Paula Abdul looks back on 'Opposites Attract' 30 years later
Paula Abdul talks to Yahoo Entertainment about her hit single and video, 'Opposites Attract,' 30 years later.
Video Transcript
LYNDSEY PARKER: So I've talked to you about some of your videos and your choreography work in the past. But one I've never talked to you about is "Opposites Attract." And it was such an iconic video, and I actually found out just now that you actually ironically are allergic to cats.
PAULA ABDUL: Ironically, yes.
LYNDSEY PARKER: Aw.
PAULA ABDUL: But I love them.
LYNDSEY PARKER: But not to MC Skat Kat?
PAULA ABDUL: Well, no, but he gets on my nerves.
LYNDSEY PARKER: [LAUGHS] Who was the rapper? This Derrick Stevens guy?
PAULA ABDUL: Derrick Delite. His name is Derek Delite. And the actor Romany, from "Weeds," he's actually in that series now called "A Million Little Things."
LYNDSEY PARKER: OK.
PAULA ABDUL: Romany is his name. He was the rapper in it. And he went on to have amazing success now.
LYNDSEY PARKER: Wow.
PAULA ABDUL: But, you know, from the humble days of being Skat Kat.
KEVIN POLOWY: I read a very fun fact about you recently that you wrote the raps for Skat Kat on Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract." How did that come about?
ROMANY MALCO: I was at Virgin records trying to get my own record deal. And they were employing me by having me write for other artists, including Paula Abdul. Paula Abdul was like, "I like this kid. Would he be interested in writing for this animated cat?" And then I just started turning out, like-- don't get me wrong. I must have written 150 songs, but they liked 15, 20. And so I just kept turning out music, and they kept using it.
KEVIN POLOWY: I think-- but I think people for a long time thought you were actually the rapper as well, right?
ROMANY MALCO: Oh yeah, because Paula Abdul tells everybody that it's me. I'm like, "Why do you do that?" And she goes, "It makes a better story."
LYNDSEY PARKER: But didn't he have his own album? There was another video you did with him.
PAULA ABDUL: Yes. Yeah.
LYNDSEY PARKER: He tried to launch a solo career without you. He learned his lesson.
PAULA ABDUL: He did. He thought he could do it on his own.
LYNDSEY PARKER: [LAUGHS]
PAULA ABDUL: You know, I was all behind him and he didn't want me to help in any way. No. But Derrick Delite did the actual singing and and rapping guy also who do this on the album, yeah.
KEVIN POLOWY: But you were-- I mean, obviously you were also a lyricist, not just a songwriter at the time-- were you kind of bummed that you didn't get to do Skat Kat's rapping?
ROMANY MALCO: Never-- I had my own rap group. I never wanted that. You know-- [AUDIO OUT] I was afraid that rapping as Skat Kat would tarnish my image. So I actually-- when Skat Kat went on tour, I actually sent my brother. [LAUGHS] He toured with Paula Abdul. But the voice of MC Skat Kat was a guy named Derrick Delite out of Minneapolis. Many years later, they linked me to John Leguizamo, and that's how I got into the film industry. Because John Leguizamo wanted to rap like the cat. The cat ended up having his own album. John Leguizamo's like, "I want to rap like this for 'The Pest.'"
- (SINGING) Oh, babe. Come and get your [INAUDIBLE]. You want to make it safe. Make it safe. How you like that, baby?
- And then someone that I had worked with back then connected us. And that's how I started acting.
LYNDSEY PARKER: Is it true that the live action Skat Kat was Boogaloo Shrimp, like from "Breakin'" and "Breakin' 2"?
ROMANY MALCO: Yes. Boogaloo Shrimp was the actual body double for Skat Kat for a lot of the scenes that sets up his personality. Then I had another dancer named Bill Bull who came in and did the tap dancing and more of the technical dancing. Yeah, but Boogaloo Shrimp, he was Skat Kat. So is there a live-action version of you and Boogaloo Shrimp doing this routine?
PAULA ABDUL: There actually is a live-action rehearsal with him as Skat Kat and me, and also with Bill Bull and me. Back then, there was no motion capture. Everything was artist painting cell by cell. Nowadays, it could be in real-time. But for this, it was like extensive work to put this character together.
LYNDSEY PARKER: I mean, I know you had live-action people, but how does one choreograph for a cartoon and envision how that final product is going to look?
PAULA ABDUL: I worked with these talented directors-- husband and wife, Candace Reckinger and Michael Patterson. They got a whole bunch of animators from Warner Brothers, Disney, Hanna-Barbera at that time, all [INAUDIBLE] moonlighting and work on my video. And we were working out how are we going to storyboard this. We're going to have to act like, OK, you're choking Skat Kat. But there's nobody to choke, so you're going to have to, as I'm laying down, suck in that core and start-- fun things like that, fake pulling out cigarettes from nothing. And what happens is we did all of my shots, and then the animators came in and would lay down layer by layer. It took a long time.
