Michael recently did an interview with the LA Times this past weekend promoting Trust Me where he talks mostly about his new Chants of Reign album and the upcoming Phone Booth sequel that has been long delayed. Very little discussion about his recent breakup from Gina Rage or his love life in general. It seems Meyers is now growing tired of talking about relationships since they rarely seem to work out for him. Interesting interview (look for the funny mention of long haired surfer dude guy Max from TMZ lol)....Enjoy!!!
LA Times :::: Michael Reese Meyers has been holed up in a music studio and recording his second album with band Chants of Reign. Bass player and close friend Mike Amadeyo is also in the room. The two are discussing songs, love, and life. Meyers pours his soul into music but is more known for pouring his soul into his acting performances. This year he releases three films, "Trust Me" (which opens in select theaters April 6) is the first. It is a hard edged R rated thriller/drama about two teenage girls (Shaenece Richards and Jennifer Lawrence) who become targets of a middle aged and overweight online predator portrayed by Meyers, who gained almost 25 pounds of fat for the role. "It was something I've always wanted to try but been afraid to" Meyers says about the weight gain. "It won't go in the history books. It won't compare to what DeNiro did in Raging Bull or (Christian) Bale in Batman Begins or Jared Leto in Chapter 27 but for someone like me, if you knew my body and how hard it is for me to gain weight, this was monumental. I doubt I will ever do it again." He says the weight gain was essential to the character and his performance. "Most of these (predators) don't look like Brad Pitt. They are slumpy chubby guys. Not very young. I shaved my hairline back. Ate like crazy. Cheese burgers and ice cream every single day. It effected the way I walked, talked, laughed, moved, the way my clothes fit, the way people treated me. It does something to you, being that large."
He had a famously raunchy time on set, admitting in a previous interview from last year that the film was his most fun time ever on set with tons of partying and sex. "Yea I wasn't exaggerating either. It was insane. It was a great experience." He also made headlines by admitting to having a crush on the film's director/writer Kathleen Roberts. When asked if he will attend the premiere he says "No. I'll be busy training for Bond." He refuses to answer any questions about her and it becomes clear this is a new Michael Reese Meyers. Known for how candid and honest he can be in interviews, he suddenly feels closed off. Newly single after a quiet breakup with MMA fighter/actress Gina Rage, Meyers is for once not eager to talk about what is going on in his personal life. He is optimistic though. "I have a good feeling about what's coming in the next year or so. I don't know why but I do."
He seems more interested in talking about his new music than his new films or his love life. He has been in North Hollywood's Hive Studios recording new songs for his second Chants of Reign album which is titled "The Epic Mysterious Journey Between Melancoly and Eutopia". He plays a few for me and it is clearly a stark 180 from the sound of the band's depressing debut album "These Empty Streets and the Lonely Heart That Still Beats" from 2009. The songs are upbeat, some rock, some techno, some dance. They are fun, about moving on, and overall, just happy. "It's an album about surviving. It's about getting over someone. Getting out of depression and seeing the other side, that life goes on." A song called "Tattoo", co-written and produced by Black Eyed Peas rapper Will.I.Am, with lyrics such as "girl you're like a tattoo, got you under my skin" is clearly referencing his famous Mel tattoo on his neck, one he says he will remove within the next few weeks. He also plays a track called "Can You Save Me From Myself?", one he calls "my favorite on the whole record". It's a Dave Matthews-esque uptempo rock song with emotion and catchy melodies about recovering from depression and suicidal thoughts and thanking a certain someone for loving him when he couldn't love himself. He doesn't elaborate on if this female 'saviour' is based on someone real or not but he does add "the song is a bridge between the last album and this one. All the songs on this album are happy but that track acknowledges the dark place this person is coming from and where he's been. that's why it starts the album." He says he has already picked the first single, a catchy rock tune called "Lightning" which he co-wrote with Third Eye Blind frontman Stephen Jenkins. "The guy is just a genius and one of my music idols. I remember being 12 or so, stuck in an all boy's boarding school in Napa Valley, California my parents sent me to for getting kicked out of my previous school for fighting. I had no friends. All I had was my cassette player and walkman and music was my savior. That's when I discovered Matchbox Twenty and Goo Goo Dolls and Third Eye Blind. Those post-grunge rock bands saved me. I wanted that Semi-Charmed Life kind of sound for the first single and Stephen gave it to me." The track itself is about finally getting over someone and Meyers says the video will be shot soon and the album is almost done. "I wanted it finished before I went off to shoot Moneyball. By the time that's done (filming) we will be promoting the album and getting ready for a fall tour so time is of the essence. It's crunch time right now."
