The Motley Crue bio-picThe Dirt, based on the book by the group, premieres today (Friday) on Netflix.
We spoke to the actors who played bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee about playing these real life characters.
Englishman Douglas Booth told us about what he likes and dislikes most about Nikki Sixx:
“Nikki was, for me, a really interesting character to play. Unlike anything I ever played before he was a very layered person and someone who had suffered a lot with addiction. For me it’s the same thing, it was his battle with addiction and what his addiction did to the people around him, but also what I love about him so much is the man he is now. When I first met him, I was so surprised he was so Zen. It felt like he’d been doing yoga for an hour. And you know he’s done a lot for the opioid epidemic and addiction. He’s a man that kind of flew too close to the sun, got burned and came back and redeemed himself in that way.”
Iwan Rheon [pr: EE-wahn REE-on], the Welsh actor you may know as bad guy Ramsey Bolton on Game of Thrones, had this to say about playing Mick Mars, who suffers from a disease of the spine:
“I don’t think you can really dislike Mick, ‘cause he’s the true musician. All he ever wanted to do was play the guitar and suffering from ankylosing spondylitis is a very difficult condition to – well, to do anything with. So it’s amazing how he achieved so much and it shows the passion in him as a musician.”
Colson Baker-- who may be better known as rapper Machine Gun Kelly -- talks about what he disliked about playing Tommy Lee and Douglas Booth adds something that might surprise you about Tommy:
Colson: “I think the obvious dislike of playing Tommy was having to cover up my tattoos every morning for five hours. But other than that, I mean, the most difficult thing I thought of going into it was just being happy all the time. Tommy was a very happy guy and I tend to wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
Douglas: “Tommy was almost the most concerned out of the group about getting the movie right and making sure it wasn’t gimmicky and stuff like that.”
Rounding out the international casting of Motley Crue is Australian actor Douglas Webber, who plays singer Vince Neil.
The film held a Hollywood premiere event on Monday, before coming to the small screen today.