Interview: Paul Dano talks Love & Mercy

It’s a Monday night. Beverly Glen. There’s a crate that says Brian Wilson Vibratos. Members of the voting academy and press have gathered at Vibrato Jazz to see a special performance by Brian Wilson to celebrate the DVD release of Love & Mercy. Paul Dano who does a terrific job of playing the young Wilson in the movie is present, along with co-star Elizabeth Banks.
Dano has just come back from London where Youth premiered at the London Film Festival. I caught up with him for a phone call to talk about Love & Mercy, playing young Brian Wilson and how he got into the role. But, first, we discuss my name because he was wondering about it.

Paul Dano: Helloooo

Awards Daily: Hi Paul. It’s Jazz. How are you doing?

PD: Hey I’m good. How are you doing?

AD: I’m good.

PD: Jazz. It’s a pretty bad ass name.

AD: It is isn’t it? It’s Jasmine, but the nickname stuck with me. So, where are you? New York?

PD: I’m at home in New York. You’re a Brit? Where are you from?

AD: I’m from London originally. I moved here a year ago, then I got married. Here I am.

PD: Congratulations. I was just there for a few days at the London Film Festival for Youth.

AD: You know, I still have your performance from Vibrato in my mind. It was so great seeing you perform with Brian Wilson.

PD: It was pretty cool. I was really nervous beforehand but then once we got through the first verse, I relaxed and had such a nice time. Brian knows that was one of my favorite songs, ‘You Still Believe In Me’, and he asked me to sing it, and that was very cool.

AD: You couldn’t tell you were nervous at all. You were like a professional.

PD: [Laughs] I love to sing, but you know the band sounded so good. Brian was having lots of fun, and it was really special to see them play and enjoy it, and to be there. I think he liked knowing we were there from the film and it was a special night.

AD: Were you a musician before you got into this film.

PD: A little bit. I sang here and there when I was growing up. I did some musical theater, and that was some of my first acting experiences, and that led to doing plays. In high school and college, I played some guitar and played in some bands. Music has definitely been a big part of my life, as a listener as well as someone who messed around with it. I hadn’t played much in recent years. Brian’s songs are really challenging, they go down so smooth to the ear, but are actually quite complex. I began to learn to play the piano. I loved some of his voicing and the chords are just so beautiful. Tricky at first in his left-hand work, because he was a bass player at first. What his left hand does is really interesting in how that shapes the chords. I think Paul McCartney got some of his bass work from listening to Brian because Brian would often change his chords through the bass note. Which changes the whole sound of the chord.

It was so much fun to learn more about music, and then learn to play the piano. The singing was part of the reason I was nervous. I spent months just trying to stretch my range out as best as I could because Brian has a beautiful range of the falsetto and down through. Ultimately, that was one of the great gifts of this part and that was listening to the music every day and playing it every day. Even though there was a lot of struggle in Brian’s life, and there was a lot of challenging stuff as an actor, but the music gave me a lot of joy and reminded me of being a kid when you used to recklessly sing in the car.

AD: Brian, as you say has a huge vocal range, and it’s fair to say you really captured that.

PD: Thank you. Brian’s piano player came to work with me in New York and he wanted to send something to Brian and Melinda (Brian’s wife. Played onscreen by Elizabeth Banks), I remember thinking, “Oh My God!” So, we recorded something on an iPhone and they were really excited by that and by my singing. That was a big moment in terms of my preparation. It gave me the keys to the car so to speak. If Brian and Melinda are going to be excited by the possibility of me singing, then I can really just dig in and not be worried what anybody thinks.

AD: You mentioned you listened to the Beach Boys. Were you a fan before you went into the film? And how did listening to them while preparing for the role give you insight into who Brian Wilson was as a person?

PD: It was kind of everything. There’s a lot. It was fun to have a lot of resources whether it was; photographs, magazine articles, video footage, or people who he worked with that I could go and talk to. The music was the essence of him. I think he is his music. I think he’s somebody who, when they sit at the piano, that’s home. The music was the central point of connection and insight and feel of spirit for me. I came to feel his relationship, the dad, his cousin and those are conflicted relationships that we see in the film, and I feel that the studio was home, as opposed to his parent’s living room.

Listening to the session tapes, and literally learning to play and sing it, puts it in my body so to speak. I miss it because I’d wake up, sit at the piano and play something. Then I’d get in the car and drive to work. It was a nice way to start one’s day and enter into the character.

