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Post by architect on May 29, 2012 17:22:16 GMT -5
Mary J Blige talks <ROA> Who knew that Mary J. Blige, the queen of hip-hop soul, loved 1980s pop? The incomparable singer has sold 50 million albums, won nine Grammys, and recently released her 10th album, My Life II … The Journey Continues (Act 1). Now she takes on a new role as the owner of a “gentlemen’s club,” and sings songs from the hard-rock 80s in the forthcoming film Rock of Ages. Here, she talks to Lisa Robinson about music, marriage, and Tom Cruise.
LISA ROBINSON: Do you really sing Pat Benatar songs in Rock of Ages?
MARY J. BLIGE: Yes, it’s all from that time period, the 1980s, with songs like her “Shadows of the Night,” [Journey’s] “Any Way You Want It,” and [Whitesnake’s] “Here I Go Again.”
L.R.: You’re such a passionate soul and hip-hop singer. Did you ever listen to any of those 80s songs?
M.J.B.: Absolutely. I grew up watching MTV, when Journey was huge, when Pat Benatar had “Love Is a Battlefield,” and my friends and I used to cut school to watch this woman in the video. We loved Pat Benatar. I was definitely a full hard-core, hip-hop head, but the beauty about [my life] is that when I was a little, little girl, my dad and my mom played so many different things, including so much soul music, in the house.
L.R.: Who were your early inspirations?
M.J.B.: I’m going to start with Aretha, and then Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, Teena Marie, Anita Baker, the Clark Sisters. Just every female—Shirley Brown, Dorothy Moore … And then Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, the O’Jays, Bobby Womack.
L.R.: When did you get into hip-hop?
M.J.B.: By the time I was a teenager, when I went outside the house, it was about hip-hop all the time. Nothing but hip-hop, block parties.
L.R.: In Rock of Ages, you co-star with Alec Baldwin, Julianne Hough, Russell Brand, and Tom Cruise. Did you do any scenes with Tom Cruise?
M.J.B.: I absolutely worked with Tom Cruise; it was short and sweet, but I did. He did [Def Leppard’s] “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” This man, when he sets out to do something, he does it for real. He sang [Foreigner’s] “I Want to Know What Love Is,” and it sounds so good, I was shocked. He transformed into the way Axl Rose and those guys used to look; he looked like he was 20 years old. Tom Cruise is amazing. SOURCE
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Post by architect on May 29, 2012 17:28:32 GMT -5
How Tom Cruise became a Rock Legend With a flowing mane of hair, painted fingernails, a tattoo-covered torso and sweat-ingrained leather trousers, belting out a rock anthem to a crowd of screaming fans... this is Tom Cruise as you’ve never seen him before.
The actor underwent intensive vocal training to prepare for his role in Rock of Ages, based on the hit musical showcasing Eighties rock classics. He plays debauched rock god Stacee Jaxx, lead singer of fictitious metal band Arsenal. It represents one of the biggest risks in Cruise’s 30-year career. And the question on everyone’s lips is, can he sing?
‘I became riveted by the idea of casting the biggest movie star in the world to play the biggest rock star in the world,’ he says. ‘Tom had never undertaken a singing role, but had done almost everything else. It was very important not to make fun of either the period or the people. So we mashed up the mystery of Axl Rose with the sex of Bret Michaels (lead singer of Poison) and the “I live on stage” attitude of Keith Richards.
‘Then came the moment of truth.
'I said to Tom, “OK, if you can’t sing this all goes away.” He agreed. So we put him with a vocal coach and I sat on one side of the door while he had his first lesson. What I heard was unbelievable, these giant pipes.
Voice coach Ron Anderson says, ‘I went to Tom’s house for a lesson and we went through the entire range. Tom had never sung before, but I knew within three minutes he could do what we needed for the film.’ Anderson taught Cruise the bel canto method of singing – a style used by opera singers. ‘It was pretty impressive to get where he did in just four-and-a-half months. He has a full dramatic tenor voice, really large. I found out later that his great-grandparents were pretty famous singers. No one’s going to believe what they hear.’
By the end of the film, Cruise was confident enough to take to the stage in Florida to perform Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ live in front of 600 people.
