TAKE HART

Star Ethan Hawke and director Richard Linklater talk to LYNN RUSK about film Blue Moon, a tribute to lyricist Lorenz “Larry” Hart

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POIGNANT: The film covers the night Hart attended the opening of Rodgers' hit musical, Oklahoma!

Richard Linklater's Blue Moon focuses on the evening of March 31, 1943, when Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi's bar as his former collaborator Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his groundbreaking hit Oklahoma!.

The film, written by Robert Kaplow, stars Ethan Hawke as Hart, Fleabag’s Andrew Scott as Rodgers, and The Substance’s Margaret Qualley as Elizabeth Weiland, a Yale student with whom Hart is infatuated.

Ethan, a collaborator with director Richard on the Before trilogy and Boyhood, says he first read the Blue Moon script more than 10 years ago.

“Rick (Linklater) sent me the script I would say around 10 or 12 years ago and I cackled with laughter. I called him and said, ‘let's make this movie,” recalls the 55-year-old.

“He told me I wasn’t old enough and that we had to wait. So, every two or three years, we'd get together and read it aloud. As the years ticked by, the script kept getting better until finally it was time to make it.”

Reflecting on his character, Ethan says: “Larry Hart would be so happy that his music and his words and his poetry are still alive. They have cheated death.