Things you often Wonder

[Paddywhack]

6 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

I struggle outside of Childish Gambino to think of others that have gone actor to musician and made a success and critical acclaim of it. 
 

Edit. Jared Leto. But its a small list I think. 

I can only assume you haven't listened to Laurence Fox's album...

[Mark Albrighton]

1 hour ago, Seat68 said:

I struggle outside of Childish Gambino to think of others that have gone actor to musician and made a success and critical acclaim of it. 

To be fair I think Kylie would have to count. I think most people would identify her from her music rather than Neighbours. Jared Leto, I have never heard 30 seconds to Mars, but I know he’s had success with that, however to my mind Leto is an actor first and foremost. Will Smith was successful. Again though, I consider him as a film star before I think of “Boom shake the room”.

Yeah Donald Glover/Childish Gambino is a fair shout. I get the sense with someone like him he’s always had these plates spinning, it was just the acting that took off first.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Mark Albrighton

[ChrisVillan]

32 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I’m probably going to receive a lot of legitimate examples disproving this, but anyway...why is it seemingly more “acceptable” for a musician to have a stab at acting and have reasonable success, but an actor having a go at being a musician is more often ridiculed than it is acclaimed?

Justin Timberlake or Lady Gaga can attempt careers in Hollywood and it’s fine, but Scarlett Johansson’s singing career is a non starter. 

I know there are exceptions to this, but it seems to me it’s far easier to make the transition from music to acting than the other way round. Is it because musicians are held to a different standard, or there’s a question of sincerity maybe? 

It's as if you've never even heard of Robson & Jerome.

[mjmooney]

Yeah, even with those exceptions, I think @Mark Albrighton's point holds true. It only really works with showbizzy types like Kylie, and various other soap stars doing packaged pop music (Ant and Dec/P J and Duncan for example). They just become 'entertainers'. But I can't think offhand of any who've succeeded as 'serious' musicians. 

[useless]

Simon Fisher Turner, Bette Midler and Dudly Moore.

[Designer1]

Matt Berry was the one that immediately came to mind.

[mjmooney]

2 minutes ago, useless said:

Simon Fisher Turner, Bette Midler and Dudly Moore.

Nah, Bette Midler was always an all-rounder, the reserve Streisand, essentially. Dudley Moore likewise - he was doing the jazz piano stuff alongside the comedy/acting right from the get-go. 

Never heard of Simon Fisher Turner. 

[useless]

I think to go from being an actor to having success as a 'serious' musician then you have to have always been involved with music on some level. Steve Martin is another that comes to mind, looking at his wikipedia seems he was always involved with music, but don't think he found fame with it until after he'd become known as an actor. That probably in part explains it, it's probably a lot harder to suddenly take up doing music, than it is to take up acting.

Simon Fisher Turner started out as a child actor on Tom Brown's Schooldays, then became a pop singer involved with Jonathon King, and later in his career became a more 'serious' and critically acclaimed musician writing his own music and composing soundtracks, the kind of name you'd read about in The Wire magazine.

[Mandy Lifeboats]

 

32 Albums.  48 Singles.   Charted in the 60s, 70s, 80, 90s and 00s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark Albrighton]

1 hour ago, useless said:

I think to go from being an actor to having success as a 'serious' musician then you have to have always been involved with music on some level. Steve Martin is another that comes to mind, looking at his wikipedia seems he was always involved with music, but don't think he found fame with it until after he'd become known as an actor. That probably in part explains it, it's probably a lot harder to suddenly take up doing music, than it is to take up acting.

Yes, I think there’s a sort of credibility that is often required if someone is trying to be a proper musician and attempting it from the starting point of being a successful actor often seems to undercut that credibility. 

It’s just curious to me how it’s apparently much easier to make the transition one way and not the other. Tom Waits can feature in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and it’s fine (indeed Waits has had a reasonable acting career by looking at his filmography). While his co star Keanu Reeves’ band Dogstar will go on to be derided and dismissed as “actor trying to be a rock star”. 

The failed music careers of actors far more readily come to mind than the failed acting careers of musicians. For me, anyway.

 

Edit - I will acknowledge that Waits had done acting before “Dracula” and I suspect Dogstar probably weren’t great, so my example isn’t the best, but I wanted a film which had both an actor who tried to be a musician and and musician who’d done acting and it was the first one I thought of.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Mark Albrighton

[HanoiVillan]

My joking-but-not-really answer is that music people are more snobby and cliqueish than film people.

[mjmooney]

21 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

My joking-but-not-really answer is that music people are more snobby and cliqueish than film people.

There is much truth in what you say. 

I don't have favourite actors in the same way I have favourite musicians. 

[HanoiVillan]

3 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

There is much truth in what you say. 

I don't have favourite actors in the same way I have favourite musicians. 

Yeah - I think I perhaps worded it wrongly by making it sound like I'm talking about separate people, when I'm talking just as much about the way individual people interact with both forms.

For whatever reason - I think it's to do with the nature of the medium itself, but maybe people disagree - the type of music a person likes is a bigger part of their identity than the type of film they like, and people then get into siloes.

[chrisp65]

Steve Marriott

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

Steve Marriott

And, in a similar way, Phil Collins. 

[BOF]

On 01/03/2021 at 14:42, mjmooney said:

There is much truth in what you say. 

I don't have favourite actors in the same way I have favourite musicians. 

I think a fundamental difference between the 2 is that musicians spend their careers being themselves whereas actors spend their careers being someone else. So I think it's easier to identify with, or idolise musicians than it is actors.

[mjmooney]

8 minutes ago, BOF said:

I think a fundamental difference between the 2 is that musicians spend their careers being themselves whereas actors spend their careers being someone else. So I think it's easier to identify with, or idolise musicians than it is actors.

Hadn't thought of it that way, but yes, I think you've nailed it. 

[bickster]

I know Lyle Lovett was a musician first but I always associate him as an actor and I suspect most people do

[mjmooney]

46 minutes ago, bickster said:

I know Lyle Lovett was a musician first but I always associate him as an actor and I suspect most people do

Huh? I had no idea he'd ever acted! 100% musician to me. 

[chrisp65]