Diksha Sundriyal
Based on the life of Ron Woodroof, ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ features Matthew McConaughey as the eponymous character, who is told by the doctors that he will die in a month. He has contracted the HIV virus, and the AIDS has affected his body so much that his chances of survival have diminished exponentially. Refusing to give up on himself, Ron finds different ways to get the treatment that will keep him alive, which pits him against the FDA. Ron repeatedly finds himself up against Richard Barkley. While their interactions represent a real part of the protagonist’s story, the character of the FDA agent is not exactly real. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fictional FDA Agent Represents Ron Woodroof’s Conflict with the FDA
‘Dallas Buyers Club’ brings the experiences of Ron Woodroof to the screen, but in doing so, it mixes reality with fiction to deliver a heart-rending story of a man’s will to live, and Richard Barkley is one of those fictional additions. As shown in the film, when Ron travels outside the country to get access to the drugs that haven’t been approved by the FDA and hence are not sold in American pharmacies or given in hospitals, he attracts the ire of the FDA. Richard Barkley becomes his nemesis, as the officer repeatedly confiscates the drugs Ron has smuggled through the border and shuts down his buyers’ club several times.
This part of the story is based on the real raids and seizures that the FDA regularly executed on buyers’ clubs to find out if any unapproved drugs were being sold in the market. Ron Woodroof’s Dallas Buyers Club was repeatedly raided, and he was threatened with legal action several times. Eventually, Ron got so fed up with the raids that he sued the agency, which is also featured in the movie. His main focus was on the sale of Peptide D, which he claimed helped him with dementia caused by AIDS.
While the judge expressed sympathy for his condition, he also had to rule against him because, according to the law, Ron couldn’t sell anything that did not meet the FDA’s regulations. Ultimately, he was allowed to get Peptide D for his personal use, but he wasn’t allowed to sell it. All of this is depicted in the movie, but we see it unfold through the fictional FDA agent who represents the entire agency and acts as the primary antagonist in Ron’s story.
Michael O’Neill Found a Personal Connection with the Story
When Michael O’Neill came across the script of ‘Dallas Buyers Club,’ he felt a close connection to the subject matter and firmly believed that he needed to be a part of the project because it was an important story to be told. The actor revealed that during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the early 80s, he used to live in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York and would pass St. Vincent’s Hospital while going back and forth from work. He remembered the panic that gripped the city at the time. He highlighted all the confusion around the origins of the disease, particularly the modes of its spreading that worried everyone, including him. He said that he would control his breath while passing through the hospital because he worried that the virus might be airborne.
Having seen the way the epidemic affected and destroyed people’s lives, O’Neill believed that stories like Ron Woodroof’s needed to be told because it was essential to remember that period in history. When asked if he would be okay to play the antagonist, he agreed, but he also wanted to keep the character’s humanity intact rather than portraying him as a full-blown villain. To have empathy with his character, O’Neill saw Richard Barkley as someone who was trying to do his job rather than actively sabotaging Ron and his operation. It is the system that has bound him to do the things that feel morally bad. At the end of the day, he is trying to work by the rules, and O’Neill brings the nuance to his performance that allows the audience to see things from Barkley’s point of view, even though he remains largely unlikable.
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