Tuesday Tunes: From Singing to Acting (Part 1)


Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Gene Kelly: These Hollywood stars could do it all! They could sing without auto-tune, deliver Oscar worthy performances on que and tap dance come rain or shine. Today’s actors are not necessarily made of the same stuff. Beauty and connections seems to have replaced talent, and the right agent can get you a perfume line before you say “Kardashian”. This means that the fight for the limelight is tougher than ever, and to keep your place you gotta do it all! If you’re a pop star you’re bound to have endless merchandise, a documentary of your tour, an E! True Hollywood Story about your life and at least a handful of cameos in the latest summer blockbuster. However, a few singers go a step too far, think Mariah Carey in Glitter, Jennifer Lopez in Gigli or Kelly Clarkson in From Justin to Kelly. This is MoviefiedNYC’s top 5 worst cases of singers turned actors:

1. Vanilla Ice

Oh Vanilla Ice, sometimes you make things so wrong they just feels right. This one hit wonder of the 90’s tried his hand in acting and it was everything you would expect and more. The IMDB page for Cool As Ice (yes, it really is called that) says it’s “A rap-oriented remake of The Wild One, with heavy emphasis on the fact that rap star Vanilla Ice has assumed the Marlon Brando role.”Unsurprisingly the only award this bad boy role won was the 1991 Razzie for ‘Worst New Star’. In recent times Vanilla, real name Robert Van Winkle, seems to have found success in real estate. Who woulda thunk it?

2. Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson has starred in movies such as Major Movie Star, Blonde Ambition, and Employee of the Month. In each film she manages to portray a pretty blonde with an abundance of spunk and smiles. These roles are generally made of harmless fluff that mildly entertain at tween sleepovers, but her role as Daisy in The Dukes of Hazzard actually became a slightly harmful role for young girls to watch. Unlike her other characters, who eventually find inner strength and prowess to power through whatever struggle they’re facing, Daisy puts brains to the side and slides into her short shorts and string bikini to solve all her problems. Thankfully, the young mom seems to have put her film career to the side for the time being.

3. Britney Spears

Britney Spears starred in Crossroads, a movie about three friends who take a road trip to find themselves and each other through multiple conversations, dramatic incidents and dance routines. All in all, a classic guilty pleasure movie. The film was nominated for a total of eight Razzie awards and Spears’ acting career came to an end soon after. Since then she has stuck to singing and general A-list stardom except for a handful of cameo appearances on shows such as Will & Grace and How I Met Your Mother. However, it is worth noting that her true acting debut came in a hidden gem of a film called Longshot, a movie that supposedly centers on a tennis instructor/giggilo, but in reality is a 90’s boy bands lover’s dream. The movie includes cameos such as O-Town, NSYNC, Ms. Spears and even some Chippendales dancers.

4. 50 Cent

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has starred in 20 acting roles and shows no sign of stopping. Why he has no plans on ending this side of his career is uncertain. In his first role as Marcus in Get Rich or Die Tryin’ 50 plays an inner-city drug dealer who tries to pursue his true passion of rap. This should have been 50’s answer to Eminem’s 8 Mile, but unfortunately the film failed to reach the same measure of success and the rappers acting career has been struggling ever since. Most recently, he underwent dramatic weight loss for his role as a cancer victim in All Things Fall Apart. The film’s immediate failure was all the more painful after such extreme measures were taken for the role. Since then, his film flops seems to be going straight to DVD and we are left to wonder if this failing endeavor will ever come to an end.

5. Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus started out as a singer/actor combo in her TV show, and eventual movie, Hannah Montana. Since then the Disney star’s movie career has taken a turn for the worst as she attempted to play the role of a girl in mourning in the The Last Song; a half-heartedly rebellious teenager in LOL; and finally a teen spy in So Undercover. In all cases, she fails to remove from herself from her usual character of country girl with pouty lips and a heart of gold to truly step into her roles. Cyrus has recently stepped away from her pop roots in favor of a more mature punk look and hip hop sound so we can only hope that her film choices will take a turn for the better too.
Don’t forget to tweet us @MoviefiedNYC!
– Sinann Fetherston


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