Popstar 10th Anniversary Q&A

Pop-ups (28)

1. The first 30 minutes' high energy

   3:34

   Akiva's honest take is that the movie's opening half-hour is extremely dense and high-energy, something the genre can't sustain for the full runtime. He compares it to the best mockumentaries, which all shift pace eventually.

   The first half, I'll give you my honest take, was that the first 30 minutes I was like, whoa, we really brought this together.

2. Montages are the hardest part of shooting

   5:05

   Akiva explains that montages are costly to shoot because each setup is a separate beat, and the film's constant montage style made the schedule very inefficient. The movie ended up needing 27 days to shoot.

   whenever you write a montage in something you're going to shoot, it's the worst part of shooting

3. 27 days, 90 to 130 costume changes

   5:41

   The film was shot in 27 days, and the costume department had to handle far more changes than a typical movie, roughly 90 to 130, because each day required a new look for Andy.

   this was like, I forget if it was 90 or 130. Yeah. Because it was just for Andy.

4. Half the shoot at the Forum

   5:58

   The production rented the Forum for 11 days, about half the shooting schedule, because it had just been renovated and wasn't booked yet. They used nooks, alleys, and dressing rooms to decorate it as concert spaces.

   They had just renovated the forum. And so it wasn't booked all the time yet. And we got it for 11 days.

5. The Taylor Swift joke's test-screening journey

   7:26

   The Taylor Swift joke was not in the script and was added in ADR over Andy's face with Sarah's voice. It failed in every test screening, with different jokes tried each time, until a final version landed and stuck.

   it was a dud in every test screening, not that joke, a different joke every time. And it's a real lesson about, like, never giving up

6. 'She Committed Murder' as the final Taylor joke

   7:46

   After many attempts, the team's last Taylor Swift line was 'She Committed Murder,' which wasn't even about Taylor originally. It was one of the better jokes, and it became part of the film.

   How about She Committed Murder? It wasn't even about Taylor before.

7. Songs performed on stage before the movie

   8:24

   Many songs in the film were recorded in live performances before the shoot. 'Mona Lisa' was performed in full on stage and is available online, and 'Fuck Off' was filmed as a complete concert performance.

   when we were on the stage, we did, you know, and they're on the DVD or on the internet, some of them

8. 'Fuck Off' cut from the film

   8:44

   The kids' song 'Fuck Off' was filmed for Popstar but never made the final cut. Akiva says he now prefers it over the reggae song used during the closing credits, and a full concert performance exists online.

   There's a song for kids called Fuck Off. It's so dark.

9. Akon's cut 'Should I Move?' chorus

   10:03

   Akon sang the chorus of 'Should I Move?', a song about Andy contemplating moving houses, and appears briefly in the opening credits. Akiva admits he feels guilty that guests like Akon were used so little.

   we got Akon to sing on the chorus and then Akon comes in, he's only in the opening credits for a second.

10. Unused Ed Sheeran and Norah Jones talking heads

    10:29

    Talking-head interviews with Ed Sheeran and Norah Jones were recorded but could not be used. Universal's lawyers blocked them due to work permit and paperwork issues, a problem Akiva describes as inside baseball.

    We also recorded a talking head with Ed Sheeran and we recorded a talking head with Nora Jones and those just straight up.

11. Andy's martini question

    12:33

    Andy sent in a question asking whether Akiva would go back to martinis with olives after switching to a twist. Akiva says he sometimes does but mainly sticks with the twist, which he finds cleaner with good gin or vodka.

    Sometimes I do go back. You go back. I even now sometimes do, but I'm mainly on the twist.

12. Upcoming projects: Andy and Jorma

    12:56

    Akiva notes that Andy is shooting an action two-hander comedy with Jason Momoa, and Jorma has a new movie, Over Your Dead Body, produced by Judd Apatow, starring Jason Segel.

    Andy is shooting a movie, and it's nowhere near here. I don't want to blow up his spot, but with Jason Momoa

13. The Sergio dispute continues

    14:41

    Scheinert asks Akiva to admit he was wrong about the Sergio digital short, which he didn't direct over issues with crossing the line. Akiva responds that there is no line in Popstar, which he proposes as the answer.

