Did he really play piano?
Did Geoffrey Rush really play the piano in the movie?
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MovieChat Forums > Shine (1997) Discussion > Did he really play piano?
He learnt to finger sync well enough so that it looked like he was playing properly, and made sure to hit all the right notes that people would focus on the most. Other than that, he said he just made a lot of racket.
shareRush is an actor, not a musician.
shareIt's possible to be both - The Marx Brothers were all accomplished musicians, Larry Fine of the Three Stooges was reportedly an excellent violinist, Steve Martin can play a mean banjo, John Lithgow has played guitar on several children's books and, from what I've heard, Woody Allen is quite good on the clarinet.
Then again, Keanu Reeves has his own rock band that's horrible, however, he's not a good actor either.
At a 2016 Q&A Rush stated he did not learn how to play the passages (although that was his original intention) but was taught how to impersonate playing. His tutor payed particular attention to he fingered at the end of each bar. By getting the right them just random-ish fingering or the rest of the pieces resulted in a very convincing result. Whilst Rush could not have played the actual music he certainly dedicated a lot of energy and perseverance into imitating it very well.
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