PLAN AHEAD
It’s easy to see why Edward Norton was captured by the character of Lionel Essrog, the detective with Tourette syndrome in Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel “Motherless Brooklyn.”
“He puts you inside the head of a person whose exterior condition is incredibly disruptive and chaotic, and he puts you inside his thoughtful, sensitive head,” Norton says. “You’re halfway through the first page, and you’re so bought in to the hilarity and poignancy of this, and you sort of say, ‘I’ll go wherever
— Ed Masley this guy wants to go.’”
But Lionel’s head isn’t just thoughtful. It’s jam-packed, bursting with thoughts. With sounds and words and memories that he is constantly taking apart and putting back together in an inner monologue. Occasionally, a fragment of thought bursts out as a spontaneous squawk or obscene fragment of Dadaist poetry.
“That’s what anybody remembers about the book. Lionel is a vehicle that will go anywhere,” North says.
Norton’s inner monologue is also jampacked with thoughts, judging both from his career as an actor, writer and producer and from a recent phone interview, which was supposed to
The Valley salsa favorite promises a Latin jazz explosion at this lively festival of Cuban popular music and rhythms while celebrating the marriage of BeBop and Afro-Cuban rhythms. This concert is part of the Lakeshore Music Series. be cut off at 10 minutes … but that was barely enough time for one question. He was definitely game for a few more.
Norton wanted to adapt “Motherless Brooklyn” as writer, director and star 20 years ago, but he didn’t quite have the clout. The film, which opened Nov. 1, is only his second feature as a director, after 2000’s “Keeping the Faith.”
But since his debut in 1996’s “Primal Fear,” playing a murder suspect who may or may not have multiple personalities, Norton has racked up critically acclaimed performances with some of the best directors in the business.