Hard to Hold (film)

James "Jamie" Roberts, being a pop idol, is used to having his way with women. He meets child psychologist Diana Lawson in a car accident; however, she has never heard of him and doesn't swoon at his attention. He tries to win her affection, but complicating things is his ex-lover, Nicky Nides, who remains a member of his band.

• Rick Springfield as James Roberts
• Janet Eilber as Diana Lawson
• Patti Hansen as Nicky Nides
• Albert Salmi as Johnny Lawson
• Gregory Itzin as Owen
• Peter Van Norden as Casserole
• Bill Mumy as Keyboardist
• Frank Ronzio as Flower Vendor
• Robert Popwell bass player

Springfield had been performing music and acting for over a decade when his career went to a new level in the 1980s, due to a successful run of singles and a popular role on General Hospital.^[2] He was approached to act in the film. He later recalled:

It was one of those guys that said, [Uses an old-time Hollywood voice.] "We can make some money on this, kid." And I thought the script was so awful that I threw it across the room; I remember physically throwing it across the room and saying, "This is a piece of shit." Then they offered me a lot of money and I remember picking it up and saying, "I can make this work!" [Laughs.] Which I didn't, because it was still a crappy movie, but I did my best in it and I still make jokes about it actually ... That's probably the only time I'll say my ego got the better of me was when I did that film. I said, "I can make this work".^[3]

Director Larry Peerce said "like everyone else, I was skeptical about using Rick. But he is a marvelous, talented, well-trained young man with a wonderful sense of comedy - and sexy as hell.... Anyone who can make it through the soaps can make it through anything. Then, too, he has that thing that happens to people who've been up and down a few times." Peerce added that Springfield "not only appeals to youth, but to mature women, too - and he's also one of those rare handsome, sexy men who doesn't put other men off."^[4]

Springfield said, "The freedom of the movies after TV was like going from a wading pool to the ocean."^[5]

The female lead, Janet Eilber, was a former dancer. When she was offered the film, she says, "I thought it would be rated PG. After all, the majority of Springfield's fans are teenage girls. But the script plainly called for a nude love scene. I convinced myself it would be a matter of doing the scene under a sheet or something. But two or three days after we shot the scene I realized there was no sheet and there would be no PG."^[6]

In December 1983 Springfield said, "Hopefully it will be the only music movie I'll make, because I want to branch out and stretch my wings. I guess you could say it was just a safer script than some of those I was given. I even looked at one script about a case of mistaken identity where a guy is locked up in a garage with a guy who thinks he's somebody else and is trying to kill him. So the music movie looked pretty good."^[7]

The film had to be edited so it would be rated PG rather than R.^[8]

Springfield followed making the movie with a tour.^[9]