By Christina Radish

Throughout modern history, brilliant inventors without the resources to protect their patents have been shoved aside. Based on the true story of university professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns’ (Greg Kinnear) decades-long battle with the U.S. automobile industry, the Universal Pictures film Flash of Genius tells the tale of one man whose fight to receive recognition for his ingenuity would come at a heavy price. A determined engineer who refused to be silenced, Kearns took on the corporate titans in a battle that nobody thought he could win.

The Kearns were a typical 1960s Detroit family: local college professor Bob married schoolteacher Phyllis (Lauren Graham) and, by their mid-thirties, had six kids. When he invents the intermittent windshield wiper -- a device that would eventually be used by ever car in the world -- he is not only proud and thrilled, but he also thinks he has struck gold for his family. But, their aspirations to take the revolutionary product to market are dashed after automotive giants, the Ford Motor Company, take his creation and all the credit for it. Ignored, threatened and then buried in years of litigation, Kearns becomes a man obsessed with obtaining the credit he deserves.

Academy Award nominee Greg Kinnear spoke with MediaBlvd Magazine about bringing the story of Bob Kearns to the big screen.

MediaBlvd Magazine> As somebody who took a chance on long odds to tackle your dream, how much did you relate to this guy, and how much did you look at him and think, “Take the check!”?

Greg Kinnear> I have kids, so the part of him as a father who ended up setting his children aside to make something right was troubling to watch. That was troubling to read, when I first read the script, and is still a difficult aspect of the story to swallow. But, how do you ever put yourself in this guy’s shoes? It was an idea that was manifested out of a personal handicap. Obviously, this was something deeply personally to him, and the way that he had been marginalized in all of this created this behavior in him. I wouldn’t call it obsessive, but it was obviously something that he couldn’t let go of. It’s akin to saying, “I have a drinking problem,” and having someone say, “You know what you really need to do? Stop drinking! If you don’t drink anymore you’ll be fine.” His family, and certainly the Ford Motor Company, and a lot of people around him, were unsettled by the idea that he just couldn’t work his way through this. They offered him money. We live in a world where there are game shows about taking the money now, so I think people really feel like there is a way out of this, and they don’t understand why he’s not taking it. What I was intrigued with all along, with the story, was that ability to do that. The idea that it’s ultimately grounded in real principal, not money, was what I thought was pretty incredible. He’s not a perfect character. He’s not a guy who doesn’t have his own shortcomings. He’s a grump, and he’s prickly and self-destructive, but in spite of all of those qualities, I really felt myself championing his journey. I wanted him to find some satisfaction, in all of this.           

MediaBlvd> Do you know what happened to the settlement that he did get?

Greg> Most of it went to lawyers, other law firms and assistants who helped him. He had some money, and the family got some money, but it’s not like ended up with this windfall of money and ran off. I don’t think it was ever over with him. He still felt that he had been grossly underpaid, and what they had done to settle wasn’t a settlement at all. He was involved in other cases as well.

MediaBlvd> The original thing he wanted was for them to take out an ad, but he never got that, right?

Greg> He never did. He never got the thing that he wanted most. And, I didn’t really fault him on that. I feel like, if this was a guy who needed his ego stroked, or who needed to be on the front cover of Readers Digest or Inventor Magazine, I would have felt less strongly about the character. I don’t think that’s what he was looking for. There is no indication of that. He really needed just the smallest identification of this idea having been his. That’s really what he was chasing. And, they wouldn’t give that to him. I still don’t understand why not.

MediaBlvd> Did you ever get to meet him, or had he already passed away before you became involved with this project?

Greg> He died the year I got involved with the project. I really would have liked to have met him, but did not. I did meet his family. His parents were very helpful. His wife, Phyllis, came to the set. And, his oldest son, Dennis, was quite helpful. I talked to him quite a bit before we stated the movie. The other kids came by too, and that was all very interesting. (Director) Mark Abraham shared the movie with them, and it was very emotional. It was a cathartic process for them to say, “A-ha! Here is the story of our Dad.”

MediaBlvd> Having done both this film and Fast Food Nation, which is the more formidable adversary, the fast food industry or the automotive industry?

Greg> The fast food industry certainly isn’t the tobacco industry, but in terms of the dietary needs of what we know will make our country healthier and what they are serving does seem a little bit at odds. The automotive corporations, including Ford, are in the business of making cars that people will drive. The fault with automobiles right now is that we aren’t getting as many miles for every gallon of gasoline in the year 2008, that we all hoped we would be, at this point. But, in terms of the way Ford is portrayed in this movie, I liked the representation of them. I didn’t think these were guys in black hats, twisting their mustaches, nor did I feel that way about Alan Alda’s character, who was basically explains to Bob how justice works, in a very articulate way. Ford felt that maybe something had been done wrong here and, like any corporation does today, they thought that paying money could remove this from their plate. And, they came across the worst possible kind of adversary. This was a guy who isn’t driven by money, but was driven by principal. I’m not sure this kind of story could even exist in 2008, right now. If a friend told you that they were going to go fight Google, you’d give them a bottle of Prozac and put them to bed, especially if they were going to try to go represent themselves. In a way, it’s a nostalgic story. The Bob Kearns story is the last chapter of an individual being able to take on a corporation. Today, it would be a class-action suit. It would all be about money and settlements. But, having a guy like this, with the audacity to do what he did, at great cost, I’m not sure could ever happen again.

MediaBlvd> Did he and his ex-wife have any sort of relationship after they split?

Greg> I think they were cordial. My sense was that she was still in love with him. She described him as a larger than life kind of guy. She told me that, after he had cracked the invention and had success with it, he came right into the house and said, “I’m gonna buy you a Cadillac for each foot!” He was so excited, and everyone in the family got caught up in the wake of that enthusiasm of his. At the same time, as is the case with somebody with that kind of manic behavior, the lows were pretty bad. She was in a difficult position, and I felt Lauren was really great in the movie because that was a tricky role. She’s the one who leaves him, but you need to understand why, and what her limited options were. It’s a fine line, and I thought Lauren did a nice job.                          

MediaBlvd> What kind of car do you drive now, and what was the first car you ever had?

Greg> I drive a Mercedes Benz 430. I am not a big car guy. The first car I ever had was a Volkswagen station wagon, and I crashed it, unfortunately. I didn’t have it until I was in college. When I lived in Greece, my parents didn’t think it was a good idea for me to be driving around.  I ran an unclear colored light and smashed into an oncoming vehicle, so that was the end of the Volkswagen.

MediaBlvd> Were you hurt?

Greg> No, I was okay. I wasn’t actually hurt, no.

MediaBlvd> Do you consider yourself a movie star?

Greg> No, I don’t. I never know what that term means. I don’t consider a lot of actors that I really admire movie stars. To me, movie star sounds like some guy who takes champagne baths and wears a boa, and has a pet monkey that he carries around the house. So, in that respect I am a movie star. I do work in feature-length motion pictures, and I like that.