How Mariah Carey And Prince Helped Inform Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s Performance As A Classical Composer In Chevalier
From our interview with the Chevalier star.
Among the many exciting 2023 new movie releases hitting theaters this week is an impressive biopic about a Black musician you’ve probably never heard of. Chevalier tells the widely untold story of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who was a French Creole conductor of orchestras in Marie Antoinette’s court ahead of getting involved in the French Revolution. When Kelvin Harrison Jr. portrayed the historical figure in Chevalier, he told CinemaBlend about why he was inspired by more contemporary artists like Mariah Carey and Prince.
While making Chevalier, Harrison Jr. studied violin for seven hours a day to become the virtuoso and composer. There was only few pieces of Joseph Bologne’s original works left following much of it being destroyed in Napoleonic times. During our interview (also above), the actor shared what he was able to gather from his portrayal with the music he did get to hear. In his words:
Obviously Kelvin Harrison Jr. could not meet Joseph Bologne or even access many records at all of the man, but listening to his music gave him a lot to work with regarding imagining how he might have been like. The actor realized that the composer was a “show off,” and much like “All I Want For Christmas” singer Mariah Carey does with her discography, he didn’t shy away from providing impressive music moments in his work. Harrison also told us this:
Release Date: April 21, 2023
Directed By: Stephen Williams
Written By: Stefani Robinson
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr, Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Ronke Adekoluejo, Marton Csokas, Minnie Driver
Rating: Rated PG-13 for thematic content, some strong language, suggestive material and violence
Runtime: 107 minutes
While one would think the Kelvin Harrison Jr. movie would have the actor reaching for other classical composers of the era, he instead chose modern Black artists like Prince, Kodak Black, Lil Wayne and Drake to help him contextualize the virtuoso for himself and get in the mindset of the composer. The actor is fully aware of how surprising that is given Chevalier's time period, but it sounds like it really allowed him to embody the historical figure in his own way.
Joseph Bologne was the illegitimate son of a Senegalese servant and French plantation owner who found rank in the French nobility. In the movie, he aspires to compose and feature an original opera of his own, where he meets Samara Weaving’s Marie-Joséphine de Comarieu de Montalembert. They secretly fall in love despite it being against the law for them to do so.
Chevalier makes for a really interesting biopic, so we highly recommend you check out the movie about the forgotten classical composer. You can see Chevalier in theaters this Friday, April 21, and check out the ReelBlend podcast interview with the Chevalier writer and director.
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Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.