SDCC 2015: Backstreet Boys’ A.J. McLean and *NSYNC’s Joey Fatone Embrace Horror Nerdom on ‘Dead Seven’
Oh my God, they’re back again. And they’re going to fight zombies in Dead Seven.
The Asylum, the loose cannons behind Z Nation and the Sharknado franchise, are producing Nick Carter’s (of Backstreet Boy fame) Dead Seven, set to air on Syfy sometime next year. Coming along for the ride is his fellow boy band brethren A.J. McLean and Joey Fatone (of *NSYNC), cementing this project as kind of… historic. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones never got together, but these guys finally have. For a zombie movie. It’s truly the golden age of television.
The project confirms my suspicions that these guys have always been kinda nerdy. It’s easy to forget that boy bands were boys. Comic books, horror movies, and video games are in every dude’s diet. These influences went over my sister’s head; she’s the true Backstreet fanatic and why I know their entire discography in my sleep. But she and the rest of every ’90s hormonal teenager zeroed in their focus with the boys and only the boys, which prevented them from seeing the bold nerdiness right in their face. The Gaston Leroux and Bram Stoker that was aped in “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” to the crystal-clear Ridley Scott aesthetics in “Larger Than Life”, these boys secretly gave teenage girls slick whiffs of sci-fi and fantasy without them realizing it.
Meanwhile, Joey Fatone of “rival” pop group *NSYNC (Surprise: they were and are all friends, the rivalry was manufactured by fandom) was an out-and-proud nerd, and slipped it in whenever he could. Like in the “I Drive Myself Crazy” video.
Now, years later as their touring schedules have gotten a tad lighter, they’re finally pursuing passion projects without cheesy record label images holding them back. Like Marvel and DC doing one massive project to shake the world, Nick Carter and A.J. McLean (and, later we learn, Howie Dorough!) of the Backstreet Boys and Joey Fatone of *NSYNC are teaming up like gangbusters for what is bound to be one bonkers movie.
At this past San Diego Comic-Con, I sat down with AJ McLean and Joey Fatone to talk about Dead Seven, their favorite horror movies, and to get to the bottom once and for all if there really was a rivalry between the two titans of ’90s-era teen adolescence.
Is this your first time at Comic-Con?
AJ: This is my first time actually coming to Comic-Con. And I never geeked out before today. I got to meet Bryan Cranston and I’m the biggest Breaking Bad fan you ever met.
I saw that Instagram photo.
A.J.: When I got to meet him … there’s this huge line wrapped around, like double wrapped to meet both [Seth Green and Bryan Cranston] and our manager got me hooked up and I’m like, “I don’t want to piss anybody off because these people have been waiting really long so I don’t want to start a riot at Comic-Con.” [laughs] As soon as they were done signing autographs, Bryan turned around and we talked for a minute and we took a quick picture. Nicest guy in the world.
I didn’t watch Malcolm in the Middle so for me I only know him as Walter White. So it’s like when I see him, I’m like, “Oh my God, it’s fucking Walter White,” It’s so cool. That has been my geek-out moment of my entire life. Now I know what it’s like for our fans when they’re waiting patiently to meet us and if they do or they don’t, but this is fucking rad, this is so much fun. I’m excited to be a part of this, Nick asked me to do this a while ago. I know it’s been back and forth, we didn’t know if it was actually was going to happen and then Nick came to me one day and said Asylum is on board, now Syfy, and here we are talking about Dead Seven and things are moving.
It’s moved quicker that you could imagine?
A.J.: It has moved quicker, yes … When Nick asked me we were half way through our tour and he’s like, “I’ve got this script this idea, this company I know wants to do it, would you be interested?” I’m like, “Of course.”
We’re always out to help each other and to support each other in any individual endeavors whether it’s a solo album or a movie. I told Nick, I have one stipulation. I have to be a villain I can’t be a good guy. That’s my only way that I’ll do it. He’s like, “Perfect.” So I get to be one of the two main villains.
Joey: I get to be the drunk! [laughs] Type-cast.
Is it your first film?
A.J.: It is my first film. I grew up in acting, and theater, and movies, and TV when I was a kid but as far as…
Joey: Puppets.