‘He was nervous at first,’ says Anderson. 'But then he got a few notes out and he just killed it. The crowd freaked out. He could easily front a band. Will he do it? I don’t know. But wait until people hear him in Rock of Ages – they’ll know what I’m talking about.’ SOURCE
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Post by architect on May 30, 2012 21:29:56 GMT -5
ComingSoon.net's <ROA> Set Visit A lot of the chatter around New Line's adaptation of the Broadway musical was that they were able to get mega-star Tom Cruise to play a key supporting role as Stacee Jaxx, the world-famous rocker who threatens to destroy the romance between Sherrie and Drew when he arrive at the Bourbon Room to play a gig.
"The impulse casting was the same as the impulse to get Travolta for 'Hairspray,'" Shankman told us when the subject of Cruise came up. "The impulse on 'Hairspray' was find the biggest male musical star in the world to play this part. With Tom it was find the biggest movie star to play the biggest rock star."
Shankman says he's sick of telling the story on how he first met Tom Cruise but he told it anyway. "I was at Sadie Sandler's first birthday party, and I'm not friends with a lot of movie stars. I know them, and I work with them, but I'm not friends with them, but I went to this with my niece, and we're sitting in those plastic chairs for little kids that are this tall. And so I'm like, in this thing, doing it, and all of a sudden, another one pulls up next to me, and actually Tom sat down in another one next to me, and I had never met him before, and I was terrified. It was Tom f*cking Cruise! And he's like 'Dude, I just want you to know I'm a big fan of 'Hairspray' and Suri loves it. We've seen it, like, a hundred times,' which, by the way, is more than me. 'I thought you did the most interesting thing with the tone,' and he started talking to me about filmmaking and tone. I'm sitting in a one-year-old's plastic chair, and so is he. And I got very - honestly nervous. I wanted to walk away because I was so freaked out. I got a little star-struck to be honest."
"So I said, 'Listen, Dude, we'll talk about it in a second. I'm gonna go get some food. Can I get you anything?' and I stood up and the chair stuck to my ass. So, I'm standing there talking to Tom Cruise with a plastic chair on my ass, and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. So the tone was set, and he would make jokes then with me, 'When are we gonna do a musical?' and I'm like 'Ha, ha, never,' and then this project came up, and to me, there was something that made sense about having somebody of his stature playing that part. I needed somebody of his stature playing that part. I thought it was add some gravitas to it, but we both agreed that we weren't gonna do it unless we knew he could sing."
"We put him with Axl Rose's singing guy because I needed the songs to be really rock, I needed the voices to be rock 'n' roll, not Broadway," Shankman continued. "He started working with him, and on the second vocal session, I was in the this sort of side room, and Tom was at the piano working on it, and the guy got him to sing way the f*ck up, and it would have thick, amazing sound to it. Apparently, Tom has some opera singers in his family, so he's genetically predisposed to be able to sing, basically, is the reality. So just because he hasn't done it, you just have to train him. No one's ever asked him. That's the weird thing. No one's ever asked him, and he loved that somebody had the nerve to ask him."
Getting Cruise to move like a rock star was going to be another challenge for Shankman and Michaels.
"I knew he could dance because he did this little thing with Katie at one of my MPTF benefits. And then he did the MTV Awards with Jennifer Lopez as Les Grossman. So I knew that he could move. What I didn't know was it's like a stunt. You have to rehearse it into him. It doesn't come naturally. He's not a dancer - he has to learn it and drill it. There's nothing he does in the movie that wasn't choreographed to the knuckle. Beyond that, he wants to know why you're doing it. If you're doing a hip roll or something like that, Tom wants to know why."
"It's a different world because he has always wanted dialogue. We spent hours talking about a hip roll. Hours," Michaels added about working with Cruise on Stacee Jaxx's moves. "He's not a dancer, and he couldn't count music, so he didn't hear music the same way. I'm very complex when I listen to music, I hear it inside. So, I'm like, "That beat that's not there, you need to hear it on the (duh duh duh duh),' and he's looking at me like I'm an alien."
"Yeah, choreography is more instinctual, and he wanted the instinct broken down," Shankman said. "It's challenging for us to have to explain things that are just organic, but what happened is he caught up to us. After the initial thing, I started to say to him in cuts, 'Shut up and f*cking act,' and I started to do that, and he would laugh, and it would be great. There's a giving over to it, but guys, it's Tom Cruise! He's doing a musical. How f*cking scary must that be?"
