WHEN THE DUST SETTLES

Oliver Stone sits down for a one-on-one with Dusty Cakes for the new Interview magazine.

Dusty has finished a script for Clint Eastwood, Hoover and made his directorial debut with  What's Wrong with Virginia?

BLACK: I'm going to let Clint [Eastwood] decide what he wants to do with the film, but the script is done. I didn't find a lot of proof that Hoover cross-dressed. I think it was more a form of homophobia against him. Do I think J. Edgar Hoover was gay? Yes. Do I think he cross-dressed? No. I think that was just one of the ways people tried to bash him because they probably had the sense that he was gay. Did he ever put on a dress? Hell, I put on my mom's undergarments when I was a kid. I didn't find much credible evidence that Hoover went out socially dressed up in women's clothes. But a script is 90 percent research about the person, and then so much about yourself ends up being in there, too. Anyone who says a movie about history is a historical document is crazy. It's a document that incorporates who that person was and who I am now.

STONE: Milk was a hero to many people. What attracted you to Hoover?

BLACK: The attraction to Milk was pretty obvious. He's a father figure. I thought it might be worth investigating the opposite of Milk-what a cautionary historical figure would be like. This is a tale of a closet case, as opposed to an inspirational tale of a man brave enough to come out. It's almost the flip side. I'm always interested in getting to know people, and that means vilified people as much as those celebrated. You find out that heroes aren't always so heroic, and villains have some bit of humanity in them. As much as I went into this project not really liking Hoover and feeling upset with so much of what he did and what civil rights he violated, there is a person there, a human being. If you don't humanize him and try to show why he did the things he did, then you are left with this cardboard figure of Hoover-whether it's one with the "G-Man" machine gun or in a dress. I wanted to figure out who the guy really was.