Julianne Moore explains why she agreed to play Sarah Palin in the HBO movie "Game Change."

These remarks are from a Hollywood Reporter roundtable with  Reese Witherspoon, Patricia Arquette, Amy Adams, Hilary Swank, Laura Dern and Felicity Jones. Among who. by the way, are some of my favorite actors.

During the conversation the host asks Moore why she said "yes to Sarah Palin."

Moore responds with, "It was a great story, it was a great story. And I think.."

Witherspoon: "You were amazing."

Moore: "But by yourself, just with the character I wouldn't have known..what's the story, what's the story? I mean she was charismatic, very interesting, new political figure, that we did not know much about. And Jay Roach, who Laura and I both worked with, and Danny Strong kind of...you know...they managed to create, well you know it was a true, it was a true story, but they managed to encapsulate this narrative and tell the story of her rise and fall in the Republican party. Or actually not fall, she exited, is really what she did."

On playing her Moore says, "Everybody knew her voice, everybody knew her mannerisms, and she wouldn't go away. You know she was very, very present."

Boy ain't that the truth?

And yes it was a true story.

Whenever anybody asks me if Julianne Moore exaggerated Sarah Palin for dramatic effect, I always respond with an emphatic "NO." Because in fact much of what is portrayed in Game Change were things that we had heard about her from friends and family members, but this was the first time that the public at large was getting to see the lunacy for themselves.

I think Julianne Moore did a brilliant job, which of course is why won an Emmy.

Nicolle Wallace on when she realized, that Sarah Palin realized, that she was over her head during the 2008 campaign.

Here are some quotes courtesy of TPM:  

"There was a moment shortly after I met her where I realized that she realized that she was in over her head," Wallace said. "Just watching her sort of shrink under the enormity and the scrutiny and the hot bright light of our national political process." 

"We should be happy when anyone wants to go into politics," the former GOP strategist continued. "We are really hard on our politicians and we should be happy when people want to jump in and do that." 

Williams asked whether Palin was a "crier." 

"No, I've seen George Bush more, cry more often than I've ever seen - no, no, she wasn't a crier," Wallace said. 

Williams then delved into Wallace's strained relationship with Palin. 

“I think she was really disappointed with the way she was being handled by the entire staff and I think I was a fair scapegoat,” Wallace said. “I was one of a very small circle of people helping her. And the decisions in hindsight weren’t good ones for her. I mean she didn’t look good. So it was fair to be mad at a staff person, that’s your job." 

"But there's nothing you can do as a staffer when you sort of lose the confidence of the principal and that's what happened through the course of the Couric interviews," Wallace continued.

That quote about not crying totally matches up with what I have been told about Palin.

Her go to emotion is anger, not sadness.

And Wallace is very magnanimous to suggest that it was fair for Palin to scapegoat her for Palin's own failings. That is another go to tactic of Palin's, to blame other people for her inadequacies.

I think this might be an opportunity to revisit exactly WHY Palin was so devastated by the loss in 2008.

I have heard from a number of people that she literally did not believe for a minute that she and John McCain were not going to emerge victorious. Therefore everything that was happening in Alaska, and the questions about Trig's parentage, and any scandals that might attach themselves to her or her family were going to be wiped away by the shear excitement resulting from the election of the first woman to the vice presidency.

One my new sources told me that Sarah "Does not think ahead. She simply does things and expects the details to work themselves out."

So with that in mind perhaps it is understandable WHY Palin was so upset that she was not being treated with great respect, and instead was being forced to answer the kinds of questions that as Governor she had always delegated to her subordinates to answer, and then being ridiculed for her ignorance.

Make no mistake, coming back to Alaska was a sign of failure. And she simply could not stand failing so publicly.

That is why scenes like the ones portrayed in Game Change happened. And why her appearance and mental health have continued to decline in the years since.

Essentially this brawl in Anchorage is just one more example of the public getting an up close and personal look at her failure. This time as a parent.

No wonder they are trying to hard so spin this in such a way as to make them appear to be the innocent victims.