Anderson Cooper is somewhat in disbelief over the headlines of Michael Bloomberg’s potential presidential bid.
“Just when you think this election could not get any more interesting or surreal!” he told THR executive editor Matthew Belloni at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Altogether, “the interest in this election is unprecedented — the number of people watching these debates and the importance of these debates so far. I think it’s an extraordinary race and it’s only going to continue to be.”
And what of Donald Trump’s growing appeal? “It’s horrifying, but I think there are some wounds being explored in a very public way,” noted filmmaker Liz Garbus. “Look, I think a generation of voters has grown up with reality TV, and he’s tapping into those emotions and that anger. … I think it appeals to a TV-watching generation.”
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The two were at Sundance to premiere Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper, Garbus‘ upcoming HBO documentary about Cooper’s mother.
“My mom has lived this extraordinary life — a lot of people know her name, but they don’t really know her story. Her public persona is so different than who she really is,” he explained, stressing that though he is an executive producer and that the entire family cooperated, Garbus had final say on the film’s cut.
“She faces her regrets in the film and she’s made some mistakes in her life that she deeply regrets,” Garbus said of the various Vanderbilt scandals. “There were no questions that she wouldn’t answer. I didn’t feel intimidated or put off at any moment.”
But one shot was too intimate to include, said Garbus: that of her and her favorite TV show. “We did want to shoot a scene of her watching Judge Judy — that she wouldn’t allow!”
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