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Directed by Jonathan Demme. With Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Sebastian Stan. A musician who gave up everything for her dream of rock-and-roll stardom. Ricki and the Flash (2015) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.

Rick Springfield on What It’s Like to Jam With Meryl Streep. This has been a nice summer for Rick Springfield, the Australian- born actor and rock star whose career took off in the U. S. That year he had a No. Jessie’s Girl,” while also appearing as heartthrob Dr. Noah Drake on the soap opera General Hospital. This year, he’s got another twofer: an attention- getting appearance as a creepy plastic surgeon- psychiatrist on the second season of HBO’s incomprehensible if hypnotic True Detective; and a co- starring role opposite Meryl Streep in the new Jonathan Demme film, Ricki and the Flash, in which Streep plays the lead singer of a Southern California bar band who returns to Indiana to make peace with the ex- husband and three children she left to pursue—not very successfully—her muse.

I don’t think it’s giving too much away to reveal that, by film’s end, Ricki’s big heart and go- for- it spirit have papered over any lingering abandonment issues. Springfield plays Greg, Ricki’s lover and the lead guitarist of her band, the Flash. On keyboards, bass, and drums are a trio of real- life musicians, Bernie Worrell, Rick Rosas, and Joe Vitale, who have played and recorded with the likes of Parliament - Funkadelic, Neil Young, and the Eagles. Again, I don’t think it’s giving too much away to reveal that the music, the palpable pleasure the band and Streep take in playing together, lifts the movie in a way its often predictable script can’t match. Here, Springfield talks about making music with Meryl Streep, enduring an old- school, Judy Garland–style facelift for True Detective, and acting under the gun on General Hospital. Watch Living In The Age Of Airplanes (2015) Movie Online. Bruce Handy: So as I understand it, you were the last piece of the puzzle in terms of casting the band? Rick Springfield: The core of the band was all set up, all great players.

Jonathan wanted the music played live. So he wanted an actor who could actually play the guitar, who could do solos and actually hold his own with these other players. I didn’t really think I had much of a shot at the part. I thought I could do it, but I figured I was probably at the bottom of the list, because there’s got to be a million guys wanting to work with Meryl Streep in a new movie. The first audition, they wanted to see the chemistry of me and her playing together, so I learned a couple songs and went in. And I felt pretty comfortable.

What songs did you do? We did “Keep Playing That Rock and Roll.” We did the Lady Gaga one . We went through a couple of songs and they liked the vibe. I knew what the character was and so I brought that character in, as far as playing with her.

And they liked that. It was a blast to do it. We did two weeks of rehearsal at an abandoned club in New York, working eight hours a day, going over the songs, arranging them, rehearsing them, picking parts, and playing a bunch of stuff in between, just launching into other songs. And Meryl loved that. We’d be sitting there in between numbers, and she’d be, “Play another one.”How was it working with her as a singer? She was capable in Mamma Mia!

She’d ask questions during the rehearsals, about how’d she sing on the mike, how she’d hold the guitar at certain times. But it’s all her. She brought that character to life. It had nothing to do with . But what really sells it to me is that she was incredibly brave and that she was that character. She’s not Meryl Streep when she sings.

She’s Ricki Rendazzo. Is that how you say that name? I could never pronounce it. I’ve done a lot of live recording, and for a non- professional singer to attempt what she did is pretty astounding. What songs did you all jam on?

We did everything. Often 6. 0s stuff. Joe Vitale wrote “Rocky Mountain Way” with Joe Walsh, because he’d known Joe Walsh since college, so we did that. We played Beatles, Kinks. She said it was the most fun she’d ever had on a set.

Because everyone loves music, and we all grew up in the same era and have the same childhood memories. Streep and Springfield in Ricki and the Flash. I’m curious about how they did your makeup. Because meeting you—I hope this doesn’t come out wrong—you look like a normal person. But your character, Dr.

Pitlor, had had so much interesting- looking “work” done. It was described in the script pretty much how they did it. First, they did weird shit with my hair, combing it weird and curling it, so it almost looked like a wig, and then putting in bad plug spots . And there’s a tape that they stick here and here . But here they wanted a weird, distorted look, to just add to his creepiness.

It gave me a hell of a headache wearing that thing all day, for sure. But it was great to not be Rick Springfield in a part, which I’m not in Ricki and the Flash, either.

I’m playing a sideman who’s in love with a girl. I’m not the good guy that Greg is, honestly. Tell me about the beating scene in True Detective. Have you done that kind of action work before? I’ve never been beaten up that badly.

I’ve had a lot of fight scenes, and usually I’ve been the victor. He’s really full on. He’d hit and you’d feel it.

You’d come away with bruises. With Colin, we went in the day before and rehearsed it. You have to, it’s a big deal, especially a fight that’s that violent. Someone could get really hurt unless you know exactly what you’re doing. But pretty much everything in there—the throwing up, the teeth coming out—was in the script. We just had to make it real.

We’re both professionals. I’m not supposed to really get strangled, but it’s got to look like I am . I got a couple bruises, but I’ve had broken ribs before so this wasn’t too bad. The really hard thing was I had so much dialogue. I had to spit out all these revealing facts about the story line while I’m getting the shit kicked out of me, so it was a very challenging scene. The dialogue is very difficult, too, because Nic .

Your character, Dr. Noah Drake, has returned to the show a few times. Will you be back again any time soon? I would never say no.

I always assert an allegiance to the show. It was certainly there for me at the beginning, when I wasn’t doing anything.

I went back for the 5. It’s incredibly hard work. I would imagine, producing five hours of TV a week. It’s the hardest gig in the whole movie- TV world. Ant Boy 2 (2015) Video Download. It’s a lot of pressure. It’s all talking.

They can’t write new scenes every day, so you’d end up repeating a lot of the same stuff, just with slightly different dialogue. I was lucky enough when I was on General Hospital a lot, they had rolling prompters right beside the camera, which they don’t have now. You got good at it. You’d know when the red light was on. And when it went off, suddenly you’d be following the prompter getting your line so you’d be ready when the light went on again. And that’s not a way to act.

It’s really just a way to get the lines out—and for me, that’s what a lot of my work was on the soap opera, just getting my lines right.