Stacee Jaxx was also such a specific character that they had to develop every detail down to his stance, and Shankman explained how they found it. "We were Facetiming a costume fitting, and I was watching him getting fit, and Tom is like a square body guy, and he had to arch his back to have them put the Bret Michaels headband on him. He was wearing this weird fur coat and sunglasses. And so he got in this weird arched position. And I took a picture of it while we were Facetiming, and I sent the picture to him and I said, "This is who you are in this movie." And he became that guy. But here's the scary thing about Tom. You have to be careful what you say, because he listens so much. It's like, he really takes what you say and then starts to pull it apart. There's no version of 'whatever,' with Tom Cruise, you mean it. It's all or nothing."
"All he wants to do is learn," Michaels agreed. "He's so insatiable with learning anything he doesn't know, so he took on dances, like this thing that is really…"
"It's nuts!" Shankman jumped in.
"He went full-out," Michaels continued. "I think we were all, like, 'Oh my God,' because he's so intense, and he's never tired, and he's just like a superhero, in a way. He's very alien in that way because he never stops. He goes and goes and goes. We had to deal with all the other celebrities in the entire film, and so there we are with Tom, just sucking every ounce of our being from us. Once I fell into his rhythm of his rehearsals, and how he liked to work, we were unstoppable. And I hope I work with him for the rest of my career."
"I've never seen anybody more dedicated to being good in my life, like who cared more," Shankman agreed.
Shankman decided it was time to put his money where his mouth is and after talking to him for roughly 40 minutes, he brought the entire group of journalists into his trailer and showed them the roughly-edited performance by Cruise as Stacee Jaxx doing Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me." It was an absolute revelation to everyone visiting the set since none of us could imagine Cruise personifying the character, let alone singing metal. Full Article at the SOURCE
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Post by architect on May 30, 2012 21:32:51 GMT -5
Sunset Strip to travel back to the 80's for <ROA> The Sunset Strip rock clubs are having an 80s flashback on Friday night.
The Roxy Theatre, Whisky a Go Go, Viper Room, Key Club and House of Blues will all have 1980s-themed events on Friday to help promote the new film Rock of Ages which opens nationwide on June 15.
Friday night will celebrate the Sunset Strip’s heritage and key role in the `80s music scene with music that characterizes the decade, ticket giveaways to the Rock of Ages movie premiere on June 8, celebrity appearances and drink specials.
Music on Friday includes the 25th anniversary of JETBOY, a rock band founded in 1983 coming together for one night only at the Whisky a Go Go; `80s karaoke at the House of Blues; Hillbilly Herald, currently on tour with `80s icon Slash, at The Viper Room; and rock bands Warner Drive, The Shakers and Kill The Complex at The Roxy Theatre. SOURCE
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Post by architect on May 30, 2012 21:46:13 GMT -5
Mia Michaels on teaching Tom Cruise to Dance Mia Michaels from "So You Think You Can Dance" has worked with everyone from Celine Dion to Madonna, and now the choreographer is teaching Tom Cruise some moves for the upcoming film "Rock of Ages."
"It was crazy working with Catherine Zeta Jones and Tom Cruise on the film," Mia told me on the set of "New York Live." "Working with all of [the cast] -- especially Tom and Catherine Zeta -- changed my life. Tom really did, because he comes and he's not a dancer at all. But what affected me more than anything is the way he approaches his craft. And being in Hollywood, it's a hit or miss about seeing people that are really about the art. With him, he is relentless and you have to be right there with him."
Mia says that Tom wasn't just interested in getting the moves right. She says he wants to master everything he chooses to do.
"I love him," Mia gushed. "Tom would be with me for about four hours working, and then he would go to his vocal lessons and then guitar lessons. I mean, when he decided to take on Stacee Jaxx [his character in the film], he took him on."
So I had to ask, can Tom dance now? "Yes, yes," said Mia. "He transformed himself, his body, his everything. He's a dancer, he's a singer, he's not only an amazing actor, but I will go so far as saying I believe he could be Oscar-winning for this role." SOURCE
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Post by architect on May 30, 2012 21:49:35 GMT -5
Julianne Hough on giving Tom Cruise a Lap Dance Did you have to go to stripper camp for the role? I did not, but I was very interested. Did you see some of the stuff? I guess Adam [Shankman] showed you some of Shadows in the Night? Those chicks up there - that is some serious athleticism. I mean, they were insane and they did it take after take after take. Their bodies were amazing! I was like, “Oh, I am jealous!” I would like to take stripper classes just for that, but I did not. The choreography is amazing so maybe she did. I don’t know.
