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Ethan Hawke gets candid about playing Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon: ‘I felt like I knew him’
Ethan Hawke dives into the heartbreak and brilliance of lyricist Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon, his latest collaboration with director Richard Linklater.
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Ethan Hawke is not interested in mimicry. When he signed on to play lyricist Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon, the veteran actor told The Canadian Press he was not chasing imitation and wanted to live inside the man’s chaos. Set almost entirely at popular theatre-district restaurant Sardi’s, the legendary Broadway hangout, Blue Moon unfolds in real time, tracing the crumbling final months of Hart’s life in 1943.
Hawke disappears into the role, playing Hart as a balding, irritable genius under his own brilliance. “I’ve spent my life with theatre people,” he said during the Toronto International Film Festival. “I felt like I knew him. You know, I felt like I spent a couple of months with old Larry. I know this dude and I love him and I admire him and he breaks my heart," he added.
Finding the man behind the lyrics
Hart’s songs - Blue Moon, My Funny Valentine, The Lady Is a Tramp - remain timeless. Hawke said the script drew him in immediately. “I was hypnotized,” he said. Playing a man so far removed from himself - physically, emotionally, spiritually - was part of the thrill.
“There’s a great line in the movie: ‘Nobody ever loved me that much.’ He’s paraphrasing from ‘Casablanca,’ but it’s clearly a mantra of somebody who cannot feel or absorb love from other people,’” Hawke shared.
That ache sits at the film’s core. “You’re watching a person’s heart break so much that they’re going to die,” Hawke said.
The heartbreak behind the genius
Director Richard Linklater, a longtime collaborator of Hawke, said the story struck him as “a eulogy for talent lost to pain.” He began discussing the script with Hawke over a decade ago, though the two only decided to make it recently, The Canadian Press reported.
Linklater paints Hart’s downfall as the slow-motion collapse of a brilliant mind. “He’s probably never sober another day,” he said.
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Hawke’s transformation was old-school: no CGI, no prosthetics. Just shaved hair, posture work, and camera tricks to capture Hart’s small frame. Laughing beside co-star Bobby Cannavale, he joked about how audiences equate height with strength: “Like, Bobby’s tall, but he’s really none of those positive things.”
The film’s cast includes Andrew Scott as Rodgers and Simon Delaney as Hammerstein, with Margaret Qualley as a young muse who mirrors Hart’s unspoken longing.
Linklater calls Blue Moon a balance of sorrow and wit - “sad, but sharp; like a Rodgers-and-Hart song.”
Blue Moon opens in theaters this Friday.
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FAQs:
Who does Ethan Hawke play in Blue Moon?
He plays lyricist Lorenz Hart, one-half of the legendary Rodgers and Hart duo.
Who directed Blue Moon?
Richard Linklater, who has collaborated with Hawke for over two decades.
Where is the Blue Moon set?
Almost entirely inside Sardi’s, the famous Broadway restaurant.
What inspired Hawke to take the role?
He connected deeply to Hart’s insecurities and creative torment.
