  Harry Connick Jr. (Reuters) |
Longtime hyphenate Harry Connick Jr. doesn't care if he's singing or acting. He hates everything he does equally.
OK, that's overstating things. But in speaking to the versatile 44-year-old performer, it's clear even after two decades, 20 albums and more than a dozen films, he's his own harshest critic, regardless of the medium.
"I'm still critical about music," he says, dispelling the idea he's harder on himself as an actor than a crooner.
"I hear myself on piano on recordings and I'm like 'How many times do you have to go down that road before you have to realize don't do it any more?' But you still make the same mistakes. Or you make different mistakes.
"And you think, 'Why did I do that?' ... I see myself on film and say, 'You idiot.' It just never ends."
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Never mind the three Grammys, the 25 million albums sold worldwide or the acting credits that include Independence Day, Hope Floats, P.S. I Love You and TV's Will and Grace.
Connick's latest role is in the fact-based family film Dolphin Tale, now in theatres.
He stars as the marine biologist in charge of the rescue hospital that took in a dolphin named "Winter" after she was ensnared in a crab trap off the Florida coast. Eventually a prosthetics expert was brought in to design her a new synthetic tail. The movie was shot on location at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where Winter lives; in the film, she plays herself.
"To see how she survived that and how she interacts with people is incredible," says Connick, who acknowledges his aquatic co-star did present unique challenges.
"I'm a wild person and I'm a physical person and we couldn't do any of that. We had to ask permission to go into the pool (and) had to ask permission before we exited the pool. We had to speak softly. In some ways, she was very sensitive to us -- in a way that we had to change our behaviour. But when you're in the pool, it sounds kind of crazy, but you really got the sense that she was human-like in some ways. That sounds crazy, right? But it's true.
"She taught me how to be quiet, which my wife was thrilled about."
Working with the staff at the aquarium, he adds, "makes you examine your own existence. It's great when you think about these folks and how dedicated they are. It makes you examine, in my eyes, 'Am I that dedicated to what I do? Could I possibly have an effect on people that would be positive like that?' "
To that end, he remembers a conversation he once had with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis.
"He said, 'You have to think of yourself as an older man and an old man and how you want to be perceived.' He mentioned two musical artists. The one he doesn't respect, I won't mention his name. But he said, 'Look at Willie Nelson -- he's constantly trying to change and struggling with his artistic process. And this other guy is just repeating the same stuff.'
"And he said, 'How do you want to be?'
"And I want to be, if I can live that long, constantly dissatisfied with my work.
"Maybe occasionally have something you're proud of, but constantly struggling. I feel it all the time."
Connick Jr. want to be in musical
Harry Connick Jr. sounds like he'd welcome a little typecasting.
"I'd like to do a musical. I don't know why that opportunity has never come up," he says.
"There haven't been a lot. Chicago would have been fun to do and Richard Gere is a really good friend of mine and I thought he was great, but sometimes I wonder, 'Why don't I get calls for that?' And I love Richard. But sometimes I think, 'Wouldn't that be nice -- to do what I do? To sing and dance and act in a film.' "
Connick begins rehearsals shortly for the Broadway production, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.
"I'm really excited about that, a little tense getting ready for it only because it's a lot of work. That's a whole different animal, you know, Broadway."
Does he think this stint might lead to big-screen musical roles?
"Not really. That's OK, though. I'm OK with that."
He recalls when mogul Harvey Weinstein told him to stay on Broadway for longer than six months so that Hollywood producers and executives might get the chance to see him.
"But I'm not going to do a show for five years. There's just too much other stuff I want to do."
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
