Grant and Bennett in Music and Lyrics
Music and Lyrics is a Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore romantic comedy, but there’s plenty of room for supporting characters to shine. Newcomer Haley Bennett plays Cora, the pop star who hires Alex Fletcher (Grant) to write her next hit. A wild amalgam of all the current pop tarts, Bennett fought her conservative instincts to embody Cora.
Haley Bennett Supports Music and Lyrics
“It was very difficult, I must say,” said Bennett. “It took a lot of heavy breathing. I think there are certain characteristics that pop stars have, and I sort of put them altogether and picked out the things that stood out.”
The musicians Bennett admired are more from the ‘80s era that Alex comes from, not the Britney-esque performers she was mimicking. “Madonna, I'm a singer-songwriter myself in real life and really aspire to people like her. I hope the movie helps me more than anything else because I am so different from her. It was so much a role, so much a character. Cora does a lot of dancing and I think my music's more sort of ballad-y. I have some things that I rock out to but I don't have all the gyrating moves and humping.”
There is a particular scene that has Cora writhing all over the floor in her interpretation of Alex’s love song. “That was my first scene. My mother and my stepfather were there, and I had to tell them to leave. But I practiced it so much, and let me tell you it is really strange practicing that dance alone in your bedroom. You're like thinking, ‘Whoa, I'm losing it right now.’ Crawling on the floor, you really think you're strange at that point.”
Cora’s outfits get smaller and smaller as the film progresses, so Bennett had to reveal more and more of herself. “I think that they inched me up to it. I think I got more comfortable, especially because I had to lose weight. I think to be in those outfits you had to feel that you were in good shape and feel good and healthy about yourself. All those girls, they're thin and muscular and dancing every single day. So as time progressed I got more comfortable in my own skin, I think. And it was somewhat of a growing experience.”
She just let the wardrobe designers have a field day. “I wouldn't even go there. I would never object. I went to my fittings and I was just so grateful I was in this movie, I wasn't going to complain about what I had to wear. Obviously, I wouldn't get nude or anything, but I didn't object. I just think I worked harder, knowing I was going to wear those.”
An aspiring actress/singer, look for more from Haley Bennett after Music and Lyrics. “This is my first professional job. I moved to L.A. last summer with my mother and I immediately got into acting classes and lessons. Besides, I'd been doing it at school all of my life, and choirs and drama and musicals but we moved out there from Naples, Florida, the summer of going into my senior year, and I was home-schooling myself, and Music And Lyrics was actually one of the first auditions that I went out on.”
With the acting career underway, music is next. “Actually I'm meeting with record labels right now. I have 17 of my own songs that I've written, co-written. I have the album ready so I'd love to get picked up by a record label hopefully if I'm fortunate enough for that and hopefully this movie is sort of a catalyst.”
Music and Lyrics is out in theatres now.
For poster, trailer, stills and more movie info, head over to the Music
and Lyrics Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
|
Add to Heffee!
