Edward Bloom

I think finally being in high school and having the opportunity and the privilege to be a principal role in a lead role was really, it had a lot of pressure to it.

I went into the role having the highest standards and trying to be perfect all the time and But I'm happy that that role and, you know, Curly and Edward Bloom and Big Fish, all those roles have taught me that, you know, it's, it's really about the story and how you portray the story and how, um, how you can gauge the audience and how they, how they can, how you can move the audience, um, in ways that the character, um, and the composer allows you to.

So, um, Ren McCormick was fun because, uh, I was able to dance and that's something that I just love to do.

Um, and it was, it was old dance.

Right.

And the whole reason we tell stories is to... touch some people yeah touch somebody and so yeah if you when you do that and you get that reaction you know you did it right so that's great that's awesome okay so uh talking about some of your recent roles uh you talk about the the two most recent was Oklahoma and Big Fish um what did Let's talk about Big Fish for a second.

What did Edward Bloom teach you about storytelling? Because there's a lot about that show that's about telling stories.

Right.

So he shows up to this town.

It's really... beautiful but also creepy and they're like they pull out a list and they're like oh yes edward bloom you're here early and so now it's like is this is this heaven and then later on the movie he re-returns and it's a desolate wasteland is it now like oh because the way he's lived his life is he going to now end up in hell so like like those type of like things that are not just explicitly disclosed of what they meant were there any that you picked up on and if so what were they

I would say, you know, the story of being hospitalized for three years.

I'm very curious about what the real life equivalent of those three years hospitalized was.

It's almost like an unachievable dream or an ideal to aspire to.

Because there was the man of, what's their last name? Bloom.

Yeah, there's Edward Bloom, the man, flesh and blood.

And then there is the archetype that he speaks about in his stories.

You have this frustrated, highly practical, pragmatic son played by Billy Crudup.

He's a journalist who deals exclusively in facts, and he is returning home to Alabama to try and reconnect with his dying father, Edward Bloom, played by Albert Finney.

But the conflict arises because the father is incapable of telling the literal truth.

Right.