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THE BEGINNING: MEETING JOHNNY CASH
When the young J.R. Cash emerged from the Air Force into Memphis, Tennessee in the mid-1950s, there were no such things as rock stars. All Cash wanted was for people to hear his songs and their stories of hard-luck characters seeking faith and redemption. Young, brash and on fire, Cash would become part of the birth of rock and roll. He would influence many heart-on-the-line folk singers, truth-talking country artists and riled-up punk rockers. The rough-gravel voice, the percussive simplicity of his songs, the way he aimed his guitar at the audience like a rifle sight, and the emphasis he placed on hard work and human worth made him idolized by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joe Strummer, U2 and Coldplay.
Yet few people know the full story of the young Johnny Cash - how he fought for his genre-busting music, how he nearly flamed-out before he reached greatness, and how he found a love that would change his life. Writer-Director Mangold, like so many people from all walks of life, had always admired Cash, and had long been fascinated by his seminal role in the history of American music.
In the 1990s, Mangold was in the middle of production on Cop Land, a modern Western and a richly complex tale of redemption starring Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta, Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, when Konrad, a Producer on Cop Land, asked Mangold what he wanted to do next. Mangold told Konrad he had been gripped by the idea of making a movie about Cash. Konrad found that the rights to Cash's life story were held by the Cash's close friend, actor-filmmaker James Keach (whose wife Jane Seymour had starred with Cash on television's Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman). Mangold and Konrad approached Keach, and together the three agreed to develop the project, with Gill Dennis and Mangold writing together.
"I remember vividly the excitement Jim and I had when our very first meeting with John and June was set up," recalls Konrad. "We flew down to Hendersonville, Tennessee and they invited us over for breakfast. We were waiting in the lobby of a Holiday Inn and suddenly I heard this booming voice. I turned around to hear: 'Hi, I'm Johnny Cash.' And there he was, in his boots and jeans. He picked us up in his diesel Mercedes and we went to their house for breakfast. It was a very powerful experience. They said a beautiful grace before breakfast and they sang a song together. It was a day that Jim and I hold very dear."
Over the ensuing years, the filmmakers spent long hours with John and June, listening to stories about the early days of rock and roll, their tumultuous lives, and their long-percolating romance. Konrad continues: "As we got to know John better, Jim never shied away from asking him provocative questions that many people might have been afraid to ask. And John really trusted him. Jim inspired a real confidence in John in how Jim was going to tell this story."
From the beginning, Mangold saw a chance to tell a quintessentially American tale. Instead of cramming Cash's 70-plus years into a two-hour film, Mangold decided to tell the most dramatic, transformational and unknown part of Cash's story - the years spanning his impoverished boyhood, his rocketing rise to stardom, his near fall from grace, and his remaking himself as a legend.
"This is a story very few people know," says Mangold. "Young John and his peers were pioneers struggling to find their way. What does it mean to be a rock star when no one has lived that life before you? What do you do with all this attention? How do you handle the pressure, the money, the fans, the demands? There were no roadies, tour buses, five star hotels, air conditioning or cell phones to stay connected to your family. People like John, Elvis and Jerry Lee were just driving their gear every night from one sweltering gig to another. No one knows how hard these tours were. I thought was a world I hadn't seen on screen before."
Mangold hoped to capture some of the electrifying energy that surrounded those early days of rock music. "There will only ever be one birth of rock, one moment where a musical idea synthesizes like that," says Mangold. "That will never happen again. I saw this as an opportunity to show how this music which changed the world was created in such a modest place by kids. It was a revolution in a tiny room in Memphis."
As Mangold grew closer to John and June, he was moved by their love for one another. The filmmakers came to understand how their romance was integral to the evolution and emotions of their music. "The story of John and June as a couple was so beautiful and is such a uniquely American love story that you couldn't have written it any better than the real thing," he says. "For ten years their intimacy existed almost only on stage. Yet there was something deeply romantic about that because on stage, everything melts away and you're just alive and connected in the most primal way with the other person singing with you. It took them a long time to be able to take that on-stage connection and pull it into their off-stage lives."
