Rick Springfield stars in the upcoming rock and roll dramedy “Ricki and The Flash.”
Directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Diablo Cody, “Ricki and The Flash” stars Meryl Streep and daughter Mamie Gummer, Rick Springfield, Kevin Kline, Sebastian Stan, Ben Platt, and Audra Mcdonald. “Ricki and The Flash” centers around the self-proclaimed “Ricki” Rendazzo (Streep), who abandoned her family many years ago to pursue her rock and roll dreams in California. Ricki rushes home after years of absence when her ex-husband reveals that their daughter is getting divorced. With the love and support of boyfriend Greg (Springfield), Ricki attempts to reconcile with her estranged family before it’s too late. We sat down with Springfield and chatted about his upcoming role in the film, dealing with emotional baggage, separating a musician’s identity from their on-screen character and his thoughts on the 34th anniversary of his hit single “Jessie’s Girl.”
How did you get involved with the film?
They were looking for an actor who could really play the guitar and there’s quite a few apparently in L.A. it seems, but I just auditioned for it like everybody else. First they wanted to see me and Meryl playing, so they set up a band and I learned a couple songs and they liked that and then we did what they call a “chemistry read” where you sit on a couch and just read from the script to see how that works and then they offered me the part. I was just talking to the producer, Mark, and he said that I got it when I walked into the room the first time and that I owned the part. It was kind of one of those meant to be things.
What did you love about the script / story?
I thought it was a very deep script and I loved it. I love that everybody’s got issues. There’s no all good person, even at the end of the script, when it seemed like things have been healed, you get the feeling that there’s still going to be more shit afterwards, which I love it’s very real in that way and the characters are very real; they feel real, they felt real on the paper, even before I saw actors mouthing the words.
Was it easy relating to your character, did you feel like you were able to pull from real life experiences?
I was able to pull from the fact that I really play. I wasn’t really a side-man most of my career, except for when I was a kid, a teenager, but I was a solo artist pretty much most of my life. I love playing guitar and Greg loves playing guitar obviously, but it’s really about two human beings that just happen to be musicians and Greg’s character is formed by his thoughts and his actions and you take that and whatever in my life I can associate Greg to I pull from that and what I don’t, I imagine.
What was it like working with Meryl Streep? Did you help her prepare?
No, I didn’t help her prepare, but she was nervous about the guitar aspect and asked some questions when we were rehearsing and when we were filming she would ask a couple of things which looked better or more real. She brought her character and I thought she was incredibly brave doing what she did – to play guitar and sing, which I know full-time musicians who have a difficulty with that- and then doing it as a character and I hope people get how difficult that really is.
I recently read the New York Times article profiling your role for this film. Do you think those jam sessions you had with Meryl kind of helped the on-screen chemistry between your characters?
I think they were looking for that and we obviously like each other as people. I knew what the character was so when I did the band audition, I played that character who loves her and is fully supportive of her and I based that on a couple of friends I know where the woman’s the singer and her husband’s a guitar player and on stage he focuses on her and he doesn’t look very often into the crowd, he’s focusing on her and supporting her mentally and instrumentally, so I kind of built the look of the character around that.
What was it like working with the director Jonathan Demme?
Incredible. He’s a freaking genius and had such a grasp of where every character should go. I was struggling, in my mind, to figure out Greg and he not only knew Greg backwards and forwards, but he knew Ricki, he knew the ex-husband, he knew everybody and that was pretty astonishing to me.
What are your favorite songs to cover?
Well I love all the ‘60s stuff because I was raised in the ‘60s and I do a couple of covers in my live show and I’ve covered stuff like “Gloria” and “You Really Got Me.” Actually now at the moment we’re doing a cover of “Roar,” like a guitar-heavy version.
Is there a song you wish was featured in the movie?
I don’t know one of mine *laughs* but that would’ve been wrong because I had to get away from Rick Springfield for the part and they didn’t want Rick Springfield for the part and I didn’t want him in there. I wanted Greg. They did make a joke one time when she’s looking through albums in the basement. They had me sign my very first album, where I look like two years old, “To Ricki love Rick Springfield,” like she met me and I’d signed an album to her. I don’t know if they used her reaction in the film, I think there’s one point where she’s looking through the albums and she goes like this *surprised look*. I think that might have been when she saw the album.
What was the most difficult/surprising aspect of filming this movie?
The nerves about bringing my A-game was really kind of the most difficult thing. The film was incredible. It was exciting and worked and you knew it was working. Knowing, before we started, that I had to bring it, or it would show.
If you could add a chapter to your memoir about this film, what would you say? What story would you share?
It’d probably be more than a chapter actually. I’d say that if, a year-and-a-half ago, someone had said, ‘you’re gonna be in a movie starring opposite Meryl Streep,’ I probably would’ve said, ‘yeah I can see that.’ I’m a very very driven guy and believe in shooting for the stars and sometimes you actually hit the stars and sometimes you land on the moon, but either way at least you had a shot, you know? One night towards the end of the filming -I had a full beard right- I had a bit too much to drink at home and I looked in the mirror and I looked kind of scruffy and I thought ‘I can trim this,’ so I trimmed it and there was like a giant hole in my beard. I went into the make-up trailer and she said, ‘don’t tell anybody’ and she put a false beard on me so there’s one scene in the movie where I almost blew it with the beard.
You also appeared in True Detective. What was that like?
That was great. A very very different role and I guess I like it because it’s the exact opposite of Greg. It shows that I have a certain range and I like to play against type and certainly is very against type. It got a lot of attention because it was so against type and people didn’t even know it was me to begin with. Even hardcore fans said they didn’t know it was you ‘til you took your glasses off in the first scene, which is great. I want to be able to do other things. Like I said I don’t want to bring Rick Springfield to a part because it’s difficult for me, everytime I see David Bowie in a role, it’s been hard for me to get past David Bowie, so I know with musicians- it’s not like an actor where you’ve seen an actor in other roles- to see musicians use such a strong identity as a musician in all their music, to see them saying lines- it’s a little bit of a mind f*** and I understand that so being able to get past that is exciting for me.
Can fans expect a tour anytime soon?
Yeah, actually we have a summer tour this year with Loverboy and the Romantics and a new record coming out at the end of the year, my 18th album actually.
Can you tell us more about the album?
Yeah, it’s the best record yet and has 16 new songs with my road band and it’s been ready for months, we’ve just been picking the right time to bring it out. I think it’ll surprise some people and actually this week is the 34th anniversary of “Jessie’s Girl” hitting number one.
That song has such a huge legacy behind it, how do you feel about it now that the anniversary’s coming up?
I’m very proud to have written it. It’s always a double-edged sword because when I’ve had a new record out and gone on a tv show to promote it, they play “Jessie’s Girl” and it overshadows new music for sure, but it’s a door-opener too. When I signed with my new agent, I said as a musician I come with a lot of baggage being presented for a part and one of the agents said everybody comes with baggage, all the actors come with baggage too and everyone’s got their view of what that person is, that’s what you gotta get around.
Anything else you would like to share?
I’m very happy to be here. We filmed in New York and I haven’t been back since we filmed so it’s really fun to have lived here down in Soho while we shot. It was great experience.
The film hits theaters this Friday.
-Nishat Baig
