SINGAPORE — It’s been getting a lot of Oscar buzz, and the cast behind Argo — a real life drama that retells a long-classified story about the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 — have been doing a bit of crackling of their own, too. But what do monkeys have to do with true blue CIA agents? We let director-actor Ben Affleck and his wonderful cast of Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Alan Arkin clue us in.

In the film, John Goodman’s character makes a funny comment about directors. About how anybody — even a monkey — could do it in Hollywood. So what do you think about Ben Affleck’s directorial skills?

Ben Affleck: How do I compare with a chimp, in other words? (Laughs)

John Goodman: He was much better than a Rhesus monkey.

Bryan Cranston: And then Ben takes off his little hat and we put little coins in it, and it’s cute. No, I think it’s true that a large part of directing is a conceptual approach to acting and directing prior to any of the film being run. The hardest work that we have ever had to do is on poorly-written material. So when we find something that’s this good, it’s a scramble to be a part of it.

On the set, there are a couple of discussions. But, quite frankly, there wasn’t really any extensive directing being done for most of the actors, I think. And it’s appreciative. He sets a tone on the set that is relaxed and comfortable.

Alan Arkin: He’s as meticulous as any director I’ve ever worked with, and — hold your ears, Ben — he’s a darling. No, it was clear to me from seeing his first two films, which I had seen, that I was working with someone who is not a tyro. The first film looked like he had done 15 movies already.

Ben, you played a real person in Tony Mendez. Tell us about meeting him.

Affleck: He wanted to meet me at this old, famous CIA bar in Georgetown. And he was telling me that it was where Aldrich Ames passed names of the American agents in Russia to his Russian handlers. And when he told me that, it sort of sunk in all of a sudden that this was real. This was a real story about a real guy who worked in a real world where real lives were at stake.

It wasn’t just sliding down the roof and kicking in the window and shooting three guys, and the kind of thing that we, in Hollywood, tend to think of as the CIA. It was a real thing. It’s out there with these folks making these sacrifices for us every day. So, it was really inspiring to meet Tony, and that he participated and helped us, and he has a cameo in the movie. It’s pretty cool.

Considering the events going on in the Middle East today involving embassies, was there any concern involving the material of the film?

Affleck: It was always important to us that the movie not be politicised. We went to great pains to try to make it very factual, fact-based, both on the sort of knowing that it was coming out before an election in the United States, when a lot of things get politicised. And also, at the time, we obviously couldn’t forecast how terrible things would become now, but even when we made the movie, we saw some resonance to the Arab Spring, to the countries that were in tumult.

So, naturally, we just wanted to be judicious and careful about presenting the facts. And also stand kind of firmly behind that and saying, “This is an examination of this part of the world.”

Cranston: There’s this message this film sends, the idea and the concept that great things can happen through cooperation. Good things. Not just with human beings just trying to save other people’s lives, regardless of their nationality, but also look at what can happen with two countries working together. And, hopefully, if that’s a subliminal message that filters through our Congress here in the United States, I think it would be a good thing to lessen the divisiveness.

Transcript courtesy of Warner Bros. Argo is showing in cinemas now.