Fair Game director Doug Liman, who arrived in Cannes last night, did an American Pavillion q & a about two hours ago with USA Today‘s Anthony Breznican. In the clip below he talks about his reasons for casting Naomi Watts as outed CIA spy Valerie Plame, above and beyond physical resemblance.

Factual and emotional truths were the things he adhered to above all, he said. He decided firmly against using any Oliver Stone-like speculation or invention. And he didn’t try to emulate the tone or pacing or mood of any previous Washington, D.C.-based fact thriller (i.e., All The President’s Men) as he began filming, he said, although he acknowledged that stylistic influences have a way of seeping in regardless.

He mentioned to me before the interview began that a hush-hush earlybird screening of Fair Game (i.e., an opportunity to let numerous journalists who will have flown the coop by the time of Thursday morning’s press screening to see it) was out due to festival rules about competition films.