Comments on: Fiction movies in which actors, portraying musician characters, actually play the instruments and/or sing?

Question: Fiction movies in which actors, portraying musician characters, actually play the instruments and/or sing?

lorimer — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:44:05 -0800

Real music-making onscreen: Fiction movies in which actors, portraying musician characters, actually play the instruments and/or sing?

I'm inspired to ask by Laurel Canyon, a movie with several musician characters who all play their own instruments & sing with their own voices (I think this would have been less evocative & effective as a movie if they'd faked the music-making scenes).

The music doesn't have to be a main focus of the plot; I'm just interested in examples of real onscreen music-making.

I'm also interested to hear about
- movies that use hybrids of the actor performing at some times and a pro performing at other times (as in The Pianist); and
- movies where a pro musician has an acting role, rather than a role "as themselves," and their character performs music onscreen (as in Dwight Yoakam's amateur-musician role in Sling Blade).

Here are all the examples of this I remember having seen already:
- Antonia's Line
- Cold Mountain
- The Crying Game
- Dancer in the Dark
- Dark City
- De-Lovely
- L.I.E.
- Laurel Canyon
- A Mighty Wind
- Mulholland Dr
- The Pianist
- The Piano
- Sling Blade
- Strange Days
- The Talented Mr. Ripley
- Timecode

So which others should I check out? If you can do it without spoilers, I'd also love to hear any info about which character and what instrument they play (or that they sing). If anyone is curious, I can give the same info for my list above.

(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD [please don't reveal surprises / plot points in any movie]. THANKS!)

By: lorimer

lorimer — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:44:51 -0800

(On a related note, I'd also love to hear if there are movies other than Mulholland Dr and Dancer in the Dark in which the composer of a movie's score also has a dramatic role -- a role not just in their capacity as composer/performer -- in that same movie.)

By: amyms

amyms — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:49:56 -0800

Duets

By: thebrokenmuse

thebrokenmuse — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:54:23 -0800

School of Rock. Jack Black AND the kids played their own instruments.

By: Dub

Dub — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:54:42 -0800

I can't help much, but I recall being told something that might be of interest.... Fred Astaire (as well as being an accomplished pianist and drummer himself) used drummers as dancers for some of the more complicated dance steps / rhythms. (I'm afraid I have no evidence, just something that stuck in my memory)

By: toddshot

toddshot — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:55:14 -0800

This Is Spinal Tap was the first one to come to mind for me.

By: keswick

keswick — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:55:14 -0800

A Prairie Home Companion

By: robcorr

robcorr — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:02:20 -0800

Neither of these is a fiction movie per se, but I think you wanted to exclude documentaries but not necessary biographical fims. So...

Walk the Line: "Phoenix [Johnny Cash] and Witherspoon [June Carter] performed their own vocals and instrument takes in the film's numerous stage appearances."

Beyond the Sea: "Spacey [Bobby Darin] ... did all of his own singing..."

By: robcorr

robcorr — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:04:31 -0800

Whoops, sorry -- forgot to paste in the proper link to Beyond the Sea.

By: liverbisque

liverbisque — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:05:15 -0800

Walk the Line!

IMDB says: "Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon performed all of the songs themselves, without being dubbed. They also learned to play their instruments (guitar and auto-harp, respectively) from scratch."

And as a bonus, Shooter Jennings, the real-life son of Waylon Jennings, plays his father in the film.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:09:05 -0800

All the keyboard performances in Amadeus were actually performed by the actors themselves, even including Hulce playing while being held upside down.

In "Every Which Way but Loose", Sondra Locke does her own singing. Sissy Spacek does her own singing in "Coal Miner's Daughter", which is particularly impressive considering that she's playing Miss Loretta Lynn. There was another movie about a woman C/W singer recently in which the performer did all her own vocals, but I can't remember what it was.

In "The Nightmare before Christmas", the music is written by Danny Elfman. The speaking voice of Jack is Chris Sarandon, but Elfman does all of Jack's singing, which turns out to be the majority of the role.

