00:00When years ago I said I want to do a Roman epic but set in modern America, a lot of
00:06people said, well, why?
00:07And I would say, well, because America was founded on the ideas of the Roman Republic.
00:13We didn't want a king, Rome didn't want a king, so they invented a new form of government called the
00:18Republic
00:19with the Senate and with Roman law and with all of the things which we embrace.
00:24We even built our cities to look like Rome.
00:26If you remember the great building they tore down, it was based on the Carragala, it was Penn Station, which
00:34they destroyed, which is insane.
00:36So my feeling was that to do a Roman epic set in modern America, but I had no idea that
00:46the politics of today would make that so relevant
00:50because what's happening in America, in our republic, in our democracy, is exactly how Rome lost their republic thousands of
00:59years ago.
01:00So it's a real—and you even see now in articles and in Saturday Night Live the parallel between modern America
01:09and Rome.
01:10So we—our politics has taken us to the point where we might lose our republic, and so it's not people
01:18who have become politicians who are going to be the answer.
01:22I feel it's the artists of America because artists—the role of the artist is to illuminate contemporary life, to shine
01:31light on it, to be the headlights.
01:32And I feel it's the artist of America.
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