Colin Kaepernick refusal to stand for national anthem made timely in ‘The Congressman’ film

The new comedy “The Congressman” features the ultimate gotcha moment. Rep. Charlie Winship (Treat Williams), after being caught on camera failing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, is interrogated by a journalist as to why he sat down. Winship then offers a history lesson, explaining that the initial way to pay homage to the flag — the so-called “Bellamy salute” — was the same hand gesture later appropriated by the Nazis. He’s caught on camera making the notorious gesture, which goes viral. Winship’s day, and his Washington career, become suddenly more complicated.

“If you go to Google and [search] ’Bellamy salute,’ there are pictures all over the place of American schoolchildren giving the Nazi salute,” Mr. Williams told The Washington Times of the historical way American schoolchildren used to salute the flag in the morning before the far more palatable hand-over-the-heart gesture replaced it after World War II. “I must say, we did a very good job of burying that piece of history.”

As true as it may be, no politician — fictional or otherwise — wants to be seen making the hand gesture. So to get away from the Twittersphere, in the film, Winship makes a beeline back to his Maine home, where he meets a spirited woman named Rae Blanchard (Elizabeth Marvel), and a midlife romance blooms for the recently divorced congressman.

It’s a timely subject matter, particularly given San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which touches on issues of free speech and individual freedom. Mr. Williams points out that Jackie Robinson also refused to stand for the flag when he was pilloried by white baseball players and fans alike for being the first black player to play in the major leagues.

“The freedom to either stand up and salute the flag or to not stand up and salute the flag … I found to be an interesting theme that runs through the whole film,” Mr. Williams said of the political comedy.

“It’s a double-edged sword of what our freedoms are,” he said. “Our freedoms of speech, freedom to demonstrate, or not to demonstrate, are really being tested,” Mr. Williams said of the often politically correct culture of the present.

However, honoring free speech, he said, means respecting odious use, such as those who protest at soldiers’ funerals.

“With one side of the sword, you have the other side,” he said, “Sometimes it’s really hard to watch that, and I find that the film, in a way, speaks to that.”

Mr. Williams, 65, has over 100 films and shows to his resume, including the recent HBO film “Confirmation,” in which he portrayed late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. He once dined with Chris Dodd, the former Democratic senator from Mr. Williams’ home state of Connecticut.

Despite being a descendent of Robert Treat Paine, one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Williams claims he is not especially political. However, he believes that the notion of what a politician is — or should be — has changed since the days of his ancestor.

“I think the whole premise of serving your country used to be that you would put on hold whatever you did, and you did it as a service more than an occupation,” he said. “It wasn’t a way to make money.

“You think of the Framers like John Adams. … They all had other occupations that they left for a period of time, and then they went back to their farms or their businesses. It’s no longer that.”

One of Mr. Williams’ co-stars in “The Congressman” is a titan of the industry. George Hamilton, now 77 but still with that same winning smile, silky baritone and famous tan, plays Laird Devereaux, whom the thespian describes as “the most corrupt politician I could possibly think of.”

“I went in to play [Devereaux] with a certain kind of charm,” Mr. Hamilton told The Times from his home in California, laughing amiably.

Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Williams previously worked together on the 2002 Woody Allen film “Hollywood Ending.”

“Treat and I have remained sort of like war buddies,” Mr. Hamilton said of reuniting with his former co-star. “So when you hear Treat’s doing a movie [you] hope the script is good,” he said with a hearty laugh. “And then you find out the script is good.

“He’s a good guy,” Mr. Hamilton said of Mr. Williams. “You just know that you work good together.”

Like Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Williams is now in the senior generation demographic. Hollywood isn’t precisely a town known for embracing those who have been on the planet longer, but Mr. Williams, while acknowledging the industry’s ageism, maintains there is plenty of work for actors of a certain age.

“I’m looking for those parts that are more fun and more complex now that I’m in my 60s,” he said. “Unfortunately, the best roles for guys over 60 on television, they’re all on ’Game of Thrones,’ they’re not [grandparents] sitting on the couch, ” he said of the hit HBO fantasy series.

Mr. Williams said that as it becomes ever more competitive as actors get older to get parts, he advises a twofold approach for the aging actor: Write your own part, and be less provincial about where you perform.

“If the roles have dried up, then write yourself something,” he said.

At the same time, he said the swallowing of one’s pride can keep an acting working.

“There’s work out there if you’re willing to not be concerned whether it’s a small summer theater in Vermont or it’s a Hollywood studio,” Mr. Williams said.

“The thing about acting is if you don’t care where you do it, it can always be fulfilling. I don’t care if I do it for 250 people or 2.5 million people. But the nice thing about doing it for 250 people is that [the audience is] there with you when you’re doing it … as opposed to the 2.5 million that I heard watched our show [’Chesapeake Shores’ on Hallmark Channel] last week. I enjoyed making it, but there was no audience there.”

When not acting for the camera or in a theater, Mr. Williams has a passion for flying. He recently flew himself to a staged reading in the Hamptons and then back to New York. Mr. Hamilton said he hopes to soon fly with his “Congressman” co-star.

“In acting you can think you did an extraordinarily good job, and a reviewer writes that it was worthless and terrible. But when you fly an airplane from Point A to Point B, you either do it well or you don’t,” Mr. Williams said.

With “The Congressman” now in the can, and more acting on stage and screen before him, might the longtime actor be interested in running for office at some point?

“I certainly wouldn’t want to be in politics,” the actor said with a laugh.

“The Congressman” is now available on DVD and for digital download at Amazon.com.