MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee has praised the actors who played him and his bandmates in last year’s biopic “The Dirt”, saying “they really nailed each guy so well.”
Machine Gun Kelly — whose real name is Colson Baker — plays Lee in the movie. “The Dirt” also stars Daniel Webber (“The Punisher”) as singer Vince Neil, Douglas Booth as bassist Nikki Sixx and Iwan Rheon (“Game Of Thrones”) as guitarist Mick Mars.
Speaking to Paul Cashmere of Noise11.com about the film, Tommy said (see video below): “All the guys who played us in the movie did just a spectacular job — they really nailed each guy so well, it was mindblowing.
“I remember sitting there watching it with Nikki. While filming in New Orleans, watching the band rehearse, it was so bizarre to just sit there and basically watch yourself rehearse. We just looked at each other, like, ‘God, this is fucking weird.’ And then, of course, there’s just endless moments of, ‘Woah, this is bizarre.’ Everybody did such a great job exactly nailing each guy really, really well where it would give you goosebumps, that kind of thing. Like, ‘Wow, that guys moves exactly like Vince‘ — you know, Daniel. It’s pretty crazy. Pretty wild, man.”
“The Dirt” premiered in March 2019. An adaptation of the book of the same name about the iconic rock band, it had been in the works since 2003. It was previously set up at Paramount and Focus Features before Netflix picked it up in 2017.
The movie charts the rise of four Californian youngsters who channel the punk rage of the 1970s into the so-called “hair metal” genre that defined the 1980s. Jeff Tremaine (“Bad Grandpa”) directed.
“The Dirt” currently has a 38% critic score from 72 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the online review aggregation service that allows both critics and the public to rate movies. The same site has an 94% audience score for “The Dirt” from 6,691 reviews.
Earlier this year, Lee said that “The Dirt” sparked a renewed interest from younger fans who wanted to see MÖTLEY CRÜE live, contributing to the band’s decision to renege on its infamous “cessation of touring” contract.
After vowing in 2015 never to play together again, CRÜE announced last December that they would be touring with fellow hard rock veterans DEF LEPPARD and POISON.
