Ethan Hawke stars as legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker in Robert Budreau’s Born to Be Blue. The film follows Baker’s comeback after becoming addicted to heroin in the 1950s and sustaining career-ending injuries during a fight.
Rolling Stone debuted the trailer on Friday, which begins with a black and white performance with Baker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie at Birdland. But, things that a drastic turn as Baker allows outside influences to affect his career. When he falls on hard time the only person in his life worth living for is Elaine, played by Carmen Ejogo.
Elaine is an aspiring actress who falls deeply in love with Chet, she later tries to get him clean and off drugs as he relearns how to play the trumpet after a brutal fight nearly paralyzes him. The trailer ends with Hawke singing Baker’s famed take on My Funny Valentine.
Baker eventually fell to his death from his second-story room at Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam in 1988. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
Born to Be Blue hits theaters March 25.
