Screenplayers

Actors 'playing' instruments on screen can be the stuff of nightmares. But, asks Michael Beek, to what lengths have they gone to make it look convincing?

- Michael Beek

In Humoresque (1946), John Garfield plays a virtuoso violinist. By then, Garfield was an Oscar-nominated actor, but he was no violinist. That said, his ‘performances’ are pretty convincing. Why? Because at least one of his arms is actually that of the great Isaac Stern. Similarly, in Deception (1946), a film released a few months prior, Paul Henreid plays a leading cellist. His performances were achieved thanks to the arms of a pair of professional cellists, accommodated by Henreid’s oversized jacket. Cosy...

Smoke and mirrors can only do so much, though, and not all filmmakers go to such creative lengths. So, is it fair to say you can spot a fake musician a mile off? Julian Lloyd Webber certainly thinks so. 'When you see them, they’re pretty much always terrible,' says the British cellist; 'it’s rare that you see them and think they've actually got it right. I mean Deception does, because they've got people who are professionals doing that job. I think it’s not possible for someone who doesn't play at all to make a convincing job of it. I don’t see how they can. Shine was pretty good... the fact he played the piano himself just says it all.

He is of course referring to Scott Hicks’s 1996 film, in which Geoffrey Rush gave an Oscar-winning performance as Australian pianist David Helfgott. Rush played as a youngster and happily returned to the keyboard to put in the hours to take on the role; indeed, he performs on screen himself, even in closeup. The actors playing the younger Helfgott in flashbacks, Alex Rafalowicz and Noah Taylor, were hand-doubled in closeup by pianists Simon Tedeschi and Martin Cousin. It’s a well-tested means of capturing a more realistic performance.