By: divabat

divabat — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:10:16 -0800

Moulin Rouge - Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor sing for real; I'm not sure if the other characters do. I think they actually did sing while filming, rather than recording it beforehand and then lipsynching.

By: Karlos the Jackal

Karlos the Jackal — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:13:09 -0800

Everyone Says I Love You features their real singing voices (with the exception of Drew Barrymore).

Mark Wahlberg has a music-recording scene in Boogie Nights.

Clint Eastwood plays jazz piano, so Honkytonk Man, probably. (I haven't seen it.) I know I've seen him ivory tickling in a couple of other films, but I don't remember which ones.

Oh, Nashville, of course -- the actors had to write their own songs, too!

By: wanderingmind

wanderingmind — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:18:10 -0800

The Blues Brothers?

By: dilettante

dilettante — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:23:17 -0800

Probably The Commitments. Dreamgirls.

Dudley Moore in 10.

Do musicals with Julie Andrews count?

What about Kathleen Turner as the voice of Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

By: misozaki

misozaki — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:33:21 -0800

movies where a pro musician has an acting role, rather than a role "as themselves," and their character performs music onscreen

Nine to Five? I can't believe that was the first movie that popped into my mind...

By: dilettante

dilettante — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:33:40 -0800

What about Kathleen Turner as the voice of Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Never mind that one, I'm finding conflicting information on it - imdb says the singing part was Amy Irving.

By: stefanie

stefanie — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:49:02 -0800

Michael J. Fox played guitar in in Back to the Future and Light of Day (with Joan Jett).

By: sparrows

sparrows — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:54:09 -0800

Bamboozled is a really interesting example where the film's plot is about the act of performing roles both onstage and in life. It's a show within a show setup, and all the music/dance performances are real -- definitely worth seeing.

By: rossination

rossination — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:06:54 -0800

Clint Eastwood also composes the scores for most of his movies. He doesn't really score them out - usually he gets Lennie Niehaus to to do that - but he does come up with the main themes, etc.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:32:25 -0800

Michelle Pfeiffer does her own singing in The Fabulous Baker Boys and is pretty good. Robert Downey, Jr. sings "You Don't Know Me" and an operatic bit in Two Girls and a Guy, and you won't believe it until you hear it. I was really impressed with the heartfelt awfulness of Cameron Diaz's karaoke scene in My Best Friend's Wedding. Duets was mentioned above, and it's definitely worth watching for the performances, if not for the story. Julie Delpy sings a beautiful little song called "Let Me Sing You A Waltz," which she also wrote, in Before Sunset. Holly Hunter played her own parts in The Piano.

By: eswusp86

eswusp86 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:33:36 -0800

Both Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor did much of their own singing in Velvet Goldmine.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:33:48 -0800

You knew Holly Hunter already, sorry.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:43:09 -0800

Oh, right. Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge doing a country song. It's friggin' awesome.

By: Schlimmbesserung

Schlimmbesserung — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:47:37 -0800

Let's not forget Steve Vai shredding like the devil in the guitar duel in Crossroads. It only half-counts, though, because he's actually playing the kid's parts, too.

By: euphorb

euphorb — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:50:02 -0800

Val Kilmer in The Doors

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:55:39 -0800

Almost all the Elvis movies. Prince in Purple Rain but it's all synched, I think, not performed as such. Bruce Springsteen gives a motivational speech in a dream in High Fidelity while noodling on a guitar.

By: ninazer0

ninazer0 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:05:02 -0800

Val Kilmer in "Top Secret" (horrible movie, but one of my favourites), Viggo Mortensen in LOTR (side note: he played a painter in "A Perfect Murder", and the paintings in the movie are actually his own work), Billy Connolly in "Water"...

By: hot soup girl

hot soup girl — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:20:29 -0800

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio sings in Limbo.

