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(Something similar had been done with Rachel McAdams and the Swedish singer Molly Sanden.)
But the pandemic prevented that.
How did his performance come together, and how deep does Stevenss love ofEurovisiongo?
Were you a fan ofEurovisionbefore making this movie?Oh, God, yeah.
If you grow up in Europe, its just part of your year.
Whether you love it or hate it, its something that comes around once a year.
People throw parties viewing parties and its just a part of the cultural calendar.
My wife and I always used to host a viewing party when we were in the U.K.
Were super into it.
And its been around since the late 50s, so our parents grew up with it.
In the U.K., Graham Norton is now famously the voice ofEurovision.
Its just very funny to me, to have to explain it to adult Americans.
When they realize what this thing is, they cant believe it.
This is a weird comparison, but its sort of like the Super Bowl in that way, no?
And then you might become aware of the winner, this extraordinary act from some other European country.
There were a lot of people on the movie who werent necessarily aware of it as a thing.
Some people thought it was made up.
And you couldnt make this up.
Do you have a favoriteEurovisionmemory, or moment?I mean, there are so many wild ones.
There was an extraordinary Ukrainian act a few years ago, calledVerka Serduchkathat was pretty extraordinary.
There was an amazing Israeli act a couple of years ago,called Netta.
They had an amazing song called Toy that was really cool.Conchita Wurstwas a pretty sort of landmark performance.
Another amazing one was a Finnish act called Lordi a few years ago.
They had a heavy metal single.
Oh, my God, I could literally just like reel off for hours.
Whats extraordinary about the night is that it ranges from the most sublime to the ridiculous.
It might be very sweetly sung by a solo performer.
And some countries are actually trying not to win.
Because if you win, you have to host the next year.
And so they were like, Okay.
We cannot win again.
Needless to say, they did not win that year.
Its also quite a long night.
I cant remember how many countries are involved now, but its a lot.
And they now include Australia and Israel and Russia, and its a lot of countries to get through.
Or sometimes despite that, there would be an effort in the voting to counter that somehow.
Like, Yes, we had a war 20 years ago, but now were giving you 12 points.
Its so much more than just a straight-up talent contest.
It was such a great act.
At what point did you get involved in the film?
As aEurovisionfan, were you there from the beginning?No, far from it.
I think theyve been talking about it for years.
Will, ever since he first sawEurovisionback in the 90s, he was like, Wow.
Someone should make a movie about this.
But he always assumed that someone else would.
And then they decided to revisit it.
And so he got together with some oldSNLbuddies, and they wrote this hilarious script.
And Rachel McAdams was on board, and Will was on board.
They already had some extraordinary musical talents involved in writing the music.
Was Lion of Love ready at that point?I think it was.
Yes, theyd got somebody to sing it, and I just laughed out loud.
Its just so, so funny, and yeah, its absolutely brilliant.
It just looked like so much fun.
And actually, it works really well.
Erics singing style is so perfect for the song.
I think its great, and it fits really neatly.
Im delighted with it.
They were looking to capture the full gamut of those styles.
These guys have choreographed some of the biggest pop tours in the last 10, 20 years.
And with Lemtov, I think youre walking an even finer line.
It was great to talk to them about theirEurovisionexperience.
Lemtov is a king in his own little castle, and he seems to be a bit ofEurovisionfixture.
This is probably not his first appearance.
And so he obviously represents that kind of character within the story.
But, the other thing to note is how important the song contest is to the LGBTQ community.
Its a kind of safe haven for a lot of people in that sense.
They have a huge following in that community in Europe, and around the world.
Even in America, I think, its known for that.
And thats something thats really, really celebrated.
Obviously, Lemtov is torn because he comes from a culture that doesnt allow him to acknowledge that.
A character like Lemtov in his own country, very few people would have questioned his sexuality.
He was out there performing, and nobody was questioning that, especially in England.
