// ARTICLES
"Walk the Line" features two local musicians
Two valley residents make their big-screen debuts
Bruce Fessier
The Desert Sun
November 17, 2005
Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are getting most of the raves for the new Johnny Cash biopic, "Walk the Line."
Oscarwatch.com has picked them as likely Oscar nominees for the film, opening nationally Friday and tonight in a private screening by the Palm Springs International Film Society.
But valley residents may also want to pay attention to the actors playing Elvis Presley and Cash's mother, Carrie.
Singer-actor Tyler Hilton of La Quinta and country star Shelby Lynne of Rancho Mirage are making their big screen debuts as those characters.
Hilton, who is featured in the WB drama, "One Tree Hill," plays Elvis on a 1955 tour with fellow Sun recording artist Cash.
Lynne, who met Johnny and June Carter Cash while opening for Cash's supergroup, the Highwaymen, plays Cash's gospel-singing mother.
For Hilton, playing Elvis was a dream come true.
"I always wanted to do an Elvis movie," he said by telephone from the East Coast. "I remember calling a friend of mine, Mark Thompson (of the syndicated radio duo Mark & Brian), and saying, 'What about you writing a movie about Elvis from when he was a kid until he went into the Army?'"
Hilton got the Elvis role in "Walk the Line" when he answered a call for musicians to be stand-ins in the film.
"We were all supposed to learn a Johnny Cash song and play it in our audition," he said. "I guess they thought I looked like Elvis because when I finished playing 'Long Black Veil' they asked if I knew any Elvis songs. 'Oh, no problem.' Played them a couple, one of which, 'That's Alright, Momma,' they ended up putting in the film. Then they asked if I'd be into reading some Elvis lines. And that's that."
Hilton studied for the role by listening to interviews Elvis gave as a young man. He found Elvis' spirit by listening to him go from sounding innocent to flippant.
Even Hilton was impressed seeing "Elvis" on the screen.
"I was sure I was going to see Tyler Hilton," he said, "but I was actually pretty surprised. It was pretty cool. It was the most like Elvis I could be."
Lynne said she had her Hollywood agent get her an audition after hearing about the project.
"I went in to do a reading and I got it," she said in a telephone interview from her Rancho Mirage home.
She read what little there had been written about Cash's mother, and created a strong but loving woman from a combination of great women she knew.
But she found it difficult watching herself on screen.
"It's pretty weird," she said with an Alabama accent that's just slightly different from her character's Arkansas dialect.
"It's good. But I don't think I want to watch it again unless I'm by myself. It makes my nerves shot."
Hilton and Lynne didn't get to work together, but Lynne said she worked with pretty much everyone else in the cast.
"I span 35 years in this film," she said. "I think it's a great movie. I would definitely go see it if I was in it or not."
Hilton has more limited screen time, but he got to work with both Phoenix and Witherspoon, as June Carter Cash. He was impressed by both, but Witherspoon, best known for her ditzy role in "Legally Blonde," surprised him with her acting.
"I was really, really shocked by how good she is," he said. "Joaquin, I knew he was good. That was no surprise to me."
The film has been rewarded with honors and praise at such film festivals as Toronto, Telluride, Hollywood and the AFI.
But both Hilton and Lynne are proud that it does justice to two of their musical heroes.
"I think it's an important film," Lynne said. "Johnny was somebody that meant a lot to everyone. He was an innovator and a unique person.
"I think Johnny was powerful and that's important. In order to be a great influence on the world you have to be a unique individual and he was that."
Hilton, who recently was named one of nine young people "born to lead" by CosmoGirl! magazine, found playing Elvis inspired an amazing reaction.
Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz had to do his portrait after seeing him as Elvis. He got to visit areas of Graceland "even Al Gore couldn't get in to.
"It was such a big deal to everybody," Hilton said. "It felt good. It was a lot of fun.
"It felt real special being Elvis."
