Justin Timberlake recently stated that he didn’t need or want coaching or acting classes for his new role in the movie Alpha Dog. I’ll be giving my two cents about this after the information from imdb.com:
Singer/actor Justin Timberlake refused to take any acting classes to help prepare for his role in the film Alpha Dog, relying instead on the training he had as a young child. The “Sexyback” star plays an accused teen killer in the film and was keen to work on a project that was edgy and controversial. He says, “I thought it was a dark script, but I also thought that it was a great statement and I like to make statements .”Timberlake was adamant that he didn’t want to take any acting classes or work with an acting coach to prepare him for his role as one of Jesse’s friends. He explains, “I took classes when I was really young. I just use that as much as possible. For me it seems more natural to not do as much of that.”
Now first off I must say that this movie does look good, I want to see it because of the story and the great cast (Timberlake excluded obviously) there is Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis, Ben Foster and Emile Hirsch. Also the trailer is pretty good, you can watch it here
BUT the reason this movie looks good has nothing to do with Justin “I can’t keep my cocky mouth shut” Timberlake. Buddy hasn’t even gotten a review yet and already he’s decided that acting classes wouldn’t help him be better. As an actress I’m completely offended and disgusted. There are two types of people who refuse help when doing something, the people who have all the time in world to explore their new activity and stupid cocky people. Hum….yep, I’m looking behind door 2 on this one.
The guy is completely handled in every decision he makes, and boy he has amazing managers, while Janet Jackson went down if flames at the Super bowl wardrobe malfunction fiasco Timberlake walked away without so much as a sunburn. He also is one of the very few boy band members who have a real music career after leaving the boys. And he’s dating a beautiful, funny, talented actress, who he refuses to marry and for some reason (low self esteem perhaps) she stays with him.
So of course pretty boy Justin thinks he can do anything. But acting is hard, and the better you are at it the easier it looks and that sometimes makes people think that it doesn’t require a lot of work, but it does. What I get from Timberlake is that he didn’t want to do the work, he would rather try and be edgy and tack his name onto a “statement” that the movie makes, not caring if his careless work hurts the film, or for that matter the statement that he likes so much.
There is no amount of studio touch ups that will hide bad acting, unlike singing. What would have helped Justin Timberlake is an honest teacher who could say “stop making that stupid face and give me something you didn’t practice in the mirror”. Or, of course a good editor, who would simply takes him out of the movie. We’ll see how good his acting really is by how much of his mug is shown in Alpha Dogs.
Where’s the review of Alpha Dog now?
Seems that plenty of critics are saying Timberlake is a standout in this movie.
i’d give him an oscar for
“It’s my dick in a box!”
With an attitude like that I hope JT falls flat on this face.
He is so goddamn annoying.
And where did sexy go that he had to go and bring it back?
Wow, this is so funny. I write a post, come back a day later and all hell has broken loose in the comment section. Thank you all for the kind words.
*** Sorry, we delete comments made by people who post from the same ip address under different names to agree with themselves. You know who you are. ***
What do these three people have in common with Justin Timberlake?
1) Nancy Kerrigan (Equally masculine)
2) Andrew Dice Clay (Equally tasteful)
3) Steven Seagal (Equal singing ability)
As much as I can’t stand JT, I might actually buy tickets to his movies if it keeps him out of the recording studio and off the air.
Even the greatest actors still study and have coaches. It’s pretty arrogant for Justin (as much as I love him) to publicly say that he won’t be using a coach for Alpha Dog.
natural talent wtf!?!?!
this guy is a “musician” not an actor!
really, are you comparing his acting skills with brandos, de niros, etc..
come on, i agree with sharon, although i think the article was subjective, but in the end this is a blog so it’s ok to have that type of articles :)
Apparently it’s “insult poor Sharon and watch John come to the rescue” day here at the MovieBlog.com.
obviously, I’m kidding.
I happen to agree with Sharon completely.
I’m all for giving somebody a chance but I gave Timberlake a chance with Edison Force.
He could use the help.
“And are some of you guys SERIOUSLY comparing hamming it up in an SNL skit to real acting????”
Wonderful point! Take your pick:
1) Nancy Kerrigan
2) Andrew Dice Clay
3) Steven Seagal
What do these three people have in common with Justin Timberlake?
hahahahaha
“If you don’t like reading our personal thoughts and opinions, the go back to AICN.”
Ouch, just ouch. :-)
Hey Kevin,
First of all, I find it ironic and somewhat pathetic that you would chastise Sharon for expressing her opinion in a certain way, and then hypocritically say nonsense like:
“infantile pedantic bitch” You sir, are a hypocrite… and a moron.
I mean seriously, how stupid do you have to be to not understand the title of this site “The Movie BLOG”. Are you too dumb to understand what a blog is?
Who the fuck ever said this site needs “professionalism”? What kind of moron are you??? I mean seriously? This is my BLOG. This isn’t fucking CNN, or CBS you idiot.