I was a fan beforehand. The Beatles and The Beach Boys come really early when you’re a kid listening to music. Pet Sounds was a big album, I really liked it. I’m now an obsessive fan. I really fell in love with it. Pet Sounds and Smile, I think are two of the greatest albums ever made. They just keep on giving. There’s so much on Pet Sounds so it’s nice to have had something that has so much depth too.

AD: So, will we be seeing you in a musical soon then?

PD: [Laughing] I don’t know. I did have a good time playing and singing, but I wouldn’t write it off.

AD:I had to ask, when you said you liked singing and performing… we could put it out there.

PD: Yes thanks.

AD: I like how Bill showed two different actors playing Brian at two different stages of his life. John plays the older Brian. Did you two connect at any point, or did you keep it separate?

PD: We didn’t meet until he was on his first day, and I was on my last day. It was sort of like two separate films being made almost. Bill suggested we don’t collaborate which showed great trust in both of us. I thought at the time that it was risky in some ways, but the juxtaposition is part of trying to capture such a complicated human being. To have somebody at the peak of their creative joy in the studio and then see somebody else who’s so lost, I think there’s a lot of strength in that juxtaposition.

When we did meet, we geeked out about Smile and both thought that was the gateway between the two characters. It felt right. Hopefully it adds another layer in trying to capture a human being on screen.

AD: Did you find it challenging to depict someone who’s still alive and as legendary as Brian Wilson?

PD: At first you do feel, what is the responsibility here? He’s alive. He has fans around the world. I think I felt so connected to him that it faded quickly. I was trying to chase his spirit around for months until filming, trying to get a feel of it. It was challenging, every day was a see-saw. There were times I had so much fun in the studio with these musicians who were playing live, working with them and improvising. Bill had two cameras, and it felt like we were making an album. But then, we might do a scene with his father or with mental illness, so you’re going from a real high to a real low. So it was certainly challenging and up and down. I liked playing him. It was a different way of working. I was also so inspired by him, he had a lot to give with his story and music. I really learned a lot, and loved trying to figure him out.

AD: You’ve said you like playing roles where you can take away some thing from the character. What did you take away from playing Brian Wilson?

PD: There’s a lot. One thing I loved that Brian said, he said, he wanted to make music that would help people smile and help them feel. He had so much trouble in his own life, that to want that, there’s something so beautiful in that. So that spirit, a giving and generosity was something I found very inspiring. Also in the song, Love & Mercy, there’s tough times out there and people need love and compassion and he gave that to me a little bit. I think when I was talking about music too, there’s something in there. Being creative, the release and the joy that’s in that. I liked playing an artist who was searching. That trickled into my work.

AD: How have the fans reacted to your portrayal?

PD: As far as I can tell we’ve gotten a good response. They liked the studio stuff and felt they got to see where a piece of art was made. I know a lot of people wanted to go back and listen to the album after seeing the movie and I think hearing new stuff that they didn’t know was there. I think that’s really exciting to me, that you can put on Pet Sounds and think, “Oh man.” It’s been pretty good.

AD: You’re right. That’s exactly the effect it had on me. So, are you drawn to playing the complex character, it seems there’s a pattern; There Will Be Blood, 12 Years a Slave, and this?

PD: I guess so. I think I like reading something and not knowing how I’m going to do it, but knowing that I can, or I think I can. A few of those characters you mentioned, I feel are quite far from myself. There’s something in that which turns me on. I do think that I like having to dig around and figure something out, and I like feeling challenged. Conflict is at the heart of drama, so having characters that have conflict in them feels like there’s something to chew on.

AD: We’ll be seeing you in Youth next?

PD: That’s out in December with Michael Caine and Jane Fonda. I really like the film. I have a fun character in that, named Jimmy Tree. He’s a movie star who’s holed up at this hotel, getting away from the life and preparing a role. I think it’s a fun part.

Then in January, I did a six-hour mini-series of War and Peace for the BBC and Weinstein. I spent six months in Russia doing that.

AD: How was that experience?

PD: Oh man. It was another world. You spend six months in something, it’s definitely a period in my life. It was great. It was full on and heavy duty. I learned a lot. I got to go to parts of the world I wouldn’t have gone to. I think it’s going to be good. I have a really beautiful part, I play Pierre who’s trying to figure out how to live, or how to be happy. It’s beautiful stuff to be working with.

AD: I’m excited!

Love & Mercy is out now on DVD