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December 22, 2006
Playing myself: Ben Sliney on United 93
Ben Sliney, FAA National Operations Manager on 9/11, tells the Guardian about playing himself in United 93. 
"he way it happened was a surprise. I shot a 15-minute scene as a New York centre supervisor and they asked me to stick around as an adviser for the "Ben Sliney" scenes. All day Tuesday and Wednesday they shot with an actor, and then on Thursday morning I got a note under my door asking if I'd bring my suit and tie to the set. I never saw the actor again. It's really not hard to play yourself... The camera doesn't make me nervous. The subject matter wasn't terrific - I wasn't keen on reliving all that stuff - but it wasn't difficult. The stimuli were presented chronologically to me and I had to react as I did on the day. There was no script, so I just had to improvise. The biggest problem on September 11 was that we weren't prepared. If the film shows us looking perplexed or confused or trying to work out what was going on, then it's because that's what happened. At least three of the people in those scenes were with me on that day. The others were air traffic controllers from Boston and New York. There's only one actor in that scene... I think there's a good slice of reality here. I had many people saying to me they were glad to be air traffic controllers, and I was, too." [Also: Julian Fellowes on what it's like to win an Oscar and Mat Snow on why it's great to have Nick Cave write a song about you called "Scum."]
Posted by Ray Pride at December 22, 2006 06:19 PM
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