Had you already seen the musical before you got the role? Did that inform your performance in any way? Yeah. I actually had met Adam when he did my music video “Is that So Wrong?” which we apparently can’t find online. So he kind of mentioned that he was doing this film and then I did “Footloose” and I got the script. At first I was like, “You know, I did “Burlesque”, which is a musical. I did “Footloose”, which isn’t a musical, but it has great music.” So I did “Footloose” and I thought, “Oh, man. I can’t do another musical after this. I want to expand as an actress and do more dramas or comedies strictly.” Then I heard that Adam was doing it and that maybe a guy named Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin. I was like, “Alright. Maybe I can do one more!” In the original musical there is a lap dance scene. Do you give a Tom Cruise a lap dance in this? Is that still part of this? Sort of. To kind of go back, I was learning that I might get this role, but the play was coming into town into L.A.. So I went and saw it before I technically had the role, but we were in talks already. So when I saw the play I did see that part and I was like. “Oh….yeah! Alright. That is fun and it is Tom Cruise.” So, yeah, I saw that part and there is a sort of lap dance thing that happens. It is a little bit different. There are some differences in the play that there is in the movie. I like the fact that Stacie doesn’t sleep with Stacee and it is just a misunderstanding. I think it is more likable for her in the end. You kind of want her and Drew to get together.
What has been your favorite song to perform in the movie? Honestly, it is the very last number when we are up on stage singing “Don’t Stop Believin’.” It is with Stacee, Sherrie, and Drew. We are on the stage and at the time when we were shooting it literally felt like we were the biggest rock stars in the entire world. There was the whole arena that was filled and just the aspect that we were literally singing to. It was so fun. I had the time of my life on that. SOURCE
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Post by architect on Jun 4, 2012 22:53:21 GMT -5
Porcelain Black Talks Rock of Ages and Dinner at Gloria Estefan's House Porcelain Black shares "DNA" with Rye Rye, has been on dinner dates with Tom Cruise and hits strip clubs with Lil' Wayne. She sounds like a fun girl! The L.A.-based, Detroit-born pop-rock phenom has been charging full steam ahead with guidance from super-producer RedOne, who not only helped craft her debut album Mannequin Factory (out early Fall) but landed her a cameo as a hair-rocker in this summer's much-anticipated Broadway-to-big-screen-film Rock of Ages, which she shot last summer in Miami. Director Adam Shankman was so impressed with the young singer's energy and performance, he asked her to sing "Rock Angel," one of the film's two original songs. After stripping down and posing with a bevy of scantily-clad hunks, Black chatted with us:
What was the Rock of Ages set like?
Definitely surreal. I mean Katie Holmes was chasing after little Suri who was all over the set, Mary J. Blige is in some crazy-ass wig over in the corner and Tom Cruise's nephew is wailing on a guitar. Not to mention all the punk rock zombie kids. I've never see so much eyeliner. Did you get star struck on set?
Hell no! But, my trailer was next to Russell [Brand]'s and we partied together once a while back, and I wanted to see him again. So I did what any lady would do. I sat with a bottle of whiskey and chain smoked on his steps until he appeared.
Besides Tom Cruise, who would be some dudes you'd like to du-et with? Pun intended.
Easy: Trent Reznor, Eminem and -- what the hell -- Jane's Addiction!
You shot the film in Miami. Do you have a favorite restaurant there?
Yeah, it's called Gloria Estefan's house, bitches! Tom, Russell and I were shuttled over to Gloria's house for a private dinner, where we met up with some other co-stars. It was this crazy beachfront mansion with lots of jet skis. SOURCE
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Post by architect on Jun 4, 2012 23:07:11 GMT -5
Mia Michaels Dishes On ‘Sexy’ Tom Cruise And Gives ‘Rock of Ages’ Behind The Scenes Scoop! Emmy-award winner Mia Michaels, best known for her judging and contemporary choreography on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance, talked with Socialite Life about creating the rock moves featured in this summer’s musical film, Rock of Ages. This up-beat musical follows the love story of a young couple during the 1980’s pop metal era and features Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Julianne Hough.
Though she was hesitant on transforming these stars into musical dance sensations, Mia tells us that Rock of Ages was one of her most favorite experiences and even helped her land her first acting gig in Step Up 4, premiering later this year.
What was it like to work with such a wide variety of talent on this film?
It was awesome. Rock of Ages was one of my favorite experiences as a choreographer because it was just all over the map with celebrities. For me it was different because it wasn’t contemporary which is what I’m known for. It was super work and rock & roll, which is something in complete opposite of what people know me for creating. I’m doing work with stripper poles, strippers, and rock performances.
