Adam Lambert’s ‘Les Mis’ Review: ‘Hollywood Treats Singing As The Last Priority’
Most people seem to like Tom Hooper’s ambitious big-screen adaptation of Les Miserables, but singer and one-time American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert hated it. Simply hated it.
Though Les Mis is tearing it up at the box office (and with critics), Adam Lambert slammed the film’s A-list cast on Twitter, accusing Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and others of “pretending to be singers.”
“Les Mis: Visually impressive w great Emotional performances,” Lambert started on Sunday night, “But the score suffered massively with great actors PRETENDING to be singers.”
Lambert also bemoaned Hollywood’s practice of casting actors on the basis of their fame instead of hiring trained and professional singers. “Hollywoods movie musicals treat the singing as the last priority.”
He did make some caveats. “Anne Hathaway as Fantine and Enjolras [Aaron Tveit] were the exceptions for me,” Lambert admitted. He also said that Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen “were great too,” but said that overall, making stars sing live instead of dubbing in post-production was not a wise choice.
“With that cast, they should have studio recorded and sweetened the vocals,” he said. “I felt like I should ignore the vocals and focus on the emotional subtext- but the singing was so distracting at times it pulled me out.”
Lambert continued, “The industry will say ‘these actors were so brave to attempt singing this score live’ but why not cast actors who could actually sound good?”
“Sorry for being so harsh but it’s so True!” Lambert concluded.
Did you see Les Miserables? Do you agree with Adam Lambert, or did you think it was a successful adaptation?
