For some of us, putting on pants and becoming vertical before midday is a feat worthy of praise. But for a few ambitious actors even a hugely successful career isn’t enough to satiate their creative needs. Some have even decided to infiltrate the music scene and make quite a mark.
We’re all familiar with the earth-shaking lyrical profundity of Miley Cyrus‘s Wrecking Ball in 2013. With almost 850 million YouTube views alone, Miley is arguably the most successful actor-turned-musician of them all. You can say whatever you want about it but with that kind of attention you have to admit it’s at least catchy. Most have us have also been witness to the ethereal whispers that melt out of Zooey Deschanel‘s mouth in She & Him and who could forget Jared Leto and Thirty Seconds To Mars.
Image: Tumblr
We’ve also been subjected to some rather unpleasant experiences. Sometimes the actor-turned-musician idea doesn’t work one bit to the point of unintentional comedy. For every Deschanel there’s a David Hasselhoff or an inexplicable RnB album from Bruce Willis.
Yippi-ki-delet this, motherfucker.
And who could forget 2004, when a wild Lindsay Lohan appeared on Video Hits and shit got all too real:
That being said, there are a few gems who have slipped through the cracks and they really need to start getting the attention they deserve.
5. Ed Westwick
You heard right, as if the Chuck Bass didn’t have enough sex-appeal from his Gossip Girl stint, the little bastard is also the lead singer of a Brit-Punk band. It’s actually quite surprising he took to the screen before the stage as he began music lessons at the under-ripe age of 6. With self-deprecating love songs spat through a British accent over textbook pop-punk chords, The Filthy Youth are basically The Kooks after a cocaine binge. Every teen girl’s dream and every parent’s nightmare.
4. Shannyn Sossamon
If you knew her from her IMDB page alone, Shannyn Sossamon is probably familiar from her turn in the Heath Ledger dad-rock meets Middle Ages epic A Knight’s Tale as well as alongside Josh Hartnett in the regrettable 40 Days And 40 Nights. Dig a little deeper and you’ll learn that from 2004, Shannyn Sossamon manned the drums for atmospheric rock band Warpaint. She even found the time to direct a few of the bands music videos. Typical. Unfortunately she had to be replaced in 2007 because the sheer force of the outrageously good-looking and talented women was too much for anyone to deal with. Sossamon has since started a new project with her sister Jenny Lee Lindberg (bassist and vocalist of Warpaint) and friend Jennifer Furches. In an interview, Sossamon claimed the band Sissy was “the laziest band on Earth”. Uh..
3. Jason Schwartzman
Jason Schwartzman or “that endearing little dude from Rushmore” began a music project called Coconut Records in 2006. By 2007 he had released his debut album Nighttiming. Of course a quirky indie album wouldn’t be complete without a cameo from the aforementioned Zooey Deschanel, but it also boasts the downright adorable pseudo-scatting of Kirsten Dunst because just go with it. In 2009 Schwartzman released his second album – Davy – and proved that anything he touches is guaranteed to dilate pupils.
2. Hugh Laurie
Well if this isn’t the cutest damned band on the planet! Watch Hugh Laurie, aka House (and a sadly overlooked swathe of roles in cult British classics like Blackadder and A Bit Of Fry And Laurie with comedic partner Stephen Fry), get his mates together to grace our ears with bluesy swinger tracks nodding at the likes of Louis Prima. What they lack in hair, they certainly make up for with soul. Laurie has released three albums since 1993 and claims that whilst he can’t recall the song, his musical interest was first piqued when he heard a “magical blue note” on the radio. Laurie also does a ripper cover of the 1923 blues song Stagger Lee (no – not the Nick Cave one, unfortunately).
Pour us a whiskey and light up a cigar already.
1. Ryan Gosling
Honestly, being a man must have been so easy until Ryan Gosling came and set the standard 15 kilometres above the heads of everyone else on the planet. Not content with just acting his way into everyone’s fantasies in films like Lars And The Real Girl, Crazy Stupid Love and of course that movie about a notebook of sorts, this angel-faced multitalent has also recorded an album with band Dead Man’s Bones and despite commonplace rule “never work with animals or children”, he included a choir filled with adorable kids and – my sincere apologies – it fucking rules. It’s always a risk to let children behave like real people but it’s truly nothing short of beautiful. It’s inspiring, romantic and very spooky and probably stems from Gosling’s own humble beginnings as part of The Mickey Mouse Club.
Think Elvis Presley if he was a supernatural detective in the 1960s. You win again, Ryan.
Image: Huffington Post
