I’m usually the first one to complain about the state of my country and to bash President Bush.

But as I was flicking through the channels, feverishly trying to find a football game, I came upon a report about American soldiers who were in a Humvee which flipped and went into a river, and all of them had died.

I couldn’t get away from the report fast enough for fear that these details were going to get in the way of me revelling in the game.

Meanwhile people who pledge allegiance to the same flag as I do are dying in ever-increasing numbers. So I thought, “Let me put some of this on paper.”

Meryl Streep on politics and passion

From The French Lieutenant’s Woman to a news reporter: how does Meryl Streep get her disguises so right

• Meryl Streep got the ball rolling

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The person who got the ball rolling was Meryl Streep. Apparently she called her agent 50 pages into the script and said, “I’m in.” Once somebody of that calibre becomes attached, everybody wants to know what the hell this script is. Robert Redford makes no bones about his political views. There are going to be people that, no matter what the movie is and what it says, they are just going to attack. But I think the attack dogs in the US are starting to be seen for what they are.

My brother [Joe Carnahan, writer and director of Narc] was meant to write and direct Mission: Impossible III. There was tension and things didn’t work out. So I didn’t know what to expect of Tom Cruise really, until I met him.

Honestly, there’s not a more diligent person I have come across.

I think you’ll be blown away by his performance. I talked with him a little bit over coffee. He and I saw what was going on in the world in much the same way, this idea that there have been more people beset by war in the name of who and how they worship than for any other reason in history.

On those things, we had a fair level of agreement.

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