Act/Sing, Choose one

When you make it big in the entertainment industry you can either be a singer or an actor, I wanna make a law saying that once you’ve picked one you can’t do the other without first proving you have the actual talent to do it.

Hannah Montana is a teen sensation, she’s got screaming fangirls all over the nation... and she can’t act for crap. Sit through one of her shows and you’ll realise why there’s a laugh track, cos it’s the only way to let people know there’s a joke somewhere in what you said. You know you can’t act when Gilbert Gottfried is the least annoying element of an episode. Now don’t get me wrong, I know she can sing. I may not like her style of music but I’m not going to deny the woman can sing... she just should stick to it rather than trying to earn her SAG card while she’s at it.

Then there’s the Jonas Brothers, 3 brothers with the same name, same haircut and I’m pretty sure the same acting coach. A massive pile of steaming crap. I don’t even know if they can sing, I didn’t hear anything during the one episode I sat through because I was too busy trying to stab my eye’s out with a shrimp fork to make the pain stop. If you can’t act you shouldn’t and I really wish someone had told the Jonas’s that before they infected my eye’s with their attempt to be actors.

Now I know what you might be thinking, these are teenager shows and therefore they don’t have to be good as long as they appeal to kids. Well mysterious debating partner you’re absolutely right, they don’t have to be good actors but man it’d be nice if they were. It’s a general rule of thumb that when a singer act’s in a movie more often than not they’ll suck. Look at Glitter if you need more proof.

Now this isn’t to say that singers can’t act in musicals, hell I applaud those that do because then they’re using their actual talent and distracting me from the pain of watching them act. I would happily pay money to see someone like Kelly Clarkson in a musical just don’t expect me to praise her on her acting.

And don’t think I’m saying that ALL singers can’t act, there are some notable exceptions. Cher won a freaking Oscar for her role in Moonstruck in 1988 so yes she can act. Meatloaf actually refused to sing in any movie after Rocky Horror just to show that he could act, only singing for his cameo appearance in Tenacious D. Justin Timberlake was in Shrek 3 and Southland Tales and was really good in both roles.

There are certainly people who are versatile and can do both, but these people are the minority and just because you can do one doesn’t mean you get to try and do the other automatically. First prove you have the talent then give it a shot.