Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Richard Linklater, ‘Blue Moon’ follows the gloom and bloom of lyricist Lorenz Hart across a single night in 1943. Specifically, it is the opening night of ‘Oklahoma!’, a Broadway musical composed by his former partner, Richard Rodgers. Dissatisfied with the course of his life and that of art in general, Hart finds solace in his young friend and emotional companion, Elizabeth Weiland, for whom he has strong feelings. As the night goes on, however, Hart’s tug of war with himself at Sardi’s is completely overshadowed by Rodgers’ success party. Amidst all of this, Elizabeth glides in and out of the narrative like a constant reminder of everything in life that Hart wants, but also much beyond that. As such, in a movie full of artists of renown, 20-year-old Elizabeth emerges as perhaps the greatest enigma of them all.
Elizabeth Weiland Was a Real Person Who Allegedly Exchanged Letters With Lorenz Hart
Elizabeth Weiland appears to be a semi-fictional character primarily based on a collection of letters sold to writer Robert Kaplow that were addressed to Lorenz Hart and signed Elizabeth Weiland. In a conversation with Time Magazine, Kaplow said he stumbled across the letters — about a dozen — in Nyack, New York, and, upon reading, found them closer in feel to “a Larry Hart lyric.” In these epistolary exchanges was the story of a young girl who was seemingly mentored by Hart and had enjoyed many a conversation with him. Kaplow went on to say that Hart also ended up falling for her “impossibly and illogically.” Many of these details ultimately formed the blueprint for Elizabeth’s portrayal on screen, which is not without its fair share of creative liberties.
Kaplow’s characterisation of Elizabeth seems to involve a number of creative touches with no direct connections to real life. For starters, the movie introduces her as a student at the prestigious Yale School of Fine Arts. Real-life records from that time, however, do not list anyone named Elizabeth Weiland as a Yale student. Similarly, her name does not show up in records from the period’s art and fashion circles, which is odd considering that Elizabeth is referred to as a creatively ambitious student. With the movie frequently referencing many real-life figures, and even bringing a fictionalized version of some, such as E. B. White, to the screen, Elizabeth’s limited links to real life stand out. As such, there is a chance that most of her character has been dramatized for the movie.
Elizabeth is Possibly a Vague Collage of Various Real-Life Figures
While Kaplow may have drawn inspiration from the letters he retrieved in Nyack, most details surrounding Elizabeth’s role in the story have been created from scratch by the writing team. It also appears that this rendition is partially influenced by other real-life figures from the era, completely unrelated to Elizabeth and her letters. In the film, she mentions that her mother, Theresa Weiland, is closely associated with the Theatre Guild, and while that detail is invented by itself, it does draw loose connections to Theresa Helburn, one of the co-founders of the Guild. Notably, Helburn was also an accomplished poet and short story writer, which somewhat lines up with Elizabeth’s description. However, as of writing, the creative team has not confirmed any such correlation between the two.
As per Kaplow, Hart proposed to at least two women in his lifetime, and while we know one of them was the famous actress and singer Vivienne Segal, the identity of the second remains a mystery to this day. Some reports suggest that the second person was also an actress, and that she, just like Segal, ultimately turned the lyricist down. ‘Blue Moon’ fictionalizes Hart’s dynamic with Segal to an extent, and that is used as a connecting thread to his time with Elizabeth Weiland. While it is possible that her character is meant to step into the role of this mysterious second actress, nothing in that vein has been confirmed by Kaplow.
Margaret Qualley, who plays Elizabeth in the movie, described filming for the role as a life-changing experience, especially as she was in the company of industry titans like Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke. Qualley has reportedly been a fan of Linklater since the release of ‘Boyhood,’ and with ‘Blue Moon,’ she decided to go above and beyond to do justice to her character. A part of that process was to don a completely new hairstyle and hair color, in order to fit in the period-specific visualization. Accordingly, Qualley went for a platinum blonde bob, bringing Elizabeth Weiland one step closer to reality.
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