Adds Konrad: "It's easy to get cynical about love these days, so Jim and I were touched being in the presence of two people who supported each other through every thing that can happen in a life. John and June were magical together. You realize their foundation was love, which allowed them to survive the hardest times and let them give so much to the world."
As for the film's title, Mangold sees the concept of "walking the line" as central to Cash's own struggle. "I think the song 'Walk the Line' means so much to so many different people because it's about the effort we all have to make in order stay on the path. The song doesn't deny evil or pretend the singer is above temptation. John simply sings his personal truth, the act of being a good man is a job you have to work at every day," he says.
"He was singing," Mangold continues, "about his struggle to contend with all these tidal forces coming together in his life, issues he hadn't faced from childhood: addiction, falling in love with June, and family responsibilities."
As Mangold wrote the screenplay with Gill Dennis, they referred back to Cash's two autobiographies: the 1986 Man In Black and 1997's Cash The Autobiography - both of which looked at the highs and lows of his life with unsparing candor and wit. Delving deeper, Mangold and Dennis used John and June's songs as a guide. Mangold contacted dealers in vintage records stores around the world, unearthing rare, early Cash and Carter tracks that helped illuminate his life story; Cash's lyrics were a window into his thoughts and feelings during this period. "It was fascinating to see how the songs John wrote during that period had so much to do with what he was going through at the time. They tell an intense personal story, sometimes indirectly, but still quite revealing. While John never did hard time, he wrote so many songs about prison because he identified with convicts. He felt like he had made huge mistakes he could never be forgiven for; he was imprisoned for decades by his own heart." says Mangold.
Though June Carter Cash died in May of 2003 and Johnny Cash followed her just five months later, Mangold and Konrad were gratified that the couple were able to read several drafts of the script and provide feedback. "The experience of getting to know these two people who were so giving, kind and trusting, made us want to do right by them," says Konrad. "We felt fortunate that they at least had a chance to read the script, and that they were satisfied with how we had told their story."
Sums up producer James Keach: "When Johnny Cash became a rock and roll star, he went into the ring of fire, as June would say. Ultimately, his story is a love story; it's about redemption, it's about the history of rock and roll, and it's a spiritual journey of how a man found himself."
CASTING JOAQUIN PHOENIX: BECOMING JOHNNY CASH
"He was willing and able to be the champion of people who didn't have one. And I think the power of his performance came from the tension between this man who was deeply spiritual and also a real wild man. I can see how rappers would love that 'I shot a man in Reno' attitude. But to me, he doesn't represent danger, he represents integrity."
-- Kris Kristofferson in Rolling Stone
Cathy Konrad saw a photograph of Joaquin Phoenix that brought to mind the coiled energy and underlying emotion of the young Johnny Cash in the 1950s and 60s. The resemblance transcended the physical. "There was just something in Joaquin's eyes," says James Mangold, who agreed that Phoenix was perfect choice to play the young J.R. Cash. "He just had that same sense of searching for something. Joaquin has the honesty that is so much a part of who John was."
Following his instincts, Mangold cast Phoenix without further meetings. It turned out that Johnny Cash was also a fan of Phoenix's performance as Emperor Commodus in Gladiator, for which Phoenix received an Oscar® nomination.
In pursuing the role, Phoenix went with his gut. "When I heard that James Mangold was directing a movie about the life of Johnny Cash, I wanted to do it without even reading the script," the actor recalls. "I just had a really good feeling about it, and I liked the idea of playing such a complex man who led an incredibly rich life."
Phoenix didn't know a lot about Johnny Cash's early years as a rock and roll pioneer, and the actor found the story to be very revealing. "Many people only know Johnny Cash as the 'Man in Black,'" he says. "It was exciting for me to learn about his early years and his breakthrough at Sun Records, just as rock and roll was taking off."
