THE ATLANTIC -- Bening was a student at San Francisco State University when Feinstein became mayor after the assassinations of the supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone in 1978, and the two have crossed paths over the years. But Bening said she did not seek out the senator in preparing for the role, because she wanted the substance of the report to be in the forefront.
“I did listen to her voice a lot,” Bening explained. “I very much wanted to get that inside of me. I didn’t want to do an impression, but I wanted to give enough of a suggestion that one could believe that that was her and then basically disappear as much as possible.” Feinstein, she added, is “a woman who has a certain politesse and properness about her, and yet she’s a competitor and she’s very much committed to the work she does.”