Who wowed you the most with his/her dancing abilities?
I had a bunch of amazing dancers we brought in from New York and LA for the big dance scene, but my biggest hero was definitely Tom Cruise. He’s so sexy in this character, which fits him very well. He stepped in, worked out, danced everyday, took singing lessons, guitar lessons, he was just fully activated for this role and it was really awesome to see his transformation. His work ethic is also one of the most amazing work ethics I’ve ever been blessed to work with. He is inspiring because he is so relentless about being optimal. I personally think he could be Oscar nominated for this role. He is unbelievable.
What were the biggest challenges you faced while choreographing this film?
The schedule was really rough because they had to work around the celebrities’ schedules. We literally worked 7 days a week and sometimes 18-20 hours a day so we looked like cross-eyed trolls. We were so tired, but looking back at it now, I think about how much fun it was. It was great.
Tell me one interesting story that happened behind the scenes?
The monkey got crazy one night! Tom Cruise has this sidekick in the movie and it’s a baboon named Hey Man, and it went crazy one night while were outside filming with hundreds of extras. It was kind of scary because he was running through the streets screaming like crazy. Everyone just froze because we didn’t want the monkey killing anybody!
Moviegoers should add Rock of Ages to their list of must see movies this summer because…
“It ‘s the shit!” (Laughs) “It’s definitely a feel good film and everyone will be singing. Its entertaining, great music, great characters, fun story, its just an awesome, fun, film. Go enjoy yourself!” SOURCE
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Post by architect on Jun 4, 2012 23:09:59 GMT -5
Julianne Hough in Interview DIMITRI EHRLICH: In Rock of Ages you play a girl who moves to Los Angeles in search of stardom, and in real life you moved to L.A. at the age of 18 in search of stardom. Did you also bring a suitcase full of LPs? Because that would seem to be some impractical packing, especially if you didn't bring a turntable with you.
JULIANNE HOUGH: Well, I was in the generation of CDs, so when I moved to L.A., I think I probably brought my Shania Twain Come on Over CD and that's about it. But trust me, if I lived in the '80s, I would definitely be the one going to the record stores.
EHRLICH: Your character in Rock of Ages is starstruck by Tom Cruise's rock star character. In reality, how did you relate to him on set? Did you actually become buds? Or is there sort of a "Hey, this is Tom Cruise" kind of vibe?
HOUGH: I think my generation will always look at him as Tom Cruise, the movie star. But the thing about Tom is that he's super-cool, and whatever nerves I had going into a scene with him, afterwards he would say how funny it was or what a great job I did. So that really made me feel confident. But at the same time, my first scene with him was when my character, Sherrie, meets him for the first time and he says that she has a perky heart as he's grabbing her chest, so that was definitely pretty real.
EHRLICH: Tom Cruise got to second base with you. What else will it say on your gravestone?
HOUGH: It's kind of great that I can say that now.
EHRLICH: Did your boyfriend, Ryan Seacrest, get jealous at all that you're doing this movie with Tom Cruise?
HOUGH: No, not at all. But he did come on set a couple of times and—
EHRLICH: Did he threaten to wrestle Tom?
HOUGH: He was like, "Wow, this is a little sexy!" There was one scene we did that ended up not making it into the film, but it was a really great dance-and-vocal number—"Rock You Like a Hurricane." It was in the strip club, and I gave Tom a lap dance in the scene. The movie flowed better without it, so I understand why it got edited out, but at the same time, I'm like, "Wait a minute. I got to do that, and it's not even in the movie?" SOURCE
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Post by architect on Jun 11, 2012 21:35:40 GMT -5
Alec Baldwin Talks About His Gay Kiss with Russell Brand at 'Rock of Ages' Premiere Tom Cruise steals the movie and stole a lot of the attention on the Boulevard, but one scene that may get tongues wagging, especially in the current climate where gays rights are being fought over by lawmakers, involves Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand (it's in the stage musical, so it's not a spoiler), whose characters reveal their love to each other via the REO Speedwagon song "Can’t Fight This Feeling," capped with a passionate kiss.
At the after-party, in between the rock acts, Baldwin played down the significance of the kiss sequence, describing it as done for comedy and surprise.
"It’s not like Brokeback Mountain, it’s not two leading men who you are used to getting down with some gorgeous young girl,” he said. “It’s a little more chaste because I’m older (than Brand).”
But he admitted there is a subtext in the scenes that wasn’t there when he filmed them because of current socio-political events.
