Peter Sarsgaard on Munich Massacre Drama ‘September 5,’ Loving Being Directed By Wife Maggie Gyllenhaal and People Mistaking Him for a Skarsgard (Even on Set)

A year on from having two films premiere in Venice and winning the Volpi Cup for best actor (for Michel Franco’s “Memory,” playing a man with early onset dementia), Peter Sarsgaard has another thought-provoking feature at the festival.

This time, although he says he’d “love to come and do a little victory lap,” work and family commitments mean he won’t be in town. But he’ll be there in spirit, with the historic thriller “September 5” — in which he stars as renowned TV producer Roone Arledge) — opening the Horizons Extra section.

From director Tim Fehlbaum, the film centers on the infamous 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, where members of the Israeli team were taken hostage and later killed. But it tells the tragic and shocking story through the lens of the ABC reporting team, who suddenly had to pivot from sports to live coverage of a terrorist event. It would be a broadcast seen globally by an estimated one billion people, but also one that presented the news team with — at the time — unique moral and ethical questions about the role of the media in such situations.

For Sarsgaard, who comes off a hugely busy period having just wrapped Frankenstein retelling “The Bride!” (his second feature being directed by wife, Maggie Gyllenhaal) and recently been seen alongside brother-in-law Jake Gyllenhaal in Apple TV+ courtroom drama series “Presumed Innocent,” the events in “September 5” were the advent of the sort of live news coverage seen all around us today. But he argues it’s not something that has helped provide any sort of “deeper understanding.”

Speaking to Variety, the actor discusses the parables between the events in 1972 and the conflict in Gaza today, how much he loves his wife refusing to allow him to be “comfortable” on set, why you’ll never see him play the same character again either on TV or film, and why he’s given up correcting people when they think he’s part of the Skarsgard family. 

I really enjoyed how “September 5” explores such a historic news event, but through a completely different lens, in this case a TV sports team. Was that something that drew you to the film in the first place?

I’ve always been interested in journalism. I think of it as one of the most important aspects of being in a democracy and that it’s of supreme importance. And so we have this particular story, which is the advent of live coverage of a news event, and how we’ve spiralled from there to the point where you could have an iPhone covering some horrific event. People have self-immolated live on Facebook. It’s shocking, but people are watching it for reasons that are not about news. I would say some people have a kind of bloodlust in them. So the people who were watching this event of the hostages being taken, somewhere in their minds they knew that someone might get assassinated on camera, yet they kept watching. So I think that our own nature is one of the things that gets in the way of truly understanding an event. But is live coverage the truth? Is it the unadulterated truth to just point a camera at something without any understanding of it on a deeper level?

I had no idea about the media’s involvement in the event and the moral questions they had to answer, essentially on the spot. Did you know about any of this and was that something interesting to explore?

No, I didn’t know anything about this previously, beyond the event. When I first told someone the plot of this, they asked if it was a comedy, because it’s about sports guys covering a live terrorist event. I could see why they asked that. But were they any less capable than news journalists at that time would have been, had they been there to cover it? Was there some decision they made that the news guys wouldn’t have made that affected it negatively or positively? I don’t think so. I think everyone was trying to figure out what a live feed on something like this meant, because no one had done it before. And it’s the beginning of something that we’ve all become very accustomed to. We watch live feeds of all types of violent things. We all watched a live feed of January 6 here. I think what it’s done is dulled us to violence and it’s all become a lot less shocking.

You’re character Roone Arledge was a legendary sports TV producer. Was there any attempt to make you look and sound like the real Roone?

I watched a fair amount of him and I think they probably cast me thinking that I had some quality that was similar. But I only ever worry about playing a real person if he’s really, really widely known. But Roone is fairly well known. Actually, my daughter is going to Columbia this year we were recently sat in the Roone Arledge Auditorium. So he’s definitely a legendary producer, but what does that mean in terms of people who are coming to see this movie. But I’ve been told people have said I do resemble him somehow. 

I’m not sure when you were making this movie, but I couldn’t help but compare it today’s news, with the ongoing bloodshed between Israel and Palestine, hostage-taking and the horrific aftermath of that. 