Eventually we get back to his day job, movies. He is excited for people to see Ridley Scott's "Alien: Genesis" on June 8. "It's going to bring real sci-fi and horror back" he says. In the film he sports long blond hair, often in a ponytail. "I modeled his look after Max from TMZ, haha". He says it was a "dream come true" to work with both Anya Camilla Bella again and Charlize Theron in the same film. "They're two of the best actresses working today and in the top 4 or 5 of actresses I've ever worked with." He includes Hunger Games star and his Trust Me co-star Jennifer Lawrence in that group ("she's gonna be one of the great ones. she can rip anyone on screen. she's no joke") as well as Keira Knightley, whom he's worked with twice now (Bend It Like Beckham which was the first film for both, and last year's Cameron Crowe British romantic drama If I Had You). "I think Keira is coming into her own as the English actress of our time. She's got class and grace and beauty and wit and of course talent. She doesn't get enough credit, but even if she did, it would never go to her head. If anything it would make her more insecure, the more you praise her. She's weird, haha".
He is excited to work with Knightley again in the much talked about Phone Booth sequel. "That's going to be huge. We start shooting finally next year. I had a script meeting with Paul (Steinman, the director) about a month ago. We got a sick cast. Myself, Kiefer (Sutherland) is back as the caller, Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, Olivia Wilde, Keira Knightley, Ed Burns. More to be announced soon. It's like a dream cast and we got a really great story. It's very topical and it touches on the same theme of the first film, a man confronted with all his lies." The original film's gimmick was that the main character, portrayed by a frantic Colin Farrell, was trapped (by distant gunpoint) in a New York City telephone booth for practically the entire film, and Meyers says he and Steinman have come up with something very different. "We got something a little more exciting, but yea my character is trapped somewhere. It is something that I came up with during that meeting. I won't reveal what it is, but it's something I wanted to tackle because it confronts one of my biggest phobias."
He was a big fan of the original and Farrell's performance ("I thought he was really moving and I could relate and I've wanted to make this follow up for a long time" he says) and is ecstatic that the sequel is finally getting off the ground. "Other than the film I directed, this film feels like it's my baby. I been a part of it from the ground up and have even come up with story aspects. I doubt I'll get a co-writer credit but I see this as sort of my carte blanch project. My 'Drive'. Ryan (Gosling) got to pick his director, was involved in the script, casting, all that. I was here too. Paul has kept me involved with this from the start and we stuck with it throughout development hell and I brought Gary (Oldman) on because we wanted to work together. I brought Sean (Penn) on because we wanted to work together. Me and Olivia have been dying to work together again since Malibu's Most Wanted and of course Keira and I are always excited to work together. I'm just so excited to get it going." The film has finally been given a title, coined by Meyers himself. "Yea I was meeting with Paul and came up with a pretty cool title...'Truth or Die', and he loved it", says Meyers. "It's a play on words. A mix of the game Truth or Dare with the fact that as in the original film, Kiefer wants you to tell the truth, or you will die". Filming is scheduled to take place in New York next January 2013 for a fall 2013 release.
My time begins to run out with Meyers as the rest of the group arrives to put the finishing touches on one of their songs. One of their producers, a British born but living in Australia artist by the name of Will "Gotye" Sumner who also happens to be the son of legendary artist Sting, enters at this point as well. He plays for them the final version of a track they worked on together called "Somebody That I Used To Know" which now has added guest vocals on it by Katy Perry. Michael explains the album has many different sounds. There is a reggae track called "Stay Stay Stay (In My Arms)", an uptempo club song called "The One" produced by DJ David Guetta, an uptempo pop love song called "You're Beautiful" produced by Ryan Tedder of One Republic and co-written by both Tedder and British artist/songwriter Taio Cruz. The band also reveals one of their favorites on the album, a cover of Fleetwood Mac's classic "Dreams", which they re-titled "Thunder". "That's just one of my favorite songs of all time and we were jamming one day doing our own version of it when I decided, you know what, we should put this on the album" says Meyers. "We re-named it 'Thunder' and it's a perfect companion piece to the first single which is called 'Lightning'", jokes the band's guitarist Alan in his thick Irish accent. Meyers can't let me leave without playing one of his favorite tracks on the album, a song produced by the group's English DJ James Blaine called "Why'd You Go?" where Meyers both raps and sings about Mel. "I needed one final joint to say my piece about her".
I ask Meyers if he has looked to other actors turned singers such as Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars or Ev Rachel Woods of Dryleaf for advice on balancing both movies and music and he says no. "I know how to schedule my time. I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. For me it's just another artform. Another way of expressing myself. With acting I can only do so much, I can only change the lines so much. At the end of the day it someone's else's script, someone else's words. Another character's life. My music is MINE. It's my words, my life. So in a way I need this. It's my therapy. And our fans are out there. Our last album went Gold in 3 months. Fans are downloading songs like crazy. Love Misled has 89 million views on YouTube. That's insane. This music means alot to people and I want to have this avenue to touch people. Music is universal and powerful. It saved me and can save someone else too. I know it."
The 'chameleon' as he and his fans call him, has found a new place to transform.
