I met Ed Harris at the Four Seasons in Boston recently to talk about his newest film, "Copying Beethoven." For Harris, this movie continues his recent trend of playing complex, technically difficult roles in interesting, artistically provocative productions.
In 2000, Harris both acted and directed for the critically acclaimed "Pollock," in which he stunningly portrayed the success and ultimate downfall of famed American artist Jackson Pollock. And most recently, he can be seen on the Irish stage in a production of Neil LaBute's play "Wrecks" which has similarly received tremendous praise from critics.
In "Copying Beethoven," which comes out later this month, Harris plays the iconic, deaf, meglomaniacal composer around the time when Ludwig wrote his much-heralded Ninth Symphony. Harris's stunning performance in and of itself could have carried the movie quite well, but the writers clumsily added the breathtakingly mediocre thespianism of Diane Kruger, the blonde who played Helen in 2004's "Troy," to play Beethoven's copyist and awkward love interest, Anna. The psuedo-romanticism of this pair detracts significantly from what was otherwise a charming, albeit single-sex movie. Nevertheless, if you can stand the trying romantic dynamics, see the movie for Harris and for Beethoven's music.
When I talked to Harris about the film, he addressed this issue, defending Kruger's presence in the movie, talked about how he prepared to play someone who was deaf and quipped about the failings of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Tufts Daily: Did you have any musical knowledge going into this movie?
Ed Harris: I grew up playing the baritone horn, which is a brass instrument. Played it through high school, so ... I can read music and basic music terminology, and I was probably familiar with a couple of Beethoven's major symphonies and the more popular piano sonatas, but I wasn't at all familiar with the bulk of his work. So, you know, it was a whole new education for me, so it was great.
TD: Did you do anything in particular to prepare to play someone who was almost completely deaf?
EH: Well yeah, I mean, I worked a lot with earplugs, you know what I mean? And really, in the film, you know Beethoven had these conversation books, where he'd converse with people [through] writing, and you can't make a film like that, because what are you going to do?
So you have to make the conceit that he reads lips more or less and can hear certain things, so I really did pretty much plug up my ears so I really had to pay attention to people when they were speaking and really try to understand what they were saying.
Somebody gave me a CD that ... was [the] actual, the deterioration of what he would have been able to hear over the years, you know - which was someone's hypothetical kind of idea but it's still was rather interesting to listen to.
You know, I talked to my father, who can't hear a lick, and things like that, but mostly it was just shutting my ears down and constantly listening to his music with an iPod, you know, so the music was in my head all the time, for months. I mean, 'cause he'd been going deaf for 26 years. The Heiligenstadt Testament he wrote was in 1801 [sic], and he died in 1827; [in] that testament, which they found after he died, he's already talking about his loss of hearing, about how it's going to affect his life and how he's going to shut himself off from society and focus on his music.
TD: Do you still listen to [Beethoven]?
EH: Yeah, I mean my iPod is still loaded up with a couple of Dylan tunes, but it's still mostly Beethoven, primarily because its so hard for me to put s-t on it - I don't handle it very well.
Yeah, I still like listening to his music, very much so, and hopefully will continue to. ... You know, I was talking to this fellow Jeremy who is the classical music critic or something of the Globe, I think. He's just been on the job a couple weeks; he came from New York and he was talking about the fact that classical music in general is considered to be made for the upper crusts of society or whoever can afford tickets to the symphony or something - at least in this country, which is very different than in Europe.
I mean, in Europe, you've got cab drivers singing operas; it's part of life, you know, and that is true that in this country it seems to be reserved for some other class of society. The more you listen to Beethoven, the more you realize he covers the whole range of human emotions. I mean, this stuff is earthy; it's strong and powerful, guttural and visceral as well as it being beautifully timed and very demanding musically.
And part of the problem these days is that the public schools - you know, when I was growing up, you had your own orchestra in third, fourth, and fifth grade. I mean, you could rent an instrument, and you would play, and a lot of public schools now can't afford that. They don't even have art. They don't have s-t; they've got No Child Left Behind that they've gotta cram all the kids to study for tests for. You know, it's just the way it is at the moment.
TD: Looking over some of the movies you've made in the past, you've had such a wide-ranging career in the kinds of people you play. Who in this day's kind of movie world do you look up to and admire?
EH: I don't really have anybody like that, you know. There are people I've respected a lot over the years and people who have probably inspired me somewhat, you know. But I just, you know, it's kind of like a character-to-character thing in terms of what people are doing whether I get off on it or not, whether I like it. And I just try to keep doing my work; I don't really have a - you know, I mean there are certain people: I'd love to work with Vanessa Redgrave some day or Judi Dench, or there are a couple people like that that I've never worked with.
I've never worked with [Robert] Duval, Albert Finney. There are certain people that I like, [that I] enjoy watching, but I'm not in awe of any of them, and I don't aspire to be like any of them. You enjoy working with people who you think are good at what they do; it makes you all the better.