By: RustyBrooks

RustyBrooks — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:40:15 -0800

Maggie Gyllenhaal in Happy Endings

By: breath

breath — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 02:07:47 -0800

While we're on LOTR, don't forget Billy Boyd's song, which he also composed the tune for.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 02:10:17 -0800

Julie Delpy in Before Sunset.

By: pollystark

pollystark — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 03:44:04 -0800

Jane Horrocks did all her own singing in Little Voice. It's a shit film, though.

By: granted

granted — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 03:55:42 -0800

I remember reading that Peter Frampton taught Billy Crudup how to play the guitar for his role in Almost Famous. Jason Lee isn't really singing, though.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:34:24 -0800

The Buddy Holly Story - Gary Busey sings
Buckaroo Bonzai - Peter Weller sings

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:36:08 -0800

movies that use hybrids of the actor performing at some times and a pro performing at other times

Geoffrey Rush was his own hand-double for the piano playing scenes in Shine.

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:38:27 -0800

What about Ray? Didn't Jamie Foxx do all his own singing? Not sure about the piano playing, though.

By: srah

srah — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 06:43:14 -0800

I believe Jeremy Northam did his own singing in Gosford Park. The IMDb trivia says that the piano-playing was all either him or his brother.

By: hermitosis

hermitosis — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 06:44:35 -0800

I'm pretty sure that "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" used a lot of actual performance footage mixed in with the expected dub.

I'm also pretty sure that's really Maggie Gyllenhaal singing in "Happy Endings".

Seconding Moulin Rouge.

By: klarck

klarck — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 06:48:28 -0800

Richard Gere plays coronet in the Cotton Club. Dennis Quaid plays piano in the Jerry Lee Lewis bio.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 06:58:50 -0800

Zooey Deschanel is in production on Gospel According to Janis, portraying, and singing as, Janis Joplin.

Other way around, inigo2 - Jamie Foxx played the piano but sang only a couple of songs in Ray.

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:13:37 -0800

Dazed and Confused, Milla Jovovich sings and plays a quick version of "The Alien Song".

Breakfast at Tiffany's, Audrey Hepburn sings and plays "Moon River", beautifully. Incidentally, Henry Mancini wrote the song specifically for her to sing.

By: Lentrohamsanin

Lentrohamsanin — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:17:35 -0800

Alan Price appears on screen singing and playing several times throughout O Lucky Man! in sort of a musical interlude capacity, and acts in one scene as a rock star. He's also acted a bit in other films.

(Related infuriating trivia: Rights issues over this music are apparently the main reason this wonderful film isn't on DVD.)

Dazed and Confused, Milla Jovovich sings and plays a quick version of "The Alien Song".

She also performed all her songs in Dummy.

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:19:01 -0800

Rickey Nelson and Dean Martin in Rio Bravo.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:19:45 -0800

I am stunned -- STUNNED, I say -- that no one has mentioned 'Round Midnight! IMDB says "The character of Francis Borler is based on real-life person Francis Paudras who died in 1997. The character of Dale Turner played by actual jazz musician Dexter Gordon is based on a combination of real-life jazzmen Bud Powell and Lester Young. The real-life friendship between Paudras and Bud Powell has been the subject of several books."

Dexter Gordon and all the other musicians really play live in the film. The sets was built specifically to capture live performances.

Oh, and Gordon won the Best Actor Oscar that year (1989).

====

Kay Kyser, a big band leader, appeared in several films (a.k.a Swing Fever). Many other Big Band personalities acted and performed in movies. I've tried and failed to find a web-resource that lists them, but if you look up names like Tommy Dorsey on IMDB, you'll strike goal. (Also try YouTube for clips.)

And, of course, there was a time when movies were much more musical, and it was normal to see actor-musicians (Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Ginger Rodgers...) See the That's Entertainment series for an overview.

By: backwards guitar

backwards guitar — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:24:29 -0800

Zooey Deschanel also sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in "Elf". I think it's a duet, but I can't say for sure. It's been a while since I've seen it.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:29:35 -0800

It's a duet with Will Ferril.

