Frank Langella stars as Leonard Schiller, a 70-year-old novelist determined to finish a book he’s been working on for a decade, in Starting Out in the Evening. Directed by Andrew Wagner and adapted from Brian Morton’s novel by screenwriter Fred Parnes, the film follows Leonard’s introduction to and relationship with a graduate student named Heather (Lauren Ambrose). Although initially it’s Heather who is looking for help on her thesis, her poking and prodding actually helps Leonard develop a new outlook and perspective on life.
The Appeal of Starting Out in the Evening: “First, the script,” explained Langella. “It’s always the script with me. Always the words, and they were glorious words. I kept reading it, turning the pages and thinking, ‘This can’t be true. This cannot be true.’ Then, of course, they had no money and no production planned and no actors. They had nothing. But then I got a copy of Andrew Wagner’s his first movie—his only movie is called The Talent Given Us, which is a wonderful documentary about his family. We met here at Orso’s – it’s famous now amongst the little band of us - but he didn’t say to me, ‘I would like it if you would consider doing my movie.’ He sat down and said, ‘Now, you’re going to do this movie.’ And I said, ‘Don’t be so sure, don’t be so cocky.’
We got up 3 hours later and I was crazy about him. Then we had many, many, many hours before I committed, many hours of going through it page by page and making sure. I said to him, ‘We only have 18 days. We better know each other and we better know the character, and we better know what we’re aiming for because we’re not going to be able to stop the shoot and go sit in a corner and debate anything. There won’t be any time.’ So the preparation was actually more work than the actual shoot. But once we got through it, we were able to really concentrate on putting Leonard on film.”
Getting Inspired: The main characters of Starting Out in the Evening are very well-spoken, which reminded Langella of people from his own neighborhood. “I live in the upper west side of New York and it’s sort of on enclave for artists and writers and painters and actors. There’s always somebody who wants to talk profoundly about something in a coffee shop. It’s a great city to live in for that particular thing.”
That said, Langella didn’t model his character after anyone in particular. “No, just…those men all over my neighborhood. They’re just everywhere. They’re so polite, so unfailingly polite, even to the point where I’ll be coming along Central Park West off my bike or a run or just walking, and I’ll get to the door of my building and one of these older gentlemen—and they’re older than I am and I’m old—and they’ll get to the door and he’ll go like that [motioning with his hand to go ahead] and not in any phony way. ‘I have all the time in the world. You go in first,’ and I’m very touched by that. It’s around more than we think it is. It just is. We don’t see them because they’re not all over television. They’re not pushing themselves on us in the media, but they’re all there; that generation of really old world, old-fashioned people who observe a Seder in my building. Just lovely on the holidays. Just wonderful.”
The Source Material: Langella hadn’t read Brian Morton’s book prior to working on the film. “I asked Andrew Wagner if I could read the book. I said, ‘I won’t read it if you tell me not to.’ He said, ‘Please don’t because the Leonard I want to create with you is not really quite the Leonard in the book. I don’t want you to be confused.’ I said, ‘But I can just pick things from it that work.’ He said, ‘No, don’t.’ I said, ‘You’re underestimating me.”
Although he has the book now, Langella has no plans to read it. “I don’t think I will. First of all, I have to tell you, and I’m not being disingenuous, I didn’t expect any of this from this movie. I expected—I had a wonderful time doing it—but when I saw it I was stunned by how beautifully he sewed it together. I’m just going to keep the memory of the movie.”
On the Set of Starting Out in the Evening: Langella said it was an interesting experience because they were confined to a real westside apartment that was very small. “There was a room off camera literally 2 feet away where Lauren and Lili [Taylor] and Adrian [Lester] and I changed. There was a little curtain hung up and Adrian and I were on one side of that curtain and we’d run in and make our changes. Lili and Lauren and someone else who came into that set were on the other.
One morning the producer called me and said, ‘The A.D.’s car broke down on the highway and I’ll be picking you up.’ She arrived with a sandwich in her hand, this old jalopy and I jumped in and we drove downtown to the village to shoot a scene in a restaurant -the scene where I come in very ill and Adrian takes me to the bathroom. I had to change clothes in that bathroom because there was no place else to change clothes."
A Little Leonard’s Left Behind: Asked what he took away from playing Leonard, Langella replied, “It’s such a cliché but what I did take from Leonard was a sharper understanding of the time I waste, of the time I don’t use creatively or intelligently or emotionally or romantically. The hours and hours we all waste in contemplativeness or fear or passivity. He reminded me of just a step up because I’m not as old as him but I’m close, and playing him reminded me of how foolish it is to live in the past or for the future but just to live now, which is the big catch word these days, you know? The book of now and now in the moment, but properly applied it is absolutely true. There is only this moment and if you do look at it that way and say anything in comparison to now is ridiculous - you can’t say that was better, this is going to be better; this is going to be worse. The now is where you should be, so he kind of reminded me of that and I took stock of it.”