This was done well before. But of course the recent events in Gaza affect the film and changes the way it’s perceived on some level. But the film is so much about perception, about how we perceive the news, which I do think has something to do with what’s going on in Gaza. The imagery of what we’ve seen. A lot of what we saw, and what we continue to see, is live coverage, and iPhone coverage. You saw people getting abducted on motorcycles, you see children running out of a building that was just bombed. These things create a lot of feeling, but I don’t know that they make us think more clearly. I don’t think they add to a deeper understanding. And I think one of the things about contemporary news is that it’s really all about inciting emotions and not that much about thinking. But yeah, we made this about eight months before the events in October. 

How was the experience of winning the best actor award in Venice last year with “Memory”?

It felt really good, because I think sometimes people win awards for things that don’t feel to them like their best work. And I think a lot of “Memory” felt like some of the best work that I’ve done as an actor. I mean, I don’t believe that one performance can be rated higher than another, necessarily, but it was also a really nice accolade for the film, and it got people to see this tiny little film that we had made.

You’ve recently been shooting “The Bride!” with Maggie Gyllenhaal after appearing in her directorial debut “The Lost Daughter.” How much do you enjoy working with your wife, or is it simply a case of not having any say in the matter?

I love working with my wife. The particular role I’m playing [in “The Bride!”] is the detective. And I think she knew that a lot of the actors that I liked growing up were from film noir, and there were lot of detectives. So she knew that it would be fun for me. He’s also a kind of haggard detective, who loves food, and that is definitely from me, Daddy Compost. But the way we work together, she really does not say a lot to me. She’s someone who is wonderful at talking to actors, but the little things that she does say are really helpful. I remember in ‘The Lost Daughter’ I gave a speech behind a lectern. I was quite nervous about it. I don’t really like talking in front of people, like at awards ceremonies. So she gave me a scene where I was talking in front of people, and she came up to me and said, ‘You don’t need the lectern.’ Because I kept holding on to it. She said, ‘Walk away from the lectern.’ And I swear it felt like jumping off the side of a shuttle without a life jacket on. Because it’s not about being comfortable when you act, and I think other directors who don’t know me try to make me comfortable. But that’s really not the way I act best. I like having a gun to my head. 

Having watched Maggie work, have you had any thoughts about directing yourself one day?

For me, it’s a little bit like getting a tattoo. I’ve never had one. But I’m not against having one if I ever think of something worth tattooing on my body. I write a fair amount and actually have ideas come into my head quite frequently and think, oh, that might be something interesting to do. But I think unless it’s something really, really compelling, I’m just not somebody who would casually direct. And there are many successful directors who do that, who aren’t wildly connected to the story or piece of material they’re telling. But that’s just their craft. I would have to have a really, really, really strong need to make a movie in order to go through what, to me, looks like hell to make it.

You’re just off the back of the excellent “Presumed Innocent,” which ended in courtroom defeat for your lawyer Tommy Molto. It’s coming back for another season, but is that it for you?

No one’s asked me, but I wouldn’t think I’m part of it. But TV is a lot harder than movies. And I’ve only ever done one season of any show I’ve been. And I’ve never done a sequel to a movie. One of the great things about my job is that I get to move around a lot. Sure, I love saying hello, but I don’t have a problem saying goodbye. I can just have different experiences in different places with different people. It’s not appealing to me to go on and on.

Especially with Molto but also with some of your other characters, you’ve brought to them this fantastic devious quality, like a darkly calculated energy behind the eyes. Are they roles you particularly enjoy?

I love playing people who have ulterior motives. That’s like the easiest thing in the world. It’s very hard to play sincere people. Juliet from Romeo & Juliet can only really be played by a very young person. As we all get older, we have ways we go about getting things that are not always on the level. And even if you think you’re on the level, maybe being on the level is your move and sincere is your bullshit game. But I freely acknowledge that I have all sorts of ways of getting what I want. I’m not hiding my duplicity. 

When I told a friend about this interview, they asked if you were a Skarsgard. Does this confusion happen much with you?

My God, yeah. Even from people in the business. I had a grip come up to me and be like, “Oh, I just worked with your dad.” I used to correct people, but now don’t. I love Stellan’s work, and Alex’s, so why the fuck not if people want me to be a part of that family. I mean, he’s got enough children so I could easily be another.