By: puritycontrol

puritycontrol — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:44:59 -0800

Yes, Zooey Deschanel sings in Elf, and Will Ferrell sings/plays guitar in Stranger Than Fiction.

By: Orinda

Orinda — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:47:54 -0800

Emily Blunt plays the cello in My Summer of Love.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:55:01 -0800

Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer.

By: Martin E.

Martin E. — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:55:30 -0800

Sid & Nancy, I think had the onscreen Pistols making the "music." They certainly weren't miming to recordings IIRC.

I also seem to recall some singing in Labyrinth with David Bowie.

Harvey Fierstein would have been doing the singing in Torch Song Trilogy.

Is this all excepting straight-up musicals, like Rocky Horror (Susan Sarandon, Tim Currie, Meatloaf)?

By: booth

booth — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:19:46 -0800

Didn't Dennis Quaid do his own guitar playing and singing in The Big Easy?

By: box

box — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:24:02 -0800

Sam Jackson does his own singing in Black Snake Moan. So, for that matter, does Epatha Merkerson.

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:25:21 -0800

Edward Norton does quite a lot of his own singing in films. Everyone Says I Love You, Keeping the Fairth, Death to Smoochie all have credits for him singing.

By: box

box — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:26:22 -0800

Eminem (and Xzibit, and a few others) do their own rapping in 8 Mile. This is also the case with almost every movie with rappers and rapping in it.

By: ScarletSpectrum

ScarletSpectrum — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:29:06 -0800

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. There's a Portuguese singer named Seu Jorge that's a sort of background character who does basically nothing but play stripped-down acoustic David Bowie songs and sing them in his native tongue. It was a fabulous little addition to the movie.

By: vytae

vytae — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:42:59 -0800

It's TV, but Dave Matthews played the role of a piano-playing patient on the most recent episode of House MD, including numerous little piano-playing scenes.

By: khaibit

khaibit — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:33:27 -0800

What, no Road House? Jeff Healy played the blind slide guitar player.

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:03:54 -0800

Chicago - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, and the others all did their own singing.

Although Lou Diamond Phillips didn't sing in La Bamba (that was done by Los Lobos), Marshall Crenshaw played Buddy Holly and Brian Setzer played Eddie Cochran and IIRC, they performed.

By: fings

fings — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:09:13 -0800

Any of the Marx Brothers movies usually have Chico playing piano and Harpo playing the harp.

Also, Hugh Laurie played piano and sang in Jeeves and Wooster and I know he's played piano on House.

By: AmbroseChapel

AmbroseChapel — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:37:32 -0800

Milla Jovovich sings wonderfully (in Portuguese!) in The Claim too.

By: lorimer

lorimer — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:49:14 -0800

Wow, thanks so much for all the answers! Keep it coming!

By: robcorr

robcorr — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:44:55 -0800

Zooey Deschanel also sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in "Elf". I think it's a duet, but I can't say for sure.

It is a duet, with Will Ferrell (singing badly). On the soundtrack album, she's singing with Leon Redbone.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:43:44 -0800

The movie "The Benny Goodman Story" isn't really fiction, though it's a bit idealized, and though Steve Allen plays Goodman. But Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Ben Pollack, Teddy Wilson, Kid Ory, Harry James, and Ziggy Elman all play themselves, and though it's been decades since I've seen it, I'm pretty sure they play music, too. I distinctly remember Hampton's vibes in the scene where they recreated the way that Hampton met Goodman.

(DAMN, but Hampton was good! And it's to Goodman's credit that he thought so too, and broke the color barrier because of it. Goodman's performance at Carnegie Hall was revolutionary, not only because it was the first time pop music had ever been played there, but also because it was the first performance by a racially integrated group. And I think it might also have been the first performance there by a Jew. Lots of barriers got broken that night.)

Steve Allen was a superb piano player but I don't believe he was able to play clarinet, and Goodman himself didn't play keyboards, so I don't think Allen did any direct performing in the film. I believe his clarinet parts were played for him -- by Goodman.