A.J.: Puppets, all that. Oh, no puppets, oh yeah. Someday I’ll do Avenue Q. This is my first actual film, yes. I thought I’d be worried about learning lines and what not. I actually did some research online and I found out Vince Vaughn, whenever he studies for any kind of role, he doesn’t learn the lines. He goes on set and he yells out, “Line!” and he says it because he wants the initial reaction to be real and then he ad-libs everything in the middle. So I’m like, “If I don’t have time to learn my lines, I’ll just do that.” [laughs] It works!
Judy Dench doesn’t learn her lines either.
Joey: There’s a lot of people do a lot of different methods. Sometimes I’ve heard people have buds in their ear and they have cue cards … The best part about it is you don’t have to learn the whole thing all the way through. Just little sections of when you shoot a film so you know the scene, or how many pages. Like three or four pages.
A.J.: If we can memorize songs and dance moves, this should be nothing. So for you it’s old hat.
Joey: It’s all, trust me you’re start flubbing up things and it’s the most simple things sometimes.
A.J.: Of course it is.
Joey: Your brain starts playing mind tricks on you.
A.J.: I can’t wait for the outtakes, that’s going to be the fun part.
I’ve always suspected you guys to be huge nerds. The “Larger Than Life” video and “Everybody (Backsteet’s Back),” you’re all monsters and aliens. I remember ‘N Sync had the video where you guys were action figures. How do you feel about finally getting to express yourselves in this kind of way that you haven’t been able to before?
Joey: I think it’s great. It’s awesome. It puts us in a different light and a different element and you know what it’s like one of those things where … I think for use we can’t lose. In a sense, we’re having fun. We’re not taking it, “Oh, my gosh, this is very dramatic. We’re method actors.” It’s fun and that’s the thing. That’s the same thing when you were saying about Nick called me up about four or five different times going, “Hey, hey, hey; you want to do the film? Read the script. You want to do it? Come on, come on.”
I’m like, I said, “Yeah, let me took a look at it. I’d love to be a part of it,” something like that. We’ve never done anything together collectively as whether or not *NSYNC or BSB or whatever. Just us as normal regular people collaborating with each other. I think that’s something that’s going to be interesting and exciting about it because it puts us out of our element. It’s something that we’ve never done before. As this kind of group in a sense. I think it’s just going to be fun. It’s going to be exciting.
A.J.: I’m excited, this is going to be something fresh and new for me. I’m really proud of Nick, he’s been a huge fan of sci-fi for years and for him to finally have one of his dreams come into fruition, I’m super, super proud of him, so he’s super stoked about it.
Joey: What’s great is we get to learn from each other. All the stuff I think when we do shoot and everything I think it’s going to be exciting to learn from each other. We’ve hung out but we’ve never really hung out so we’re going to be together for a couple of weeks.
A.J.: Couple of weeks and apparently rumor is that, I’m not sure if it’s budget or what but we’re supposed to be doing our stunts! [laughs] Shooting our own fake weapons, so it’s a good thing that we just finished a two and half year tour so I got time before the next album to break bones and get some bruises.
How do you feel about having Nick as your boss? Is that a new dynamic for you?
A.J.: There’s going to be no boss, he’s not telling me shit.
Joey: He’s not the boss, hell no. He’s not the boss of me.
A.J.: I think it’s going to be fun just to watch him really have an avenue for his creative juices to shine. He’s always been that kid that doodles. He’s amazing [with his] drawings. It’s because of his little doodling that we did a comic book years ago with Stan Lee. He’s just, he’s like a big kid. He’ll always be that way. I think this is going to be like playtime for him. Obviously, it’s time to step up to the plate, it’s going to be serious when the camera’s were on but … All of us are going to have fun with this. This is not like Oscar-winning material, this is meant to have fun.
Joey: This ain’t rocket surgery.
A.J.: No, it’s just to have fun.
The Asylum have established themselves for knowing exactly what they are and being proud of it. Given that is the fact and that it’s going to be Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, is there going to be any sort of knowing and nods to that fact?
Joey: I don’t think so.
A.J.: I don’t think so, no.
Joey: The way the script is pretty much written as far as there’s no jokes, or puns, or anything like that. The thing about Asylum, what you were talking about earlier … they’re great because the company’s so great about them is they’re they’re risk-takers in something like that. For somebody to go, for Nick to come up to Asylum and go, “Hey, I got this idea and this project. We’re going to have a couple musicians be actors and this and that, whether or not they’ve acted before or not. Let’s throw some paint on the wall and see what sticks kind of thing.” They embrace that kind of stuff and that’s what’s great about it.
