Glenn Howerton goes bald in first look at drama about the rise and fall of BlackBerry

In the based-on-real-events BlackBerry, Glenn Howerton plays Jim Balsillie, the former co-CEO of the Canadian corporation that made the titular, and once wildly popular, smartphone.

"The movie is about the rise and fall of the company Research in Motion that created the BlackBerry," says the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star. "[It's about] the interesting and fascinating ways in which they rose to the top of the market, and singled out the BlackBerry as the most important phone in the world to have, and made it such a desirable device. And, of course, the hubris of thinking you've figured it all out, and then something comes in like the iPhone and sweeps it all away from you before you realize it."

Howerton describes Balsillie as "a very savvy businessman who jumped into this venture when it was really just a bunch of tech guys who had no idea what they had on their hands. Jim had the relationships; he had the contacts, he had the personality and the drive to really push it forward."

Balsillie also has much less hair on his head than Howerton, a look that the actor copies in the film, as you can see in the exclusive image below.

Elevation Pictures Glenn Howerton in 'BlackBerry'

"We made a decision very early on to shave my head instead of trying to wear a prosthetic or a bald cap because I think it wouldn't have looked as good," he says. "I really get distracted in movies by bad wigs and bad bald caps, so I wanted to avoid that as much as possible."

BlackBerry costars Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up, This Is the End) and is directed by Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche).

"Barachul plays Mike Lazaridis, who is really the brains behind the whole operation," says Howerton. "Then Matt Johnson, our esteemed director, plays the third partner, Douglas Fregin, who was basically Mike's best friend, also a tech guy, far less ambitious than Mike or Jim, but nonetheless a crucial ingredient in the whole thing."

Howerton and Barachul are best known as comedic actors, which begs the question, how funny is the movie?

"It's weird," says Howerton. "Matt, the way he talks about the movie, it's almost like he's describing it as a comedy. But it's not a comedy, at least in my mind. I was not playing it for laughs, even though Matt thinks my character's hilarious. I thought it was a very interesting choice to cast two people that are most known for comedy in what I was reading to be more of a drama."

The cast of BlackBerry also includes Cary Elwes, Saul Rubinek, Rich Sommer, Martin Donovan, and Michael Ironside. The screenplay was written by Johnson and Matthew Miller, adapted from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff's book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry.

BlackBerry will make its world premiere at Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 17 and will screen at SXSW in March. The film hits theaters on June 2.

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