Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/96458
ent expectations of what their lives should be, and different lines that their life so much. she really was an absolutely fantastic person." they follow. when you ind a commonality in that, you can see how neal cassady's son (with second wife carolyn robinson) also had far you can take it." something valuable to contribute. "when John came to see us," salles seekers tend to be what we think of as "old souls," and although said, "he communicated something fundamental: on the road is not only 22, stewart has an old-soul, introspective quality. she also re- a story about the Beat generation. it's an epic novel about young men alizes the rarity of a hollywood ilm about spirituality and meaning. [and women] 18, 20 years old, who don't know they're causing a "people are afraid of doing anything unless there's an equation you can revolution right at the moment they're doing it. it's the moment before rely on that's been successful in the past," she said. "it's really rare for the eruption, the lava forming and boiling under the surface, about to somebody to have faith in the material or the courage to actually go after something they don't know for certain "...He dressed the way he wanted, wore his hair the way that audiences are going to connect he wanted, was against the war in Iraq and interested in with on a grand scale. i ind that it's a miracle when a group comes together ecology and Buddhism. I asked him the same question: that shares the same energy about 'Yes, where is the Beat Generation?' It was in him." a project…you know that you are driven by the same things." The Heart of the Beats in preparation for ilming, director salles created a "beatnik camp," immersing the cast in old photographs and books and letters by Kerouac, cassady and poet allen ginsberg. "the idea was to create a community before we began creating the ilm," he explained. "Barry gifford, who has written extensively about Kerouac and on the road, came to the camp to talk to us about the book and characters. gifford had interviewed lu anne henderson, the marylou character played by stewart (cassady's irst marriage to 15-year-old henderson was annulled), and the recordings he made were a big help to Kristen." the actress also spoke extensively with henderson's daughter. the real lu anne was a free-spirited, very sexual woman for her time. "people talk about the women in the story being sort of a peripheral storyline, and they can be dificult to understand if you don't know really know what's going on in their hearts," stewart said. after listening to the recordings, the actress came to perceive her character as a feminist who enjoyed exploring sexual taboos. "i think she would have been very well ahead of her time now as well," she added. "she never felt like she wanted to limit anyone else's life because she loved emerge." indeed, they were the leading edge of a search for meaning that now dominates much of american culture, certainly among youth. "i felt a strong afinity to the Beat generation," salles remembered. "i was a teenager in the late 1960s and early '70s; for people of my generation, it wasn't dificult to understand that most of the liberation movements sweeping our consciousness had their roots in the generation of [writers] ginsberg, Kerouac, william Burroughs, diane di prima and amiri Baraka. they had quite simply redeined the way we were living, or the way we wanted to live. "poet michael mcclure, who was part of the movement, expresses it more clearly than i: 'the other day, a young guy about 21 asked me what happened to the Beat generation. he dressed the way he wanted, wore his hair the way he wanted, was against the war in iraq and interested in ecology and Buddhism. i asked him the same question: 'Yes, where is the Beat generation?' it was in him. sometimes it isn't easy to explain that to people." "all these writers in this era seemed like lost loons," added garrett hedlund, "but they sure did ind the pearl of what they were looking for. and they achieved far more than they thought possible." n OnTheRoad2.indd 31 December2012/January201331 11/27/12 3:23 PM