Interview magazine

Affleck talks with Gus Van Sant for the October/November issue of Interview about working with a network of Persian filmmakers, taking the plot of Argo from a Wired magazine article and a book about the hostage crisis, and being advised by the State Department to stay out of Iran:

I wanted to go—just for research—very badly. I really wanted to be accurate. The studio, however, said, “This is a bad idea,” to which I responded, “Well, I’m just going to go as a private person, without any association with the movie or the studio—just as a tourist.” Then I talked to the State Department about it, and they said, “Look, you could go, but there’s a likelihood that people from the government will show up with a camera, shake your hand, take pictures, and say, ‘See, this American supports what we’re doing.’