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that you can’t see where one leaves
off and the other starts. She’s simply a
young person who wants more, with-
out really knowing what more is.
A great singer’s communication
skills go far beyond those of us mere
mortals. Singers generally know
how to move, how to put their bod-
ies to work in a language that goes
beyond words. And even if they can’t
literally make eye contact with thou-
sands of spectators at once, they’re
adept at creating that illusion. Frank
Sinatra began his career as a heart-
throb crooner, swaying at the mic like
a willow embraced by the wind. No
wonder women went mad for him in
the 1940s: he was boyish and non-
threatening, but subtly carnal even so,
with a grave, thoughtful quality that
served him well in the parallel acting
career he began to cultivate seriously
in the 1950s. He’s remarkable as the
wiry, scrappy Angelo Maggio in the
1953 From Here to Eternity: it was as
if the cavalier breeziness he’d brought
to the song-and-dance comedies he
made in the ’40s had passed through a
flame, his swoony charm galvanizing
into something deeper and richer.
Similarly, Doris Day, whose voice
blended the best qualities of mid-
day and dusk, may have been best
known for her fizzy comedies, some
as light as dandelion down. But she
also gave some formidable dramatic
performances: as singer Ruth Etting
in Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and as
the distraught mother of a kidnapped
child in The Man Who Knew Too Much
(1956), to name just two. Sometimes
when the public wants one thing from
you—your unadulterated sunniness—
they underestimate your capacity to
reflect your light off the moon.There are, of course, singers
who have failed miserably at the act-
ing game: look no further than Mariah
Carey in Glitter (though she redeemed
herself with Precious). And there are
singers who might have had greater
acting careers if the stars had aligned
differently. In 1972 Diana Ross, one
of the most compelling R&B singers
of her era, gave a stark and unsettling
performance in Lady Sings the Blues,
a Hollywoodized account of the life
of Billie Holiday. The movie has theglossy feel of studio films of its day, but
as Holiday, Ross cuts straight to the
bone. To look into her eyes is to meet a
challenge, to travel to a place where a
shimmery evening gown, or the most
extravagant evening gardenia, isn’t
nearly enough to veil anguish.
Cher, Mick Jagger, Ice Cube, Janelle
Monáe: the list of singers who are also
terrific actors is long, even if some
haven’t appeared in as many movies as
we might wish. With only three years
between major films—and with a pan-
demic and an Inaugural performance
sandwiched in, no less—Gaga may be
following a path wide enough to make
room for a dual singing and acting
career. Her performance in A Star Is
Born was a kind of glissando between
skill sets. As Ally, a singer who cata-
pults from working in restaurants to
selling out stadium shows, Gaga gave a
performance glorious in its nakedness.
Stripped of her Cleopatra-as- showgirl
stage makeup and art-installation
costumes—trademarks of the Lady
Gaga persona, and part of what makes
her so provocative as a performer—
Gaga became wholly believable as the
singer-next-door with a dream.
In its unabashed maximalism, House
of Gucci is a different sort of movie, as
heavily embroidered as an Alessan-
dro Michele bomber jacket. Gaga in a
strange way both amps it up and tones
it down. We see how in an early scene,
as the not-yet-glamorized Patrizia,
she hastily masks her embarrassment
when, while meeting the intimidating
Gucci père for the first time (played by
a suitably regal Jeremy Irons), she mis-
takes a Klimt for a Picasso. Mid-movie,
a Reynard in ’80s shoulder pads,
she manipulates her husband—who
doesn’t need much convincing—into
tossing deadweight family members
from the business. And by the end, she
has become a blank-eyed murderer,
one whose ruthlessness has blossomed
from her vulnerability like a splotchy
black flower. Gaga makes all the right
moves from house cat to fox to panther.
But she hasn’t unlocked any new se-
crets that weren’t already in her song-
book. From verse to chorus to bridge
and on to the dramatic finish, the road
map has always been there, written in
the breaths between notes. □A captivating singer
and an enigmatic actor:
Jagger in Performance
(1970)
▽△
Ross, devastating in Lady
Sings the Blues (1972)