Nuremberg movie true story: Cast explain how they portrayed story of Nazi "psychopaths" and "narcissists"

The story of the Nuremberg trials is something which anyone with any grounding in history will know at least something about. Held by the Allied powers following the defeat of Nazi Germany at the end of the Second World War, they saw a total of 24 Nazi leaders – notably including Hermann Göring – put on trial between 20th November 1945 and 1st October 1946.

The trials have already been the subject of numerous film and TV projects, including the classic 1961 drama Judgment at Nuremberg, starring Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster, and the 2000 TV docudrama Nuremberg, featuring Alex Baldwin and Brian Cox.

And now this momentous historical event forms the basis of another new feature, one that approaches the subject from an intriguing angle which writer/director James Vanderbilt believes will allow audiences to glean some fascinating new insights.

"It was something I thought I knew something about and then learned very quickly how little I knew about," Vanderbilt explained to RadioTimes.com during an exclusive interview. He revealed that he had read a proof of Jack El Hai's 2013 non-fiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist many years ago – before it had even been published – and instantly knew that the subject would make for a fascinating film.

The book is built around the experiences of American military psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who was assigned to ascertain the competency of each Nuremberg defendant before they stood trial. This led to him having a number of meetings with Göring and other Nazis, with Kelley believing at the time that he would be able to learn something new about the nature of evil – perhaps even something that was unique to the German character.

"It was a story I'd never heard and it was the fastest I said yes to anything in my life," Vanderbilt explained. "Because I thought this was such an interesting and emotional way – an intimate way – to tell what turns out to be an enormous story."

One of the stars of the film is Richard E Grant, who plays the prominent British lawyer David Maxwell Fyfe. Although his scenes are largely separate to the Kelley/Göring part of the film, it was that aspect of Vanderbilt's script that made the project such an enticing one for the Withnail and I star.

Previous Nuremberg films, he explained, have essentially been more like "12 Angry Men trial movies", and by taking this new approach it was possible to touch on something perhaps a little deeper.

"By going through the prism of this very intense relationship between Kelley trying to understand Göring in this cell for over a year, by going through something so personal, you then [end up] taking on the whole ideology of the Nazi Party and trying to understand how and why they did what they did," Grant explained.

"And I think as soon as something becomes personal, it avoids the thing of going, 'Oh, well, I would never do that'," he added. "Because you are faced with somebody like Göring, who, albeit a narcissist, was incredibly charming. All the research I'd done said that he was one of those people that if you had an ideal dinner party list, you'd have Hermann Göring at the dinner.

"But how? The man who was one down from Hitler and perpetrated the Holocaust... How could you possibly do that? But I think in understanding how psychopaths or narcissists operate amongst us... that is absolutely riveting."

For Vanderbilt, it was the compelling conversations between Göring and Kelley that made the film such a tantalising prospect.

"It's sort of this relationship between two men who are both trying to get something out of each other and trying to get over on each other," he explained. "Kelley has this incredible subject dropped into his lap, the highest ranking living Nazi, and he decides that he wants to dissect the nature of evil and may be able to write a book after and make his fortune.

"And Göring is looking for his last moment on the world stage to define his legacy. So they're both trying to get something out of each other. We talked a lot about Silence of the Lambs, this sort of a psychological duel between the two men and how their relationship progresses and almost reaches... I don't want to say friendship, because I don't think they were friends. But they definitely have an effect on each other that I think neither one of them anticipated."

The role of Göring in the film is played by Oscar winner Russell Crowe, and Vanderbilt admitted that trying to get under the skin of such a horrific figure clearly took its toll on the normally gregarious Australian.

"Russell's a very wonderful man, very social man, nothing better than going out for drinks with Russell Crowe," the director said. "But he sort of said, 'On this film, I'm probably not going to be able to be as social as I normally am, because I'm going to have to go to some really dark places in terms of this.'"

Part of what made the performance a difficult one to get right was the fact that rather than being portrayed as an out-and-out monster, the film goes to great lengths to understand what had made Göring seem so appealing to so many people in spite of his clearly monstrous crimes.

"Every person is the hero of their own story," Vanderbilt said, "And that's how we approached Göring – he believes he did the right thing, that he was an honourable military man who was just trying to do right by his country. And so that's how Russell attacked him and played him, and that's how we wanted to portray him – as somebody who's desperately trying to show the world that he did the right thing."

Opposite Göring, the role of Kelley was played by another Oscar winner – Rami Malek. The Mr Robot star had been fascinated by the story ever since reading El-Hai's aforementioned book, and had personally reached out to the filmmakers to try to land the role. Once he did so, he was able to get his hand on Kelley's own book – 22 Cells in Nuremberg – which basically became his Bible ahead of the shoot.

"It was almost a diary for me, looking at Douglas Kelley's work, which is difficult to get a hold of," he said. "That was actually a gift from James Vanderbilt, and I don't know where I'd be without it.

"I was fascinated by the character of Douglas Kelley, the thought that he could possibly dissect evil, the fact that he thought he could profit off of it, and I think the trauma that he ended up dealing with through the course of his life.

"In discovering that evil [could] exist under the right circumstance or regime in any place in any time in the world, it wasn't confined to a certain uniform or a certain place or a certain time. The banality of evil was what was fascinating for him, and something that I think he was challenged by through the course of his life – and the inability to actually be listened to was so jarring that it led him to a certain demise."

That demise – Kelley ended up dying by suicide in 1958 after ingesting a capsule of potassium cyanide, the same method used by Göring himself – is alluded to towards the end of the film. And Vanderbilt said that Kelley's life post-Nuremberg was one of the things that drew him to the film in the first place.

"We do sort of touch on that and talk about that – how this took a real toll on him," he said. "And the conclusions he came to and the relationship he had... I think this was the defining moment of his life and his career, and altered him in ways that he never could have predicted."

Nuremberg is now showing in UK cinemas.

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.