THE MANE MAN
SING 2’S DIRECTOR TELLS GEMMA DUNN WHY CASTING BONO WAS AS A ROCK STAR LION WAS THE KEY TO TOPPING THE ORIGINAL
WHEN Garth Jennings invited music icon Bono to appear in Sing 2, he had all but pre-empted his response.
The writer-director hoped the U2 frontman would join the hit animation as lion Clay Calloway, a reclusive former rock star who had shunned fame after the death of his wife years earlier.
“We had the outline for the character, and we had some lovely drawings Eric Guillon had done, so we sent Bono this little package...” says Garth, 49.
“I thought we would get, if I’m really honest, a very polite, ‘He’s so grateful, super busy, wishes you all the best...’ But what we got was, ‘He’s gonna phone you in 10 minutes’ – and he did!” he recalls, the shock still evident.
“Rock stars don’t phone, and no-one phones on time, but he does both those things! And from the outset to now, he has been the most engaged, enthusiastic, collaborator.”
It came as a relief for Garth, who admits he never had a plan B, stating: “It wasn’t like there’s a long list of Bonos; there’s just Bono on that list!
“I suppose if he hadn’t wanted to do it, we’d have just had to start again and rethink the whole thing!”
For those looking to get up to speed, the original 2016 movie told the feel-good tale of Buster Moon, a dapper koala (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) who set his sights on restoring a oncegrand theatre to its former glory by producing a hit singing competition.
The sequel sees the ever-optimistic Buster cast his eyes on a bigger prize: unveiling a dazzling new show at the Crystal Tower Theatre in glamorous Redshore City.
There’s just one hitch: they first have to persuade grief-stricken Clay to join them.
“It’s a ridiculously ambitious idea on Buster’s part,” Garth muses.
“To a certain degree it was equally ambitious to ask Bono to play this part; it’s not like he’s turning up in movies all the time!” he adds, the blockbuster follow-up marking the hitmaker’s big-screen debut.
“Thank goodness he said yes!” quips Garth.
Three U2 songs feature in the film, including the classic hits I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Where The Streets Have No Name,
and Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get
Out Of, plus a new original song penned exclusively for Sing 2, titled Your Song Saved My Life.
The latter, which has already been shortlisted in the Best Original Song category at this year’s Oscars, marks the first new music from the Irish rock band since 2019.
“It’s amazing. A) I just love it, and B) that’s the end of the film,” announces Garth, whose own credits include 2008’s Son of Rambow, which he wrote and directed, and 2005’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
“That’s the last three minutes; I don’t need any dialogue. It’s that. That doesn’t happen. Ever!”
Not bad for the Essex-born filmmaker, whose first foray into animation was Sing, which earned him two Golden Globe nominations.
It’s no wonder the A-list cast were keen to return.
Joining McConaughey back on stage are Reese Witherspoon as Rosita, the overtaxed pig; Scarlett Johansson as punk-rock porcupine Ash; Taron Egerton as Johnny, the gangster gorilla; Tori Kelly as Meena, the timid elephant; and Nick Kroll as the all-singing-alldancing Gunter.
Meanwhile, following Bono’s lead are pop stars Pharrell Williams as kind-hearted elephant entrepreneur, Alfonso, and Halsey as hotelier Jimmy’s daughter, Porsche Crystal.
Garth, himself, returns to the role of iguana, Miss Crawly, Buster’s ever-loyal assistant.
“We found ourselves in situations that were extraordinary, that we never could have foreseen, whether it was a casting people like Halsey or Bono or trying to create set pieces like a four-minute Prince number set to an Alice in Wonderland theme...” teases Garth of the creative process.
“It was only after we finished that I realised we must’ve been nuts.” He adds: “But that’s the job, isn’t it? You want your director to be like, ‘I’m going to try and give you the greatest 90 minutes of your life’.
“And if your film is about performers, and it’s going to end with a show, then I better bring the biggest show you’ve ever seen or you’ll go, ‘Ahh it’s alright, I suppose’,” reasons the father of four.
Garth draws parallels between Buster’s creative aspirations and his own.
“If the first movie was me getting to pass my driving test, this second movie was me getting to take the car out for a spin,” he observes, confessing he discussed the makings of a sequel before the first picture was even finished.
“At first I felt like, ‘OK, I’ve got this,’ but that was a little naive. There are always new things that you didn’t think of, especially as our ambitions across the board grew enormously. With all those ambitions came new challenges.
“In a way we are doing exactly what the characters in the movie are doing. We’re trying to go way above and beyond what we could do the first time,” he concludes.
“In every aspect, we were trying to take it to the next level.”
Sing 2 is in cinemas now.