The story of Cyrano de Bergerac is one that we’ve told time and time again, so what is it about Cyrano—the musical film adaptation from Erica Schmidt and directed by Joe Wright, out today—that is so different? It’s Roxane (played by Hayley Bennett) having her own agency that makes this story less about two men trying to trick a woman into falling in love and more about two men underestimating a woman’s ability to be less superficial than they are.
The musical adaptation is one that left me crying in the theater and feeling emotions for this story that I haven’t in previous takes on it, the closest I’ve come to feeling for Cyrano being the James McAvoy production. But we, as a society, have grown in how we look at characters like Cyrano de Bergerac and what Erica Schmidt did with this adaptation was make it more about Cyrano’s own views on himself instead of the world around him.
In preparation for the film’s release, I spoke with Erica Schmidt about adapting the show into a musical and what inspired her in the first place with a character like Cyrano. “I love the Rostand play, I was commissioned to do an adaptation of it to turn it into a musical and I wanted to do a play with music, through composed underscored almost like a cinematic work on stage and I approached the band The National with the idea,” Schmidt said of the origins of the musical.
And Schmidt did an incredible job crafting the show into something that wasn’t a carbon copy of the Rostand play and brought new layers to the characters we’ve come to know throughout the years.
I also spoke with Kelvin Harrison Jr., who plays Christian in the film. Christian is the handsome soldier that Cyrano lets take his words to woe Roxane, but Harrison Jr.’s performance is one of a man just trying to find his place whether it be in love or as a soldier and he brings a charm to the role that I haven’t seen before. Harrison Jr. brought up how the best part of the film, for him, was Peter Dinklage. “I think the best part about it is Pete,” he says in response to the reaction to a film like Cyrano and went on to talk about the reaction to what the characters are doing.
“When you really invest into a character, you escape into the moment. You know, you start to believe in these stories,” Harrison Jr. said, which is a fascinating way of looking at character development. “You believe in these relationships between Christian and Cyrano and Christian’s love for Roxane so when we shoot this stuff, we’re not really thinking about the reaction. It almost makes the job worse if you start to watch what’s happening.”
Harrison Jr.’s take on Christian is a brilliant one and makes the character less about a man just trying to trick a woman into loving him and more about a man trying to find his place, and it’s incredible to watch.
You can see our full conversations here:
Cyrano is in theaters today!
(image: MGM)
