Actors who played their own instruments in film

[Janik]

Jane Horrocks in Little Voice.

[MsD]

Hugh Grant was another one who learnt piano for Music and Lyrics so that his playing looked realistic, but it wasn’t featured on the soundtrack.

[Snake Plissken]

Rather than me retelling the story by typing it from memory, Jennifer Jason Leigh played and sang a song in The Hateful Eight which lead to a rather spectacular fuckup.

The guitar that Daisy Domergue played while singing "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" was a priceless antique from the 1870s, on loan from the Martin Guitar Museum and worth some $40,000. At the end of the song, the script called for John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) to grab the guitar and smash it to pieces. Six replicas were built for the shoot, and were supposed to be substituted for the real instrument for the smashing shot, but due to a miscommunication, Kurt Russell was not informed, and destroyed the original guitar before anyone could stop him. Jennifer Jason Leigh's shocked reaction to this is genuine, and can be seen in the released film. The Martin Guitar Museum subsequently announced they would never loan guitars to film shoots again.

[loosehandlebars]

Keith Carradine wrote & performed "I'm Easy" for Robert Altman's "Nashville" being awarded an Oscar & a Golden Globe for his trouble. A re-recorded version made the US Top 20 but nothing from his subsequent two albums troubled the chart compilers.

[diggedy derek]

This is a little tangential, but if I remember correctly, in the wonderful animated Disney film Coco, the many guitar playing scenes are animated so that the on-screen characters are playing the 'real' guitar parts.

[S. aureus]

Louis Armstrong.

[Incandenza]

Ryan Gosling played the piano in La La Land.

[elguapo4]

Harpo and Chico Marx.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Michael Douglas said he didn't learn piano to play Liberace, but said he learned the right places to put his fingers. Does that count?

I bet he did, the dirty old bugger

[Bored Of Education]

This is a little tangential, but if I remember correctly, in the wonderful animated Disney film Coco, the many guitar playing scenes are animated so that the on-screen characters are playing the 'real' guitar parts.

Yes, I noticed that. The guitar parts were really accurate.

Now there's a film that had no impact past awards season.

I only saw it last week and quite liked it. However, a lot of the sub-plots could have been developed more.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Once saw Kyle MacLachlan on the Jonathan Ross show, playing Light My Fire on a Vox Continental. Which he presumably learnt when he was Ray Manzarek in The Doors.

[Various Artist]

Samuel L Motherfucking Jackson learned blues guitar for half a year solid so he could unleash some really effective riffage in Black Snake Moan.

[Bored Of Education]

All the members of Spinal Tap.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter played guitars in Bill and Ted although they had a pretty good tutor in Steve Vai. Reeves also learnt bag-pipes to play in the new film.

I have an idea that the actors in Backbeat played their own instruments (although a band consisting of Dave Pirner, Gregg Dulli, Thurston Moore and Dave Grohl provided the soundtrack). Certainly Stephen Dorff can play bass.

[scratchmonkey]

There are two soundtracks for True Stories, one where it's entirely the Talking Heads, and one where it's a recording of the songs as they're done in the film, with the various actors doing the vocal performances, which are often wonderfully amateur and in keeping with the themes of the film.

[Mr Delicieux]

Audrey Hepburn playing Moon river on the guitar in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[lecorbusier]

Hugh Laurie in 'Maybe Baby'. It was the first time I registered what an accomplished pianist he is...

[elguapo4]

All the members of Spinal Tap.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter played guitars in Bill and Ted although they had a pretty good tutor in Steve Vai. Reeves also learnt bag-pipes to play in the new film.

I have an idea that the actors in Backbeat played their own instruments (although a band consisting of Dave Pirner, Gregg Dulli, Thurston Moore and Dave Grohl provided the soundtrack). Certainly Stephen Dorff can play bass.

Which is ironic, because the general opinion is that Stuart Sutcliffe couldn't.

[gavc23]

Kiss played their own instruments in Kiss Meet The Phantom of the Park

and Kiss Meets Scooby Doo

and Detroit Rock City


(though technically in the latter two they were miming to their own song)

I believe Mike Myers played the piano himself as Dr Evil too.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Richard Gere plays piano in Pretty Woman.