Milli Vanilli Producer ‘Still Quite Angry’

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9 (UPI) — Milli Vanilli is the latest musical group to get a biopic about their careers. Girl You Know It’s True, in theaters Friday, shows how German producer Frank Farian discovered dancers Fabrice Morvan (Elab Ben Ali) and Robert Pilatus (Tijan Njie).

Milli Vanilli’s career ended in scandal when Farian held a press conference on Nov. 14, 1990, to announce Morvan and Pilatus had been lip syncing to other artists’ vocal tracks. Matthias Schweighöfer, who plays Farian, mentioned he thought Farian still harbored resentment over Milli Vanilli before his death in January.

Schweighöfer, 43, said he asked Farian in a Zoom call to reflect on his press conference, which the actor re-enacts in Girl You Know It’s True. The movie was named after the song Milli Vanilli made famous in the late ’80s.

"He said, ‘I was still pretty angry,’" Schweighöfer told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "I was interested in his feeling because that’s what I wanted to play."

The movie shows that Morvan and Pilatus requested that Farian allow them to sing on their albums. However, Farian felt the dancers were not strong enough singers, and their French accents made English-language lyrics challenging.

"He was a control freak," Schweighöfer said. "He really wanted to be in charge of everything, but especially in that case with the Milli Vanilli boys."

Farian had produced Boney M and several other artists before Milli Vanilli. Schweighöfer also studied documentaries to learn about subjects about which Farian would not speak directly.

"It’s hard to ask a question: Can you reflect on your career at one of the toughest times in your life?" Schweighöfer said. "And please be real. Please be true."

Schweighöfer said he asked Farian about Pilatus’s death in 1998, but Farian deflected. The actor added that the producers of Girl You Know It’s True told him Farian did support making the film.

The film depicts Farian screaming at Pilatus and Morvan for trying to sing, giving unauthorized interviews, and staying in Los Angeles when he requested their presence at his studio in Germany. Schweighöfer said the screaming in the script corroborated what he learned about Farian.

"I heard he was screaming a lot," Schweighöfer said. "Screaming is not cool. Screaming is not a good solution."

Schweighöfer said he asked director Simon Verhoeven to allow him to perform alternate quieter takes. Verhoeven went with the screaming takes in the film though.

"To be honest, I screamed a lot in the film," Schweighöfer said.

The press conference resulted in Milli Vanilli losing their 1989 Best New Artist Grammy.

The duo’s further attempts to release albums, including vocals, never reached the heights of their ’80s fame with hits "Girl You Know It’s True," "Blame It On the Rain," and "Baby Don’t Forget My Number."

Schweighöfer said he, his co-stars, and the filmmakers wondered whether audiences would have accepted Milli Vanilli’s dance performance had Farian been upfront that the performers were not singing. Schweighöfer said it would be impossible to know that hypothetical.

"The music and the choreography was amazing," Schweighöfer said. "They really sold it."

In the interest of honesty, Ali and Njie remove their wigs during the film’s credits to show viewers it was not their real hair. Schweighöfer said he also wore a wig to represent Farian’s long, blonde hair.

"I had one and a half hours of makeup every day," he said, which included his "crazy hair."

Schweighöfer recently played other historical figures. He portrayed Gestapo agent Klaus Barbie in Resistance and German physicist Werner Heisenberg in the Oscar-winner Oppenheimer.

The story of Frank Farian and Milli Vanilli appealed to Schweighöfer because it showed how a German could influence international pop culture, he said. So too has Schweighöfer crossed over between American films and German productions like Four Against the Bank and Frau Ella.

"It’s a German American story," Schweighöfer said of Girl You Know It’s True. "It’s a German producer who found these guys and it all happened in America."

Source: UPI