Phoenix was drawn to Cash's deeply human contradictions. He based much of his portrait on June Carter's observation that Johnny had two distinct personalities: the man she called John and an alter-ego she named Cash. Cash was the wild, obstinate, ego-driven man who was drawn to the dark side of human life; John was the honest, vulnerable and deeply searching man within.
From the minute he got the part, Phoenix began carrying a guitar. He immersed himself in Johnny Cash's life and music, reading his autobiographies, watching documentary footage of his earliest recorded performances, and listening to every Cash recording. Though Johnny Cash passed away before Phoenix had a chance to work directly with him, the actor was pleased that Cash had approved of the casting. "I was excited by how heavily involved Jim Mangold had been with John in writing the script and how Jim was determined to get it right," says Phoenix. "That really meant a lot. It took some of the pressure off, because John was someone whose integrity you could always sense. People appreciated John's genuineness."
Phoenix knew if was going to get inside the soul of Johnny Cash, he would first have to get inside the soul of the musician. Cash's stage mannerisms and guitar style had to become an organic part of Phoenix's performance. Recalls Mangold: "One of the things John told me about whoever was going to play him was, 'I just hope they know how to hold a guitar. You don't hold it like it's a baby and you're frightened it's going to break. You grab it by the neck.' So I knew that Joaquin had to approach his guitar like it was something he had lived with all his life - and that's what he did."
"Johnny moved on stage in very specific ways, he had a specific guitar strum that contributed to the energy of his performances," observes Phoenix. "I had to familiarize myself with the guitar because it was almost like a physical extension of John. It was his best friend, and I think he felt vulnerable whenever he didn't have it in his hands."
Phoenix didn't want to imitate Cash's singing voice; instead, Phoenix's vocals had to come from somewhere deep inside. "Jim wanted a raw approach, to capture the intimacy that comes from someone writing a song and then singing it in that moment," says Phoenix. "You can't lip-sync that that kind of scene because it's so integral to the character. Music is always part of how John communicates what he's feeling and seeing - and it couldn't be faked."
A sense of spontaneity was a key to Phoenix's performance. "I learned there was always something unpredictable about John's early shows. You never knew when he was going to just stop in the middle of a song and start chatting up the audience, and I thought it was important to try to capture that spontaneity," Phoenix says. "The film takes place in a time before people put on polished live acts. There weren't light shows or special effects. It was just a man on stage, baring his soul. And for me, that simple honesty and intimacy is what John was about."
Phoenix then had to switch gears as he faced some of Cash's most turbulent and agonizing moments, including Cash's attempts to shed his nearly ruinous addiction to amphetamines. "Johnny started taking them in the late 50s almost for practical reasons," notes the actor. "These artists had such an intense touring schedule; they were own roadies, techs, and bus-drivers. Johnny took amphetamines mostly just to keep going - and he also said that it gave him a kind of confidence on stage during this time. But it became excessive, and he went through a rough period of addiction. It was also during this time that he was falling in love with June."
For Phoenix, the love story between Johnny Cash and June Carter was special. "She was a woman who wouldn't take any sh t - and that was really important for John," he comments. "He needed that kind of force in his life. He'd always loved her music. But when he met her, he saw that she was completely his opposite in many ways - there was something so grounded and self-assured about her that it taught him a lot about how to survive."
Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were thrown into a whirlwind of emotion throughout WALK THE LINE. "We went through a lot of difficult things together," says Phoenix, "because we knew we had to take on both the good and bad of these characters."
"But in the end," Phoenix summarizes, "I couldn't have found John without the way Reese found June."
CASTING REESE WITHERSPOON: BECOMING JUNE CARTER CASH
"Her great passion and mission was lifting up my dad. She was his dearest companion, musical partner, soulmate and best friend."
