Ongoing History Daily: Famous actors in music videos
If you’re a musician of a certain stature and you’re willing to foot the bill, it can be possible to get a famous actor to appear in one of your music videos.
- If you’re a fan of The Killers, you’ll know that singer Brandon Flowers released a solo album entitled Flamingo in 2010. He got Charlize Theron to appear as a baddie in the video for the single “Crossfire.”
- Zooey Deschanel was persuaded to take a role in “She’s Got Issues,” a 1998 video by The Offspring.
- Jason Alexander plays a barista with a head full of hair in Nickelback’s “Trying Not to Love You” from 2011.
- Yes, that is Bruce Willis in the Gorillaz video “Stylo” in 2010.
- And Vampire Weekend got Jake Gyllenhaal for a cameo in their 2010 video, “Giving Up the Gun.”
Keanu Reeves was in the video for Only by Anthrax. As well as that Paula Abdul video back in the day.
Mary Lynn Rajskub was in The Good Life by Weezer.
Matt Dillon in the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York”
Claud, a non-binary indie singer-songwriter, has a song called Paul Rudd. He liked it, connected with them, and then appeared in their video for “A Good Thing”