Which Hollywood mega star convinced Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood to star in comedy film Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties?
'Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties' writer-and-star Mike Smith has revealed Billy Bob Thornton - who plays himself in the film - convinced Rolling Stones rocker Ronnie Wood to agree to a cameo in the comedy movie.
Ronnie Wood agreed to a cameo in new comedy film 'Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties' after Billy Bob Thornton personally reached out to him.
The Rolling Stones guitarist plays himself in the movie, which is based on the Canadian TV series 'Trailer Park Boys' and follows Mike Smith's character Bubbles form a country band and get offered a European tour supporting Thornton's rock group the Boxmasters.
The movie culminates with a scene in which Ronnie, 77, and Billy, 69, join Bubbles on stage at London's iconic Abbey Road Studios - the place where The Beatles recorded their acclaimed albums - as the character performs a song inspired by his life-long love of cats.
Writer-and-actor Mike penned the script with the idea that a major rock star would join Bubbles for the scene, but he had no idea who he would be able to get until his friend Billy - who also plays himself in the film - made the call to convince Ronnie.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz, Mike revealed: "I wrote it with all these mega-stars in my head, like, in the scene.
"To me, at the time, I was just like, we'll just get some massively famous people. In hindsight it was like, ‘What was I thinking?’ But we ended up pulling it off.
“It was Billy who got Ronnie. I realised several days before we were going to shoot that scene that I didn’t have anyone for it, that’s when it sort of dawned on me.
“What was plan B? I guess I didn’t have one. I called up Billy and was like, ‘Hey man, this is the situation?"
Mike insists Ronnie was the perfect person to appear in the scene and was incredible to work with because he was so generous with his time and totally committed to what was required of him.
He added: "When you see the scene it’s a pretty big ask what we were looking for some massive star to do. Ronnie went above and beyond what I was hoping to get. I don’t think we would have got that out of any other star of his status. He was like, ‘Yeah man, what do you need me to do?’ He was unbelievably generous with his time.
“The way I wrote it was that Bubbles is put on the spot to play in front of all these people, he sort of finishes and then the big star steps up to the crowd and says, ‘Hey man, it’s not a bad little song but did you ever think about doing it like this?’
“The way we did it is the way I imagined it in my head and now when I watch it I’m like, ‘Wow, we actually did it.'"
'Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties' is directed by Charlie Lightening, who made the Liam Gallagher documentary film 'AS IT WAS' and has worked as Sir Paul McCartney's documentarian for the last 16 years.
Getting to direct Ronnie in the movie was a "full circle moment" for Charlie because the first film he ever made was with the former Faces guitarist.
Charlie said: "When Ronnie said yeah he’d be in it we all met for dinner. We were talking about the film and he’s really excited. I was like, ‘You know the first film I ever did was with you?’ It took Ronnie a minute to get the wheels rolling.
"It was such a full circle moment for me ... It was nice that I got to put a full stop on that."
'Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties' also stars 'Trailer Park Boys' regulars Robb Wells, JP Tremblay and Pat Roach, as well as Martin Freeman, Robert Sheehan and The Animals singer Eric Burdon.
The movie is available to rent via streaming services now.
