“Blue Moon” isn’t merely a showcase for Ethan Hawke’s continuing quest to challenge himself as an actor, illustrated by his Oscar-nominated turn as the very short, comb-over-sporting lyricist Lorenz Hart. It’s also a shining example of patient script development. Director Richard Linklater, Hawke and screenwriter Robert Kaplow spent years building out Kaplow’s initially bare-bones scenario situating Hart on the evening in 1943 that his former songwriting partner, composer Richard Rodgers, and Hart’s replacement, Oscar Hammerstein ll, celebrated the premiere of “Oklahoma!” Was the gestation period so long that Hawke and Kaplow, the movie’s other Oscar nominee this year, occasionally wondered, “Will this ever happen?”
“I’ve been friends with Rick a long time,” says Hawke. “I knew we were going to make this movie because he just wouldn’t stop talking about it.”
Talk about how the “Blue Moon” script evolved through table reads.
Kaplow: It was an instrument of discovery. For over 12 years, we’d read it and because we’re three guys, I always ended up playing the girl. I remember being at Ethan’s townhouse and I looked up and [Ethan] has tears in his eyes. After we’re done, I was walking to Penn Station and I called my girlfriend, Lynn, and said, “I don’t know if this movie is ever going to get made. But I’m a middle-aged man. I was just in a love scene with Ethan Hawke. And he was crying.”
Screenwriter Robert Kaplow.
(David Urbanke / For The Times)
Hawke: One of the things I love about Rick is he’s such a slow worker. Almost everybody else I’ve ever met is in a hurry. He really likes to take his time. Each time we’d do [a table read], it’d get better. I’d get better. For Rick, the readings were largely to understand if this was the stuff of cinema or not.
How did you learn that the movie was a go?
Kaplow: Rick had his opening of “Hit Man” at the New York Film Festival. I went to the after-party at a bar across the street to congratulate Rick. And then he goes, “Robert, [producer] John Sloss wants to talk to you.” So John comes up and goes, “Robert, we’re going to make your movie this summer in Ireland.” I was like, “You’re kidding me.” I just couldn’t believe it. I went back to Lynn and go, “Guess what? They’re going to make this movie this summer in Ireland.” And Lynn said, “I told you to come to this party!”
Ethan, in Linklater’s “Before” trilogy you’re also just talking, talking, talking. How was “Blue Moon” different?
Hawke: Sometimes you get to set and it’s easy to shape the text to make it more your own. The process here was for me to get rid of Ethan and become Larry. It wasn’t how to fix it, it was to try and match the screenplay. I don’t ever remember working as hard — or Rick being as mean to me.
Mean? Details please.
Hawke: He’s spent years of his life editing my performances. The Friday before we started shooting, he said, “I don’t want to see you until we wrap.” I’d sometimes do things I thought were pretty terrific, and he’d look at me and say, “I see you.” When the phrase “I see you” means it’s bad, it’s hard not to hear that as critical.
Kaplow: [During rehearsal], I said to Rick, “You’re so close to Ethan. How do you direct him?” And Rick goes, “My major direction is ‘Try to suck less.’” And I thought, “These guys got their own language.”
Hawke: Rick is tough. He’ll just say, “That sucked.” I’m not used to hearing that. And it didn’t suck, by the way [laughs]. But I know that sometimes it’s the tiniest little thing. What I love about him is he’s not the type of director that makes the movie in the editing room. Rick doesn’t want to cut around performance. So it’s my job to be good all the time.
Actor Ethan Hawke.
(David Urbanke / For The Times)
What fell into the category of not good?
Hawke: Something that bothered Rick was confidence or anything that whiffed of overt masculinity. There’s a certain tone in my voice, a register he didn’t want me to use, a register I often use for pathos or gravitas. I had to find a different way to do that. Larry doesn’t talk like I do.
Robert, were there things you picked up on that someone less steeped in Hart lore might miss?
Kaplow: In rehearsal, I remember saying, “Ethan’s a little handsy.” He’s got his hand on [Margaret Qualley, who plays Hart’s crush/protege]. I said, “Larry’s so afraid of being physically repellent he’d be a little gun-shy about doing that.”
Hawke: When Robert said that about being handsy? That was super interesting to me, exciting. For lack of a better word, I’ve been famous since I was 18. There’s an invitation to be familiar with people that lots of people don’t have. Just to be aware of that, it made me feel like a different person.
Where were you the first time you saw “Blue Moon” on a big screen?
Kaplow: The first time I saw it with human beings was at the Berlin Film Festival. With German subtitles. Anytime anybody said a joke, seven seconds later, there was a laugh. They had to read it, translate it, and get it. It still was thrilling.
Hawke: I saw it there too. But my favorite screening was the New York Film Festival because there was no translation. It was an audience full of people and they got every nuance.
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