When people said the same thing with Sharknado, they’re like, “Yeah whatever.” They did a third one, I mean come on. It’s popular because I think people love an outlet and love that kind of hokey-ness but it’s fun. Even though there’s legitimate actors in that show so I think it’s just going to be fun to put it to the table of what we have to offer.
A.J.: Movies like this can turn into cult phenomenons and that’s what Sharknado happened to be. It’s like, I never thought I would really like it. I watched it, I’m like, “Okay, this is ridiculous but I’m still watching it and I think it’s awesome.” I think this could turn into one of those type of cult phenomenons that there’s going to be a group of fans, both obviously Backstreet and *NSYNC fans but even fans of that type of genre. Fans that are fans of the westerns, zombies, post-apocalyptic Mad Max vibe. There’s fans for all of that and this has all of it in one movie so it’s going to be interesting.
What could you tell us about the story, and about your characters specifically?
Joey: My character, Joey, he’s more of the comic relief I would say. I mean look at me, I’m funny looking enough to begin with. I’m kind of like the drunken-ish party-goer, kind of don’t care, ready to take on the world kind of thing. He’s not afraid of anything.
A.J.: Your character kind of reminds me of Doc from Tombstone. Just that kind of Val Kilmer-y like, “I just don’t care, whatever, we’re going to have fun.”
Joey: Let’s do it.
A.J.: Drinking, do it, oh by the way just shot 3 guys, I’m good. I can’t wait to see how you bring this character to life, it’s going to be awesome.
Joey: I’ll be drunk the whole time.
And his name is Joe?
Joey: Yeah, his name’s Joe. Character’s name is pretty much Joe as far as I know unless they rewrote the character name differently but that’s what I read.
How much of a fan are you two of the genre? What are your favorite horror movies?
A.J.: I’ve been a horror fanatic my whole life. Actually one of the first films I ever shot was a movie called Truth or Dare: A Critical Madness and it was a horror film. Very Jason Voorhees-esque. When it premiered I couldn’t even watch the first eight minutes of the movie because it was all sex and I was like, 8, so I had to wait until that was over and then I could go watch the movie. For me it’s like, I grew up with American Werewolf in London. I thought it’s just a classic, it’s still to this day parts of it freak me out.
The transformation sequence.
A.J.: The transformation is the best to this day, because now it’s all CGI.
Joey: John Landis.
I met his son outside on my way to this interview.
Joey: [laughs]
A.J.: As far as like recently, I love movies like The Collector. Some of the brand new reboots like Texas Chainsaw is great. Any of the classics, like the ’80s ’90s movies for me, anything Friday the 13th, Freddy. The only one I don’t like is It. I’m a huge Stephen King fan but I’m terrified of clowns. Anything with clowns, not happening. To this day, not happening.
Joey: To me, Freddie Kruger, that kind of stuff, I’m with the old school. Same thing. There is a horror film called Funhouse. The campy ones where Goolies or Sleepaway Camp.
A.J.: Goolies, Critters.
Sleepaway Camp is awesome.
A.J.: Critters was one of my favorites. Critters was just great, that guy with the face that could change. That was awesome.
Joey: Puppet Master.
A.J.: Puppet Master! Oh that’s my frickin’ mom’s favorite.
The zombie wave is pretty high right now. Are there any other zombie mash-ups you would like to see or want to do yourself?
Joey: Which ones have they haven’t done yet? [laughs]
A.J.: My mom’s a really big fan of that new TV show, iZombie, which is kind of a cool twist on the zombie outlook.
Great show!
A.J.: But for me I think it’d be cool to see something with like, zombies and almost like… This is my own personal creation because I’m a huge Friends fan, the biggest Friends fan ever. If you could do like a TV sitcom with a group of six characters. Three of them are zombies, three of them are not. One of the ones that’s not wants to be a zombie so he keeps begging one to fight them.
Joey: Kind of like The Odd Couple, but zombies. [laughs]
A.J.: Yeah, but like zombies and I think it’d be hilarious. I think it’d be fun.
I just want to acknowledge that we got the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC here. This is like Marvel and DC coming together.
Joey: All of five of us! [laughs] We’re representing each, so yeah, it’s like DC and Marvel.
This is a huge deal and I’m just curious to know who reached out to who for the project.
