BONO DOES BEATLES IN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Bono does The Beatles in the film Across The Universe where he stars as “Dr. Robert.” Now on DVD (edited 12/29)

Bono stars in the Jukebox musical, Across The Universe, which is a film based around the music of The Beatles. He stars across from Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, and he plays an aspiring rock star and ladies man in the style of the west coast beat-poets of the ’60s.

Bono talked about the development of the Dr. Robert role, which he created with director Julie Taymor.

“We kind of concocted the character, myself and Julie. At first I thought that I could do the home, Dublin or Manchester or something like that, but she wanted to be true to the time period, west coast, sort of part of that beat fraternity where you had Neil Cassidy, I knew had Timmothy Leary as it happens. I never saw Neail Cassidy, I studied film of him. This film with me, it’s kind of, it’s almost like he wanted to be a rock star and he has all these kind of jerky moves, all this self confidence and kind of plays with women… So I thought, ‘Oh that’s interesting.'”

Bono added he was suprised at how well the piece and the music of the fab four holds up today.

“It’s not exactly the same, but it’s analogous to what’s going on today. There’s… this is a time of change, the start of the 21st Century. We’re into a digital era, the information age, but yet it’s hard to get the information out. People are a little spooked. The war in Iraq means that these songs that were written in the Vietnam era have extra resonance.”

Across The Universe opens nationwide September 21, but a limited run in select theaters took place over the weekend. Beatles songs in the film are sung by members of the cast with Bono taking “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “I Am The Walrus.” Joe Cocker also makes an appearance on “Come Together.”