David Marchese

Do you think President Trump has beliefs?

You had made the documentary about Zelensky and Ukraine's superpower, which came out, I think, in 2023.

Have you spoken to Zelensky since making that film?

Do you have a sense of how he understands Trump and America's actions towards Ukraine in 2025?

What is that understanding, to the best of your knowledge?

You know, also in Superpower, there's just a brief mention of when you and Jack Nicholson were at the film festival in Moscow for, I guess it was for The Pledge, and you had some, you know, sit-down of some type with Vladimir Putin.

And in the film, you just glancingly referred to that meeting as a deviant memory.

I'm wondering if you can tell me any more about what your impressions of Putin were.

Did you feel like you had a...

a chance to get any sense of him as a human being?

Why is that?

So you're saying you think he's a limited actor?

Yeah.

How have your politics changed over time?

It's static.

Just to turn a little bit more explicitly to the subject of artists and politics, I don't know if you pay attention to this kind of stuff or if you're aware, but there was a pledge that more than 2,000 people in the film industry signed that's tantamount to a boycott of the Israeli movie industry.

It's, of course, in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and that...

People signed it like Javier Bardem, who you've worked with, Emma Stone, Adam McKay, Joaquin Phoenix, Tilda Swinton, Brian Cox, Mark Ruffalo.

Do you see value in cultural boycotts generally?

And what's your view of this one specifically?