"We live in an age, and I’m being imprecise here, where half the country gets it, and the other half doesn’t,” he said. “I live where men and women who want to get married—who gives a shit? No one gives it a thought. It’s like seeing women in power. Or like seeing African American CEOs. We’re in a fully realized age of equality in all things and it’s not surprising or new. But there is that other half for whom that is surprising and new.”
For director Adam Shankman, the movie is ultimately about couples finding love, not a statement about gay marraige. Baldwin and Brand are just one of the couples.
"The truth is, when we were making it, that wasn’t what was in our heads,” Shankman said. “But it’s being legitimized by what is happening now. It makes it more relevant and underlines it.” SOURCE
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Post by architect on Jun 11, 2012 21:40:40 GMT -5
Mane Man: Turning Tom Cruise into a Hair-Metal God To play Stacee Jaxx, the shaman-like rock god whose tattooed, head-scarfed presence makes fans swoon, director Shankman knew he wanted a big Hollywood name. He started at the top. “I think [Tom] was so stunned at the insanity of the ask that he said yes,” says Shankman, who opted to give the character more of a central role than in the original stage production. But could Cruise pull it off?
“He’s never sung in his life,” says executive music producer Adam Anders. “I mean there was ‘Top Gun,’ but he wasn’t a singer. When I first went to hear him, I was like, ‘Is this gonna work?’ ”
Cruise threw himself into the role with his characteristic couch-jumping intensity, so of course the answer was yes. “This character he created, it was amazing,” says Anders. “It’s a montage of all the great frontmen put together.”
Poison frontman Bret Michaels spoke with Cruise and Shankman during the production, and says he’s pleased to be part of the model: “Tom openly says it’s a mixture of Bret Michaels and Axl Rose,” Michaels says. “It’s a look and stage persona of me — with the bandana and the cowboy hat, the whole over-the-top rock star look — but this intense energy that Axl had.”
As befits a hair-metal hedonist, Cruise was clad head to toe in glam garb: huge fur coat, cowboy hat, leather pants and, at one point, chaps. The piece de resistance? “Tom thought the guy should have some sort of codpiece,” says costume designer Ryack. “It’s a devil’s face, paved with studs and rhinestones.”
And, of course, there would be tattoos. Many of them. “I stood next to him, two feet away, and the tattoos looked real,” says Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott, who was on set to watch Cruise perform “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”
“We ended up having a lot of fun with it,” Elliott says. “I’d be pointing at him, going, ‘Make sure that you do this right!’ It was a very surreal moment.”
Cruise worked with choreographer Mia Michaels to hone his “walk, his swagger, his ‘isms,’ ” she says. “He really determined the sexuality and rawness of the character.He tried to top himself at every moment. ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ [in front of an audience] was the first day of shooting for him,” the choreographer adds. “He just embraced the whole physicality of it, and while wearing these very heavy leather pants and all this stuff. At the end, Adam [Shankman] goes, ‘We got it!’ and Tom is like, ‘Let’s do it again!’ ”
Though Cruise’ s character gets down and (somewhat) dirty with Malin Akerman’s Rolling Stone reporter, another number was deemed too racy for the PG-13 production and got cut from the film. “There’s a duet between Tom and Julianne Hough, ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane,’ that’s pretty hot,” says Michaels. ‘It didn’t make it in, but it’ll be on the DVD!” SOURCE
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Post by architect on Jun 11, 2012 22:58:44 GMT -5
For those about to rock, Tom Cruise aalutes You! For Tom Cruise, Rock of Ages might be risky business. In it, he plays the shirtless, tattooed rock star Stacee Jaxx. Opening on June 15, the film is a fairly loyal rendition of the Broadway musical, which showcases rock hits from the 1980s. And there’s no doubt Cruise is one of the main curiosities.
His portrayal is a change of pace for the A-list action star, more noted for running and jumping in Mission: Impossible movies than hip thrusting satirically on a rock stage.
“It was a fantastic journey and voyage with him,” director Adam Shankman says at the London West Hollywood Hotel, a block from the Sunset Strip’s famous rock club Whiskey a Go Go.
For the director, there was little risk in casting Cruise. “I will tell you it was his Tropic Thunder performance that convinced me he could do Stacee Jaxx,” Shankman says of Cruise’s portrayal of vulgar studio boss Les Grossman. “I never knew he could be so committed to a comic character.”
Still, Shankman had to convince Cruise he could pull off the part. “Luckily, Tom was a fan of Hairspray,” he explains, referring to his hit movie musical.
