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2 months ago
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Eight-time Grammy award-winning musician and performer Anderson .Paak made his big screen directorial debut over the weekend in Toronto with first feature K-Pops!, in which he co-stars opposite son Soul Rasheed.
The production marked a number of firsts for the singer, rapper, drummer and record producer known for solo hits such as ‘Bubblin’ and ‘Come Down’; work with Bruno Mars under the Silk Sonic banner as well as with collaborations with the likes of Dr. Dre.
The artist co-stars as washed-up musician BJ who takes a job on a pop talent show in South Korea. There, he meets a young contestant, played by Rasheed, who turns out to be the son he never knew existed.
Conceived during the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic, production saw .Paak and Rasheed travel to South Korea and Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning tourism and shooting hub of AlUla as the world opened up again, alongside filming in the U.S.
The artist reveals how he came up with the premise for the film while spending time with his family during the lockdown, during which he discovered their love of Korean pop music, and in particular boy band BTS.
“That was the most time I got to spend with my family. Before that, I was always touring. I have two kids and at the time, I was married. Everyone was just at the house. It was a BTS house. They were all singing it, and I was kind of like the odd man out,” he says.
The musician hit on the idea of working with his son after the latter asked him for advice on how to gain more followers on YouTube.
“We started doing some skits and I noticed right away, ‘Oh man, he’s like, he’s so funny, so natural’. He’s been in dance classes since he was six years old. He’s capable of so much stuff naturally,” says the proud father.
Inspired by these experiences, .Paak started writing a screenplay about a musician, who discovers he has a long lost son who is poised to become a K-pop sensation, and then asked Rasheed if he were interesting in playing the role.
“I didn’t know it would take three years to make happen. When I wrote it, he was around eight years old or so, and he’s 13 now… it’s taken a whole other shape, but that is pretty much how it was conceived.
The production also saw .Paak connect with his Korean roots via his mother, who was born in South Korea during the Korean War and abandoned in an orphanage, to then grow up in the U.S. after being adopted by an African-American family.
“Growing up we didn’t know much about our Korean history because she was adopted. She never knew her parents, or grandparents, her biological ones. I didn’t know much about my Korean heritage until I had my son. His mom was from Seoul, Korea, and meeting the in-laws and her friends, and again being in the house, I got to learn a lot. I wanted something like that for BJ and his character.”
The Korean leg of the shoot, saw .Paak working with a mainly Korean crew apart from U.S. cinematographer Edward J. Pei.
“We went from having an All-American crew to going to Korea, where it was all Korean and dealing with translators. We had to shoot a lot of scenes, exterior and interior, and move around the city. And they were very efficient, so quick.,” says .Paak.
“I thought it could be really disastrous, switching crews midway through the movie, and it went really smooth, both in America and in Korea.”
The artist and his son are joined in the cast by collaborators back in L.A. such as rapper Dumbfounded as well as handful of K-pop stars.
“We also have Kevin Woo, whose a K-pop star and is also a really good actor, andthen we have a few cameos, from Vernon, from Seventeen, and also The Rose,” says .Paak.
From Korea, .Paak then traveled to Saudi Arabia to shoot in the burgeoning new tourism and audiovisual hub of AlUla in the northwest of the country, overseen by Film AlUla.
The idea for shooting there came from Greg Silverman at L.A.-based Stampede Ventures, who is the lead producer on the movie and would go on to announce a 10-picture pact with Film AlUla last December.
“Something needed to happen in the script that would result in BJ having to leave Korea. While we were writing, Greg pitched the idea of going to Saudi Arabia and AlUla, connected to this amazing venue they had built. When he showed it to us, ‘We were like whoa, that’s it’.”
The venue in question is the Maraya Concert Hall in AlUla, a cubic structure billed as the largest mirrored building in the world. In the film, BJ heads there for a comeback gig at the venue to then make a life-affirming decision.
“I just never seen anything like that, it’s beautiful, glass venue out the middle of the desert. I put it in the script. They got back to us and said that we could shoot here. I just thought it gives the movie so much scope, being able to bounce around all these different places, so we locked it in.”
Initially slightly apprehensive about filming in Saudi Arabia, .Paak said he was bowled over by the beauty of AlUla, the people and the professionalism of the crews there.
“I had no idea how beautiful it would be. Pictures don’t do it justice. We went from Korea to AlUla. It was blazing hot, desert heat. You’d go out, and it was like you were on Mars. There are red rocks everywhere. It’s so quiet. The stars were like super bright. I’ve traveled a lot and sometimes you feel history. You could just feel it when you touch the ground. It was really spiritual with beautiful people.”
The AlUla-leg was the last part of the film to be shot, with .Paak changing crew for a third time, but again the transition went smoothly.
“It was a whole new crew but again, it was super quick, everybody was on board. We were able to jump right in and fall into the line, that was great,” he recalls.
“Everybody’s got their different style but it’s about what you can get done under the clock and how efficiently you can do it, they killed it. This is my first movie. I was directing, acting, writing, doing a bunch of stuff, doing the music. In situations like that, you have to trust your crew, you have to have somebody that that’s really got your back.”
