Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story wasn’t a hit when it was released in 2007 (it earned well under its budget at the box office), but since then, it’s become a bit of a cult favorite. The hilarious movie is a music biopic parody and stars John C. Reilly as the titular character, with notable cameos sprinkled throughout. Jack White has a memorable moment portraying Elvis Presley, and in another terrific scene later in the movie, Cox goes to India to visit The Beatles, played by Paul Rudd (John Lennon), Jack Black (Paul McCartney), Justin Long (George Harrison), and Jason Schwartzman (Ringo Starr).
Walk Hard is an over-the-top movie and in line with that, Rudd, Black, Long, and Schwartzman’s portrayals of The Beatles were similarly exaggerated and caricature-like. That didn’t stop them (most of them, anyway) from being nervous about the parts, though.
Long was on The Tonight Show yesterday and the movie was mentioned. Fallon asked Long is he was nervous about the part and he said, “I was because it was, you know… the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s The Beatles. If you like music, you love The Beatles.”
He also noted they only had a day to prepare for filming, so Long called Paul Rudd to tell him he was nervous about the role and Rudd felt the same way. So, the two got together and watched Beatles videos to get ready for shooting. Later, they got a call from Schwartzman, who revealed he was feeling nervous, too.
As for how Black was feeling about it, he had no nerves at all, although he did show up to set speaking with a Scottish accent instead of a British one. Black ended up doing fantastic in the movie, though, so Long’s takeaway from all of this was that he, Rudd, and Schwartzman were overthinking it.
Check out the interview, which also features Long impersonating each Beatle, above.
