On A Role
ETHAN HAWKE IS LORENZ HART
THE ACTOR PLAYS A LEGENDARY LYRICIST IN RICHARD LINKLATER’S BLUE MOON
WORDS BEN TRAVIS
THE HEIGHT
How do you make Ethan Hawke look more than half a foot shorter than he actually is? That wasn’t just a practicality in Blue Moon (Linklater used “old-school stagecraft tricks” to present Hawke as 5’ 2”). It was also key to cracking the mindset of a man who, on one of the hardest nights of his life — watching former collaborator Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) achieve game-changing success with his new writing partner as Broadway smash Oklahoma! debuts — simply can’t stop talking. “[Lorenz] Hart’s size is such a huge part of who he was, and what drove him, and why he thought the way he thought,” Hawke explains of the American lyricist. “If somebody is 6’ tall and they won’t stop talking, they’re trying to control the room. If somebody’s 5’ 2” and they won’t stop talking, they’re trying to be heard.” It paints a portrait of a man “in terrible need”.