The Lions of Yalta

The sound stages at CBS Studios in Hollywood, the home of daytime game shows and soap operas, have quite literally been invaded by the lavish production “‘World War II: When Lions Roared.” The four-hour NBC drama stars three lions of the acting profession: Michael Caine as Joseph Stalin, Bob Hoskins as Winston Churchill and John Lithgow as Franklin Roosevelt.

Written and produced by David W. Rintels (“Day One”) and directed by Joseph Sargent (“Miss Rose White”), “When Lions Roared” explores the strategies, competition, friendship and rivalry of these wartime Allied leaders.

The project is the first American drama to be produced in HDTV--High Definition Television. Through the innovative editing techniques of HDTV, the production combines vintage World War II footage, still photography and live action.

Michael Caine (Joseph Stalin)

The very British Caine, who has starred in such acclaimed films as “Alfie,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Educating Rita” and “Sleuth,” may seem like an odd choice to play the Soviet leader. Caine is blond and tall; Stalin was dark-haired and short. But thanks to a terrific makeup job and commanding Russian accent, Caine is quite impressive as he shoots a scene in which he dictates a communique to Roosevelt and Churchill.

The Oscar winner achieved his accent using an innovative copycat method: “I had a Russian actor record my entire part speaking in English,” he explains. “You’ve really got to move your mouth in Russian. My mustache falls off three times a day. And I take it off for lunch or I’ll eat it!”

Relaxing in his tiny dressing room during a lunch break, Caine is all Cockney charm. He’s joking about the fact that the production would be moving to Prague during the middle of winter. “It’s going to be nice and warm,” he quips. “We are going to take our shorts. We will take sunscreen just in case we get burned up. I am fair-haired, you know.”

He’s also been raising a bit of Cain with everyone, he says, in his effort to portray Stalin authentically. “They brought in an actor the other day who plays an officer, and (the actor) was 5 feet 6 inches. I said, ‘I’m 6 feet 2 inches. And (Stalin) is supposed to be 5 feet 4 inches. This guy would then be 5 feet 2 inches. He wouldn’t be in the Army, let alone on my bloody staff. I said, ‘Get some guys who are taller than me.’ They don’t understand it.”

Born in 1933, Caine has very clear memories of World War II. “We were taught what was going on in school, and Stalin didn’t die until 1953. I was very aware of everything. I’m a news and current affairs buff.”

Most of the British intelligentsia, Caine says, agree that Hitler was a monster. That’s not the case with Joseph Stalin. “The majority thought Stalin was a wonderful person,” he says firmly. “A least a third of them still do.” The fact is that Hitler killed millions of Russians and so did Stalin. “Yet, you still get intellectuals who think Stalin is a bigger hero than Churchill.”

Part of the reason may be that, during the war, Stalin was known in America and England as “Uncle Joe.” People didn’t know that he killed some of his own generals, “in case the army turned against him. He was paranoid and completely schizophrenic because on one side there was this lovely old man, and then you had this other man we brought out for this film. He was always very diplomatic and quiet, even while giving orders to shoot 700 men. He was always very calm. He never ranted and raved like Hitler, except with his own generals in his bunker. They discovered that since the war.”

Caine also discovered that Stalin could be very funny, “but then he also was extremely cunning politically because he screwed these two, Churchill and Roosevelt. They didn’t know quite what happened at Yalta. They gave half the world away and we ended up with 45 years of the Iron Curtain.”

Even for those who lived through the war and thought they knew all about it, “When Lions Roared” should be a learning experience, Caine says. “You find out just how Machiavellian Stalin was with these two and how these two were at loggerheads over loads of things. What we say has been taken from transcripts. It’s not invented dialogue. It was all said or recorded or communicated. With this technology, we talk to each other and react in split-screen in London, Washington and Moscow. The main problem is to make the people human. It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought.”

There is a trick to playing someone evil, Caine says. “If you think in terms of someone who is evil, they never see themselves as evil. So many actors play tyrants and wicked people from our point of view, instead of being inside the person looking out at the world and saying, ‘I am a nice guy.’ Hitler said, ‘I killed 6 million Jews, but I love children and I love dogs.’

