Paul Dano names his best experience working on a movie: “I think it went well enough”
Anyone who touches the realm of biographical movies usually needs to know what they’re getting into. It’s one thing when the character exists on the page, but when there’s the real-life version of that person in front of you, it’s both easier to take notes and harder to capture the essence of who they were in their everyday lives. While Paul Dano has managed to depict fantastical versions of someone like Steven Spielberg’s father in The Fabelmans, he said he was thrilled to have the experience of working with Brian Wilson on Love and Mercy.
But compared to every other great music biopic out there, the Brian Wilson effort is a bit of a different beast. Whereas films like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman had their moments of trying to cram every single piece of Freddie Mercury and Elton John into a solid two hours of film, seeing Wilson at two completely different points in his life tells the audience a lot about the person rather than the genius we’ve heard about for so long.
In fact, there’s a lot more common between Love and Mercy and a film like I’m Not There, which depicts different pieces of Bob Dylan’s life. Though the Dylan-focused film is much more abstract, seeing Dano’s take on Wilson having a ball before cutting immediately to John Cusack playing the scared older version of him is a much more jarring experience to watch.
Though Cusack’s portrayal leads to some of the film’s best moments, Dano has the 1960s version of Wilson down to a tee. From his subtle mannerisms to how he carries himself in the studio, it’s easier to see that kid with a fire in his belly looking to put together music that will make people smile.
While filming someone trying to recreate the feeling of making Pet Sounds is no easy feat, the core of Dano’s performance relies on subtlety. Regardless of how fantastic a take sounds, just one eyebrow raise or change in his eyes lets you know whether he thinks the song is slipping or if he’s finally hearing the results that he wants.
Dano even got the chance of a lifetime working with Wilson afterwards when performing the song ‘You Still Believe In Me’ onstage, telling Hot Ones, “[It’s] probably my best experience I’ve had as an actor with Love and Mercy and I think it’s because of the music. I was nervous, but I think it went well enough, and Brian was a super sweetie to me.”
Listening back to Dano singing, though, he didn’t have to worry about a thing. Both in the film and onstage, it’s sometimes hard to tell where the master takes from Pet Sounds stops and his voice starts, especially when he goes into that falsetto towards the end of the song. The same thing happens when he plays a demo of ‘Surf’s Up’ in the movie, almost like he took the demo of Wilson singing at the piano and somehow adjusted his entire voice to suit the moment.
Then again, being a good actor doesn’t automatically make you a phenomenal singer. It’s about doing the leg work when working on a role, though, and during every second of the film, Dano seemed to have the spirit of Wilson baked into his bones before the cameras even started rolling.