LYNDSEY PARKER: I think it's the same animators as "Take on Me" by A-ha. There's a connection there.
PAULA ABDUL: The husband and wife, Candice and Michael, directed A-ha's video.
LYNDSEY PARKER: That's pretty cool.
PAULA ABDUL: Yeah. They're amazing. And it was a groundbreaking video. And it was right around the time that "Roger Rabbit" had come out. So it was just wonderful timing.
LYNDSEY PARKER: I know you have such a fondness for the Gene Kelly era of movies, and it had that vibe to it.
PAULA ABDUL: Yes. Well, because I always go back to my very first inspiration that allowed me to know this is my calling is when I was four years old. And my family sat down watching the MGM musical called, "Singing in the Rain," and I was introduced to Gene Kelly at that tender age. And I was mesmerized. My parents told me that I walked up to the TV set and I said, "This is my daddy." And my father said, (STERN) "No, I'm your father. That could be your TV dad." And I kissed the TV--
LYNDSEY PARKER: Aw.
PAULA ABDUL: --and I said, and I stood right in front of the TV and I kept moving, dancing around. And that just led me on a path that I never looked back. But I did, because of my music career, I wanted to be able to give a gift to Gene Kelly for all the gifts he'd given me of inspiration. So that's why I went into the record label. And I said, "Look, I know I have six singles out--" and it was groundbreaking then. I was the first female artist to have four consecutive number 1s, six singles that were in the top 5, top 10. And then I just said, "I want to do a long-form video." And they said, "No."
LYNDSEY PARKER: They said, "No."
PAULA ABDUL: They thought initially that I was asking for another single. And I said-- they said, "You're going to be-- you're already over-saturated at radio, we don't want people to hate listening to you." And I said, "Well, not as a single, but just so I could give a gift to Gene Kelly." They said, "Maybe on the next album you can do that." And I said, "But I've got 'Opposites Attract,' that lent itself to a duet." I had the whole idea of what I wanted to do. At the end of the day, they agreed to let me do the video. And then Virgin Records loved the outcome, and they released it as a seventh single. And that went on to sell almost eight million more records.
LYNDSEY PARKER: You said it was a gift for Gene Kelly, so I assume you got to present it to him. What was his reaction to it? Did you tell him all this?
PAULA ABDUL: Well, I didn't even speak to him. I delivered-- I found out who his agent was, and I delivered it to his agency. And two days later, I got a phone call from Gene Kelly himself asking if I'd like to come over and meet him. And I was dying. And I remember it was the dead of summer, it was like 100 degrees. I lived in Beverly Hills, I arrived at his house almost 45 to an hour early. And I kept driving around, driving around the block.
And finally I just pulled over and I was waiting for it to become the time of the meeting. And I heard tapping on my car, and it was him going, "Are you going to park and come in?" Because I kept driving around in circles on Rodeo Drive. I just-- I was a nervous wreck. I mean, I was meeting my idol-- a man I looked up to and molded my whole life after, from the time I was four years old. So meeting him was incredible.
And as soon as we got past the awkwardness of me being so nervous, it was as if we had known each other forever. And we were like team dancing souls that were just talking about careers and me asking him, because he was so revolutionary in how he saw through the camera lens and how he would choreograph. And I was asking him questions, he's asking questions on choices I made. And it was like seamless. It was such an amazing first meeting. And I said, "All I've ever wanted to do was work with you." I said, "You know, I just did a commercial for Diet Coke replacing some of the legendary performers like Cary Grant, Groucho Marx, like who knows? Maybe I'll be able to one day dance with you in a commercial for Coca-Cola.
And later on that evening, I remember him reaching out to me saying are you a Wiccan? And I had never heard that term "Wiccan" before.
LYNDSEY PARKER: [LAUGHS]
PAULA ABDUL: And so I'm going, "Wiccan?" Witch! No, I'm not! And he said, "I got a phone call from an ad agency that's wanting to see if I'll sign-off on my rights to let you dance with me." And it was incredible. It was "Anchors Aweigh." They removed Frank Sinatra and plopped me in. He coached me. So I would go over to his home and he'd be at the piano with the stick going, all right, Abdul, on the count 3 between three and four. So on the "and" count, Francis-- Frank Sinatra-- looks to the left at me, and we wink. So we go, "Try it. 1, 2 3-- ah-- no. Again. Again!" It was incredible. I had I was literally mentored and taught by him.
LYNDSEY PARKER: Your four-year-old self must have been freaking out.
PAULA ABDUL: I just remember that I was so giddy and I kept pinching myself. And I just couldn't believe that I was able to give a gift of gratitude and receive the biggest gift back.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
