Photo Source: Warner Bros Pictures
Where some might detect a sinister underbelly, Shankman sees the humor. "It's a world I live in in my imagination," he says. "Musicals are 'reality plus,' and we would look like wimps if we didn't go all the way."
Shankman claims you can get away with a lot depending on how "the meal" is delivered. He cites "Grease" as a perfect example.
"People remember it as being the most innocent, fun, kid-like thing in the world when, really, it's about teen pregnancy, sex in cars, and drinking at the prom," he says. "But it's done with a smile and a cupcake -- and it's all great."
"Rock of Ages" tells the story of straight-off-the-bus Sherrie (Julianne Hough), who arrives from the Midwest with stars in her eyes. She meets Drew (Diego Boneta), a guy with big musical ambitions, and the two fall in love as they battle to maintain their integrity while following their dreams and witnessing the way fame has corrupted world's greatest rock star Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise).
After Cruise signed on to play the hypersexual Stacee, Shankman says it was easy to fill out the all-star cast, which includes Alec Baldwin, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Russell Brand, and Mary J. Blige. Only leads Hough and Boneta auditioned.
Hough already had name recognition thanks to her time on "Dancing With the Stars" -- where she was a two-time champion -- but Boneta is a virtual unknown making his feature film debut. While Shankman confirms the studio wanted a more known quantity -- namely Zac Efron, who co-starred in Shankman's "Hairspray" adaptation -- he fought for Boneta.
"I looked through thousands, but it was like with Nikki Blonsky in 'Hairspray,' " he says, referring to the unknown actor he also championed. "I literally couldn't move past his audition. I was like, 'Oh my god, this is him!' But I made him audition like six times. I just had to be sure, mostly for the studio."
After he was certain, Shankman had Boneta tape a chemistry read with Hough. And that same day, he had them both record "Heaven" and "More Than Words." "Then, that was it," he says.
The fact that the director is so willing to stick his neck out for new and rising talent could be attributed to his own career path. Although he's now primarily a film director and he and his sister Jennifer Gibgot have a deal with New Line Cinema under their Offspring Entertainment banner, he began as a dance and physical comedy choreographer, working in film ("Addams Family Values," "Boogie Nights") and dancing in Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson music videos. Never one to miss an opportunity to spot the next big thing, he's also been a judge on "So You Think You Can Dance" since its third season.
Shankman says the transition from moving bodies around to filming them was simple, but he says he's not the sort of director who spends time seeing what might happen. "My schedules don't allow for that. That's other directors," he says. "I'll tell you how the choreographer in me comes out: When the actors come in, I've already staged the scene. They don't come in and are like, 'Where should we go? Let's move around and see ... ' I don't bark orders at anyone -- I do it in a fun way -- but I'm not like that."
He says that he and Zeta-Jones, who plays the uptight wife of the mayor, were simpatico. "We both come from musical theater, so basically all I had to say to Catherine was 'You are Eva Perón -- go.' "
Of course, some of the most outlandish scenes took many hours of rehearsal before any shooting began, like the tricky one that finds Cruise and co-star Malin Akerman singing Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" while, in Shankman's words, they're "screwing on an air hockey table."
According to Shankman, he would generally sketch out what he wanted, and then he would leave it up to choreographer Mia Michaels and the actors to rehearse and come up with improvised moments. The end result is one of the most hilarious -- and subversive -- tableaux in the movie, which involves quite a bit of sexy calisthenics. "Mia came up to me after a long day of rehearsals and said, 'I don't know if you're gonna be OK with it, but we have it now that Tom is singing to Malin's ass. I was like, 'Let me see it.' And it was fantastic."
After all of the high jinks and silliness, Shankman says the movie's message, much like that of "Hairspray" before it, is about integrity and sticking to your guns. "More importantly is to remember there's nothing good about being a star, but there's something great about being a good actor," he says. "Fame is actually the most hideous, obnoxious thing -- it just happens that it accompanies what we do when we're a success."
