As part of the Mill Valley Festival Film Festival‘s “Closing Night,” Edward Norton‘s “Motherless Brooklyn” screened. Paired with James Mangold‘s “Ford v Ferrari” for the night’s double feature, it was the awards contender’s Western United States premiere, marking Norton’s first time at the popular Northern California festival since “Birdman.” Based on Jonathan Lethem‘s eponymous novel, “Motherless Brooklyn” is finally seeing the light of day two decades after Norton signed on to adapt it in 1999.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but I was busy with other things,” Norton told said. “It took a while to finish writing it, and then there’s a very special cast in this. I wanted specific people, so I waited ’till I could get them.”
His patience paid dividends, as the all-star cast includes Norton, Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Bobby Cannavale, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Leslie Mann, and Michael Kenneth Williams.
Most of these actors were cast in new roles created for the film. “We used the murder of his mentor and friend, but the film is set in the ’50s,” Norton said. “All of the characters played by Alec Baldwin, and Willem Dafoe, and Gugu, and Cherry Jones – they’re all a totally separate plot not in the book.”
Specifically, Norton was drawn to Lionel Essrog, the central character, who suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome. “The more interesting challenge, if you have characters with any kind of condition or disability,” Norton explained, “is capturing the total humanity as opposed to just the condition.” It’s a challenge in roles that Norton has sought out repeatedly throughout his career, to indelibly sympathetic effect.
“Motherless Brooklyn” opens theatrically on November 1, 2019. Watch the full interview below.