Before taking the lead role in a new HBO miniseries, Paul Giamatti knew what a lot of Americans do about the nation's first vice president and second president -- the one, unlike his revolutionary contemporaries George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who is absent from monuments on the Capitol Mall and from common U.S. coins and currency.
"I really knew next to nothing about him," said Giamatti, who remedied the situation by reading much of Adams' voluminous letters and journals. "Later, I found him to be more nakedly human than the other founding fathers. He had no self-editing device and no particular skill at creating a public persona like the other guys. He was unbuttoned, which made it a hell of a great part to play."
Based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "John Adams" premieres the first two of its seven installments tonight on HBO. The sweeping biopic spans a half-century of political tumult and chronicles Adams' influence over the nascent American republic. In unsentimental terms, the work clearly aims to push Adams -- wigless, with warts, personality flaws and all -- to the forefront of the hallowed group of the nation's founding fathers.
For centuries, historians have often looked past the physically stubby and often pugnacious Adams in favor of the marbleized grandeur of Washington or the glamorous erudition of Jefferson. As a result, a host of pivotal accomplishments from the Massachusetts farmer of humble origins have been nearly forgotten -- among them, his leadership in the Second Continental Congress that produced the Declaration of Independence and his authorship of a state document that served as a blueprint for the national constitution.
But the miniseries is no less personal than political. Its emotional spine is Adams' 54-year marriage to Abigail, portrayed by Laura Linney, every bit his intellectual equal and whose innate calm and political savvy enriched his path to high office. The couple exchanged more than 1,100 letters, the spirit of which animates the miniseries and reveals a mutually held passion that survived the stresses of Colonial life, long separations and the death of a child.
"The Abigail material could really stand on its own, but we wanted to make them both part of the same thing," said Tom Hanks, who along with Gary Goetzman executive produced the miniseries. The two also took on similar roles for HBO's successful World War II miniseries "Band of Brothers." "They are a great love story, and this may be the first time in the history of American television the first lady and the president get it on."
