HALLOWED HALLS: An interview with Chelsea Walls director Ethan Hawke. By Warren Curry 4/18/02 Part 1 of 2

Having spent nearly half his life in the public eye, since his break through starring role in Peter Weir's 1989 hit film Dead Poets Society, Ethan Hawke's career has recently reached one of presumably many peaks. Not only was he nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as LAPD officer Jake Hoyt in the film Training Day, but also, Lions Gate Films will release his innovative and challenging directorial debut, Chelsea Walls, on April 19.

Based on a play by Nicole Burdette, New York City's Chelsea Hotel -- one time a home to such artists as Bob Dylan, Arthur Miller and Jimi Hendrix -- serves as the film's setting. The movie focuses on a group of the hotel's current artistic tenants, whose lives are depicted primarily in brief vignettes and structured to authentically capture the famous landmark's environment. Shot on digital video, Chelsea Walls' ensemble cast includes Robert Sean Leonard, Uma Thurman (Hawke's wife), Steve Zahn, jazz musician "Little" Jimmy Scott, Rosario Dawson, Frank Whaley, Mark Webber, Vincent D'Onofrio and Kris Kristofferson.

CinemaSpeak had the opportunity to speak with the multi-talented Hawke (whose second novel, Ash Wednesday, will be released by Knopf on July 23) and Robert Sean Leonard (click here to go directly to questions for Leonard) at the Los Angeles press day for Chelsea Walls. Ever the comedian, upon entering the room, Hawke immediately spied the Swing Kids soundtrack CD cover sitting on top of my notebook, which Leonard had just signed (for my girlfriend, thank you very much) and joked, "I see you had Bob sign your Swing Kids CD. I always tell him that's one of the best Nazi swing dancing movies ever made; a classic in the Nazi swing genre." I didn't contest his assessment.

(Note: This interview was conducted as part of a press roundtable, therefore not all of the questions were asked by CinemaSpeak.)

What has the whole post Academy Awards experience been like?

What was it like? It's a kind of thing where right when it's over, you get the flu; I had the flu for two weeks. I had a social hangover. You can't that kind of attention and not get sick to your stomach at some point.

Are you hoping the attention will help people come out to see Chelsea Walls?

I have to admit, I don't have the highest aspirations that Chelsea Walls is going to top the box office. If that's your primary agenda for making a movie like this... I think it's helpful that it gets you guys to be here and gives me that kind of venue. I really loved making the movie and I'm really proud of it. You go out and hawk Warner Bros. stuff, so why not go hawk your own? I think it undoubtedly helps.

Why was this a good choice for your directorial debut?

Well, there's some skepticism about whether it was a good choice. (Laughs) This movie in many ways was an extension of a theater company we had together. When I got married and had a family, I didn't have that in my life anymore. I wanted to do something really experimental and really playful. I had seen Thomas Vintenberg's The Celebration and I really felt like digital cinema was the wave of the future. You could make a movie for so little money that you have so little obligation to your financiers -- you can make a specialized movie for a certain group of people. I don't think that was possible in the same way a few years ago. I'd come across this play that this young woman had written about the Chelsea Hotel and I was telling her, "You should send this to Wim Wenders. Someone could make this a great movie." When The Celebration came out, she called me up and said, "Do you still want to do it? We could probably afford to do it now." I said, "Let's do it." I just decided on a whim like that. I really just looked at the whole thing as an experiment. I think it's really a success for the movie that it's finding its way out at all. I read this quote from Kristofferson the other day, which I thought was amusing. He said something like, "When you do a movie this experimental, you never expect it to see the light of day, particularly if I'm involved." (Laughs) For me, it was a really a natural choice, because I know Nicole Burdette and I've always felt like she had this really unique, special voice. My brain works so associatively; some people's brains work in a very narrative way -- there's a beginning, middle and end, but I'm a little ADD with that; it just kind of bores me. It always sounds a little weird, but to me the movie is a collective consciousness movie. We all think we're these individuals, and creative people are the greatest example of this: "I'm Miss Individual, I need to be heard and I have this voice," yet, we're really kind of eclectic. Most people are desperate to be heard, who won't take the time to listen

You're very multi-dimensional. Is there anything you don't do?

I try not to do crack. (Laughs) Well, because I started acting so young, I think I somehow gave myself permission to do other things. I try not to be precious about it, try to do other things and try to use my advantages and successes to have an interesting life.

The casting of "Little" Jimmy Scott, and the scene where he performs a song, is just great. Was that in the script or did you just feel that you had to get him in the film?

Part of how you cast a movie like this... when Nicole conceived the piece, she had an idea that it would have no recurring characters. It would just literally be a collage. That was less interesting to me; I wanted to have some kinds of threads to this piece. I would speak about the movie and how it was going to be a jazz movie. The movie was kind of jazz; the way we would riff with this one person and then another person would take over. The way that jazz uses structure in a different kind of way. That was kind of our idea, so we thought that we had to have some actual jazz in the movie. I thought if he was alive, we could get Miles Davis to play this little part. She had written this little part about a hustler musician. Frank Whaley actually said, "If you want Miles Davis, you should hear 'Little' Jimmy," who was playing that night. I went over to see "Little" Jimmy and to see "Little" Jimmy is to love. I asked him to be in the movie and we conceived this whole thing about this bar. We had lots of ideas about how to weave the hotel life together; Little Jimmy was just one of them. "Little" Jimmy insisted about singing this song -- I had wanted him to sing some other songs -- and it was perfect. The funny thing was that I kept resisting it, because I knew the rights to that song (John Lennon's "Jealous Guy") would be more than the budget of the film. I kept saying, "You know, 'Little' Jimmy, it would be great to sing one of the ones that you wrote. I've got an in with you." But, he was like, "We're in the Chelsea. I want to sing 'Jealous Guy'." Also, Wilco, the band who did the score... Jeff Tweedy did the score to the movie, I had him do all the music, and it was one of the few songs they both knew. And then Yoko (Ono) gave us the rights for free.

Why do you think she agreed to that?

Because she loves "Little" Jimmy. It had nothing to do with me, or the movie. She had heard "Little" Jimmy's cover of that song and thought it was wonderful.

Click for Part Two

Home

Reviews

More Articles

IndieSpeak