3 Famous Actors in Music Videos (Part 3)

Here we are again with a third addition of my hunt for the greatest music videos, featuring well known actors. The great thing about researching this is that I am discovering so many great songs. Because this is focused on videos and not genres, I am finding myself embracing new styles of music. The first song especially is something I wouldn’t have thought of searching for, but is now stuck in my head on repeat. Let’s kick off with that one, shall we?

3 – JAKE GYLLENHAAL, FOREST WHITTAKER, RON HOWARD AND SAMUEL L. JACKSON – BLAME IT (JAMIE FOXX FT. T-PAIN)

There isn’t really too much to talk about this video. It is just a small piece of awesome condensed into an RnB video from 2009. Jamie Foxx essentially goes through his phone contacts and calls up the biggest names on there, asking them to come around and help him film a music video. There is nothing overly special about the video itself, if we stripped away the cameos. It is a crowded club, full of dancing and Jamie Foxx telling people to come back to his. However, it is filled with so many famous faces that it is impossible to not stay riveted to the screen, wondering who is going to pop up next.

As movie fans, we only experience a fifth of the cameos. It is littered with famous faces from the RnB scene that I am too unsullied to have heard of. However, the actors here are some of the finest actors we can assemble. They don’t even do anything, other than show off their endless supply of swag. Jake Gyllenhaal sits there, surrounded by hot women, with an expression that tells us that he knows he is one of the coolest guys in the room. And leading them all is Samuel L. Jackson. I appreciate that Jackson is down with the joke here, but no one really expects him to star in a music video like this. Just him being here, alludes awesome. And to top it off, Ron Howard, director of Apollo 13, is amidst the carnage, looking like the old guy someone accidentally invited along. But it totally works. This is what all music videos should look like from here on out.

2 – GWYNETH PALTROW – I WANNA COME OVER (MELISSA ETHERIDGE)

Before beginning, I want to direct attention to the lyrics. “Open your back door, I just need to touch you once more. I wanna ‘come’ over. It’s a need I can’t explain!” Now, we are all uncomfortable, let’s move on.

Paltrow is a clear choice for the role here, because she is doing what she does best. Throwing a tantrum in a car. While Etheridge sings a pretty decent tune that I cannot believe I have never heard before, Gwyneth Paltrow does a typical music video stock character, as the girl caught in some sort of relationship issue. The music video is little more than Paltrow breaking down in a car, symbolically trapped somewhere on her journey. However, despite the little that is going on, she owns the role, really making you connect with her character. This is a good case of why famous and talented actors should be in these music videos, rather than any old model. A strong performance holds this song together and adds some integrity and depth to Melissa Etheridge’s song.

1 – ANGELINA JOLIE – ROCK AND ROLL DREAMS COME THROUGH (MEATLOAF)

This one is hard to take seriously. For a start, as the video kicks in, you realise that this is going to be a five minute clip of Meatloaf, creepily trying to get into Angelina Jolie’s pants. It doesn’t help that Jolie plays a runaway teenage girl, always with the wide-eyed innocence of someone who has just been brain-washed. However, what kicks off as melodrama, turns into pure hilarity. You see, Meatloaf is actually a protector of the streets (a rock and roll Batman, if you will), and rounds up all of this lost souls to help them see the light. Cue images of Jolie and other like her, looking up to the sky to see an angelic figure. Also, Meatloaf and Jolie get around the city on a motorbike with a side-car. You can almost hear the old Batman theme tune, cutting through the Meatloaf track.

Little factoid for you: this music video was directed by Michael Bay. This makes so much become clear, especially why the first minute of the music video features an earth-shattering explosion. It keeps veering off into Bay territory. When you are getting slightly weirded out by this creepy Gothic rock and roll guy, leaning into a pale-faced Angelina, the video will cut to two guys in a car with guns. Then Meatloaf attacks them, swooping in and saving the day. All the while, Angelina Jolie plays her character deadly serious, which really makes the video for me. We have Bay explosions and Meatloaf fantasising about himself as Batman, while Jolie just nods along, as though her family have guns to their heads just outside of the set.