5 Things We Learned on the Set of 'PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping'
Andy Samberg in ‘PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping’ (Universal)
Hundreds of twentysomethings waved glowsticks in the air and packed the perimeter of the stage at the world-famous Forum in Inglewood, not far from LAX. Girls dance across stage while a man dressed head-to-toe in Native American tribal gear clutches a microphone. Blasting from the multimillion-dollar sound system: an inaudible “train wreck” of two hip-hop songs clashing over one another. It’s terrible to listen to, and it’s exactly what Lonely Island was going for one afternoon in late June of last year.
We were on the set of The Top Secret Untitled Lonely Island Movie, which has since been given its official title, PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Co-written by LI’s founding members Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, co-directed by Schaffer and Taccone, and headlined by Samberg as Conner4Real, a hugely famous rapper-singer whose career starts to fly off the rails right as a documentary crew begins following him on tour, this could be the movie we’ve been waiting for from the hilarious and multi-talented comedy-music crew. Here’s what we can finally unveil from that Top Secret set visit:
1. The movie is a parody of all those pop-star concert docs.
Every bubble-gum pop star has had one. Miley Cyrus had Best of Both Worlds (2008). The Jonas Brothers had The 3D Concert Experience (2009). Katy Perry had Part of Me (2012). One Direction had This Is Us (2013). Justin Bieber had Never Say Never (2011) AND Believe (2013). PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping is Lonely Island’s answer to those fan-servicing blends of show footage and behind-the-scenes “access.” As producer Rodney Rothman (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) explained, “It’s their version of one of these movies where you’re a fly on the wall for six months, but you have all these interstitial performances on the tour that are these big cinematic spectacular numbers… It’s a two-pronged thing: It’s supposed to make the artist look really good, and on the other hand it’s supposed to be up close and personal with an artist.” In a word, said Rothman: “Propaganda.”
Co-directors Schaffer and Taccone said they watched all of those concert docs once, then revisited some of them “to see angles and catch vibes.” Schaffer, by the way, genuinely recommends One Direction: This Is Us. “That was kind of my favorite,” he said. “It’s actually kind of great.”
Schaffer, Taccone, and Samberg on the set of ‘PopStar’ (Universal)
Where the comedy does not tread, however, is trying to replicate the feel of the greatest fake concert doc of them all, the Monty Python-esque This Is Spinal Tap (1984). “Everyone’s 100 percent aware of that movie, it’s the best,” Rothman said. “This is a little different, just in that everything has obviously evolved in the last years in terms of musicians. There’s a lot more to play with. But it’s hard to enter this space and not be aware that you’re probably competing for second place, and I think everyone’s fine with that.” Their movie, the filmmakers promised, does have a wolf attack. You can’t say that about any of those other concert docs, real or fake. “There’s all this crazy s–t that would never happen in real life, but then once you film it in documentary fashion, it seems real,” Taccone said.
2. Conner4Real: The many inspirations behind the man behind the music.
Samberg’s Conner4Real has a career arc similar to friend-of-Lonely Island Justin Timberlake… and Beyoncé. Like those ‘N Sync and Destiny’s Child alumni, Conner was initially part of a collective: The Style Boyz, a Sacramento-raised trio of the early 2000s also consisting of Taccone’s Owen and Schaffer’s Lawrence. The Lonely Island guys describe the group as a blend of Sublime and License to Ill-era Beastie Boys (which we must admit actually sounds pretty awesome). “Their music is stupid, but it’s really catchy music,” Rothman said. “However, like in a lot of these groups, there’s often one person who’s more talented.” So Conner blows up as a solo act, Owen becomes his DJ (i.e., the Ryan Lewis to his Macklemore), and Lawrence leaves the music business altogether to become a farmer.
On the surface, the rapping white pop star Conner bears the most resemblance to Macklemore, but the filmmakers insist he’s not parodying a single real-life artist but is an amalgam of different pop stars. “We’re not basing our characters off any one person at all,” said Taccone. Schaffer elaborated: “There are moments where he’s magic on stage where he’s more like Katy Perry or even Taylor Swift,” Schaffer said. “And then he sings a lot, which is kind of like Drake. Because he sings and raps, and also has a lot of pseudo-political [songs and] thinks he’s really intelligent, [he’s] like Macklemore with his rants. [And] when the world kind of turns on him, as happens in the movie, he kind of goes into 'the press is against me’ kind of Kanye [West]-style.”
