Jorma Taccone: Yeah, like this is, we’re finding this is the fairy tale end, which is what Andy said today. He said after 32 days, this is 33, it’s been brutal, these last couple, I mean, goddammit, I’m so bummed, because you’re finding us, we’re supposed to be doing this other song, which actually would have been a slightly more boring song, because the whole stage was covered with, it’s a song called, I’m So Humble and he decides to put a hologram of himself up on stage and he says, “You know what, once you have one hologram, we might as well have 50 holograms,” so here, there’s going to be a bare stage, but in post we’re going to put like 50 holograms, so we’re actually going to end up doing probably today, but we’ve done a ton of music stuff. The one you’re about to see though is this huge train wreck and way less fun to watch, but it’s been super, like this is been really, really enjoyable, like the stage stuff…Did they show you guys any footage? It’s massive. We went to go see this Maroon 5 show where they allowed us to go on stage and we [stole a lot of ideas].
So, you’re saying Maroon 5 is in the movie?
What am I allowed to say? No… [laugh] Yes! No! No! It’s so confusing, isn’t it? Wow, I’m being very, I’ll say that there’s a shitload of people in this movie. It’s a love song.
Universal Pictures
How much of the movie is on stage? How much of it is performance?
It’s a tour documentary, so it’s not like there’s huge portions of it that like, I wouldn’t say a big percentage, like tone wise, necessarily, but we are doing a lot of songs, in the same way that like the Katy Perry thing… performance .. we’re getting a lot of songs. I’m guessing made 11-12 of Connor’s songs, and maybe about five of Hunter the Hungry, who is this character, becomes a bit of his sort of competitive rival on tour, but they’re touring together. So, there’s a lot, and then there will be a ton of little things that we do throughout. Like in the editing rooms, we’re always trying as much stuff as we can through the process of writing and then through the process of actually making the movie and we’re always adding ideas. Like the three of us are always kind of piggy-backing on each other’s ideas and adding things as we go. Rodney, he’s one of our producers, and Judd obviously. But like, so we’re like, so we’ll be adding a ton of like music in post, like there’s like songs that we want to make sort of fill out this world of like other songs that are not even Connor’s song or Hunter’s songs, that are popular within this world that we’re creating. It’s kind of like it is our world, but there are also like additions to that and versions of our world appear in this movie too. Like we have streaming music provider in a modified kind of way. So, it’s like there’s a lot of that kind of thing, there’s all sorts of things like that.
When you’re putting this together, it’s about Lonely Island like musicians. Why didn’t you just make fictionalized versions of yourselves?
Well, what fun is that? Honestly, purely for creative reasons, you know. I would say there’s similarities, and that people will draw similarities, but overall these are very much characters. Andy is playing a huge pop star, mega kind of pop star that sort is an amalgam of everyone you can kind of think of, and we wanted like to play with all sorts of funny stuff that we found from other tour documentaries. And we love pop music and this is, there’s a send-up aspect of this, but there’s also a real love to the music and as with everything we do. So in that sense, it is Lonely Island and it’s very much in that tone, but I think that overall, we’re so different than the characters and they’re different than ourselves and we wanted to be able to play with… there’s limitations when someone is based on real life.
Universal
But you could still name the characters after yourselves.
Yeah, if we want to make ourselves more popular, it’s a good idea. I don’t know if there should be to be a character name Jorma. Honestly, just creative reasons, to be able to tell different stories.
Tell me about the cameos. You guys worked with some really cool people over the last number of years. How tough was it to get cameos and friends into the movie? Was it sort of a phone call and they were like, “I’m in?”
We realized as soon as we started this that it was definitely the height of people’s summer tour schedules. Oh, this is not what we expected, like, no, I would say, you know, coming from SNL, obviously we built up a lot of trust from the things that we’ve made on SNL, and the thing that I’m sort of talking about of how there’s a poking fun, but there’s also a love aspect. So, I think that we’ve built up a lot of goodwill within, and we have a lot of friends that are in the music industry who we worked with in the past and wanted to work with again. But I’d say, what really helped more than anything was Judd Apatow, and just the fact that this is a Judd-produced movie. So we have some trust there, but it’s been a joy to see who has showed up and I, as I tell people who is in this movie… The list is so long that it becomes very difficult to keep track honestly. And then I need some other [performer], and this person and this person. So, it’s a very, I would say, with people who in the music industry and also fellow comedians that we love, it’s a very long list.
How hands-on has Judd Apatow been?
He’s been in and out, but it’s like, he’s hands on and not, like he’s got kind of I would say a perfect blend. I’m not bullshitting, like he’s been really helpful with like the things that he cares about, like that we knew about going in, like story and heart of the film. And he’s been really emotional, making sure that we stay on track with telling that story, and also, he’s a super fucking funny dude, so that’s just, it’s great having that and a great writer, to be able to pitch each other jokes that are really funny and we’re getting a ton of alternates. It’s a different process for us than I would say any of our other Lonely Island stuff, because we’re doing improv. But like, you know, as with all of Judd’s things, I assume you get the script first and then you are allowed to expand upon it, and this project in particular, because it is supposed to be documentary and feel more live and real, like it’s helpful to go off script so it feels a little bit, I wouldn’t say messy, but just a little bit more like real like. There’s also crazy shit that would never happen in real life, but then once you film it in a documentary fashion, it seems real. I’m surprised at what we’ve gotten away with, or what I think we’re getting away with.
Can you tell us a bit about your character and his relationship with Connor?
Am I doing okay so far, not like revealing things? Yeah, no, the three of us, we’re in a band previously called Style Boys, that we sort of built together. We’ve had a falling out, so Akiva’s character goes off to become a farmer and I stick with it, because kind of become a little bit of the glue of the friendship, trying to keep everything together, or wanting to.
Universal
So, is it kind of a loyalty thing?
Yeah, I think maybe I’m just the one who, I have my own backstory, but I don’t want to get into it, but for my acting aspect of this, we came from divorced parents and it was really important, no, you know, but now I think he just really loves his friends and wants them to be a group and that was the best time of their lives and I think for each of them, obviously that’s the case, and they just have forgotten that somehow. So, I spend a lot of time wanting things to get back together, and whether we all get back together at the end.
You mentioned that Andy was an amalgam of pop stars that we know, but it sounds like your character is more closer to Ryan Lewis?
Ryan Lewis? Where did you get that? I feel like because we’re white and it’s harder to compare our pop rap brand to anything else, but people will draw their own conclusions. We’re not basing our characters off of any one person at all. The music that [our characters make] is nothing like Ryan. People will draw whatever parallels, because we’re making fun of different music… Well not “make fun of,” but you know. Like, we’re referencing it in this movie. It’s actually been amazing, because we came up with a lot of stuff for this movie, that then a week later happened. So we wrote a thing where he was developing a turtle-themed shoe that the big toe stuck out of the head of the shoe, and so it was an animal themed Air Max kind of Nike shoe. And then the next week, Macklemore came out with a salmon themed shoe! But it’s not even in the movie, but it was like shit like that, how the fuck is…? Because there’s like eight things that happened like that. As you’re referencing pop culture, before even things happen, like things were happening.
Top Image: Universal
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. He also contributes to Legion of Leia and to Blumhouse. You can follow him on “The Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