Just because a million people started reading my personal blog on movies doesn’t mean it isn’t still my blog. You know, where I, and my invited guests come to express our own personal thoughts and opinions on movie.
If you’re too stupid to understand the difference, then hell… i don’t know how to help you.
If you don’t like reading our personal thoughts and opinions, the go back to AICN.
Fucking “professionalism”. Moron.
Hi There,
This is an interesting article indeed. I’ve always come back to themovieblog.com because of the interesting articles and the somewhat different opinions Jon has – and thats all cool. This one, however, has really motivated me to say something.
My main impression of Sharons’s post was how immature it was. I understand reporting on a news item (however out-of-context it may have been), but the use of slanderous phrases like:
Justin “I can’t keep my cocky mouth shut” Timberlake
..only serve to reduce the oft-talked about respect you think e-journalists deserve to lower levels.
I understand you (Sharon) didn’t like Timberlake’s attitude, nor do you seem to like his acting (based on Edison Force maybe). I think thats great that you have an opinion… but don’t act like an infantile pedantic bitch when you go about expressing yourself… I think this website badly deserves more professionalism if it is to get to that proverbial “next level” .. assuming that is wanted of course, I may be wrong in that regard.
Thanks for the interesting articles as always,
Kevin
When a musician acts in a movie, that pisses me off! Music performers play music, and all of a sudden they think they can act. Justin is a prime example, not only can’t he act but he refuses to get better. Thats like an actor wanting to play guitar without ever picking one or refusing to get some classes on how to play.
Hey Noob, do you even know what “unbiased” means? You seem to think it means you look at something and then don’t develop an opinion. That’s not what it means.
Unbiased means you look at something and not having an opinion of it BEFORE you look at it. Just because you look at something and develop an opinion on it based on it’s merits is NOT being biased. Look it up in a dictionary.
ALSO… it doesn’t matter that this film hasn’t come out yet. We all saw Edison Force. Good grief… Timerlake needs all the acting lessons he can get.
And are some of you guys SERIOUSLY comparing hamming it up in an SNL skit to real acting????
“Natural Talent” is such a load of crap. You show me a kid born with all the natural hockey talent in the world, but doesn’t get any proper coaching… no matter how “naturally talented” the kid is, he’ll never reach his potential and never get anywhere with it. That’s just life.
I’ve seen the trailer and Justin does look really bad. His acting doesn’t look all that great from what I have seen but we will have to see the whole movie before we can tell if his acting sucks or not.
actually i dont think it is possible for sharon to write an unbiased review on anything.
it’s either something she hates or something she loves.
nice article sharon, except one major flaw.
THE MOVIE ISNT OUT YET, so god at least wait until you see if his acting is any good or not before you start being a critic.
i hate critics who can performances before they have even been performed. and i hate people who just bag people cause they dont like them. which is the feeling i am getting from teh negative vibes towards justin in the original thread.
what if it was your favourite star in the world who refused acting coaching? then it would be ok right?
still yet to see anything intelligent written by sharon.
Hey Sam and Jonesy,
you’re right. a natural talent he is. heck, Robert de Niro should take lessons from this guy…no, really…..
By the way, I saw those SNL skits….does the sun shine where your head currently resides????
Have you seen his episodes of SNL? He’s pretty darn funny. I’d say he’s a decent actor. Have not seen E-Force, though.
Not everyone needs acting lessons. Some people are naturals. Now, that’s not to say that Timberlake is, but still.
Justin Timberlake, no acting lessons? I’m simply shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
Janet Jackson did not go down in flames because of that Super Bowl incident. She should have, but she didnt, she got alot of publicity for what was a career that was in decline.
Im no fan of Timberlake, but evidence suggests that he didnt know exactly what was going to happen, he was just told to pull off the one cup. He very likely thought thered be a brassier underneath there. We dont know exactly what happened except that it was Jackson and her people that planned it. She’s the one that got away with it. She should have been shunned by all of the entertainment industry because of what she did (which was essentially a publicity stunt for her new cd) caused a lot of laws to be passed and gave alot more power to the FCC, which has directly lead to television (and radio) becoming more censored.
As for Timberlake not taking acting lessons, he seems to have talent already from what Ive seen of him on Saturday Night Live. I know thats just a comedy show, but its obvious he has natural talent. I guess well just have to wait to see if he made the right decision though.
Acting lessons??? What for? A talent such as this does not require acting lessons….you insignificant life forms!
Justin is not just another pretty face in the crowd. Why, he’s a gift to us all….so that all of humanity may marvel at him…
How blessed we are to have him…Allah is great!
Y’know, I want to add: even Dolph Lundgren took friggin’ classes to better whatever talent he has!
This is a shock. If Justin Timberlake screened ‘Edison Force’, he’d beeline to the nearest acting class out of fear.