Q & A with Michael Moore

Michael Moore says Americans are in the fight of their lives under Trump and Democrats need to think outside the box to beat him. Photo / AP

Michael Moore is 45 minutes late and somehow right on time. At the Washington, DC screening of Fahrenheit 11/9, his new documentary about US President Donald Trump (but not all about Trump), the 64-year-old film-maker got to his own red carpet just before the lights went down.

He's ambling past the theatre when one of the movie's producers waves him inside, "Michael! Michael!" He stops to take a photo of the marquee with his name on it as if it's his first time at bat and heads inside to promote the film hitting the big screen this week in the US. Before the documentarian's lingering fans crowded him for selfies,

Helena Andrews-Dyer managed to get a few questions in about the movie Moore called "a molotov cocktail into the system".

Q: We have to start with the name. Fahrenheit 11/9 is a mirror image of your most commercially successful film, Fahrenheit 9/11. Was the symmetry poetic?
A: It was just a coincidence that he was announced as President at 2:29 in the morning on 11/9/16, and right away it sort of hit me that as bad [as] we thought it was when we made Fahrenheit 9/11, we are in much worse condition right now.

Q: Did you immediately think "this is my next movie"?
A: I immediately tried to see if my grandfather being Canadian was enough to get some papers. It's not.

Q: You'd leave America in the rear view?
A: I can't go anywhere. We're in the fight of our lives here and we're going to win it, but it won't be won by hoping we're going to win.

Q: In several interviews you've suggested that A-listers throw their hats into the political arena. Aren't there enough famous folk in politics?
A: What's wrong with celebrities? People like them. Why don't we elect somebody that we like. Wouldn't you vote for Tom Hanks?

Q: Have you talked to Tom Hanks about that?
A: Yes, I have.

Q: His response?
A: No. I said, "I'll even run as your number two. I'll do all the dirty work! You just stand there and cut ribbons and smile".

Q: So who else?
A: How about Michelle Obama? She'd win. That's the way the Democrats have to start thinking. Think out of the box. Don't run a politician. Run somebody beloved by the American people who's smart and who will fight for the average everyday person who's struggling to keep their head above water.

Q: Why not run yourself?
A: Oh. Um. You know I was the first 18-year-old elected in the state of Michigan when they lowered the voting age to 18. I ran for board of education because I wanted to fire the principal and the assistant principal. I won, and a year later they were gone. So I learned at an early age that if you got involved, you could affect change. Then I retired from politics at 22. Everybody should do it. You should [do] it.

Q: But I'm on the other side.
A: And that's where I have to stay. Over here. I think I serve the country better by making movies like this. I hope I do.

Q: Do you hope President Trump watches the film?
A: Oh, I know he'll watch the film. Are you kidding? First of all, anything that has him as the star of it or his name in it ... I made a film before the election called Michael Moore in TrumpLand and he tweeted positively about it when he heard about it. He hadn't watched it, but he saw that his name was in the title. To a malignant narcissist, that's all the matters. But I hope he does see it.