| | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | Listening to R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe discuss the comedian Andy Kaufman, one can't help imagining that the singer is, at least in part, also describing himself. "I copped a lot of his moves," Stipe concedes. Coming from a man who has been saddled since early in his career with the quasi-complimentary "eccentric" tag, that's no small admission.
Andy Kaufman rose to fame through early "Saturday Night Live" performances, and reached an even larger, more mainstream audience playing the wide-eyed, munchkin-voiced Latka Gravas on TV's "Taxi." But he solidified his reputation as a barrier-breaking, otherworldly eccentric by wrestling women, reading entire novels onstage, and taking audiences out for milk and cookies.
Stipe and his bandmates, meanwhile, spent the balance of the last two decades pushing the boundaries of modern pop. As the fuzz-guitar blast of Nirvana's "Nevermind" exploded the complacency of early '90s radio, R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People" -- and particularly the plaintive, addictively repetitive single "Man on the Moon" ("Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah") -- played an equally compelling counterpoint.
Now, seven years later, Stipe's lyrical homage to Kaufman has become a major Hollywood vehicle. Helmed by acclaimed director Milos Forman ("Hair," "The People vs. Larry Flynt"), the film has already garnered considerable Oscar buzz for Jim Carrey's dramatic turn as Kaufman, and for R.E.M.'s lush, evocative soundtrack.
Stipe recently sat down with MTV News Online's Benjamin Wagner to discuss the film, its namesake song, and the band's new single, "The Great Beyond." What emerged was not only a revealing portrait of both Stipe and Kaufman, but a searching discussion on the courage required to create groundbreaking art.
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