squirrelgrease said:

I never knew they were thespians.

luv4u said:

Me like.

Se7en said:

I think he played the quiet, young musician type in Purple Rain quite well. Not all of the scenes were pure gold, of course.

Good acting is when you no longer see the actor or actress, but the person that they are portraying. See Angela B. as Tina Turner, Jill Scott in "Why Did I Get Married", Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, Johnny Depp in "Blow", Charlize T. in "Monster", or any of the actors or actresses in "The Godfather". Now, whether or not Prince is a good actor is yet to be seen because in all of his movies, he has always played Himself. The Kid and Christopher Tracy are still only Prince being Prince.

I'm sure that someone is Prince.org land will have something negative to say about this post (if it even gets posted), but please think before you post.

TellYoBodyWhat2Do said:

You hit the nail on the head with that one. I thought his acting was solid for the most part, but that line was awful. When you're pissed off, who would enunciate every single syllable of the word "motherfucker".

Some of the script didn't make sense either. For instance that scene where he asked for Appolonia's braclet. He accused her of lying out of the blue. I don't think she had even said anything. That whole exchange was kinda weird.

In UTCM, to this day I can't watch that death scene without laughing, but that's due to Jerome. His "Dear Lord...He's just a baby!" gets me everytime.

Militant said:

agree with every word!utcm-he was great

TellYoBodyWhat2Do said:

You do realize that, in most cases, actors do not write their own dialogue.

Decent actor.

He's no David Niven. Charlie Chaplin springs to mind, without the humour & comic abilities.

Infact, the older he get the more he looks like Charlie ..... Brown

an good actor for what he's been in

but

a much much better stage performer

Purple Rain wouldn't be the classic it is if the acting were as bad as some might say. I always loved the movie but I used to think the acting was not great. But I have to say it all worked and Prince was very believeable as "The Kid'' so (drum roll, please) I hereby adjust my score to E for effective. lol
It's not necessarily Oscar-worthy acting, but I'd say Prince is a good, effective actor in his movies, especially Purple Rain.

He's ok.

Actually do this one time. Play Purple Rain, and then play 'Glitter' by Mariah Carrey--a movie that tries so desperately to be like Purple Rain in certain of it's last scenes. You get a sense that Prince ain't half bad after that.

Considering he is the protagonist of Purple Rain, he didn't have a tonne of lines in the script. I can't help but thinking this was to his advantage when judging his "acting" - half the time he was just looking a certain way.

That being said, I think his comedic acting value is underrated, particularly in Under The Cherry Moon (on the phone), or hell even appearing on The Muppets. Prince has the best sense of humor and can tell a joke.

I wish he had appeared as a guest in more SNL skits or something.
[Edited 2/7/10 10:09am]

Genesia said:

yes i do...but my argument isn't about the words..it's about how they're said..it's the actors job to make the words on the page seem real.."where are you motherfucker" does seem like something someone would say in that situation so it wasn't the writer who ruined that phrase, but Prince who said it in an extremely wierd and unrealistic way

I watched PR the other night, and enjoyed it. At one point I considered the movie, which I loved when it came out, to be a complete joke especially in terms of the acting. Lately I have a lot more appreciation for what an experienced director was able to do with a bunch of amateur actors.

Prince is an amateur actor in this film. He has some feel for it, and certainly a fair amount of discipline -- you can't overlook the many takes of the performance parts of the film. His lines mostly come across. They could be worse. Honestly, both Appolonia and Jill, who I had marked down as "pretty bad", aren't downright awful either.

No Academy awards here, but they learned the basics and got by. Prince isn't a naturally talented actor, but he's got presence, and did the minimum of training, and sometimes that's enough.

Hell. No.

I've said this before, but I think he'd be great in a movie that he didn't "star" in. Maybe he's a bar owner, or a drug dealer or something. He wouldn't be in the opening credits.

I think something like this could get him started in what could conceivably be his next big career.

He was great in Fargo.

I like the scene where He smashes the basement up and starts to catch the falling music manuscript paper. I also think his acting is great when he wakes up and gives that re-assuring nod that he has to pull it together.

Don't even get me onto the part where he walks down the corridor to his piano and that sick, sustained, synth line is pulsating. I love that part so much! Purple rain never sounded as beautiful as the time he begins to play it on the old upright piano.

maria1999 said:

I fully agree with you. PR is only a good movie because of the music and stage performances, but the acting in dialogues and the interaction of the characters is at times ridiculous and very artificial. Prince suffers from a lot of overacting, especially with the looks and the pouting. He almost becomes a persiflage of his own persona.

I found UTCM even worse, because it was supposed to be a "real" movie, not an extended music video like PR was.
The only good parts are the funny scenes, the interaction between Jerome and Christopher is very light-footed and generally credible.
But that death scene is soo bad and the acting is so over the top, that I can't help but start laughing each time I see it. Actually I feel embarassed in Prince's place everytime I see it

Prince is a good performer. That also means he knows a bit of acting, because singing and dancing is also a kind of make-belief.
But his talent for acting is very limited and would require a lot of coaching for him to be able to play the lead in a feature film.

TheVoid said:

'Glitter' was actually Mariah's take on the music 'Sparkle"

Tame said:

haha very good. Sean Connery in Red October - the only Russian in history to sport a Scottish accent.

Erik

i think it's hard for him to act...he can just b himself

porfyrivrohi said:

Good acting is when the actor gives a great performance, you don't have to belive what they say or do, is not about been real, is about been great.

By the way I read once in one of those Billboard magazine "Number one hits" books, that many famous critics compare his Purple Rain performance to Marlon Brando in "the Wild One", you can even find the Siskel&Ebert amazing Purple Rain review on the web.

porfyrivrohi said:

I once read a review that compared MPLSound to 1999. Reviews are just one person's opinion. And that one person doesn't necessarily have to be sane.

Erik

Well I think a good actor is someone who really sells the character & makes you completley forget that they're pretending to be the character. You have to really believe that they're living in that world like the cameras aren't there. I think Prince was a very good actor, his characters in Purple Rain & Under the Cherry look & act like completley different people which is a quite hard to do. Most of the time I forgot it was Prince & really baught the story. There's so many professional actors that just act the same in EVERY single film they're in, you just see the actor & not the character. So considering Prince isn't even an actor, then yeah I think he was very good

squirrelgrease said:

Now I KNOW thats right. Apples didnt have to do anything but purify herself in the water of Lake Minnetonka for me. I awarded her an Oscar for best rack.