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Lance Henriksen has left "a mark" in history like no other portraying President Abraham Lincoln with such dignity and respect. And for a bit of trivia I believe a form of "the secret service" came after the assassination. When I was a child President Abraham Lincoln was one of my favorite presidents. The second was George Washington. I guess I am a rebel for the cause because I want movies like this especially for our children. By Lafemmenikita07
In the afternoon of Friday, April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln met with his cabinet
and signed an executive order lifting the blockade of the South. That evening, he took his wife to see a new play, Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theatre in downtown Washington. While watching the comedy, he was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Southern patriot. Lincoln died the next day -- the first U.S. President to be assassinated. One hundred and thirty-three years later, the events of April 14 remain a defining moment in American history." "Lincoln's assassination has been chronicled in numerous books and movies.
The TNT Original film THE DAY LINCOLN WAS SHOT is based on the best-seller of the same title, written by Jim Bishop. It is a different take on the assassination of our 16th President -- it chronicles the days and hours leading up to the assassination from the perspective of both Lincoln and his murderer, John Wilkes Booth. "I think people have the impression that John Wilkes Booth was a mad actor who, in a moment of insanity, killed the President simply because he had the opportunity," says director John Gray. "In truth, it started out as a kidnapping conspiracy with Booth and a band of conspirators, but then Richmond fell and Lee surrendered and the plan turned to murder." TNT's film tells the dramatic story of the conspiracy and its tragic turn." "Filming a movie based on recognizable historical figures always poses the challenge of casting actors who resemble their characters. Playing the role of the distinguished Abraham Lincoln in the TNT film is Lance Henriksen. "My initial reaction was sheer terror, because I have seen through my life, even as a youngster, romantic versions of this heroic figure and I found him hard to relate to," says Henriksen. "I didn't really 'find' Lincoln until I actually started doing the film." "When I saw Lance, it just clicked that was the face of Lincoln," says Gray. "We didn't want a grandfatherly Lincoln -- we wanted an edgy, tough-looking man who looked like he has grown up hard, as Lincoln. I think Lance really fit the bill." In preparation for his role, Henriksen read many of the President's speeches and also grew a beard like Lincoln's. "I felt this role was very risky -- if you fail at doing one of the most poignant men in all of history, you have really failed," says Henriksen."
"Playing the equally complex role of John Wilkes Booth is Rob Morrow.
"This script attracted me because it humanizes Booth," says Morrow. THE DAY LINCOLN WAS SHOT brings Booth to the forefront and shows what his motivations were. He was a very well-known actor and quite popular in his time. "This is a guy who really believed in his cause, and that is what is frightening. He was a rational man who was very well-liked, and yet he was capable of this act of horror," says Gray. "Booth didn't seem to be insane, which many people would like to believe," says Morrow. "He truly believed he was doing something noble -- his politics and his ego seemed to have been his motivating source." "Another interesting aspect of TNT's film is the relationship between
Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. "The scenes between Lincoln and Mary are love scenes. Mary was a very troubled woman who expressed that love in strange and sometimes disturbing ways, but they were both very devoted to one another," says Gray. "The toughest thing about playing someone who actually lived is you are dependent on the reports of others. It's not like creating a fictional character where you are at total liberty, so I feel a sense of responsibility to the woman and to her family," says Donna Murphy, who portrays Mrs. Lincoln. "I read many biographies and collections of her letters, and I came away with mixed messages of who she really was. What I did gather and what I thought was appropriate to use for telling her story, is that she was a well-educated, very intelligent, very sensitive woman whose husband was everything to her."
"The production team re-created several historic locations, including 
the White House, war-torn Richmond, Virginia, and the infamous Ford's Theatre. "Our thought from the beginning was that what we didn't want was a sepia-toned image of this time, which is often a filmmaker's first choice when creating a historical drama," says Gray. "The reality of the time was that the streets were muddy, there was raw sewage everywhere and soot in the air. So we tried to give this picture a very cold, blue, dirty look." Gray looked to production designer Roy Smith to design the settings. A grandiose facade of the White House was created at the Millenium Studios lot in Virginia, and Ford's Theatre was created in a theatre in Richmond. "The facade of the boxes in the theater are as close as we could possibly get to the ones in Ford's Theatre," says Smith. "Millions of people visit Ford's Theatre and are familiar with what it looks like, and we were very conscience of that when re-creating the theatre scene." "My aim with this film was to make the definitive movie about the Lincoln assassination," says Gray. "I hope it will give people insight into what really happened and the events surrounding that day. And I hope that people who see the movie will come away understanding how someone like Booth could act out of patriotism or whatever misguided obsession, and the enormous cost of those selfish acts."
Source: TNT
