“Blue Moon”, interview with actors Margaret Qualley and Andrew Scott

February 24, 2025

Margaret Qualley and Andrew Scott: “ entering the dream world of Richard Linklater”

“Blue Moon”, interview with actors Margaret Qualley and Andrew Scott Chiara Nicoletti

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Ten years after “Boyhood”, Richard Linklater has brought back to Berlin a new collaboration with long-time friend and collaborator Ethan Hawke: “Blue Moon”

In competition at the 75th edition of the Berlinale, the film follows a very important and pivotal night in the life of legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart where he had to participate in his former collaborator Richard Rodgers success for his round-breaking hit Oklahoma! –

To enter the special world of Richard Linklater, where stream of consciousness and flowing words are essential, two new entries: Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley.

Andrew Scott (All Of Us Strangers, Fleabag), who plays Richard Rodgers, confirms that he perceived the film as one about friendship and “the enormous relationships that you build up within the theatre and within the movies. That is the beating heart of the script”.

Margaret Qualley (The Substance, Kinds of Kindness) plays Elizabeth – the object of Hart’s affection and whose letters with Lorenz Hart were the material which inspired Linklater and screenwriter Robert Kaplow to make the film.

She confesses that working with Linklater and Hawke had always been a dream for her as she’s a huge fan of their collective work.

Plot

“You know how in marriage they say ‘for better or for worse’? I think, in terms of my life, I have entered the ‘for worse’ part, and it happened so quietly I didn’t even recognize it.”
Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon tells the story of the legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart bravely facing the future as his professional and private life unravel during the opening night party for his former partner Richard Rodgers’ hit show, “Oklahoma!”. In 100 minutes, the film unspools in real-time the events in Sardi’s bar on the evening of March 31, 1943. It is a meditation on friendship, art and love, featuring a rich tapestry of writers, actors, musicians, friends and protégés – a parade of the famous and the soon-to-be-famous. By the time this night is over, Hart will have confronted both a world irrevocably changed by the war, and the seeming impossibility of love.
With powerful performances from Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, Andrew Scott as Richard Rodgers, Margaret Qualley as Hart’s protégé Elizabeth and Bobby Cannavale as Hart’s bartender, buddy and confidante, the film perfectly captures, with Linklater’s deft, comic touch, a singular, astonishing moment in time.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

Guest

Andrew Scoot Margaret Qualley

Film

Blue Moon

Festival

Berlinale

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