The Soloist

A schizophrenic (Nathanial Ayers played by Jamie Foxx), is a homeless musician from Skid Row, Los Angeles who dreams of playing at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Through "chance," he meets a journalist (Steve Lopez played by Robert Downey Jr.), who tries to help this mentally disturbed man get "back on his feet" and make his dreams come true.

Lopez was walking through downtown Los Angeles three years ago when he came upon a man playing a violin. Over the following weeks, Lopez kept returning to that street corner to listen to the music and learn more about the man who made it. Those visits resulted in a series of newspaper columns in which Lopez introduced the homeless musician to his readers.

"His name is Nathaniel Anthony Ayers. He was a little over 50 years old when I met him," he says. "He grew up in Cleveland and got interested in music through the public school system back then in the 1960s. Mr. Ayers, after high school, went to Ohio University to study upright bass and later got a scholarship to Juilliard, which was quite rare. He was one of the few - if not the only - African-American students at Juilliard in the late 1960s.

Around his second year at Juilliard, Lopez told his readers, Ayers began having problems. Although his musicianship was outstanding, he had trouble focusing in class. At the beginning of his junior year, he had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He left Juilliard and ended up on the streets of Los Angeles.

Today, Ayers is getting treatment for his illness, and while his recovery is far from complete, he now has a lot of people looking out for him. Lopez also has been changed by the friendship the two men developed. Ayers also introduced Lopez to the reality of the link between homelessness and mental illness.
[Voice of America News, February 2009]