Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater are again collectively for a take a look at a Broadway musical icon in Blue Moon, which seems to be to reshape the best way audiences see biopics. The movie, the ninth collaboration between Hawke and Linklater, facilities on Lorenz Hart, the previous inventive accomplice of acclaimed Broadway composer Richard Rodgers, on the opening evening of Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! in 1943, struggling to return to phrases along with his alcoholism and melancholy within the midst of his rising friction with the previous.
Additionally starring Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott as Hammerstein, Blue Moon has drawn widespread acclaim since its Berlin Worldwide Movie Pageant, at the moment holding an 88% approval score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The largest level of reward the movie has acquired is its completely different method to the biopic style, avoiding a full-life exploration and as an alternative specializing in a singular evening and the way it showcases its central determine.
In honor of the film’s launch, ScreenRant interviewed Ethan Hawke and Andrew Scott to debate Blue Moon. When requested about how the biopic stands out from the style’s latest efforts, together with Springsteen: Ship Me from Nowhere, additionally releasing this weekend, Hawke started by stating that the final word draw for audiences is that if “the film’s both attention-grabbing or it is not“, no matter if the topic is somebody extra trendy like Springsteen or traditional like Lorenz Hart.
Describing the “film itself [as] the drama“, Hawke went on to reward how Linklater and author Robert Kaplow averted the traditional biopic method of chronicling Hart’s life from starting to finish and as an alternative simply specializing in one evening, which makes Blue Moon “actually attention-grabbing” whether or not somebody is conversant in the composer should not:
Ethan Hawke: Once you get into the biopic the place you are doing the Wikipedia web page of some, “Effectively, he was born in Oklahoma, and he moved to this place, after which he received divorced, after which he discovered God,” and no matter it’s, you are not really telling a narrative, it is simply reportage. From what I hear concerning the Springsteen film, it is the identical factor. It is simply utilizing a very attention-grabbing human being to construct a personality and a story off of.
Scott agreed with a lot of Hawke’s outlook on how the movie shakes up the biopic formulation, feeling that different prior style efforts can see storytelling “take a look at the historical past of artists’ lives backwards“, merely going from one level to a different. Expressing that there is a have to “unlearn all of the biography” of the topic of a movie, it permits the viewers to see the “durations in between lives in an artist’s life“, the place they could really feel “I am by no means going to work once more“.
Hawke then shared that most of the people typically “do not imagine” an artist “actually felt that approach” after they “survive” the interval of self-doubt, as an alternative pondering it can “good gas“ when a film or undertaking is met with “actually unhealthy opinions” or turns into “an epic failure” and seemingly helps an artist develop:
Ethan Hawke: You are like, “No, I really thought I is likely to be lifeless. I used to be going to lose this profession, and it was not good for me. I used to be depressing.” And once you’re within the current tense of your life, you do not know how the subsequent chapter goes to go. So it’s actually scary. That is one of many issues we liked about this film was that you simply’re seeing Richard Rogers within the half an hour earlier than he finds out Oklahoma is a success. I’ve this nice second I really like, the place I say, “That is going to be the largest hit of your life.” And he is like, “You do not know that.” And he desires that to be true. I do not need that to be true, however he does. And it is like folks telling you, “Oh yo Andrew, you are going to win the Tony for this one.” Cease it. Do not put a hex on it.
Scott went on to conclude that within the interval wherein an artist finds themselves out of labor, “your storytelling capability is big“, as, even within the midst of “when issues are going to go flawed“, one thing can come alongside and “the story modifications“.
Every part Else We Realized About Blue Moon From Ethan Hawke & Andrew Scott
ScreenRant: Ethan, is it honest to say after overlaying about two hours of a narrative on this runtime, that you have labored with Richard Linklater on each his shortest and longest productions?
Ethan Hawke: That’s honest to say, sure.
ScreenRant: I am certain everybody’s been asking you about getting immersed within the function as a result of I used to be shocked by how a lot you remodeled bodily. I do know that there was most likely some film magic, however I additionally thought you remodeled vocally. Are you able to give me a few of the behind-the-scenes secrets and techniques?
Ethan Hawke: Andrew’s heard me say this, however actors are solely nearly as good as our alternatives. Once you get an awesome alternative, you need to seize it. This was an extremely advanced one who required all the pieces I’ve realized about appearing. I imply, there are actors that might do a greater job of it. In case you tackle a task like Hamlet or Macbeth, or considered one of these nice roles, you are by no means going to be nearly as good because the half requires. You are simply going to return up towards the wall of your individual expertise, and it may possibly all the time deal with extra. I felt that approach about Larry Hart. I felt like, “Wow, that is a type of elements. What would Ian McKellen do with this half? What would Jack Nicholson do with this half?” Your mind spins. They might do one thing magnificent, and then you definitely go, “Okay, effectively, what am I going to do?”
ScreenRant: One of many strains that caught out to me was in the direction of the very finish of Blue Moon. I imagine it was Larry saying it to Bobby’s bartender within the movie. He mentioned, “You are one of the best listener I’ve ever met.” Who’s one of the best listener you guys have ever met?
Ethan Hawke: That is one thing I’ve really by no means been requested earlier than. I’ve one thing that was extraordinarily good for me to comprehend. The reality of the matter is I am extremely fortunate. My spouse is one of the best listener I’ve ever met.
Andrew Scott: That is great.
Ethan Hawke: She’s actually a very good buddy that approach. She’s really curious about what different individuals are saying. I’ve spent my life fascinated by what I’ll say subsequent, however a part of why she’s so great to speak to is as a result of she’s really absorbing what you are saying and making an attempt to really feel what you are speaking.
Andrew Scott: It is a great present. I might say my mother was one of the best listener. I’ve to say she really died about six weeks earlier than we made our film. When somebody is not a very good listener, we learn about that. So, I miss her for that cause amongst many.
Blue Moon is now in theaters.
- Launch Date
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October 17, 2025
- Runtime
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90 minutes
- Writers
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Robert Kaplow
- Producers
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John Sloss, Mike Blizzard
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Margaret Qualley
Elizabeth Weiland