Meryl Streep stars as Ricki Randazzo, a singer-songwriter eking out a living in Southern California as a grocery store employee by day and barroom rocker by night.
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Gummer, the eldest daughter of the best-loved name in Hollywood, plays her mother’s kid in Ricki and the Flash, an often improbable, frequently heavy-handed, but consistently sweet-hearted new comedy-drama from Jonathan Demme and Diablo Cody. Neil clearly took a moment away from yelling at Donald Trump to teach the acting legend how to properly handle the guitar and what to do when someone hands you one by turning the entire set up as loud as it could go. Now a video capturing their impromptu session at the Jacob Burns Film Center has landed online, AceShowbiz reports.
The rocker first tells the actress – prior to every filmed performance – to turn the amp’s knobs to their max setting, both for sound reasons and for realism.
“Turn everything all the way up, that’s what you always do”.
Not that the excellent cast doesn’t give it a try: Streep, no stranger to singing on screen, sells Ricki as a self-described “broken person”, while Gummer, Streep’s real-life daughter, works to overcome her thinly written role. The lesson concludes with Streep bowing in appreciation to the Godfather of Grunge.
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While the movie doesn’t include any Neil Young songs, Ricki does do a mean cover of tracks by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Lady Gaga. Oh! But it’s one that became a reality for Rick Springfield.
