We take a look at the times famous singers attempted to branch out into acting - to varying degrees of success.
This article originally appeared in Film Stories issue 41 (March 2023).
If every actor secretly wants to direct, then every pop star not-so-secretly wants to act – and the variable success rate for previous attempts never puts them off. Over the last year, Björk, Harry Styles, Janelle Monáe, Taylor Swift and Jehnny Beth have all been seen in UK cinemas. That’s a diverse set of artists, and they got an equally diverse set of responses from audiences, from the triumph of Janelle Monáe in Glass Onion to the literal and metaphorical car crash of the Swift-starring Amsterdam.
All those artists, though, have got past the first hurdle of establishing an acting career: they have a body of work spanning multiple films. There are some pop stars who’ve only graced the silver screen once, and they’re not the one-hit-wonders you might expect. Join us as we assess the pop world’s most famous one‑time actors, and decide whether or not they should have given up the day job...