both a George Bush-like President and his look-alike. Playing an actor playing a president partially based on a real leader could get confusing, especially when Kline and his colleagues were invited by Bill Clinton's camp to view the election night returns at Democratic headquarters. 

 

To Kline, however, politics, playacting and reality have all been commonplace in Washington for a while ... at least since an actor named Reagan took over the White House ("Very sobering thought, an actor in charge," says Kline), Although he admits Dave is a fantasy, Kline feels the movie is not too far from the times in its depiction of an idealist who tries to make the government work for the people.

 

"The character overcomes all the powers that are against him because he stays true to himself," notes the actor. "The movie dares to not be cynical. It dares to not be hip. It says that if you have a president who genuinely wants to do something, you can get a lot of work done. 

 

"And finally," he adds in typical comic deadpan, "we have a man in the White House who can string dozens of words together: a verb, a noun, a full sentence. It's been years since we had one like that." 

 

VIDEO DECEMBER 1993