On The Red Carpet: Ricki and The Flash Premiere

We caught up with the star-studded cast of this musical comedy--Meryl Streep, Rick Springfield, Mamie Gummer, and more!--as they celebrated the premiere in New York City

From the LifeMinute Team

August 5, 2015

Yes--she can really do it all. Three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep can act, sing, play the guitar, and rock leather pants and a smoky eye at 65. Playing Ricki Rendezzo, a rocker musician who gave up her suburban family life to pursue rock-and-roll stardom, Streep practiced tirelessly to master the electric guitar for the lead role of the new musical comedy Ricki and The Flash. "Yeah, I was like a demon practicer," she told us at the movie premiere, recently held in New York City. "She was always playing. Every time I went home, every day for a couple of months, she was strumming," added Streep's real-life daughter, Mamie Gummer, who also plays her fictional daughter in the Sony picture.

"Meryl totally brought it--very brave stuff. It's all live. Everything you hear was done on the set. I knew she was incredibly talented, but she's so gracious and open and pulls you in as an actor," said Rick Springfield, who plays a band member of The Flash who is in love Ricki. Critics say they showed true on-screen chemistry, thanks to their camaraderie off screen. "Rick Springfield is amazing. He's like the great gift to the movie," said Streep of the former "General Hospital" heartthrob.

While the film is loaded with rock music and live performances, the story plot is for everyone, despite thier musical preferences. "It's really about family and that everybody comes from somewhere. It's about reconnecting with people that you haven't connected with as much as you want to," says actor Ben Platt.

Ricki and The Flash comes from Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, who penned the Oscar-winning screenplay for Juno. The movie also stars Kevin Kline and Sebastian Stan.