ED HARRIS - HARRIS FASCINATED BY BEETHOVEN'S HAIR

ED HARRIS became a student of LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN while researching new movie COPYING BEETHOVEN and became fascinated with stories about the composer's hair. The POLLOCK star listened to nothing but the deaf music man's works for months and put on weight to portray Beethoven on the big screen, but it was stories about the composer's hair that proved to be the highlight of his studies. He explains, "There's this whole thing about his lock of hair. There's a guy in San Francisco who's got a Beethoven museum there and the hair is co-owned by him and a fellow down in Mexico. "They supposedly have done DNA tests on it and it was loaded with lead so they think part of why he died was from lead poisoning and was even the cause of his deafness. I don't know how true that all it is, but it's very interesting." As a result of his in depth studies, Harris perfected Beethoven's look for the film, working with his very own "wig woman" to capture the composer's style. He adds, "I worked with a hair lady to get good wigs... Each hair is put in there individually. It's amazing. "I also wore brown contacts because Beethoven didn't have blue eyes, like mine, so that took a little while to work out. In the end I think I resembled the paintings of him."