Cruise immersed himself in the challenge. He took weeks of voice lessons (that’s him singing Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive and Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me). He also rehearsed stage movements on a regular basis.
“We decided right from the start that lip-synching would not be an option,” the director says. “Tom just blew us away.”
Cruise looks the part, too. At various times, his Jaxx character wears a coyote fur coat, a beaver-felt cowboy hat, tight leather pants with a huge red tin belt buckle and a self-entitled attitude recalling Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose.
Indeed, Shankman says he made sure Cruise and company looked like they belonged in the 1980s. To do that, the director referenced a few sources, including the 1981 rock documentary The Decline of Western Civilization.
“I also looked at my photo albums from those days, and MTV news clips from the period,” Shankman says.
It’s not all Cruise all the time, however. The story focuses on waitress Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and busboy Drew (Diego Boneta) who fall for each other during the 1980s glam rock scene in Los Angeles. They are wannabe stars trying to make it in the competitive world of music by helping out at The Bourbon Room, a version of the legendary Whiskey a Go Go.
30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin plays the owner of the club, and comic Russell Brand is the club manager. Catherine Zeta-Jones portrays the mayor’s wife, who is leading a campaign to shut down The Bourbon Room, while Paul Giamatti plays Jaxx’s manipulative manager.
Many of the actors in the movie have singing and dancing experience, though Cruise didn’t, unless you count his pantomime to Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll in the 1983 teen flick Risky Business.
Hough, who co-starred in last year’s successful remake of Footloose, said she was definitely impressed by Cruise’s rock star posturing. “After I realized he was going to pull this off in a very convincing way, I thought, ‘What can’t Tom do?’ ”
Boneta, a former pop star in Mexico, was thrilled to witness first-hand how dedicated Cruise is on set. “He’s just as humble as he is talented, which is my favourite combination,” Boneta says.
Toronto’s Malin Akerman, who co-starred in Watchmen and The Proposal, has one of the funnier and sexier Rock of Ages sequences with Cruise.
She plays a Rolling Stone reporter who gets involved with Jaxx in some backstage hanky-panky. There’s lots of groping as they make out while singing Foreigner’s I Want to Know What Love Is.
“I was totally game and so was Tom,” says Akerman, who fronted the alternative pop band The Petalstones early in her showbiz career. “But some of the stuff we improvised was definitely pushing the boundaries of a PG-13 rating.”
Singer and rapper Mary J. Blige was new to acting, but right at home singing. She plays the owner of the Venus strip club, and gets to show her vocal virtuosity. She doesn’t have any screen time with Cruise, but she relates to the dysfunctions of his character’s warped rock star mentality.
“If you are not confident [in the music business], you will lean on the people who are lying to you,” she says.
Certainly, Cruise was secure enough. He did a rendition of Pour Some Sugar on Me in front of Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott, who was visiting the set at the Ft. Lauderdale rock venue Revolution Live passing for The Bourbon Room.
Apparently, Cruise wasn’t fazed by the special guest.
“Tom doesn’t know nervous,” Shankman says. “He knows preparation.” SOURCE
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Post by architect on Jun 11, 2012 23:01:43 GMT -5
A-list talent rides on mystery man Over here you've got Tom Cruise as a preternaturally fit, guitar-shredding sex monster on the loose, commanding ladies to "pour some sugar" on him. Over there you have Alec Baldwin, bewigged and bewildered, as a rock-club owner with hippie roots, finding he "can't fight this feeling anymore." Catherine Zeta-Jones, as a Tipper Gore figure, dares all comers to "hit me with your best shot." Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Bryan Cranston, and star dancer Julianne Hough belt out some of the best known hair-band gems of the '80s. And holding together this big-screen adaptation of hit musical "Rock of Ages" as its center: Diego Boneta.
Diego Bo-who?
. . . read the rest.
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Post by architect on Jun 14, 2012 23:14:02 GMT -5
Guitars, Groupies and Lots and Lots of Hair IN the 1980s the Sunset Strip — a stretch of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood packed with bars and clubs — was the center of the hard-rock and hair-metal scene, spawning bands like Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe and Poison. Based on the Broadway musical, the film “Rock of Ages,” which opens on Friday, starring a leather-pantsed Tom Cruise (at left and right) as the self-destructive, baboon-owning sex god Stacee Jaxx, fondly spoofs the era. It’s 1987, and the boys look like girls, the groupies look like strippers, and the hair is highly flammable. Meanwhile, as a small-town blonde named Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and her aspiring rocker boyfriend, Drew (Diego Boneta), try to succeed amid the sleaze, church-lady protesters are fighting to shut down a club called the Bourbon Room.