-- Roseanne Cash in a tribute to June Carter Cash
Casting Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash in WALK THE LINE was just as instantaneous as choosing Joaquin Phoenix to play Johnny Cash. "Reese was simply our first choice," states Mangold. "I had known Reese for awhile and was always struck by how very much her energy was like June's. I thought this role would offer her a real opportunity to show both sides of herself. There's one persona of Reese's that we see in her comedies: a sharp, sassy, beautiful, super-confident young woman. But Reese is also a devoted mother of two, who is wise and connected to the world around her. Similarly, June was a comedic figure on stage - daffy and sassy and funny - but when the curtain came down she was serious about being a breadwinner and a good mother to her children."
And then there was the matter of chemistry. Says Cathy Konrad: "We could see from the start that Reese and Joaquin would be great together. June had a wonderful energy and life to her that John fed off of, and Reese radiates that beside Joaquin."
"Playing June was a very emotional experience for me," Witherspoon comments. "I felt right away that it was going to be a huge responsibility to play such a wonderful woman whose life meant so much to people. I mean, June Carter's writings and books have inspired me a lot, as a mother, as an entertainer and as a wife. So it was challenging and humbling and harrowing - all at the same time - to take on this role."
Witherspoon began her preparations by trying to get inside June Carter's world. "Fortunately, Jim really got to know June and John as people, and since Joaquin and I were never able to meet them, we learned a lot through Jim and his stories," explains Witherspoon. "Jim's passion for who they were and what they stood for was inspiring."
Mangold spoke at length with Witherspoon about how June changed Johnny's path after he hit rock bottom. "June was no dummy. She understood that darkness would always be a part of John's life," Mangold observes. "She also knew that the shadows John was exploring were vital to his art. But she wasn't going to abide by cruelty or irresponsibility, especially when she knew who he really was inside. She drew her own line with John that made it clear what kind of man she expected him to be if he was going to be with her."
Like Phoenix, Witherspoon found the heart of June Carter not only in her personality but in her music, especially her musical relationship with Johnny Cash. Suddenly, the actress was immersed in a brave new world of live performance she'd never imagined. "I really had no idea when I signed on to this role that I would be spending months taking autoharp lessons, singing lessons, working with professional musicians, and then recording tracks every day," she notes. "In many ways, it was completely overwhelming. But it was also a lot of fun and an incredible educational experience. I got a very compressed taste of all the incredible things June Carter learned throughout her life."
As she developed new skills as a singer and performer, Witherspoon developed a sense of how June Carter's feelings for Johnny Cash evolved during those early years. "I think that from the minute June gets caught in John's guitar string, there's a profound connection between them," observes Witherspoon. "But they were both married to other people, so they kept that connection and put it into their music. I think it's really interesting how their romance developed, because it took many years for them to be fully ready to commit to each other. Yet once they came together, they were never apart."
She continues: "To me, their marriage became something really beautiful and amazing. There's something special about finding someone who is both your soul mate and your best friend. In part, WALK THE LINE appealed to me so much because I really believe in those ideals, and the story of John and June is a chance to celebrate it."
Witherspoon was especially inspired by Joaquin Phoenix's emotionally raw performance. "It was wonderful to work opposite Joaquin because he is so great at creating authentic drama," she summarizes. "He seemed to get to something essential about the soul and spirit of Johnny Cash in everything he did."
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX "WALK THE LINE" JOAQUIN PHOENIX INTERVIEW
GOING LIVE: PERFORMING AS JOHNNY AND JUNE CARTER CASH
THE SUPPORTING CAST: FAMILY, LOVES AND ROCK AND ROLL LEGENDS
THE FILM'S DESIGN: LIFE ON THE ROAD WITH JOHNNY CASH
THE HISTORY: ABOUT JOHNNY CASH AND JUNE CARTER
JAMES MANGOLD (Director/Co-Writer)
GILL DENNIS (Co-writer)
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