14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not always the most fortunate idea for singers to attempt a career in acting, or the other way around. Few crossovers are successful but no amount of ridicule or failure seems to stop stars from trying to prove that they can be achieved.
Rita Ora, one of the hottest pop stars of the moment, is one of those singers who are trying to break into film: her debut will be on next year’s “Fifty Shades of Grey,” where she plays the sister of the lead character, Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan).
If heavyweight producer Harvey Weinstein is to be believed, we should probably expect to see much more of Rita in the future, because she’s got the makings of a great actress.
Rita Ora is going places as an actress
Shortly before principal photography on “Fifty Shades” wrapped, there was a rumor making the rounds about how Rita had been such a mess on set that she couldn’t even learn her lines. Considering her role is more of a cameo, to have people say she required a hearing aid feeding her her lines wasn’t exactly flattering – for her, as an actress.
Well, forget what you heard, because Harvey Weinstein, aka one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, says that Rita Ora is an amazing actress who’s here to stay – and he plans to make sure that this happens. “Breathtaking” is the term he uses to describe her work, in a new chat with the Daily Mail.
Besides “Fifty Shades,” Rita will also be appearing in “Southpaw” with Jake Gyllenhaal, which is yet to get an official release date but which Weinstein oversees. From what he’s saying, her role is still just a minor one, but it was more than enough to convince him of her worth.
“Rita Ora did a sensational job for me and Antoine Fuqua in Southpaw. Her scene is breathtaking, because she’s a very glamorous, beautiful woman. […] She is heart-breakingly real and wonderful and acting opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, who is riveting in this movie, she holds her own and then some. I will work with Rita again and again and again,” Weinstein says.
He describes her as his “biggest discovery as an actress this year.”
Successful crossovers are rare
Crossovers are most common with singers, perhaps because they assume that, if they can “act” in a music video, they can do just as fine a job in a film. Failures are too many to list here, but the most spectacular perhaps belong to Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, and even Beyonce.
More recently, Rihanna too tried to make her debut as an action movie star with “Battleship,” but she barely made an impression. The movie was bad too, so that probably didn’t help either.
There’s no telling whether Rita will be more successful than these divas, but statistically speaking, the odds aren’t in her favor. “Fifty Shades of Grey,” at least, is expected to be a critical disaster, even though it will certainly sell millions worth of tickets.
Maybe “Southpaw” will really prove she’s got what it takes to make it in Hollywood. After all, how many bad movies with Jake Gyllenhall have you seen?