'It felt honest, moving & sort of bumpy'

It is interesting that the Ricki character is not that successful as a rock star…

There is more forgiveness in the fact that my character is supposed to be mediocre. I was immediately enamoured with the script for this movie. I sat in a chair and it made me laugh. It was very ‘felt’ and moving and sort of bumpy. It felt honest and it was funny. 

Did you ever harbour rock star dreams when you were youngerIJ

Never. When I was in high school, I sang with a band a couple of times, at these sort of country farmers granges, but I had no illusions. We played Motown and went down well with the audience — all 13 of them! So I had a little of Ricki’s experience there in that area.

You’ve worked with director Jonathan Demme before, on The Manchurian Candidate…

We worked together on that over 10 years ago and that was a very different experience. It was a remake of a famous film, and it was extremely stylized. My character was fairly straightforward, as a villain. It’s sort of flat out Iago evil. But this film had more layers and was a lot more fun to approach. It was our own to invent. It wasn’t coming from any other material.

And Jonathan has a rich connection to music. His Talking Heads films, Stop making Sense, is seminal…

He’s done amazing things with Neil Young and with Talking Heads; that’s a terrific movie. He really gets it. That’s his wheelhouse; he loves the music and so do I. I love music. Rick Springfield was maybe the biggest gift that this movie had, and all the guys in the band, Rick Rosas (the bass player) and our drummer, Joe Vitale. I had heard of Bernie Worrell (the keyboard player). I knew Rick, of course. Sadly, Rick Rosas passed away after we made this film, and we’ve dedicated it to him. He was particularly generous to me. He had played with Neil Young for 30 years and came off Neil’s tour straight into our rehearsals. And I started from zero. I didn’t know anything about anything. We had two weeks to rehearse as a band, and that’s no time at all, even if you can play the guitar! 

Were Rick and the backing band very patient with youIJ

Oh yeah. I was really at their feet. I was just in love with these guys. Then there was a moment about a week in when we started sounding like a band. It is like people say with golf, you hit a good shot and then you are in it forever.

Could you play the guitar at all beforehandIJ

I knew a D chord in college, D, G, E and A. That’s all you need! I had to learn bar chords that’s the real thing — and the blues, all that stuff. We were playing Edgar Winter and really great stuff. I love Bruce Springsteen. 

Stepping away from the music, it must have been great to work with Kevin Kline again, and with your daughter, MamieIJ 

Kevin is wonderful and a really, really great actor. I’ve known him for so many years and we’ve done a lot together in theatre and in film. Kevin is a very talented musician himself and I love working with him. And, yes, I got to work with my daughter, Mamie, as well and that was joyful. I loved doing my scenes with her and I think she’s terrific.