Lonely Island Guys Talk 'Popstar,' 'Spinal Tap' Comparisons, and What Their Movie Has Over 'Turtles'

Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg, and Akiva Schaffer in ‘PopStar’ (Photo: Universal)

Given all the viral success Lonely Island had crafting catchy pop-rap parodies on Saturday Night Live, it makes perfect sense that the trio’s first major project since leaving SNL is a splashy big-screen musical comedy. That PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping also spoofs the “puff-piece” concert documentaries of Justin Bieber, One Direction, and Katy Perry — an idea they dreamed up with producer Judd Apatow — takes the film next level.

Andy Samberg plays a dough-rolling Bieber-meets-Macklemore rapper-singer named Conner4Real whose career starts to implode as cameras follow him around on tour.

Although Lonely Island’s threesome of Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer — the brain trust behind such YouTube classics as “D–k in a Box,” “Motherlover,” and “I’m on a Boat” — assiduously avoided comparing their film to the granddaddy of the genre, This Is Spinal Tap (1984), when we visited the set last year, now the reviews are in, and PopStar is being called… the best mockumentary since Spinal Tap.

We talked to Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer by phone this week about Spinal Tap, PopStar’s slew of cameos, and why you should see their movie instead of the better-tracking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequel.

Warning: Minor PopStar spoilers below.

For the sake of my transcription, just so I quote you guys correctly, can you just state your names?
Samberg: This is Andy Samberg right here. Hi.
Taccone: This is Jorma Taccone.
Schaffer: Akiva right here.
Samberg: We do sound similar.

I know, that’s probably not going to help at all. I apologize in advance if I misquote you. Congrats on PopStar, though. I loved it. What would Jimmy Fallon say about all the great reviews it’s getting?
Samberg: He would say, “Always take reviews to heart, and get a haircut.”
Taccone: And get your hopes up for opening weekend.

Watch Lonely Island troll reporters with fake Jimmy Fallon quotes:

The Fallon thing was hilarious. As someone who covers a lot of junkets I wished I had been on the receiving end of that so I, too, could have blissfully, ignorantly, or confusingly ignored it. Was that preplanned or were you just bored at the junket and, like, “Let’s have some fun?”
Taccone: We did it at more than the junket, we did it for like a week—
Samberg: A week-and-a-half of our press tour. I knew that I was going to be on The Tonight Show, so we thought it would be fun to have something to keep it spicy, and keep us on our toes trying to think of new ways to work it in, but also that it would be a fun thing to show Jimmy.

A lot of the reviews, by the way, are drawing comparisons between PopStar and the gold standard of music mockumentaries, This Is Spinal Tap. That’s got to be a badge of honor.
Samberg: Of course, it’s hugely flattering. Obviously, we would never say that because we worship Spinal Tap and sort of bow in its shadow.
Schaffer: The main thing for me is just that people are agreeing that there was room for another fake documentary about music, ‘cause Spinal Tap will always be the best and I doubt anyone will ever top Spinal Tap. But it’s nice getting all these really great reviews where people are saying, “Yeah, you’re allowed to make a new one of that, enough has happened in the world.”
Samberg: It feels different, it doesn’t feel like we’re redoing it, which we were very cautious of, so I’m glad.

So you guys talked about that a lot? Did the fact that over three decades have passed make you feel safer treading on that kind of hallowed ground?
Samberg: Yeah, and also that the genre of music we work in is so different, and also that there’s a new type of music documentary that’s prevalent. So we were like, “Oh, this feels like a new thing that’s kind of its own.”
Taccone: The puff-piece tour documentary, there were like at least 10 of those that we watched.
Schaffer: A lot of the topics that we’re exploring are things that didn’t exist, like social media and the internet, all the shilling out and corporate sponsorship stuff.
Samberg: People holding big camps where they have a million producers working on an album.
Schaffer: Public wedding proposals, and all the tabloidiness of it. That’s all stuff that we’re exploring in the movie that is of our time now.

Related: 5 Things We Learned on the Set of 'PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping’

I know Conner4Real is an amalgam of various pop stars, but there are some moments that are really obvious references to specific musicians, like his gay-marriage anthem, "Equal Rights.” Do you worry about someone like Macklemore going, “What the hell? They’re clearly mocking me.”
Samberg: Oh no, no. We had sort of thought more like Conner had seen Macklemore’s song [“Same Love”] and saw how much praise he got for it publicly and was like, “Oooh, I want in on that.” And then did it.

There are so many high-profile cameos in this movie, especially with musicians. Who were you the most amazed you landed?
Samberg: I mean Ringo Starr was pretty crazy. Mariah Carey was incredible. Nas was a really huge deal for us.
Taccone: We were huge fans of Wu-Tang growing up, obviously, so RZA was pretty incredible.
Samberg: Getting Seal to do that was a coup. He was so nice and so funny. But everybody, really, we were very grateful to everybody who came and did s–t with us.
Taccone: Weird Al. We were very excited that he was in the movie for two seconds.

Who couldn’t you get that you were close to getting that bummed you out?
Samberg: Bill Clinton on sax.
Taccone: Yeah, we wanted him for years, so that bum-out has been for the last decade.
Samberg: He’s our white whale.

What was the dealbreaker, why wouldn’t he do it?
Samberg: I don’t think we technically asked.
Taccone: Yeah, that was a major problem. We keep forgetting to ask. So we’re asking through the press.

Well, speaking of Seal — this is a minor spoiler if anyone hasn’t seen the movie, but he gets viciously attacked by wolves, yet survives. Did you ever consider actually killing Seal?
Samberg: No! I don’t think the people would’ve stood for it.
Taccone: We wanted to have him come back and ruin [Conner’s] life even more by dating his girlfriend.

Related: Judd Apatow Talks 'PopStar,’ 'Walk Hard,’ and the Subconscious Effect Beyoncé Has on His Daughter

The box-office previews this week are saying Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is looking “to knock out” PopStar this weekend. Let’s change America’s mind. Why should people see PopStar instead of Turtles?
Schaffer: One, we have a real turtle in ours.
Taccone: Yeah, our turtle has not been Photoshopped. It’s its natural body.

That’s a great point.
Taccone: Or they could pay for ours, and sneak into Turtles if they really need to.
Schaffer: Or maybe they should support things that are not based on other things, original movies.

If enough people do support original movies, are we going to see PopStar 2? You can bring Seal back.
Samberg: Definitely.
Taccone: A hundred percent.
Samberg: But write that in a sarcastic font, please.

Thanks, guys. I sincerely apologize if I mess up any of the attribution to your quotes. You’re right, you do sound alike.
Samberg (we think): It’s OK, we have the same brain.

PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping opens Friday. Watch the trailer: