MUMBAI: Three-time Oscar winning Meryl Streep, known for her multiple talents, found it challenging to play a guitar player in a band for her upcoming film ‘Ricki and the Flash’.
Directed by Jonathan Demme, ‘Ricki and the Flash’ is loaded with music and live performance where Streep stars as Ricki, a guitar heroine who gave up everything for her dream of rock-and-roll stardom, but is now returning home to make things right with her family.
“I knew a D chord in college, D, G, E and A. That’s all you need. No, I had to learn bar chords – that is the real thing - and the blues, all that stuff,” Streep said in a statement.
She added that she was relieved to know that her character in the film is not supposed to be a guitar legend.
Streep said, “Absolutely. There is more forgiveness in the fact that my character is supposed to be mediocre. But Kevin (Kline - who plays her former husband in the film) is a very talented musician himself. He did come up to me on the first day when we playing in the club, and he said, ‘You don’t sound bad.’ I thought, ‘Thank you.’ That was the highest compliment. He meant that we sounded good. At least, that’s how I took it - as a compliment.”
Streep stars opposite her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer, who plays her fictional daughter, Rick Springfield, who takes on the role of a Flash member in love with Ricki and Kevin Kline, who portrays Ricki’s long-suffering former husband.
‘Ricki and the Flash’ will release in India on 28 August.