film?
The film, written by Robert Kaplow, stars Ethan Hawke as Hart,Andrew Scott as Rodgers, and Margaret Qualley as Elizabeth Weiland, a Yale student with with whom Hart is infatuated. Hawke, a collaborator with Linklater on the Before trilogy and Boyhood, says he first read the Blue Moon script more than 10 years ago. “Rick (Linklater) sent me the script I would say around 10 or 12 years ago and I cackled with laughter. I called him and said,‘let’s make this movie,’” recalls the 55-year-old actor. “He told me I wasn’t old enough and that we had to wait. So, every two or three years, we’d get together and read it aloud.As the years ticked by, the script kept getting better until finally it was time to make it.” Reflecting on his character, Hawke says:“Larry Hart would be so happy that his music and his words and his poetry are still alive.They have cheated death. “And I think his perverse sense of humour – we get a huge kick out of this night of all nights of his life would be the one people would choose to dramatise – debatably, the worst night of his life, but perhaps the most poignant.” For the role, Hawke undergoes a physical transformation, sporting a combover and being digitally reduced in height to reflect Hart’s five-foot stature.
“I’m glad we had that decade to really think about it and kind of get the right tone. By the time you’re finally making it, you feel like you’ve answered those questions.And then it was like, how to pull it off? Technically? Ethan had to really transform. It was the height thing – a lot, a lot of technical challenges.
“It was fun to see Ethan actually looking [up] at the world.”
Hawke adds:“It’s also a movie that’s ultimately about naturalism.
“That’s a huge challenge, there are other movies that would have been easier to make.We didn’t want it to be a stunt. “We wanted it to be about Larry, and it’s important how he viewed the world and how he thought other people viewed him. “We wanted the film to feel intimate, so you really get to know these people.What if you could be at the opening- night party of Oklahoma! in 1943, walk into Sardi’s and meet them? “That, for me, was the great blessing that would have been impossible without it: Richard gave me this unbelievable supporting cast. Each of them could carry their own movie, and yet they were there serving Larry and it was they who made the lift so much lighter.”
“It was a lot to take on,” reflects Hawke.
Linklater reflects on the poignancy of culture leaving artists behind.
“The script was so good and the value of having a long lasting artistic collaboration is you are free to take chances and make a risk that you might not make otherwise because somebody’s daring you, and you feel safe that you know you trust the collaboration completely, so you can take a bigger swing.
“I know artists think we’re just going to go forever, but you never know in life,” he says.
“Your tastes can change. In this movie, it’s not only the artistic break-up between him and Rodgers, but also the times are changing. His kind of show tunes and musicals are becoming passé. It’s a new era. “So the times are leaving him behind as well. It’s kind of poignant, you realise there’s an expiration date on your art. You think about yourself but, fortunately, great art does survive.”
“And that’s the great value of this kind of collaboration.”
Linklater, 65, who had held the script for more than a decade, appreciated having the time to refine both the tone and technical aspects of the film.
“There was something so beautiful and sad about the story,” says the Texas-born filmmaker.
Hawke adds:“Poor Larry has so much to be proud of and instead he’s heartbroken.
“We do real character-based things, and what a character, what an opportunity to show the range of the human experience.And it said so much about artistic relationships and life.”
“The party ending is always hard. He has 25 years of writing significant, amazing poetry and being heralded for it, he just doesn’t want it to stop.”
He adds:“It was just kind of a brilliant piece of writing and such a great character. So it’s like, how does it work as a
Blue Moon is in Irish cinemas now and out in the UK on Friday, November 28.
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