Warren Beatty avoids the conventional in Howard Hughes film ‘Rules Don’t Apply’

TORONTO – Warren Beatty steps into the shoes of Howard Hughes in “Rules Don’t Apply” — just don’t call it a biopic.

“When you take a person that did actually live and you take his name, you take all kinds of liberties with chronologies and various things — and so it becomes a fiction,” said the Hollywood legend, who also wrote and directed the new film that opens Wednesday.

“It was that way with Clyde Barrow in ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ and Bugsy Siegel in ‘Bugsy,’ or John Reed in ‘Reds,’” he added, listing off his other famed leading-man portrayals of real-life figures.

Rather than producing a run-of-the-mill retelling of the eccentric billionaire’s life, Beatty sought to explore his story by examining his wealth and power in the context of a six-year period, from 1958 to 1964.

“It was an interesting vantage point to take a look at American sexual puritanism of the late ’50s and early ’60s, when the rise of feminism really was great, and what we have often referred to as the sexual revolution of the 1960s,” Beatty said.

“Rules Don’t Apply” explores the budding romance between small-town beauty queen, songwriter, aspiring actress and devout Baptist Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins) and her ambitious driver Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), a Methodist who is engaged to his high school sweetheart.

Both are employed by Hughes, who has forbidden romantic relationships among his employees. In addition to addressing their burgeoning feelings for one another in the sexually and culturally repressed ’50s, both Marla and Frank are also seeking to leave a strong impression and make professional and personal inroads with their reclusive boss.

“I’ve always been kind of amused by Howard Hughes,” said Beatty. “The predicament that people would have in being involved with him, working for him, knowing him.”

The star-studded ensemble cast includes Beatty’s wife, acclaimed actress Annette Bening, as Marla’s mother Lucy; Matthew Broderick as Hughes Company senior driver Levar Mathis; Alec Baldwin as real-life businessman Bob Maheu; and Candice Bergen as Hughes’s secretary, Nadine.

Collins studied actresses of the era, both those who achieved success and others who weren’t as fortunate, and marvelled at the training they underwent in their pursuit of stardom. Having the ear and voice of Beatty — who was a rising star during that era — was “a total gift,” Collins noted.

“There were very poignant themes that he wanted to touch upon in that movie that without his guidance, Alden and I — being of this generation — wouldn’t have known appropriately how to convey them in a non-caricature way, in a very honest and pure way,” said Collins.

“When you’re dealing with religion and morals, the person has to so innately believe what it is that they believe as opposed to just being told, ‘OK, your character is this way and you believe this.’ I need to understand that better by someone explaining how it was for them and that was great that Warren was there for that.”

“Rules Don’t Apply” sees flashes of emancipation and a pathway towards empowerment for Marla. Following the film, Collins said she became much more appreciative of the advancements for women in the industry.

“Playing a character that so believes she had to abide by those rules to be successful and to see what women did go through back then, it makes me obviously more hopeful now for women. But also, it does strike a chord in that now, if things aren’t actively already being pursued out there for women, we can go out there and do it ourselves.

“I did a film recently where it a female writer, director, producer, some of the grips … the sound department — they were all women. That wasn’t the case in the 1950s, so I feel very hopeful about that.”

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