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We’re surely outdating ourselves here. But there was a glorious moment during our childhood when Alicia Silverstone, the onetime Hollywood big-wig of Clueless fame, starred in Aerosmith’s epic music video for “Cryin’.” This made us happy. Our point? Actors making guest spots in music videos grab our attention. So naturally, we couldn’t help but notice that now with Daniel Radcliffe’s portrayal of a supremely-hungover dude sporting a killer Hawaiian shirt in Slow Club’s new video for “Beginners,” that now makes two of the Harry Potter dudes that have suited up for a music video. The other of course, is Rupert Grint, who starred as an obsessive fan in Ed Sheeran’s video for “Lego House.” We jump at any opportunity to compare and critique the acting of celebrities in music videos, so we’re taking a closer look at Slow Club and Ed Sheeran’s videos and Radcliffe and Grint’s respective performances.
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Feeling down and out is sooo in these days: It can’t be a mere coincidence that both of these videos find their young actors portraying depressed dudes. Radcliffe is thoroughly melancholy in “Beginners,” pounding drinks left and right even as he fights off what looks to be the world’s nastiest hangover. And Grint, well, by video’s end he’s so delusional and dispirited that he’s playing gigs for maniqueins. We suppose after years of making movies about wizards and magic spells even the most jovial of people may become a bit bizarre.
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Staring Contest… Go!: If you’re looking to land a gig as a the lead in a music video — which, we hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s an extremely tough task seeing as most feature the actual artist — it’s essential to nail the camera stare. You know, those strangely seductive eyes giving the lens a good talking-to. Radcliffe and Grint are supreme studs in this department. It’s like you’re connecting with the inner trappings of each man’s soul during each of these videos.
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Lip-syching works… sometimes: We’re not against lip-synching. I mean, honestly, everyone knows by now that artists lip-synch the lyrics to their songs during music videos. And maybe it’s just us, but doesn’t it help when the person doing the lip-synching is of the same sex as the person singing? This is no problem for Grint; the dude looks eerily similar to Ed Sheeran, so the whole him-singing along with him is totally believable. But Radcliffe? Unless we’ve had the wrong idea about him all along, it’s fairly safe to say he doesn’t show much resemblance to Slow Club’s lead singer Rebecca Taylor. There’s some things not even a Hawaiian shirt can solve.
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Someone should have thought twice: PR professionals get paid handsomely to protect the image of their clients. Radcliffe’s frankly should get a raise; the man comes off as utterly badass in his turn as a deranged alcoholic for “Beginners.” Grint on the other hand doesn’t do himself any favors by taking on the all-too-believeable role as a creepy, obsessed fan of Sheeran’s. It’s already hard enough to make the transition from a child actor to a respected thespian without digging yourself in these sort of ditches.
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And history will remember you: It’s still tough to say which, if either, of these videos will go down as relics of music history. In our current age of insta-consumption, few videos ever reach this status anymore. But based on the recent success of +, Sheeran’s recently-released Number One album, all signs are pointing to a bright future and a boatload of fans for the singer-songwriter. Slow Club, by comparison, have steadily built a following within the indie circuit, and with the recent success of folk-pop, the time has never been better for an act of their style to break out. We’re calling this one a draw.
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Ladies first: You actually thought Emma Watson wasn’t going to get in on the action? C’mon now. Watson was getting her music-video thang on all the way back in 2010. But Watson played it safe: her music-video role was starring in her boyfriend George Craig’s band One Night Only’s video for “Say You Don’t Want It” (which you can watch below). We’d like to compare her performance to her Harry Potter brethren. But really, Watson’s role isn’t much of a stretch — she basically plays herself.
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