As a challenge, it’s ‘De-Lovely’

Kevin Kline, who studied piano and composition at Indiana University, had to hone his musical muscles before taking on the role of Cole Porter in “De-Lovely” -- a film about the legendary composer of classics including “Just One of Those Things,” “Begin the Beguine,” and “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love).” But not too much, he explains. Cole was only a so-so singer, and unlike Gershwin, an equally bad pianist. (“He played on a riverboat,” says Kline, “and developed a strong left hand so that he could be heard over the engines.”)

Still, the two-time Tony Award winner (“Pirates of Penzance” and “On the Twentieth Century”) and star of movies such as “A Fish Called Wanda” (a best supporting actor Oscar) and “Sophie’s Choice” was apprehensive about plunging into what he calls a “musical movie” rather than the more conventional “movie musical” -- a cinematic version of a stage production.

Using songs as a soundtrack for Porter’s life, the Irwin Winkler film shows him reminiscing about the highs and lows -- from his loving but sexless bond with wife Linda (Ashley Judd) to the horseback riding accident that cost him a leg. Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Diana Krall and others interpret Porter’s work in the movie, which opens in limited release on Friday. Kline sat down recently to talk about capturing a complicated life in a musical biopic.

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A number of musicals are in the works in the wake of the Oscar-winning “Chicago.” Is the genre still a challenge for modern-day audiences?

Bursting into song can be intrusive, of course, but as a composer, I had a motivation. Porter’s songs are a main character in the film, one that permits us to know him more intimately. The music and the narrative scenes work contrapuntally, several voices at once. Though Porter was the most social of creatures, he was a private man who expressed his pain, his passion through his music. He rarely talked to the media. The press collaborated in his self-mythologizing, just as they did with FDR, who was never shot below the waist. Today, the media would be analyzing his X-rays or asking about his rehab.

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“Night and Day,” the 1946 Warner Bros. picture starring Cary Grant, never revealed that Porter was bisexual -- a central element in his life.

That’s true, though whenever Porter hugs his wife in the movie, his eyes are focused elsewhere. And a scene on a train with a lot of men may have been a “code.” Porter was a contradictory, complex man, and I’m glad our screenplay didn’t whitewash that. Unlike Tchaikovsky, he didn’t seem tortured by his sexuality. He was unapologetically who he was, boasting that he had an insatiable appetite for life and all it had to offer. Porter had a ruthlessness, a commitment to the creative process, that interfered with a healthy, conventional daily existence. There’s a great quote by the artist Fernand Leger at the end of [the Calvin Tomkins book] “Living Well Is the Best Revenge”: You have a good life, you’ll have mediocre work. Great work, mediocre life. Chekhov, too, said that the pram, the baby carriage, in the doorway is the enemy of art.

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Did you have to figure out what line to walk -- neither sanitizing Porter’s bisexuality nor playing it too camp?

Cole wasn’t camp ... and to play a gay man like that would be a cliche which I always try to avoid. When I kissed Boris goodbye in the bedroom in Venice, we shot some lingering, more passionate kisses, but Irwin wanted it a little less carnal. At a test screening for [the 1997 comedy] “In & Out,” I was told, a 250-pound football player-type stood up and screamed “Stop the madness,” when he saw me kissing Tom Selleck. But then, that was a very long, insane kiss with my legs wrapped around his waist. Some people can’t stomach that, even between a man and a woman.

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Screenwriter Jay Cocks, who had been criticized for taking liberties in “Gangs of New York,” sent out a memo cautioning that his Porter interpretation was impressionistic, not literal.

I would go so far as to say “cubistic.” While you’re seeing one thing, you’re seeing the back of it -- off stage, on stage -- at the same time. The setup is similar to “All That Jazz,” in which choreographer Bob Fosse is commenting on his life. Porter wants it to be entertaining, good theater. But he’s torn between the truth and a good story. Sarah Monzani’s makeup helped me get into the role. I was able to act through it -- it didn’t wear me, as so many prosthetic makeups do. It took five hours to apply the old-geezer stuff and ... an hour and a half to take it off. The Armani clothes also fed the performance. Porter was almost foppish. They made fun of him at Yale.

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You insisted on singing live instead of lip-syncing later on.

I lip-synced on “The Pirates of Penzance” ’ and it drove me crazy. “Great camerawork, the acting was good, but the sync was a little off on one word.” That was an operetta, while in “De-Lovely,” most of the contexts in which I sing are very intimate. Sitting at the piano, I’d sometimes start talking the song. If Ashley looks at me a certain way and I think, “My God, she’s dying” -- I can’t incorporate that if we’ve already recorded in a studio. You’ve got to make it happen while the camera’s rolling. Besides, making the sound perfect in a hermetically sealed environment is not what my singing part was about. The sound engineer told me I couldn’t sing “Easy to Love” in the park. He wanted to control things in every way. We did have to scrap one or two takes because of airplane noise, but at least I could be in the moment.

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At 56, are you more selective about the projects you take on?

You have to be. You realize that time is very limited. People start dying. First your parents. Then your friends. And you start going to tributes. I went to Meryl Streep’s [American Film Institute] Lifetime Achievement Award the other week and I’ve received a few of them myself. You ask yourself, “What am I supposed to do now -- die?” I’m halfway through what I’d like to do with my life, whatever the hell that is. Those honors used to be given to someone in their 70s or 80s. But it’s less about retirement these days, than about TV ratings.

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On dipping into the composer’s classics

“De-Lovely” tapped 14 singers for cameo interpretations of the Cole Porter songbook. Below are the reflections of four high-profile artists who took his works for a spin.

SHERYL CROW

“Begin the Beguine” was actually an up-tempo song in a major key. But Irwin’s [director Winkler] vision for it was to be the backdrop for this very high-drama scene. He wanted it kind of dirge-like, sultry, orchestrated in a minor key. It was very difficult to sing because there are lots of words and it’s a typical Cole Porter “low meets high” range. I play a nightclub singer, jamming with my musicians at 3 or 4 a.m. The costume helped with the transformation. You put on a pair of gloves and suddenly find that your moves are like Lena Horne.

ELVIS COSTELLO

It’s a joy to do one of Porter’s songs and particularly one of the more unusual songs [“Let’s Misbehave”]. One that maybe doesn’t get revived so much because it rhythmically belongs a lot in [its] time. It’s a foxtrot, and there aren’t too many of those on the charts today.

DIANA KRALL

I’ve always wanted to be in a period piece and wear bright red lipstick and lots of makeup and be able to feel part of another era. Cole Porter is one of the greatest composers of popular songs. His music can be pulled and stretched and put back together again, interpreted in many ways. It was nice that the film allowed me to have creative freedom within this period piece.

ALANIS MORISSETTE

Incorporating contemporary artists into a period piece was a sneaky way of inviting the new generation to investigate Porter’s work. A real creative challenge. To see familiar faces can be jarring to an audience, pulling people out of the story. That it didn’t happen has to do with our reverence for the man, our willingness to transform ourselves. As an autobiographical songwriter myself, I relate to his willingness to put himself out there. The more I knew about his life, the more I connected with his songs. They were real diary entries.