Do Worry Darling – the problem with Harry Styles trying to be an actor
OK Hollywood, you can stop trying to convince us Harry Styles is a good actor now.
Don’t Worry Darling hasn’t even been released yet and it’s already become an internet obsession. The new film, due out in US cinemas on September 23, has become a major talking point online for two reasons: the messy behind-the-scenes drama and Harry Styles’s bad acting (yes acting, not his accent).
The bad acting in question comes via a 19-second clip in which we see Styles and Florence Pugh in a scene together.
The issue with Styles can be split into two parts. The first is his accent and the second is his poor acting abilities.
Yes, Harry Styles is from the North of England – yes that’s a Northern accent, that’s also a bit jumbled up likely due to Styles’ many years on the road. The main issue I have with his accent is why he wasn’t asked to change it. Fellow Brit, Florence Pugh has an American accent, so why has Styles not asked to change his?
Styles has, by far, the most recognised voice out of the entire cast. It’s almost always impossible to take pop stars seriously when they act, especially if they are at the height of their pop star fame because it’s virtually impossible to see them as anyone other than their on-stage persona and their role in the film is often distracting.
Only a few pop stars have the ability to both be taken seriously as actors and be at the top of music fame, Lady Gaga comes to mind. But it’s worth remembering Gaga is a professionally trained actress.
So the first major issue with this clip (and several other clips that have since emerged) is why was Styles not asked to change his accent. If you’re hiring the world’s most famous pop star to take on a serious and meaty role, the first thing you want to do is make sure the audience doesn’t see ‘Harry Styles’. Many online made the point the clip just looked like Harry Styles reading lines.
If they wanted to keep an English/British accent it would’ve made more sense to ask English Queen Florence Pugh to keep her accent and ask Styles to adopt an American accent for the role.
Don’t Worry Darling – Is Harry Styles just a bad actor?
Beyond the accent, and where I have the most trouble, is the fact that Harry Styles is just a bad actor.
I know it’s only a 19-second clip but there’s also his questionable performance in Dunkirk, the studio and DWD team’s ridiculous pushing of ‘Harry Styles Movie Star’ and the fact they thought this clip was good enough to put out.
So let’s break down Harry Styles the actor.
Starting with Don’t Worry Darling. Beyond the accent, is the glaring disparity in talent between Pugh and Styles. Whilst he certainly looks good on screen, his 19-second performance is more comparable to something of an end-of-year GCSE drama-class performance. Pugh’s character Alice says little in the clip, but her performance is believable.
Harry Styles’ Jack is an uncomfortable watch. You can see how hard Styles is trying to be taken seriously as an actor. Perhaps this is just a doozie of a clip, but if this is the type of performance from Styles that according to director Olivia Wilde “moved the cast and crew to tears” then it’s safe to say the DWD cast and crew were clearly dropped on their heads as infants.
Styles’ fans point to the fact he was virtually unknown to director Christopher Nolan when he was cast in Dunkirk and therefore it ‘proves’ Harry Styles is a great actor.
Whilst Nolan may not have understood the level of fame Styles had at the time, it’s guaranteed every person whose job it is to get an actor in front of a director would have known who Harry Styles was. He would’ve been massively bumped up the queue, and made it through a small pot of actors vying for the role.
On a first-time watching of Dunkirk – especially if you saw it at IMAX, it’s easy to forget Harry’s role. He does after all have a small role in a very very big film – with some of the biggest names in film on the roster. Dunkirk is an overwhelming watch, it is a large-scale Christopher Nolan production, moving at such a pace it leaves you gasping and overwhelmed.
But watching Dunkirk on Netflix years later, it’s a whole other experience. Harry Styles’s performance is plagued by a strange teeth-jaw clench that makes him look like he’s in serious pain. His “He’s dead mate” is a laugh-out-loud moment in a very tense film.
With all that said, Styles still had a minor role in a well-established ensemble cast. But in DWD he’s in a much more prominent role, so does he have the ability to bring the film down?
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Harry Styles the actor is his apparent lack of interest in taking the art form seriously.
In a recent interview, he whined about how “unfulfilling” the filming process can be as there’s a lot of waiting around when it comes to making a movie. It would have perhaps been beneficial if he took some acting lessons during his downtime. It appears acting is just something for Styles to pick up when he was unable to tour his album (due to the pandemic) but not something he appears particularly interested in.
Don’t Worry Darling will be getting its first reviews today as it opens at the Venice film festival.
Only time will tell if Harry Styles really earned his seat at the actors’ table.