Actor Matthew McConnaughey has said it was a “coup” to entice Bono to take up a role in Sing 2, an animated musical movie which premiered in Hollywood on Sunday night.

Bono plays reclusive rock star Clay Calloway and on the red carpet last night, the Oscar-winning Texan said the movie had pulled off a coup by landing Bono.

“We pulled a legend in the music rock and roll world to come with us and play on our team on this film. It was a coup to get him.

“Getting him for the movie was very much like getting Clay Calloway, the character he plays in the movie; it’s a coup to get him as if they show is to succeed, we need him onstage,” McConnaughey told Variety on the red carpet of the Sing 2 Premiere.

The star-studded cast including McConnaughey, Bono, Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon, Halsey and Seth McFarlane descended on Hollywood for the movie’s official launch last night.

The U2 frontman and Edge - who composed an original U2 song for the animated movie - were in attendance. Bono described director Garth Jennings as “brilliant man”.

“He’s kind of like a fictional character himself. He’s got a very brilliant brain; wrote the film, directed it and can do all the voices, but he stays kind of like a child and I think that is key to his creativity,” Bono said.

Director Garth Jennings approached Bono about the idea of having a U2 original song in the movie and Bono enlisted the Edge’s help in doing so.

“It’s a very simple song at first glance,” Bono said, adding: “but there’s a lot of complexity to it. The simple ones are the hardest to write,” Bono said before declaring the song has “incredible chords” that Edge was “hiding for a special occasion”.

Fellow Sing 2 star Nick Kroll said it was “awesome” to be able to work with Bono in the movie but said it was “terrible that I have to sing one of his songs in the movie and he has to hear me destroy it”.

Sing 2 will hit big screens in Ireland on January 28 next year.