First off let me say I'm looking forward to the new Johnny Cash bio coming out this November, Walk the Line. I like the fact that it's taking just part of Johnny Cash's life and filming it, not trying to fit his whole life in a ninety minute movie. But I have a question: why do movies about singers not use the singer's music and voice, it seems the star always wants to sing the songs.
Kevin Spacey has admited to being a huge fan of Bobby Darin. So big a fan that he wrote, directed and starred in a movie based on the life of Bobby Darin. Now isn't doing all this enough, why would he want to sing in it too?
It doesn't make sense to me. The voice, the sound, is what draws most of these performers to want to film these movies, so what is the first thing they do. Not use the singer's voice in the movie. They use their own. Now I don't care how good you are, you're not the singer. You're not Johnny Cash. You're not Bobby Darin.
Some times they do it right. Jamie Fox didn't sing the Ray Charles songs. Ray sang them. Why would I want to hear Jamie Fox sing Ray Charles? I want to see Jamie Fox act, not sing. Let Ray sing.
And than these actors aren't just content to sing in the movie, what do they do? They put out the movie cd, with their singing on it. Why would I buy a cd of Kevin Spacey singing Bobby Darin, when I can buy the real thing? Bring the character to life with your acting, but leave the singing to those that we want to hear sing.
2 comments:
I will say that Joaquin Phoenix does an incredible job with singing. I never would have thought of him for the part, but the moment I saw him portraying JC, it all made sense. I suppose it's just an extension of the acting, the portrayal. An actor does just that - acts. In mannerism and voice. Then again, I honestly never gave it a thought until right now, so what do I know? =)
Ok, I came across in this post as acting like I thought the actors might not be good singers and that's not exactly what I meant. I remember Gary Busey doing Buddy Holly and thinking he did a great job. What I wonder though is why an actor that loves the music so much that he wanted to do a movie based on said singer would want to not put the singer's music in the movie, the music that made them want to do the movie in the first place. Ego?
Like I said I can't wait for the Johnny Cash bio and I'm sure Joaquin Phoenix is going to do a great job, from the clips I've seen he makes an impressive Johnny Cash and I'm sure he'll sound great when he sings as Johnny Cash, but for me when I hear him sing I'll be wondering why it isn't the real thing.
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