Rolling Over Beethoven

By Rebecca Winters

With the Ninth Symphony in heavy rotation on his iPod, ED HARRIS is diligently transforming himself into yet another artistic savant. "He's the greatest musician that ever walked the planet," says Harris, who starred in and directed a 2000 biopic of painter Jackson Pollock. "I'm an actor from New Jersey." To master the maestro for Copying Beethoven, currently filming in Budapest, Harris, who has been in about a gazillion movies but may be best known for The Right Stuff or Apollo 13, has picked up piano, a pastime he abandoned in fourth grade. He's also learning to conduct. "I'm trying to figure out spiritually, intellectually where Beethoven's musicianship comes from," Harris says. Despite the demands, the role of the deaf composer does have its perks, the normally bald-pated actor admits: "It's nice to have some hair."