It's no secret that lots of actors who appear in musicals don't use their own voices. But then why were they cast in the role?
When it comes to acting, musicality is typically not at the top of the list of skills that actors are expected to have. After all, even if their singing voice grates on your ears, dubbing is always an option. It's the look and acting that count.
That's why our brain goes into overdrive when we hear about some actors' amazing musical talents! Whether it's singing, dancing, or instrument playing. In fact, some of them are so good that they have their own music career next to their acting ones.
In fact, some are even considered triple threats because of how good they are both as actors and musicians. So, which actor has a hidden musical talent you've never heard of? We have 20 of them for you to check out in this blog.
#1 Ryan Gosling
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You may be familiar with Ryan Gosling's vocal abilities from La La Land (and The Mickey Mouse Club), but did you know he released a 2009 album called Dead Man's Bones as part of a band of the same name? Ryan and his friend Zach Shields make up the group to create a spooky musical theater production after discovering a mutual love of all things creepy.
#2 Scarlett Johansson
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The Avengers actress released her debut album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, in 2008, which featured ten Tom Waits covers and one original song. She formed The Singles with Este Haim, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan in 2015, and they released the song "Candy."
#3 Robert Downey Jr.
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In 2004, he released his debut album, The Futurist, and told The New York Times, "Clearly, I have reservations about being an actor who releases an album. However, after years of songwriting, it gradually became more real."
#4 Robert Pattinson
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Perhaps you've seen a photo of Robert Pattinson in an airport carrying a guitar case? During his "Twilight" years, it was practically a paparazzi shot genre. Speaking of "Twilight", Rob contributed two songs to the film's soundtrack ("Never Think" and "Let Me Sign"), and he was also featured on the soundtrack for his 2018 western comedy Damsel.
#5 Naomi Campbell
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Baby Woman, the supermodel's (and now actor's) sole R&B/pop album, was released in 1994. It was mostly a flop, failing to crack the top 75 in the United Kingdom, but it did well in Japan.
#6 Ricky Gervais
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Ricky Gervais and a friend founded the British New Wave band Seona Dancing in 1982. Before calling it quits, they released two unsuccessful singles, one of which, "More to Lose," became a huge sensation in the Philippines.
#7 Maya Rudolph
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Maya Rudolph, the daughter of soul singer Minnie Riperton and composer-producer Richard Rudolph, was the keyboardist and backup singer in a '90s band called The Rentals, in addition to being one of the brightest spots in Saturday Night Live history and a scene-stealer in Bridesmaids.
#8 Zoë Kravitz
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In 2014, the Big Little Lies and Mad Max star told Rolling Stone. "Lolawolf is what I prefer to do in my spare time." If you're thinking, "cool, but what?" Lolawolf is her R&B/electro-pop band, which she formed with fellow Brooklynites Jimmy Giannopoulos (drums) and James Levy (keyboards).
#9 Idris Elba
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In addition to acting, Idris is a successful musician and DJ. In other words, he's performed at Coachella and has his own record label, 7Wallace Music. It's known as TALENT!
#10 Bruce Willis
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In 1987, one year after Moonlighting but one year before Die Hard, Bruce Willis released The Return of Bruno, a pop-blues album with nine cover songs and one original, "Jackpot," which he co-wrote. In 1989, he released his second album, If It Don't Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger, and in 2001, he left Ocean's Eleven to record his third album, Classic Bruce Willis: The Universal Masters Collection.
#11 Keanu Reeves
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From 1991 to 2002,
Keanu Reeves was the bass guitarist for the alternative rock band Dogstar. In 1999, he told Empire, "You know what I hope?" "I hope that if they come to see me because they saw me in a movie and liked my work and want to see the freakshow, they like the music. That isn't so bad."
#12 Jamie Foxx
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Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles, and his musical abilities are just as well-known off-screen. He has five R&B albums to his credit and was featured on Kanye West's "Gold Digger."
#13 Jada Pinkett-Smith
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Jada Pinkett-Smith is a singer-songwriter in the metal band Wicked Wisdom, and her musical journey has not been easy. "I was mocked when I played metal music," she told Metro UK in 2011. "When I was added to the Ozzfest lineup, I received death threats, but I persisted. By the end of it, everyone was on board. One of my most important learning experiences was working with metal. I attribute a lot of my success to not being afraid."
#14 Zooey Deschanel
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Zooey Deschanel of New Girl is one half of the folk-rock duo She & Him, along with M. Ward. The band, which includes Zooey on vocals, piano, and ukulele, released Volume One in 2008, which Pitchfork described as a "remarkably self-assured first album." Since then, they've released five more studio albums, including two Christmas albums.
#15 Jack Black
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Before becoming an actor, Jack Black was a member of the comedic rock duo Tenacious D. (think over-the-top, theatrical rock, or what critics have called "mock rock"). As of 2018, the band had released four studio albums, the most recent of which was Post-Apocalypto.
#16 Brie Larson
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Brie Larson's only pop-rock album, Finally Out of P.E., was released in 2005 and sold only 3,500 copies. According to Vulture, she promised fans a new EP on MySpace in 2008, but the music never materialized. Instead, her acting career took off, and she put her failed pop star ambitions behind her.
#17 Lucy Hale
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Lucy Hale was a top-five winner on Fox's American Juniors, a short-lived singing competition for tweens, in 2003, before she even considered acting. The Pretty Little Liars star returned to her musical roots in 2014, releasing the country album Road Between.
#18 Kevin Bacon
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Kevin Bacon and his brother, Michael, formed the band The Bacon Brothers. Since they began making music in 1995, they've released six albums. None of them involve bacon.
#19 Leighton Meester
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The Gossip Girl star was featured on Cobra Starship's smash hit "Good Girls Go Bad," which peaked at number seven on the Hot 100 in 2009. She further releases her independent album Heartstrings in 2014. #20 Alyssa Milano
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In the late 1980s, the "Who's the Boss?" star signed a four-album contract with a Japanese record label, and each album was a huge success. She told the Los Angeles Times in 1991 that she wouldn't release her music in the United States because she didn't want to be a joke.