Nothing but the Truth tells the story of a reporter facing possible jail time for outing a CIA agent and refusing to reveal her sources. The film’s director, Rod Lurie, shares why he creates empowering roles for women and Kate Beckinsale gives us the scoop on how being a mom affected her role in this movie.

Filmazing: What do you think about the movie receiving Oscar buzz?

Beckinsale: The movie was such a pleasure to make, despite that the schedule was so short, and it was pretty down and dirty. The prison was a real prison, and it had real prisoners. It was one of those jobs that all the chemistry between everyone matched. That in itself was a prize.

Filmazing: Did it bother you to be filming in a real prison?

Beckinsale: I think actors are fairly psychotic people. The more you feel an emotional connection the better, it doesn’t matter if it’s in a scummy environment or in a fabulous environment.

Filmazing: Has being a mom affected you as far as the emotional connection goes?

Beckinsale: Being a mom has completely changed my life from the first day. I know with this particular role I wanted to make sure my character’s connection with her son, the dilemma she is in, and the mistakes she makes were really authentic from the mom’s point of view. Rodger’s wrote a fantastic script and in general writes great parts for women. He was very open to me coloring in the mom department because he recognized that I knew more about being a mom then he did. That was very generous of him, since he wrote the script. Since me and my son don’t have many scenes together in the movies, there aren’t many opportunities to make sure people really care about the sacrifice she is making.

Filmazing: How far would you go to protect your sources? Did your role make you think about that?

Beckinsale: Of course. It’s a movie that discusses the first amendment and the principle. But as an actor I am always looking for the emotional reasons people do things. I do believe my character Rachel Armstrong believes very strongly in standing up for her sources, but I also believe that by the time you get to the end of the movie there is a heavy emotional factor showing why she did what she did. It’s a combination of those things that explains how she accidently becomes a heroic person despite being an ordinary human being. I believe she has to make one of those very hard decisions. Not the right decision, but the one that has the least amount of enormous damage. Both options carry massive damage. I know whenever I have been in that position, there isn’t a decision you feel good about either way. That’s one of the things that attracted me to the movie, is seeing someone having to make those kinds of decisions.

Filmazing: How did current events inspire the film?

Lurie: I’m glad you asked that. It’s becoming a real pain in the butt for me, because a lot of people are saying it’s the story Valerie Plame or Judith Miller. But it’s not that. It was inspired by women in similar circumstances. And these characters are completely different human beings. I think they might be slightly more interesting human beings. We tried to create Rachel Armstrong’s character as a very determined but a naïve young woman who is full of righteousness, maybe a little too much. We also tried to create a real pistol with the CIA agent played by Vera Farmiga.

Filmazing: Tell us about Vera Farmiga

Lurie: There is a scene in the movie where she takes a polygraph, we administered a real polygraph for the scene, and when we yelled the cut, they said she was telling the truth. She was so into the character, that she passed the test.

Filmazing: Being a former journalist, how far would you go to protect your stories?

Lurie: I would like to think I would go as far as she did, but I would probably fold like a house of cards. The hell they put you through because they want you to break. They don’t mind if you go through ungodly hell because they want you to give up your information. It is really obscene that in this country we would use prison as a form of coercion. It makes no sense to me that in a country other than China or Iran that this would happen.

Filmazing: You are known for writing strong roles for women. Is this on purpose?

Lurie: I do, because no one else is doing it. There are some great roles for women, but largely speaking they’re to play wives or superheroes, or they’re chick flicks. I try to make women’s movies that are not chick flicks; that men can sit through. Nothing but the Truth is a thriller, and there is no reason why a man can't enjoy it; maybe even more than a woman because he can look at Kate Beckinsale. I like making movies that can appeal to both. When we did the TV series Commander and Chief, we had as many men watching the show as women.

Filmazing: Was your mom a big influence on you then?

Lurie: My mother is like Mackenzie Allen, who was Geena Davis’s character on Commander and Chief. My mom is a fantastic woman who sells real estate in Greenwich, Connecticut. She is about 70 and is a spectacularly successful woman. So she really is an inspiration to me. But an even greater inspiration to me was my little girl. When she was born, I decided to make movies that dealt with making the world a level playing field for her to have with her brother, Hunter. I’ve been saying for awhile, any man who has a daughter and doesn’t change as a man is not much of a man. I really believe that to be true.