Apart from Guns N’ Roses, whose 1987 debut studio album “Appetite for Destruction” is a hard-rock landmark, the music of the Strip is often dismissed as disposable, and the scene is remembered as a cheerfully depraved Aqua Net playground. To get a fuller sense of what the Strip was really like, Sia Michel spoke with Duff McKagan, the former bassist of Guns N’ Roses, whose song “Paradise City” is sung by Mr. Cruise himself in the prologue; Bret Michaels of the glam-rockers Poison, which has several songs in “Rock of Ages”; and Sebastian Bach, the former lead singer of the New Jersey band Skid Row, who has a cameo. these are excerpts from the conversations.
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Post by serin on Jun 18, 2012 11:04:12 GMT -5
The worst of times: The years rock 'n' roll really stunk
The Plain DealerPeople have been proclaiming rock's death since 1958. Maybe it's just a little comatose at times, judging from some of its worst years.
•The worst years of rock 'n' roll: A timeline
Even the Mayans could not have predicted the hair-metal apocalypse.
A.D. 1990.
The end came swiftly, with brutal vengeance.
Not just the metal; the hair part of the equation also was obliterated.
The horsemen of the apocalypse -- grunge-rockers, that is -- celebrated as they decapitated the bleach-blond preening demon.
But for Billy Morris, 1990, the death of hair-metal, was the worst year in rock 'n' roll.
"Suddenly, you had these grunge-rockers in shorts and combat boots singing about their pain and problems," says Morris, who was playing in the band Kidd Wicked at the time. "How could it be that something could be cool one year and just disappear the next?"
In 1990, hair metal was derided and mocked. Now, it's celebrated in "Rock of Ages," which opened Friday. The film, starring Tom Cruise and based on a Broadway musical, rolls out the greatest hits from the hair-metal '80s, featuring tunes by Def Leppard, Night Ranger and Poison.
So goes the rock 'n' roller coaster -- a wild ride with peaks and valleys and little in between. We tend to focus on the highs, thanks to best-of lists, but what about the lows?
"You can find good music in every era, but some years stick out as the worst," says musician and rock historian Dave Swanson. "A lot of it is personal taste, but 'worst years' usually occur as one movement is dying and before another one is coming on."
Swanson points to 1974 as the worst year in rock -- a no man's land that existed post-glam-rock and pre-punk-rock.
"All the New York bands were started up by '75 -- like Blondie, the Ramones, Patti Smith and the Dictators," says Swanson, referring to the surging punk and new wave scenes. "But in '74, Bowie had stopped doing rock, the original Alice Cooper band broke up, and Led Zeppelin was stagnant."
The first worst year came quickly, in 1958, when Elvis Presley went into the Army, Little Richard found religion, and Jerry Lee Lewis' career was overshadowed by personal scandal.
Even when things seem hopeless, though, there was always a racket bubbling under the surface.
"Between Elvis and the Beatles you still had Link Wray or the Beach Boys or surf rock," says Swanson, who plays in Rainy Day Saints. "You can find good stuff in every era."
Sometimes the worst can bring out the best, says Carol Yachanin, bassist in Cleveland band Founding Fathers.
"There were all these horrible boy bands and ballads in the late '80s," she says. "Even Cheap Trick was doing 'The Flame,' which was awful."
So she dug deeper and discovered the Pixies.
"It opened me up to different kind of bands," Yachanin says. "New things that weren't on the charts or on commercial radio."
The problem of late, says Swanson, is that rock is focused more on reunions than breaking new ground.
"You have so many reunions that it overshadows what they were originally," he says. "The reformed Blondie has been around longer than the original version of the band."
Nostalgia might cloud the memory, but it brings about a new assessment of the past.
It's about time, says Morris, who also plays in an '80s tribute band called Cleveland's Breakfast Club and hosts heavy-metal karaoke Wednesdays at the Foundry in Lakewood.
"For so long, there was this stigma to hair metal," says Morris, who went on to play in Warrant. "But years later, you can still sing along to these songs -- they're catchy and fun and a release from the troubles of the world."
Put a quarter in the jukebox -- these days, you're more likely to hear people singing along to "Pour Some Sugar on Me" than anything by Pearl Jam.
Ah, sweet revenge.
Cleveland.com
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