Chat: Linklater, Hawke, Cannavale and Scott on Blue Moon and the Heartbreak of Lorenz Hart

By Kim Hughes

Even amid the prevailing razzle-dazzle of last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, it was a genuinely marquee press conference: director Richard Linklater and actors Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott seated before select international press to discuss Blue Moon, Linklater’s valentine to late lyricist Lorenz Hart of acclaimed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart.

Hawke as Hart in Blue Moon.

For an hour, this esteemed quartet fielded questions about the film, acting, music, the impact of streaming on cinema, stage versus screen, flops versus successes and myriad other subjects, revealing Scott as thoughtful, Cannavale as uproarious, Hawke as philosophical and Linklater as, well, present. (In his defence, he was also at TIFF with another film, Nouvelle Vague, and had just screened at Berlinale and Cannes, respectively, so maybe he was a bit over it all).

The electricity surrounding Blue Moon — Linklater and Hawke’s ninth collaboration and possibly the role to earn Hawke an Oscar — was clear. Hawke plays the alcoholic, spiralling, and notably diminutive Hart, who is trying to keep it together as his onetime writing partner Richard Rodgers (Scott) fêtes the opening night success of his new musical Oklahoma!... along with his new, post-Hart writing partner, Oscar Hammerstein.

Dialogue-driven, funny and sad in equal measure and aptly described by Hawke as a work of “old-school stagecraft,” the film — co-starring Cannavale as a quippy bartender at the famous theatre-crowd hangout Sardi’s and Margaret Qualley as Hart’s unattainable young crush — is terrific, a must-see for fans of the director, its stars or anyone seeking a good story well told. Read our review of the film.

Herewith, some takeaways from that Monday morning presser at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel ahead of Blue Moon’s opening October 24. Spoiler: there were countless, hilarious off-the-cuff quips that simply don’t translate on the page. But if you always suspected these guys were kind of brilliant in real life, you were right.

Given the film’s single location (on a Dublin set made to look Sardi’s in New York), the film is almost theatrical in approach…

Hawke: One of the things I love about Richard’s movies is an embrace of language as a part of the toolkit of what cinema can be. There is nothing theatrical about the intimacy that is happening at this party in this bar. The cinematic quality to me is that, in real time, we are watching a person’s heart break so much that they are going to die. There’s something about cinema that captures that beautifully.

Hart’s alcoholism seems rampant in the entertainment industry. Why?

Hawke: I don’t think alcohol discriminates among professions. It’s everywhere. I remember something Rick (Linklater) said to me when I was young: ‘If you really want to work as an artist, it’s not usually society or the profession that will dismantle your passion. It’s usually inner problems. If you can steer clear of addiction, you set yourself up for a lot more success in life.’ Self-medication is the clearest way to veer off the path.

Linklater: That’s what’s so heartbreaking about this story. It’s about an artistic breakup but not one brought on by a lack of artistry. Hart was one of the greatest lyricists of the 20th century. It’s his personal demons he’s struggling with. He dies six months [after that opening night party at Sardi’s]. And his mom, who we see at the beginning of the film, passed away a couple of weeks later. He was probably never sober another day for the rest of his life.

Hawke: And there’s a line in the movie where Hart says, ‘No one ever loved me that much.’ He is paraphrasing from Casablanca but it’s clearly a mantra of someone who cannot feel or absorb love from other people. He’s in a tremendous amount of pain about that.

Andrew plays a famous composer in film. Did the role make him reflect on his own relationship with music?

Scott: Yes. It’s interesting that we don’t allow cameras into rehearsal spaces, but it would be interesting to see how that creative process works and how it differs between different musicians. I know that in a theatre space, that atmosphere can change in very different ways. And even between Rodgers and Hart at the party, their chemistry is still really alive which makes [their split] even more heartbreaking. There’s an illness at the centre of the story.

The ongoing success of Hawke/Linklater collaborations. What’s the secret?

Linklater: We’re just friends. I read the script and sent it to Ethan without really even thinking he might play Hart. We started talking about it and 12, 13 years later we finally made the film (laughs). Also, we realized we hadn’t really worked together in about 10 years, but we felt like we had because we had been talking about this thing. Creative collaboration continues whether you’re working together or not. Those long-term artistic friendships are very satisfying and you’re looking for the right thing at the right time. In the meantime, you just appreciate people’s careers. It’s fun to see your friends firing on all cylinders.

Linklater (left) and Cannavale on set in Ireland.

If you could offer advice to your younger, struggling-actor self, what would it be?

Cannavale: I was rebellious as a kid, and I didn’t want to do anything I didn’t want to do. And I have carried that through (laughs). But I do remember as a kid seeking out people and experiences that spoke to what I was interested in. And it’s the same to this day. So I guess the advice is to stick with it.

I only get involved in things I feel passionate about and only want to be with people who share that passion. That’s why Ethan and I, who live very close to each other in New York, have been hanging out for over 20 years. I worked in so many bars because I could get that work but I was always hopeful I would land that one acting job that would connect me with someone who could help me establish other relationships, even more so than leading to other jobs. And I’ve been lucky that way. I hope it continues because I keep forgetting how old I am (laughs).