‘The Dirt’ director breaks down those Mötley Crüe performances

Since the premiere of the Dirt, one of the burning questions on viewers’ minds is whether or not the cast actually played Mötley Crüe’s songs.

However, despite what you may be thinking, the director of the film, Jeff Tremaine says that the cast actually did perform the songs on real instruments for the film.

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According to the Thrillest, Tremaine says that all of the cast members who were in a music-playing role put in extra hours to perfect the band’s original performances and choreography. In fact, the leading actors were actually sent to a rock boot camp. 

“Daniel [Webber] had a vocal coach, Douglas [Booth] had a bass coach, and Iwan [Rheon] had a guitar guy who would come over and sit with him,” Tremaine says. “It was a month and a half of really intense training everyday—not just learning the instruments, but working with a choreographer on moving like the guys.”

However, Tremaine went on to say which parts demanded more work than others, citing Machine Gun Kelly’s role of Tommy Lee as the toughest to master.

“He’s the one that really couldn’t fake it. He’s got to actually be able to play, so he truly dove in and learned those songs,” Tremaine says of MGK. “Colson went through some rigorous drumming training before we even started, so he didn’t come starting at zero. The day I gave him the gig, I told him, ‘You need to have a drumstick in your hand and just learn how to twirl that through your fingers every second.’ He took it very seriously. By the time he came out to the boot camp, he already knew how to play a lot of the Mötley songs that we were going to do.”

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As previously reported, MGK actually got blisters on his hands from practicing the drums so rigorously.

“I had that damn drumstick in my hand for four months straight, dude,” MGK says. “I have giant calluses in between my middle finger and my index finger just spinning that damn stick. So I hope you enjoy the stick twirls in that movie.”

 

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However, while the cast genuinely did learn the instruments for their respective roles, Tremaine admits that the final cut of the film did not rest solely on the cast’s shoulders. In fact, Tremaine says it was a joint-effort between Mötley Crüe and the actors.

“They could play it,” Tremaine tells the Thrillest. “I’m not going to say that what you’re hearing is them exactly playing it. We recorded them. We also got all the actual Mötley recordings. Some of it is re-records with other bands and some of it is actually Mötley Crüe that they’re just performing over it. So it’s a blend.”

The Dirt is available on Netflix now. You can watch the trailer below.

What do you think of the cast’s dedication to their roles? Let us know in the comments below.

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