Production note The role of Michael Clayton was originally offered to Denzel Washington.
Production note Katherine Waterston appears in the Milwaukee hotel-room scenes in her first feature film.
Production note Brian Koppelman is the poker-table heckler in the opening sequence.
Production note Both George Clooney and Michael O'Keefe played Laurie Metcalf's boyfriend on Roseanne.
Production note Sidney Pollack died shortly after the film’s release, making the role feel elegiac.
Production note The film was nominated for several Oscars, but Tilda Swinton was the only winner.
The Parallax View Cited as one of the 1970s films informing Gilroy's aesthetic and ambiguity.
All the President's Men Used as an example of 70s political-thriller muscle and ambiguity.
Klute Named as a big influence on Michael Clayton.
Point Blank Another cited influence in Gilroy’s 70s lineage.
Rogue One Mentioned as a later film Gilroy was brought in to help rewrite and shoot interior material for.
Armageddon Cited as part of Gilroy’s blockbuster screenwriting background.
The Bourne Legacy Mentioned as a later Gilroy-directed Bourne film.
Ocean's 13 Used to situate Clooney’s career stage before Michael Clayton.
Syriana Used as a comparison point for a dense political-Clooney movie that Lindsay avoided because it felt too adjacent.
Erin Brockovich Used as shorthand for a more conventional legal/corporate-crime movie than Michael Clayton.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Mentioned when Lindsay compares a deer/horse-like symbolic moment to Michael Clayton’s horses.
The Rainmaker Used as an example of how the film was marketed as a straightforward legal thriller.
A Time to Kill Another shorthand for the kind of courtroom thriller the marketing seemed to promise.
Malcolm X Used to contrast Denzel Washington’s charisma-heavy roles with Michael Clayton.
Inside Man Mentioned as another strong Denzel role from around the same period.
