Mark Kassen, the actor and co-writer of the political thriller PH-1, says his film is a stark warning for lawmakers who are addicted to their own online images. In the movie, Kassen plays Senator Payton Burnham, an independent legislator on the verge of passing a water bill but consumed by his digital reflection.
“He loves his own image. You see him obsessed with watching himself and the likes that he’s getting on whatever the social platforms are,” Kassen said. “He goes into his office, he turns on the TV and goes through the channels until he finds himself on one of them. He’s just on top of the world.”
That world collapses when the senator is trapped in his luxury penthouse by an unseen antagonist, forced to watch his online reputation unravel in real time. The film, which runs through next month in Washington before releasing on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video on May 8, explores how the media that once adored him turns into a weapon.
“Now, the media that he’s obsessed with in the world that he thinks he controls, begins to control him,” Kassen said. “The media that is adoring him very quickly begins to enjoy the vitriol in taking him down. And he’s both physically trapped within the building that he’s in, and he’s also then trapped within the media that he’s now believed that was like this warm blanket that’s now more of a nail-covered casket.”
Kassen, who co-founded the bipartisan civic platform a Starting Point with Chris Evans, drew on his experience working with members of Congress. The film, he said, is “based on my observations of working with elected officials and the media — and the dance between them. It’s my kind of hyperbolic thrill ride fictitious version.”
He noted the timing of the film’s release, which coincided with the resignations of former Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) earlier this month following sexual misconduct allegations. “It’s not lost on me that it opened the weekend that one, if not two, very popular representatives who were very big into their own social media and the character of themselves were very quickly taken down by the spreading of and the unpeeling of onions on social media,” Kassen said.
The actor observed a troubling pattern among lawmakers he interviewed for a Starting Point. When first elected, they were motivated by personal stories of community need. But after reelection, their focus shifted to self-preservation. “The message got thinner as they started to pay more and more attention to what worked to stay elected,” Kassen said. “You watch this kind of well-meaning death by 1,000 paper cuts happen, and that is part of what I wanted to comment on within the movie.”
While Kassen insists the film is “not an indictment” of Congress, he admitted that “watching that dance really affected me.” He consulted a few unnamed lawmakers for a “gut check” but kept his sources confidential. The character of Payton Burnham, he said, is “a wonderful cornucopia of teeny pieces of behaviors taken into one fictitious person.”
Ultimately, Kassen wants audiences to be entertained — but also to reflect. “And then, if I’m fortunate enough to create something that they think about an hour later over dinner the next day, then I’ll feel pretty good about all we’ve done.” For politicians watching, the message is more direct: “One, be careful what you wish for. And two, keep yourself in check.”
This cautionary tale resonates amid broader debates about media narcissism and political accountability, as seen in recent controversies like the WHCA dinner attack and calls to break up media giants. Kassen’s film adds a fictional lens to a very real problem.