    I was instructed to watch the movie and look for crossing the line. And I feel like there's no line in this movie.

14. The limo scene nobody planned

    17:03

    The reshoot's limo confrontation was built around a cheap location because the team had lost its arena. Judd Apatow suggested the central relationship needed to be dealt with on screen.

    we could do it a limo and like 20 extras and just crowd around it

15. Crazier cut, happier crowd

    17:17

    Test screenings revealed the audience liked the movie more the crazier it got. That feedback gave the team confidence to push the weirdest material further than the original script dared.

    the crazier the movie got, the more the audience liked it

16. The paid reshoot that needed a penis

    17:41

    Akiva explains the reshoot was needed to fill a dip in the middle of the film after the money ran low. Akiva and Jorma chipped in their own money to pay for it, which is what made the penis scene possible.

    One detail here is not in the transcript.

    we paid for it

17. Casting nudity via email

    18:06

    Akiva describes how casting emails for the reshoot became awkward once auditioners sent in headshots. The joke was framed as the dick simply being a dick, not about its size.

    a scary place. Because people audition.

18. Co-directing since before SNL

    19:23

    Akiva describes the team's habit of making things together without credit splits, a habit carried from pre-SNL shorts through SNL and into Popstar. That shared approach is why the DGA approved them as a directing team.

    Before SNL, where you don't say what anybody's doing, you're just making something.

19. Why the DGA approved the team

    19:52

    The Directors Guild approved the three of them as a directing team because they had worked together constantly. Akiva notes the guild would not accept random people calling themselves a team.

    we got the DGA

20. Daniel's solo-directing DGA trouble

    20:18

    Daniel Scheinert recounts getting in trouble with the DGA for a solo film and having to beg filmmakers to let him co-direct with his partner again, and says Seth Rogen helped.

    I did a solo movie and got in a whole bunch of trouble.

21. Three cameras and a documentary's worth of footage

    22:03

    Shooting in doc style with three cameras meant a huge amount of talking-head footage, with interviews like Nas and Ringo running around 45 minutes each. Editing had to find the shape of the film from it.

    we would talk for 45 minutes, and Ringo, 45 minutes.

22. The too-long test screening

    23:00

    The early cut was far longer than the usual 85-minute limit for movies like this, and the team had not found the movie's shape yet. Akiva says they fought that particular screening for this reason.

    These kind of movies have to be 85 minutes at the most.

23. Asking Judd to shut us down

    23:37

    Akiva asked Judd Apatow to halt the production so the team could reshape the first act. They stopped work for two months and wrote several versions of the opening before settling on the final one.

    shut us down

24. The first act that began as a puff piece

    24:49

    An earlier cut opened as a straight promotional documentary about Connor, with the other two hosts missing, and only later introduced the group's past. Drew Goddard pointed out the film was about all three of them and should say so upfront.

    the main difference in the beginning was that it started like it was just a straight puff piece doc on Connor

25. Paul McCartney's stock footage endorsement

    26:28

    The Paul McCartney footage in the film was cleared by the people around him, who saw the context and approved its use. Both surviving Beatles appear in the movie, which the Q&A treats as a big endorsement.

    So on the plus side, all of them or somebody in their world saw the context and went, yeah, you can use that

26. Watching it with people beats any note

    27:32

    Akiva's advice for staying objective under deadline is to watch the film with people, because you feel embarrassment and pride in your body, which shows you the cut through fresh eyes.

    you feel in your body when you're uncomfortable and embarrassed and feel shitty.

27. SNL edits pulled in from the hall

    28:34

    During SNL's Saturday edits, the team would grab interns or cast members from the hall to watch a half-finished cut and ask whether it was working.

    we'd be pulling in interns or other cast members or whatever

28. Why SNL avoided losing objectivity

    28:47

    The speed of SNL production meant the team shot a sketch one day and edited it the next, so they rarely became too familiar with a cut to lose objectivity.

    you don't really become too lost in it