Still, there was at least one insane occurrence of life imitating art. Taccone recalled writing a scene where Conner develops a special brand of “Air Max kind of Nike shoe” modeled after a turtle, where the big toe sticks out of the sneaker. “And then the next week, Macklemore came out with a salmon-themed shoe,” he recalled. “There’s like eight things that happened like that in the movie.”
Watch a new trailer for ‘PopStar’:
3. They’re on a rock, they’re on Lonely Island.
Art indeed imitates life. While Lonely Island became viral sensations thanks to digital shorts on Saturday Night Live like “Dick in a Box” and “Lazy Sunday,” Samberg has clearly become the most high-profile of the three, not only for his SNL face time but other solo projects like Brooklyn Nine-Nine. "I think on some level the guys are refracting a bit on what happened to them,“ Rothman said. Schaffer confirmed as much. "In real life he’s more famous than me or Jorma. It’s that way in the movie.”
Pop Star on the whole, however, is a Lonely Island joint through and through. The music, especially, strikes that perfect balance of knee-slapping humor and toe-tapping listenability. Still, there’s a clear difference: “The Lonely Island is comedy rap, this is supposed to be earnest music made by an idiot,” Rothman explained. Added Schaffer: “Some of [the songs] could have been one of ours but a lot of them have a perspective that is either dumber or more arrogant than something we would have done on our own.”
Samberg in ‘PopStar’ (Universal)
4. About that music…
Lonely Island wrote about 25 original songs for the movie — for The Style Boyz, for Conner’s solo career, and for his rival Hunter the Hungry (Chris Redd). “They really operate 100 percent like a real group,” Rothman said. Though the group doesn’t necessarily like discussing what they’ve cooked up for Pop Star. “Sometimes talking about them just ruins them, or falls flat,” Schaffer said. But we’ll give you a taste, and trust us, they will not be ruined or fall flat.
Conner has a boastful hit song called “I’m So Humble” that he performs with an army of holograms (of himself), each with their own personality, on stage. “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,’” Taccone said. There’s a conflict song called “Should I Move?” in which Conner debates whether or not he should buy a new mansion he has spotted. There’s a riff on Macklemore’s “Same Love” called “Equal Rights” that they promise is much more misguided. And there’s a love ballad called — what else? — “Bin Laden.”
Rothman marveled at how fast the group is able to turn around new music, especially Taccone: “He makes them in like four hours,” the producer said. “He’ll just go away and be like, 'We need some Hunter the Hungry songs.’ And then Jorma will just email you at like 1 in the morning and there’ll be a fully fleshed-out, hilarious track.”
5. The posse goes deep.
There are dozens of cameos from famous (real) pop stars and other comedic actors, though we’d advise you to avoid the movie’s IMDb page and let those be a surprise. We can tell you about a few of the supporting cast members, though.
Lonely Island’s fellow SNL alum Tim Meadows (Ladies Man) plays Harry, the manager who discovered The Style Boyz and helped guide Conner to subsequent solo fame. “He’s like whoever Justin Bieber’s manager is,” Meadows said. “As you can see I didn’t research this role.” Though he did develop a backstory for his character: “I keep thinking this guy was going to be in Tony! Toni! Toné!, but he made a mistake and quit right before they became big.” Sarah Silverman plays Conner’s no-nonsense publicist, Paula. “She’s really one of the few people in his life who tells him the truth,” Rothman explained. “Although he often thinks that she is joking.”
British actress Imogen Poots (Green Room) plays Conner’s girlfriend, “who is loosely like a Jennifer Lawrence in that she’s in a YA franchise, a famous one called Cube Theorem,” Schaffer said. Hunter the Hungry, played by breakout Chicago comedian-rapper Redd, is a hip-hop anarchist and Conner’s opening act on the tour. But the run of shows coincides with Hunter’s celebrity exploding, and he begins staying on stage longer and longer each night. “His ego has gotten to be… Titanic size,” Redd said of Hunter, who he based on equal parts Tyler the Creator and Kanye West. “He’s just a monster.”
And again, there are all the cameos. But the Lonely Island guys would rather you not know about them. “I’ll say this,” said Taccone. “There’s a s–tload of people in this movie.”
PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping opens June 3. Check out the new poster:
