Kevin Kline tries to capture essence of Cole Porter

Kevin Kline, who studied piano and composition at Indiana University, had to hone his musical muscles before taking on the role of Cole Porter in "De-Lovely" — a film about the legendary composer of classics including "Just One of Those Things," "Begin the Beguine" and "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)." But not too much, he explains. Cole was only a so-so singer, and unlike Gershwin, an equally bad pianist.

Still, the two-time Tony Award winner ("Pirates of Penzance" and "On the Twentieth Century") and star of movies such as "A Fish Called Wanda" (a best supporting actor Oscar) and "Sophie's Choice" was apprehensive about plunging into what he calls a "musical movie" rather than the more conventional "movie musical."

Using songs as a soundtrack for Porter's life, the Irwin Winkler film shows him reminiscing about the highs and lows — from his loving but sexless bond with wife Linda (Ashley Judd) to the horseback-riding accident that cost him a leg. Kline sat down recently to talk about capturing a complicated life in a musical biopic.

Q: A number of musicals are in the works in the wake of the Oscar-winning "Chicago." Is the genre still a challenge for modern-day audiences?

A: Bursting into song can be intrusive, of course, but as a composer, I had a motivation. Porter's songs are a main character in the film, one that permits us to know him more intimately. The music and the narrative scenes work contrapuntally, several voices at once. Though Porter was the most social of creatures, he was a private man who expressed his pain, his passion through his music....

Q: "Night and Day," the 1946 Warner Bros. picture starring Cary Grant, never revealed Porter's sexuality.

A: That's true, though whenever Porter hugs his wife in the movie, his eyes are focused elsewhere. And a scene on a train with a lot of men may have been a "code." Porter was a contradictory, complex man, and I'm glad our screenplay didn't whitewash that. Unlike Tchaikovsky, he didn't seem tortured by his sexuality. He was unapologetically who he was, boasting that he had an insatiable appetite for life and all it had to offer. Porter had a ruthlessness, a commitment to the creative process, that interfered with a healthy, conventional daily existence....

Q: Screenwriter Jay Cocks, who had been criticized for taking liberties in "Gangs of New York," sent out a memo cautioning that his Porter interpretation was impressionistic, not literal.

A: I would go so far as to say "cubistic." While you're seeing one thing, you're seeing the back of it — offstage, onstage — at the same time. The setup is similar to "All That Jazz," in which choreographer Bob Fosse is commenting on his life. Porter wants it to be entertaining, good theater. But he's torn between the truth and a good story.

Q: You insisted on singing live instead of lip-syncing later on.

A: I lip-synced on "The Pirates of Penzance," and it drove me crazy. Great camerawork, the acting was good, but the sync was a little off on one word. That was an operetta, while in "De-Lovely," most of the contexts in which I sing are very intimate. Sitting at the piano, I'd sometimes start talking the song. If Ashley looks at me a certain way and I think, "My God, she's dying" — I can't incorporate that if we've already recorded in a studio. You've got to make it happen while the camera's rolling.

Q: At 56, are you more selective about the projects you take on?

A: You have to be. You realize that time is very limited. People start dying. First your parents. Then your friends. And you start going to tributes. I went to Meryl Streep's [American Film Institute] Lifetime Achievement Award the other week, and I've received a few of them myself. You ask yourself, "What am I supposed to do now — die?" I'm halfway through what I'd like to do with my life, whatever the hell that is. Those honors used to be given to someone in their 70s or 80s. But it's less about retirement these days than about TV ratings.