NEW YORK, May 29 (UPI) -- Actor Guy Pearce said in New York that recording his character's songs in the film "A Slipping Down Life" helped him understand the character better.
Based on Anne Tyler's book, the independent film is about a struggling performer, played by Pearce and a woman, played by Lili Taylor, obsessed with him.
"When you start to go for costume fittings and this, that and the other ... all the pieces start coming together, for me anyway, for who the character is and, obviously, one of the big steps was deciding which songs to use and then how they would sound because in creating the sound of those songs that told me exactly who he is," said Pearce, who writes music and sings when he isn't acting.
The Australian actor said that on a certain level he could relate to the character he plays in the film.
"It is a lot easier for me to express through music than any other way, so I guess I kind of understood that. Here's this character who found it difficult to communicate. He isn't very articulate and yet he gets on stage and ... playing music, he gets to express himself," Pearce said.
