Author: Michael Darling
There’s a billboard in Hollywood that poses the question of whether it’s better to be a rock star or movie star. Well, what of those who try to be both? There have been many who’ve tried to walk this line and try their hands at both careers. It’s been a mixed bag of talent. In fact, recently Beyonce has said that she’d like to play Wonder Woman and Joaquin Phoenix has announced that he’s giving up film to focus on music. There is a small percentage of people who can pull off this double duty, but most others fail at their attempted second talent. A brief preface: for simplicity’s sake, I shall not look at actor-singers like Barbara Streisand and Fred Astaire because they are well known as double threats.
Let’s start with those elite few who are able to dabble in a second skill with success. Truth be told, it’s a rather short list. On the music to drama side, we have David Bowie and Tom Waits, two musicians known for their idiosyncrasies and their unique musical styles. Throughout his musical career Bowie has adopted various identities and personas. In playing roles like Nikola Tesla in The Prestige, Bowie was able to overcome the “Oh my God, it’s David Bowie” factor and seamlessly blend in with the rest of the film. In fact, several of my friends did not realize it was Bowie playing the part until I told them.
Waits has built a career out of singing songs of sad and strange characters. Naturally, his acting career reflects this in the choices of roles he plays-including an inventor who specializes in non-lethal weapons in Mystery Men. Next year Waits shall appear in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus playing a frequent subject of his songs, the Devil. It’s not just “weird” musicians who act well; Frank Sinatra played many non-musical roles in 1950s.
Additionally, in recent days there has been a rise in actors who can pull off a musical side project.
The actress Zooey Deschanel has teamed up with singer-guitarist M. Ward to form She & Him. Also, Jason Schwartzman has recorded music under the name Coconut Records. What separates these two from many other actors who have recorded music is that the music does not come off like a vanity project. Most times when actors release albums, it’s promoted as “[Actor’s Name Goes Here] Sings!” However, in these two examples, the albums underplay who the actors are. She & Him’s debuted around the same time as Scarlett Johansson’s album of mostly Tom Waits covers. Whereas Deschanel’s project was light on the publicity of who the lead singer was, Johansson’s record was widely promoted as a record by the famous actress Scarlett Johansson. Although, to be fair, Deschanel – and Schwartzman for that matter – is not as big a name as Johansson.
But enough with the hits, what about the misses? For one reason or another, many of the musicians who take up acting are rappers. These performances are typically panned. For example, in Get Rich or Die Tryin’, a film loosely based on his life, 50 Cent was unable to give a believable performance. On the other side of things, there have been many actors who attempt to sing only to fail horribly. There’s a phenomenally hilarious collection of actors’ singing entitled Golden Throats. This album features actors like Jack Webb, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy delivering terrible versions of 60s pop songs. Strangely though, sometimes no matter how bad the results are, they’re still hits, if only for the curiosity factor. Hey, David Hasselhoff’s over the top pop-rock stylings are big in Germany. It’s not just B and C list stars who do this, even A listers find themselves doing it – like Clark Gable singing “Puttin’ On the Ritz” in the aptly named Idiot’s Delight.
So, what can I say about actors and singers who try to cross over to the other side? Generally they’re pretty unessential, but there are those individuals who manage to act and sing well. So, good luck to Beyonce and Joaquin Phoenix on their possible career paths – maybe they’ll beat the odds. In the mean time though, I’ll leave you with one final case study to consider: NBA Center Shaquille O’Neal’s failed attempts at both a rap and film career.
Michael Darling is a junior History major. He can be reached at mdarling@oxy.edu.
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