Rappers Turned Actors

I truly believe that acting is a talent and a skill. Not many people can act but have other talents such as dancing, singing, and other skills. When I see rappers such as Snoop Dog, DMX and Ludacris make an attempt to act I question whether or not you need actual talent to act anymore. I listen to each of these individuals as artist in their field and I am not saying that they don’t have the opportunity to expand but they are not meant to be multi-talented. Because actual talented actors are now being over looked for roles because artist who are already previously famous and can bring in extra revenue I think the search for good actors is lost. There are some actors who are successful as artist and vice versa such as Will Smith. He effectively proved that he could be thriving in both fields. But an actor such as Samuel L Jackson knows that he is good at what he does and as a professional in his field can respectfully admit that his talents stop there. Musical artist seem to not be able to grasp that concept as much and are always trying to make the leap from their industry to the film and television business. The choice for these producers and directors to give them the opportunity to be an actor I think is strictly an economic decision. Only a few people can actually make the transition. When you put an artist in a movie full of well-known actors I think that the pressure is on them to prove themselves and shine. But they kind of have to work harder than the other actors in the movie to stand out. If they don’t it just proves the point that actors can not be successful at being multi-talented.

Slumdog Millionarie

I have not yet seen the film Slumdog Millionaire. I’ve only seen the commercials, read articles and heard people’s personal critique of the film. From the reviews I read it was a very excellent movie and was the must see and best movie of 2008. The premise I believe is a poor Indian young man who gets the opportunity to participate in the Indian version of, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I’m not sure if he won the actual million dollars but the story essentially seems like a fairytale of an underprivileged young man given a chance to better himself. I would assume that he didn’t cheat but it seems like a young man in his situation wouldn’t be able to make it as far as he did in the competition. He wasn’t some wiz kid from a prestigious school in the United States and I think that is what made the movie so successful. Everyday people could relate to the main character. Race is a clear and concise key element to the portrayal of the story. In comparison to the Golden Girls scene when they sat down and discussed race with each other to the movie I however, am not sure what they have to do with in relation to each other. The game show element really added to the story because it was already a successful show on television that people could already identify with. How the relationship element tied into that story of a rise from the slums I am also not sure of but I realize that it doesn’t take much to attach a love story into films. I look forward to viewing the movie in some coming weeks but I believe now after listening to the podcast that I have some questions up front about the film.