PRODUCING THE OSCAR NOMINEE 'TRAFFIC'

Laura Bickford, producer of the movie "Traffic," a look at America's war on
drugs, went online Wednesday to discuss the film after "Traffic" received
five Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture.

Sleepyhead: First of all, congratulations on five Oscar nominations! I
thought it was one of the best movies in 2000. Did you have reservations
about doing a quarter of the movie in Spanish with English subtitles? Here
in the States, subtitled movies seem to get less of an audience. I heard it
was a joint decision of [director] Steven Soderbergh and [actor] Benicio
Del Toro to do it in Spanish.

Laura Bickford: Yes, Soderbergh and Del Toro decided that whenever a
Mexican character was speaking to another Mexican character they would
speak in Spanish, as that is what would happen in real life. This script
was written entirely in English and the translation into Spanish was an
ongoing process. I never questioned the decision or worried about the use
of subtitles.

The financiers had agreed in our contract to the clause that said Mexicans
would speak to Mexicans in Spanish, but because the script was written in
English, they didn't realize -- until someone counted the scenes about a
week before shooting -- how much would be in Spanish and they certainly had
concerns from a marketing point of view. But we persuaded them that it was
the only way to do it.

Annandale: How does one become a producer?

One way is working your way up the ladder, starting as a production
assistant or production manager and working that path. The other might be
called lateral. Just start producing. Produce something small -- a
five-minute film with your friends or a music video. I started as a music
video producer with some directors who wanted to make feature films.

Lexington, Ky.: Was Soderbergh trying to portray the complexity of drugs
and their role in our country, or was it more a jab for America to wake up
and reevaluate how we deal with drugs?

A bit of both, but we as filmmakers didn't want to say that we knew the
answer. There are many intelligent, wonderful people who are working to
deal with this issue, but no one has ever put them all together in one
story to see how sometimes they are at odds. We wanted the film to inspire
people to talk about the issue. We hope that the movie will help people see
drugs as a health issue -- as a cancer rather then a war. Addiction is a
disease that doesn't have race or class or nationality.

Detroit: How much did the Euro docu-film "Traffik" influence Soderbergh's
"Traffic"? What did you/he think must be changed for an American audience?

What blew me away about the original "Traffik" was the structure of the
narrative -- the intersecting story lines. Structurally we were 100 percent
like the original. One of the biggest decisions was whether to focus on the
cocaine trade between Columbia or Mexico and the United States. Our
original instinct was to do Columbia because of "Traffik." But as we did
our research we became educated (largely in part by Tim Goldin, a New York
Times reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the drug trade
between Mexico and the United States) and we concluded that Mexico was the
newer story -- more important and fresher.

Arlington: There was one scene that featured some prominent Washington
politicos meeting Michael Douglas [who played the drug czar]. How did you
secure these people for the film and how did you shoot it? What do you have
to say about [Sen.] Orrin Hatch [R-Utah] publicly apologizing for being in
the film, saying he had no idea there would be so much violence and sex?

I wrote to many politicians and asked them. Most of them said yes, schedule
permitting. We had scripted things for people to say at the party, but when
the politicians came, Soderbergh asked them to be themselves meeting the
new drug czar and asked them to tell him what they thought [about the
issue]. I assume Hatch read the script, so I am not sure why he is upset.
But I am very happy to have him in the movie.

Washington: Besides the Hatch comment, have you gotten any political flak
on your end? I have the impression that the government consciously
perpetuates the drug war for a multitude of reasons, like economic and
"democracy preservation" reasons.

One of the great satisfactions for us is that people in law enforcement and
treatment loved the film. The Drug Enforcement Administration wants Don
Cheadle and Luis Guzman [who played DEA agents] to host a screening because
they feel it was the first time they have been accurately portrayed in the
media. I have heard from the drug czar's publicist that they think some
people in the media are saying the film gives the impression that the war
on drugs has failed, not the film itself, and they don't like that.