The dozen covers were all recorded in front of a live audience. "We didn't use playback," Demme says. "We're not sweetening it up on the soundtrack. It's performance! I have to say with our band – I shouldn't say it, but I want to say what I feel in my heart – Ricki and the Flash blow away every original." The director says Streep prepared for the role of a leather-clad rock star by practicing guitar for six months. (EW compares the character to "Melissa Etheridge, Lucinda Williams and/or the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, albeit in a punkier vein.") And the three-time Oscar-winner's commitment was so intense, she even suffered bodily harm. "She goes, 'Jonathan, look! Blood!'," Demme says. "Meryl had shred so fiercely, a little blood had spattered on her baby blue dress." Gummer says her mother was prepared to take on the grueling part, thanks to her previous singing experience in musical films like 2008's Mamma Mia! and last year's Into the Woods. "She loves, loves, loves to sing," Gummer says. "Loves it more than almost anything. She in part did this so she'd have permission to sing – and I couldn't tell her to shut up!" Ricki and the Flash has further music credentials, with pop-rock hitmaker Rick Springfield playing a guitarist in Streep's band. The film – written by Diablo Cody (Juno) – also stars Kevin Kline, Sebastian Stan, Audra McDonald and Ben Platt. |