The new trailer for Jimi: All is by My Side has arrived, and with it, Andre Benjamin (Outkast’s Andre 3000) as guitar god Jimi Hendrix. Benjamin certainly has the legendary musician’s dreamy, if lethargic, speaking voice and kicked-back cool demeanor down perfectly in this film that follows the American axe-slinger’s rise to fame after a move from the U.S. to swinging London in 1966.
The Atlanta-born rapper is one of a long line of successful music stars that has crossed over into acting. This journey is littered with embarrassments—Michael Jackson in The Wiz, pretty much anytime Mariah Carey spoke on camera—roles that are fun and harmless but not really much of an acting challenge—Snoop Dogg in Starsky and Hutch, Eminem in 8 Mile—and those that are just so odd and off-kilter they are truly difficult to categorize—David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Check out this first look at Benjamin’s performance as Hendrix below as well as The Movie Filter‘s highly subjective Top 10 Acting Performances by Musicians:
10. Meatloaf in Fight Club (1999)
Who can forget “Robert Paulsen” or his bosomy embrace of Edward Norton’s insomniac in this dark social satire and violent personality disorder epic from director David Fincher.
9. Tupac Shakur in Poetic Justice (1993)
The late rapper with a magnetic screen presence chipped away at his hard-earned image with this John Singleton-directed drama opposite Janet Jackson.
8. Justin Timberlake in The Social Network (2010) Drop the “the.” Just Facebook. It’s cleaner. The pop star provides the perfectly snaky villain this start-up procedural needed to turn two depositions and a lot of typing into a modern and compelling drama.
7. Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight (1998)
In this woefully underrated genre pic from Steven Soderbergh—the film that relaunched the former Baton Rougean in Hollywood after his post-sex, lies and videotape fallow period—Lopez boils up great chemistry with George Clooney as she pursues his ex-con in more ways than one.
6. Barbara Streisand in Funny Girl (1968)
Streisand had the film’s original cinematographer fired after just three days of shooting because he filmed both sides of her face instead of only her “good side.” Funny!
5. Tom Waits in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009)
Overshadowed by the death of co-star Heath Ledger during production, this film actually boasts a remarkable performance by Tom Waits who portrays the devil, “Mr. Nick,” opposite Christopher Plummer’s God-figure “Dr. Parnassus” in a surreal morality tale from Terry Gilliam.
4. Will Smith in Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
The loveable rapper was still TV’s goof-off “Fresh Prince” when he wowed critics as a charismatic young con artist and held his own against Donald Sutherland and Ian McKellan in this New York-set narrative. There’s little chance Smith could become a leading man in the likes of Ali or The Pursuit of Happyness without this early dramatic about-face.
3. Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls (2006)
Beyonce and Eddie Murphy are not used to being upstaged, but when this American Idol performer is around, and winning an Oscar for her stunning, Motown-era portrayal in Bill Condon’s musical, they better get used to it.
2. Bjork in Dancer in the Dark (2001)
Harrowing, heartbreaking, whimsical. The one-of-a-kind Icelandic singer’s performance as a young immigrant factory worker and single mother to an ailing son is a devastating turn in one of Lars Von Trier’s final films before he went insane for shock value.
1. Frank Sinatra in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Director Otto Preminger was decades ahead of his time here with Old Blue Eyes playing a recovering drug addict grasping at the torn shreds of his life after leaving rehab. Sinatra won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar three years earlier for From Here to Eternity, but this is his absolute peak.