“I play a lot of bad guys and one of the things people have often said is that somehow you make them sympathetic. The reason for that is I don’t see them as bad guys. The facts speak for themselves. You see what Stalin had done.”

After watching a “wonderful” French documentary on the Soviet dictator, the one thing that struck Caine about Stalin was that he didn’t look evil at all. In fact, Caine says, “he looked rather nice. You look at Stalin and say, ‘He is a nice guy.’ The evil was completely hidden.”

John Lithgow (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

Actor John Lithgow has never been a World War II buff. “But my parents absolutely adored Roosevelt,” he says with a smile. “When I told my mother I was playing him, she burst into tears!”

Lithgow acknowledges it’s been hard playing such a legendary figure. “It’s not actually difficult doing it,” he explains. “What you have to contend with is coming far short of the mark. He’s such an icon. People know him and revere him so much, no matter how close you get, you’re not only far from the real thing, you are far from people’s fantasies of him. But what also makes it’s hard, is what makes it fascinating. I think this is a brand new, very close-up look of him.

Playing Roosevelt also was literally painful for Lithgow. Roosevelt wore braces after losing the use of his legs from polio, and so did Lithgow to make his performance more real. “I went through a lot of fittings,” he says. “They are very painful, so they constantly remind me (of what Roosevelt went through) because I have them on. I’m sitting all day and sitting is harder than walking.”

The historical deification of the 32nd President also has presented a challenge.

“As I think must happen with every major figure in history who is deemed successful, the minute he steps from the stage there is no longer a realistic perception of him,” Lithgow adds. “He’s deified. Look at what happened to Kennedy. Going back and reading about F.D.R., the scales fell from my eyes. I learned so much about him, not all of it flattering.”

Roosevelt, he says, “was by no means a godlike figure. Certainly a great man, but his greatness was sort of circumstantial greatness. It’s exactly what the country needed for the Depression and the war.”

Lithgow believes that Roosevelt could be devious in his political dealings, play people off each other and then go ahead and do what he wanted. “He could cover up his tracks and lie. The things I find absolutely fascinating about him don’t necessarily have a part to play in this piece. I’m really enjoying this piece, but one of my frustrations is when I research a part, you learn much more than you can possibly use.”

The Tony- and Emmy-winning actor envisions Roosevelt as an actor playing a part. “He loved the heroic role,” Lithgow says. “I think role is a good word for him because he was playing the part of a President.”

“There’s something very compelling abut our knowing that they actually said these things,” Lithgow says of the dialogue taken from historical records. “It’s incredibly potent. It’s pure history and the key to this whole piece.”

Bob Hoskins (Winston Churchill)

Bob Hoskins so immersed himself in the role of Winston Churchill, he can “probably take a Ph.D. in history. I’ve read about 10 books and seen about 10 hours of video and God knows how many speeches I listened to.”

Hoskins, who received a 1986 best actor Oscar nomination for “Mona Lisa,” was a bit worried about playing the legendary aristocratic British politician who guided his country through World War II.

“This is the man who talks with a lisp,” Hoskins says in his pronounced Cockney accent. “But then when I went to the costumer in London and I started putting this padding on and got this shape: It was Winnie. Once you start to get into a role, you start to think in the voice. And once you start thinking in the voice, you talk in the voice.”

Churchill, Hoskins believes, was a warmonger. “He didn’t have much actual contact with the working man. He was quite hated (by the working man). But Winston ran the war and running the war, you needed someone like that to spur the people on and make them fight.”

Hoskins says he learned “odd things” about Churchill during his research: “His sense of humor, his wit. He was a very selfish man. He wasn’t aware of other people at all. Secretaries would collapse exhausted. If you are brought up to be from (the aristocratic) class, there is not very much awareness.”

The actor hopes “When Lions Roared” will educate youngsters and adults about the global conflict. “Let’s face it, the standard of education both here and in England has gone down the drain,” Hoskins says. “John (Lithgow) was getting changed into his costume and one of the actors from one of the soap operas John knew--the guy was in his mid-30s--came over (to the set) and was looking at the picture of Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt at Yalta. And he said, ‘Who was who?’ ”

“World War II: When Lions Roared” airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. and Wednesday at 9 p.m. on NBC.; the drama also will be available on MPI Video beginning the week of April 25th for $40.