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American Morning

Smoke Screen

Aired November 20, 2003 - 08:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: After years of promoting on-screen smoking in the movies, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is on an anti- smoking crusade that is both public and very personal. He had a four pack a day habit that left him with throat cancer and, he says, left him with blood on his hands.
Now he's launching a campaign to try and confront smoking in movies. Here's a sample of his work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ESZTERHAS, SCREENWRITER: I've always glamorized smoking in my movies. I used to think smoking was so cool that I got throat cancer. Maybe that's my punishment. Please, don't let Hollywood sucker you into smoking. Please don't let people like me kill you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: The Join Joe campaign is in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic. And Joe Eszterhas is with us now from Cleveland, Ohio.

Joe, how's your health?

ESZTERHAS: I'm fine, thank you. My cancer is in remission. I go day to day. But thank God I'm fine.

HEMMER: Listen, you were with us just about a year ago this past fall. You wrote in "The New York Times" in august of last year, pull up this bite from you, "I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings. My hands are bloody. So are Hollywood's. My cancer has caused me to attempt a cleansed mind. I don't wish my fate upon anyone in Hollywood. But I get that Hollywood stop imposing it upon millions of others. You wrote that in August of last year. Pretty serious charge. How do you measure success in this job?

ESZTERHAS: Well, frankly, to this point, I've Got nowhere. I've tried a campaign that was both to the media and behind the scenes with producers, directors and studio heads, and I've gotten nowhere. The reason I did these ads is at least to warn the public, before a movie comes out, that they are being manipulated and that smoking is being glamorized. I am hoping with my cancer, and with my ragged voice, to sort of counter-effect Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt when they have cigarettes in their hands.

HEMMER: You say they've -- you've gotten nowhere. Why do you think that is? Have they turned their back completely to you? How have they received you?

ESZTERHAS: Hollywood has always turned its back to this particular issue. For some reason, Hollywood, I think, has a blindspot on smoking. Even though so many stars have died of lung cancer, even though Hollywood knows the statistics, nothing is done. It's not enough for Jack Valenti, the president of the MPAA, to say that to rate movies R because of smoking would happen, only over his dead body.

Unfortunately, I think Hollywood has become Big Tobacco's greatest ally. There is a need to discuss this. There is a need to put it out in front of the public, and changes simply have to be made to save lives.

HEMMER: Joe, you know what some people say, it's your choice, it's your own responsibility. What do you say to that?

ESZTERHAS: I have the greatest compassion for smokers. And believe me, I know how difficult stopping is. It's the single most difficult thing I've ever done.

But what's happening with movies is they sucker kids in when they're 12 and 14. I began then, and people can't stop. That's what's wrong, because they look at a role model like Julia Roberts, or Gwyneth or Brad Pitt or many other stars, and it's that role model that makes kids start. I just got an e-mail this morning from a professor in China who said that he began smoking by watching Humphrey Bogart on-screen. I met a man in a video store who said that he can trace his smoking to Robert Mitchum on screen. People and movie stars have to take responsibility, and have to understand that they are being negative role models.

HEMMER: You said your cancer's in remission, Joe.

ESZTERHAS: Yes.

HEMMER: Is it difficult for you to talk? In all honesty, it's a gravely voice and it's quite obvious.

ESZTERHAS: It's a gravely voice, but it's a voice. And you know, it may be a gravely, ragged voice, but I insist that it is a puny, but inexhaustible voice, and I will keep trying to talk about this with whatever energy and whatever time I have left.

HEMMER: Joe Eszterhas, thanks, in Cleveland.

ESZTERHAS: Thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 20, 2003 - 08:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: After years of promoting on-screen smoking in the movies, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is on an anti- smoking crusade that is both public and very personal. He had a four pack a day habit that left him with throat cancer and, he says, left him with blood on his hands.
Now he's launching a campaign to try and confront smoking in movies. Here's a sample of his work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ESZTERHAS, SCREENWRITER: I've always glamorized smoking in my movies. I used to think smoking was so cool that I got throat cancer. Maybe that's my punishment. Please, don't let Hollywood sucker you into smoking. Please don't let people like me kill you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: The Join Joe campaign is in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic. And Joe Eszterhas is with us now from Cleveland, Ohio.

Joe, how's your health?

ESZTERHAS: I'm fine, thank you. My cancer is in remission. I go day to day. But thank God I'm fine.

HEMMER: Listen, you were with us just about a year ago this past fall. You wrote in "The New York Times" in august of last year, pull up this bite from you, "I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings. My hands are bloody. So are Hollywood's. My cancer has caused me to attempt a cleansed mind. I don't wish my fate upon anyone in Hollywood. But I get that Hollywood stop imposing it upon millions of others. You wrote that in August of last year. Pretty serious charge. How do you measure success in this job?

ESZTERHAS: Well, frankly, to this point, I've Got nowhere. I've tried a campaign that was both to the media and behind the scenes with producers, directors and studio heads, and I've gotten nowhere. The reason I did these ads is at least to warn the public, before a movie comes out, that they are being manipulated and that smoking is being glamorized. I am hoping with my cancer, and with my ragged voice, to sort of counter-effect Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt when they have cigarettes in their hands.

HEMMER: You say they've -- you've gotten nowhere. Why do you think that is? Have they turned their back completely to you? How have they received you?

ESZTERHAS: Hollywood has always turned its back to this particular issue. For some reason, Hollywood, I think, has a blindspot on smoking. Even though so many stars have died of lung cancer, even though Hollywood knows the statistics, nothing is done. It's not enough for Jack Valenti, the president of the MPAA, to say that to rate movies R because of smoking would happen, only over his dead body.

Unfortunately, I think Hollywood has become Big Tobacco's greatest ally. There is a need to discuss this. There is a need to put it out in front of the public, and changes simply have to be made to save lives.

HEMMER: Joe, you know what some people say, it's your choice, it's your own responsibility. What do you say to that?

ESZTERHAS: I have the greatest compassion for smokers. And believe me, I know how difficult stopping is. It's the single most difficult thing I've ever done.

But what's happening with movies is they sucker kids in when they're 12 and 14. I began then, and people can't stop. That's what's wrong, because they look at a role model like Julia Roberts, or Gwyneth or Brad Pitt or many other stars, and it's that role model that makes kids start. I just got an e-mail this morning from a professor in China who said that he began smoking by watching Humphrey Bogart on-screen. I met a man in a video store who said that he can trace his smoking to Robert Mitchum on screen. People and movie stars have to take responsibility, and have to understand that they are being negative role models.

HEMMER: You said your cancer's in remission, Joe.

ESZTERHAS: Yes.

HEMMER: Is it difficult for you to talk? In all honesty, it's a gravely voice and it's quite obvious.

ESZTERHAS: It's a gravely voice, but it's a voice. And you know, it may be a gravely, ragged voice, but I insist that it is a puny, but inexhaustible voice, and I will keep trying to talk about this with whatever energy and whatever time I have left.

HEMMER: Joe Eszterhas, thanks, in Cleveland.

ESZTERHAS: Thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com