Focus : Regarding Henry : RON SILVER’S PERSPECTIVE ON HIS HISTORICAL ROLE IN ‘KISSINGER AND NIXON’

As an actor, Ron Silver found it liberating to play Henry Kissinger in “Kissinger and Nixon,” TNT’s latest original movie premiering Sunday on the cable network.

Thanks to a fantastic makeup job and wardrobe, some judicious padding and a perfect accent, the Tony Award-winning actor (“Speed the Plow”) bares an uncanny resemblance to the influential national security adviser and secretary of state under President Richard Nixon.

“I leaned heavily on wardrobe and makeup,” says Silver, between bites of his bagel in his Four Seasons Hotel suite. He found it helpful to transform himself totally into Kissinger, “because quite often in my own acting--I would say in American acting in general--you wind up taking a character and it conforms to your own personality.

“Having a mask like this gets you into a different type of acting. It’s almost classical in terms of Greek [theater]. Once you put on the mask, it’s amazing the amount of subtlety and exploration you can do because you have the mask.”

By wearing the Kissinger “mask,” Silver was able to go outside himself “in the best sense of the word” and reach out for the character. “What it did for me was force me to do something that I should always do, and that’s to lean heavily on your imagination. Not only your imagination, but lean heavily on taking chances and being much larger, bigger and going for it. Really going for it and not being afraid. Having the mask can give you some courage to try to do something like that without the fear of failure constantly in your face. For some reason, it is a very distancing experience.”

Based on Walter Isaacson’s bestseller “Kissinger: A Biography,” the movie also stars Beau Bridges as Nixon, Matt Frewer as Alexander Haig, Ron White as H.R. Haldeman and George Takei as Le Duc Tho. Dan Petrie Sr. directed from Lionel Chetwynd’s script.

(Ten days after “Kissinger and Nixon” airs, Oliver Stone’s highly anticipated feature film “Nixon,” with Anthony Hopkins in the title role, opens in theaters. Two years ago, TNT was first out of the starting gate with its acclaimed “Geronimo” project. A few weeks later, Columbia’s “Geronimo” opened to mixed reviews and poor box office.)

“Kissinger and Nixon” focuses on a critical moment in history--August, 1972, to January, 1973--when Kissinger was determined to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The President, however, wanted to make sure that Vietnam would not be used to win the White House.

Silver, who has a master’s degree in Chinese from St. John’s University and the College of Chinese Culture in Taiwan, has been involved in political causes for years--ranging from environmental to anti-nuclear issues. As a student, he was interested in working in government intelligence.

But Silver didn’t take on “Kissinger” simply because he is a political animal. “I am interested in good roles regardless of what they are,” he says. But, he adds, “This was one of those rare occurrences when the marriage is between your avocation and what you spend your time doing. It was a a real gift for me because I was familiar with his work over the past 25 years. [Government service] is what I intended to do.”

Silver just happens to know Kissinger socially. “I was honestly a fan of the thinking and the work,” he says. “We have some disagreements, perhaps when he was in the Administration, certain decisions that were made. I like to do the research, and I was doing a lot of research in areas I read for pleasure. We are both members of the Council of Foreign Relations. We have done a lot of work there over the years, so I had access to lots and lots of information.”

He also had access to Kissinger. Though Kissinger did not participate in the making of the film, he did see the script after having lunch with Silver before production began. “I had lunch with him, just as I spent a lot of time with [defense attorney] Alan Dershowitz for ‘Reversal of Fortune,’ ” says Silver, who didn’t inform the producers of the lunch until after it happened.

“I felt an obligation if the person were alive to at least try, on an actor’s level, to get the mimicry down and go beyond that to try to understand the essence of their point of view. I went to the lunch only as an actor.”

Silver told Kissinger at the lunch that he didn’t represent the writers or the producers. “It is not my script,” he says.

The actor acknowledges, though, that Kissinger voiced “certain concerns” about the script. (Kissinger actually sent the filmmakers a 42-page list of objections.)

“I think he’s very concerned about accuracy and his own place in history,” Silver says. “I think he’s smart enough to know that people who are interested in Kissinger and Vietnam and diplomacy will go out and make the effort to do the work. But most people get their information from popular culture. ... So a combination of his own sense of responsibility historically, his own vanity perhaps--whatever--he voiced certain concerns about it.

“As far as his certain concerns,” Silver adds with a smile, “I think he would have liked to have appeared as Kissinger and directed the movie, as well as distributed it.”

“Kissinger and Nixon” airs Sunday at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. on TNT; it repeats Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 1 p.m.; Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. and Dec. 23 at 5 p.m.