Joey: Nick called me. Yeah, that’s how it went down but it’s always funny because people always think they’re some sort of rivals or any of this kind of stuff and everything else. But it’s so funny. It’s always interesting because when I joke or bust chops about something, they know about it. Nick will know about, A.J. will know about it and all of a sudden the fans will rip me a new ass. It’s hilarious.
Then I laugh and then I call him and I’m like, “Hey, look what I said, blah, blah, blah,” and they’re like, “Yeah, I know, I can’t,” and we laugh about it and it’s never been that way. There’s never been animosity, there’s never been anything like that. They’ve always just because they were five guys, we were five guys, it was always thought, “Oh, well there’s always tension.” We had the same manager for quite some time.
A.J.: There’s never been tension. Chris Kirkpatrick and Howie both went to college together. We were in the same town together growing up. There’s never been rivalry. I think the press and media needed to fuel it and try to start a fire and the fire just fizzled out. It kept fizzing out.
Joey: Now we’re setting the record straight by doing a film together.
Is there any time we’ll see any of the other people from that era? Like Britney, Christina?
A.J.: Howie’s also in the film.
Joey: I’m the only *NSYNC-er as of now, but you never now. That’s actually, that’s kind of Nick’s vision is to bring some other people in that genre and it was his thought and his vision was to bring people that have never really done a lot of film but that were in the music in the ’90s and in the 2000s. To find out where that happy medium is and to see who we can get to play and have fun with it.
Because when you do something like this people are kind of scared. They don’t want to fail or they don’t want to go, “Well, that’s a piece of crap or whatever.” Like I said, Asylum probably did Sharknado and people were like, “I ain’t doing that.” All of sudden now people are calling him about, “Hey, remember you asked me for the first one? You think I could come in the second one or the third?” It’s that kind of thing and like for us like I said, we’re to the point in our lives and our careers that we’re able to do something like this. Nick, obviously, brought it to the attention to Asylum and they love the idea and I think it’s going to be fun because for us it gives us an outlet in something different that we’ve never done before. Especially with us being together. Hey it may work, it may not but I think the think is we want to have fun in doing something like this.
A.J.: It’s fun, it’s going to be a blast.
Is there anything you are anxious, nervous about?
Joey: I think just anxious about just getting it and rolling.
A.J.: Yeah, just figuring to when we’re going to start and where we’re shooting. We were just upstairs and Nick was like, “Oh, did you hear where we might possibly be shooting?” I’m like, “I thought it’s all going to be L.A.” He’s like, “No, Alaska!” [laughs] “I’m like, “You do realize in summer it’s daylight all day every day, all night. Good luck with that.” Obviously, I’ve got to go wherever the movie but I can’t wait it’s going to be a blast. Nick’s got me in the frickin’ gym training my ass off right now.
What do you want to do next?
Joey: After we shoot this I’m going to hopefully take a little time off. I actually just finished My Big Fat Greek Wedding II, we just shot that. That’s going to come out next year, March 25th I believe. They actually didn’t give a date which is crazy but they’re doing it. It’s pretty interesting, they got the original cast and everybody together and now I’ve just been taking it easy. Taking a little break.
A.J.: I wish I had a break but no. I’m finishing up my first solo record and then, hopefully, touring top of the year and then Backstreet’s going back in the studio again probably mid fall to make our ninth album. Gear up for a brand new tour next year. The next Backstreet cruise is in May of next year.
Joey: The cruise.
A.J.: The cruise! This is our first Mediterranean cruise and then on top of all that I’m coming out with a clothing line, so there’s a lot of things. It’s urban street wear clothing. It’s myself and 3 of my buddies; we’re all a bunch of sneaker heads, Dunny Life is the name of the brand so that’s going to be our fun little thing.
My sister’s been on that cruise for a couple years straight. Will we be seeing the Backstreet and *NSYNC cruise together?
Joey: [laughs]
A.J.: You know, we’ve actually talked about it, I know I talked about it with Lance. I know we’ve mentioned it a couple of times in passing.
I’d go.
A.J.: I think it’d be fun, I mean who knows.
Dead Seven will air on Syfy in 2016. Check out our interview with Nick and Lauren Carter here, and The Asylum producers later!
Note: This interview was conducted in a press room roundtable. Not all questions were mine, but all have been edited to retain an easy-to-read flow while retaining its integrity.
