Jeffrey Wigand blew the whistle on big tobacco and told the truth about how cigarette companies were knowingly trying to get customers hooked on nicotine. He explained how they were manipulating the nicotine to be more flavorful and addictive by putting additives such as ammonia into the cigarettes. "There's extensive use of this technology which is called ammonia chemistry that allows for nicotine to be more rapidly absorbed in the lungs, and therefore, affect the brain and central nervous system," said Wigand. He was fired in 1993 from the research team of Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. Being a former insider of a tobacco company as large as Brown & Williamson, he was considered a threat because he knew information that, if exposed, could hurt the company and numerous other tobacco giants. Jeffrey Wigand had to make the choice to speak against the tobacco company and inform the media with truth, or play it safe and keep his mouth shut. He knew exposing the big tobacco company could mean potential threats to his image, safety, and family. Wigand also knew that keeping quiet about the whole thing would potentially keep millions of people from knowing the truth about harmful nicotine additives and preventing smoking related illnesses.
Director Michael Mann had to dramatically portray Jeffrey Wigand and the choices he made on whether to "blow the whistle" on Brown & Williamson, as well as the situations he was put in after deciding it was best to expose the company. "The word whistle-blower suggests that you're a tattletale or that you're somehow disloyal," Wigand says. "But I wasn't disloyal in the least bit. People were dying. I was loyal to a higher order of ethical responsibility." Crowe was not Mann's initial choice to play Wigand; Crowe is Australian and is several decades younger than Wigand. But after sitting with Crowe through a reading of the script, Mann felt Crowe was right for the role. Crowe spent a substantial amount of time with Wigand to pick up his mannerism, and even put on weight for the role. Mann based much of his portrayal of Wigand off of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" because they were unable to consult with Wigand during the film.
(Scene of Wigand's relationship with Bergman and the hardship Wigand deals with for choosing to expose Brown & Williamson.)
Wigand's decision to expose Brown & Williamson would lead to an organized smear campaign directed towards him and his family. Brown & Williamson put out a 500-page dossier of Wigand that exaggerated his past. Vanity Fair's article about Wigand's life and the turmoil he experienced after leaving Brown & Williamson is published in the article "The Man Who Knew Too Much". This article is the basis of The Insider.
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1996/05/wigand199605
There are questions as to the accuracy of the threats to Jeffrey Wigand and his family, and if Brown & Williamson really took it as far as the movie portrayed. When Wigand was asked about the death threat e-mail, the bullet in the mailbox, and the man that was tracking him, he claimed it was all true. Brown & Williamson Tobacco accused The Walt Disney Co. of distorting the truth and threatened to sue. They were particularly upset with two specific scenes. In one scene, Wigand finds a bullet in his mailbox and a note threatening him and his children. It is implied that the FBI is working with Brown & Williamson to cover up the evidence. In the other scene, he is being followed by a threatening man. The threats as portrayed in the movie is shown below.
(Wigand and family receive death threats)
A Disney spokesman responded in saying, ''The film itself never suggests who might have been behind the threats.'' They also included a disclaimer saying there is no known connection between Brown & Williamson and the threats against Wigand. An FBI agent that took Wigand's report of the incident suggested that it was quite possible Wigand could have put the bullet in the mailbox himself. Different media sources will conclude that Wigand did indeed put the bullet in his own mailbox and even faked the death threats, but that could just be part of Brown & Williamson's smear campaign to negatively effect the credibility of Jeffrey Wigand.
An additional scene of considerably exaggerated drama is the scene of the deposition Wigand gives in Mississippi. Bruce McGill plays Ron Motley, a member of Wigand's legal team in Mississippi. As Motley is interrogating Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco lawyer interrupts with an objection. "We've got rights here," the tobacco lawyer says. Motley responds:
"Oh, you've got rights. And lefts. Ups and downs and middles. So what? You don't get to instruct anything around here. This is not North Carolina, not South Carolina, nor Kentucky. This is the sovereign state of Mississippi's proceeding. WIPE THAT SMIRK OFF YOUR FACE! Dr. Wigand's deposition will be part of this record. And I'm going to take my witness's testimony whether the hell you like it or not."
The following conversation between the lawyers did actually happen and it sums up the approach that Motley used in court:
Q. [By MR. MOTLEY to MR. WIGAND] Sir, at any time did you learn that Brown & Williamson was using a form of rat poison in pipe tobacco?Below is a link to the actual deposition of the Mississippi courtroom case.
MR. BEZANSON: Object to the form.
A. Yes.
MR. MOTLEY:
Q. What form of rat poison is that, sir?
MR. BEZANSON: Object to the form.
A. It is a compound called coumarin. It was contained in the pipe tobacco --
MR. BEZANSON: Object on trade secret grounds and instruct not to answer.
MR. MOTLEY: You are objecting that the man is revealing that you used rat poison as a trade secret?
You may answer, sir.
MR. BEZANSON: Object to the form.
MR. MOTLEY:
Q. Go ahead. If they used rat poison in pipe tobacco that human beings were taking in their bodies, I want to know about it. Will you tell me about it, sir?
http://www.tobacco.neu.edu/litigation/hotdocs/wigand_depo.htm
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Mann discusses the courtroom scene. Rose asked Mann how much of the scene was taken from actual court records. Mann said, "A lot. In the video tape of the actual deposition, Ron Motley does a very interesting thing, in the context of if you'd watched the two hours of deposition. Bezanson, who is the attorney for Brown & Williamson, constantly is interrupting, which is just Bezanson doing his job. But Motley decides at one point in time that he's just not going to have this anymore, and he turns his back to the tobacco lawyer and the camera, and says, "Sir, I'm going to take my witness' deposition, and you may listen, or you may not, and I care not." Wonderful phrase. In the context of two hours, it was devastating. In the context of a short scene, it became Ron Motley with a more overt declaration." Michael Mann also said that Bruce McGill, who had recently had surgery done before the scene was shot, actually ripped some stitches because of the ferocity of his performance.
Jeffrey Wigand was called to the set two times but the script of the movie was not changed in any way because of his say. Michael Mann was not allowed to consult with him because of Wigand's confidentiality agreement. He requested that the real names of his younger daughters portrayed in the film be changed, and that the health care situation of one of his daughters not be represented entirely. He also asked the producers to not portray smoking in any sort of glamorous way. All of his requests were granted. When Wigand was asked about his portrayal in the film he said,"As a film, I believe The Insider captured powerfully and accurately the tone and tenor of what I was experiencing on a daily basis during that time period." The more important question being asked while watching the movie is if the basis of the movie is more on Bergman and the ethics of journalism then with Wigand exploiting the big tobacco industry.
We feel the movie accurately portrays the stress Wigand must have felt at the time, but leaves out some of the more abrasive parts of his personality. He had been charged with spousal abuse, and he and his wife struggled with their relationship more than is indicated in the movie. We feel Michael Mann left these details out because they would have hurt his ability to frame Wigand as a "good guy."
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