MovieChat Forums > Mamma Mia! (2008) Discussion > Good Lord - Pierce is one awful singer!!...

Good Lord - Pierce is one awful singer!!!

posted 14 years ago by tmitch-1
23 replies | jump to latest

And it's not that I don't generally like him as an actor. I even think he was one of the better Bonds - even if he wasn't in some of the better Bond movies.

But I honestly say I'm pretty shocked his singing scenes remained as is in the movie. I'm imagining the looks on the director and the other actor's faces as he was belting out 'S-O-S' - and I can't believe someone didn't say "Um - well, we really can't have a guy who's singing sounds like a cow in a bear trap in a major motion picture musical. Either we re-cast him, or at least dub his singing."

I mean, how did this happen?

[–] Muscle_Queen 14 years ago

God, Nobody in this movie can sing.

[–] NutzieFagin 14 years ago

Not quite... Pierce Bronson is cute make a GREAT Bond and Remington Steele but he is so flat and tone deaf as a singer....I can still hear the audience groaning when he belted out S.O.S. Why they did not dub his voice, I'll never figure it out.

As for other actors, I was somewhat surprised...remember these are people not trained in singing. Julie Waters...Colin Firth, who did a good job with a folksy type song. Meryl Streep....eh? I give it passable. I always thought they choose a beautiful location to compensate for the tin ears.

[–] andrew-gillespie5000 13 years ago

Muscle Queen, are saying that Amanda Seyfried and Christine Baranksi can't sing? Cause you would not be correct there.

[–] cluvonj 14 years ago

I just saw this movie and I had heard others say before I saw it that he was not good and I have to agree. But I kept thinking his voice reminded me of a real singer and I found on youtube where someone commented that he sounded or had a quality like JOe Cocker and I thought yeah that is it.

On the DVD extras where they talk to various cast members Pierce talks about how he didn't know what the project was about when they called to cast him. He just knew it was going to film in Greece and Meryl STreep was in it and he wanted to work with her since way back so he jumped at it. THen he said it was the most nervous he had ever been on any movie when he found out he had to sing.

He also states that early on his children and wife heard him singing. Later after the movie was done they told him they didnt want to say anything earlier but the kids had said to their mother it was really bad. He said that was early on but he kept practicing over and over until he got better.

I came across this clip someone did that did make me laugh although a lot of people commenting think it is stupid. It is just an overexaggeration is all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DewOnnQmIdw

[–] youngian67 13 years ago

One reviewer (Mark Kermode) commented: "Is that the QE2 docking or is that Pierce looking for a C?"

[–] student_points 13 years ago

i read on commentator: pierce brosnan sounds like a sea cow during a rectal exam

[–] AWaite4 13 years ago

I think he sounds like a middle-aged businessman trying to sing to the lady he loves. And that's the part he was playing, so you can look at it as a shot of realism, and be generous and call it acting.
And lighten up.
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Tenser, said the Tensor.
Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.

[–] conchord_phan 13 years ago

I agree with AWaite4. His difficult time at singing is realistic to his character.

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[–] seventeight 13 years ago

When I first saw the movie, I thought the exact same thing until I saw this musical on London's west end a few months after the movie. Sam (Peirce Brosnan's character in the movie) was played by some other actor and some of the songs that he sang in the movie/musical play were pretty bad. I decided that it must be the part the guy was playing.

[–] NobodymournstheWicked 12 years ago

I have never seen him in the James Bond movies that he did, but I do remember him from being in Mrs. Doubtfire with Robin Williams you might not remembered him being in this move. But that is okay he is not known for singing anyways. And it is not like also that his character sings a whole lot in the musical anyways. I don't think that he was nearly as bad on the songs that he had to sing like SOS which is one that his character mainly sings on. I would have thought for sure that he would have about it for sure for the other people on this movie. But normally that is what they do when they bring on an actor that can't sing is to have somebody dub their voice, with us only wondering what it would have been like if he or she did the singing themself. But this is one of the rare films that we wish that did have, I am not sure what the thought process was on this.

[–] Patagualian 12 years ago

I don't see the problem: He is not cast as a character that is supposed to be able to sing & sing well, he is cast as just a bloke who,incidentally,cannot sing!

If the plot demanded that all the characters must be able to sing, then they would have cast such actors/actress's with that ability....In which case it would have been a sort of biopic of ABBA....but these are supposed to be a random bunch of people, who, just like real-life people, have varying degrees of singing ability .....therein lies the humour:
"Good heavens, he can't sing to save his life!"
It would have been just so FAKE if all the actors appeared as fine singers.

It's a story merely using the influence & music of ABBA.

[–] comic_geek05 12 years ago

He's playing a character who has been bottling up his feeling for the last 21 years of his life, of course he's not going to sound all that good when he's only just started to express himself.

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[–] Ithilfaen 12 years ago

You're talking about acting, we're talking about voice and technique. It's not about what he's feeling, it's the fact he can't sing it.

Anyone who thinks he can is either really tone deaf or adheres to the principle that cute guys just can't do anything wrong. Either way, it's not a question of interpretation, he sucks. Nobody is perfect but he shouldn't have accepted to do a musical if he can't sing.

It's been a few years now that Hollywood has assaulted the box office with musicals loaded with celebrities who are just not good enough to sing the parts they are cast in (from Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd to Hugh Jackman in Les Mis) but they are not terrible. They're just not good enough like a guy who runs every Sunday couldn't just run in the Olympics. Brosnan just can't even walk.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Doctor_Mabuse1 11 years ago

Not a big Brosnan fan here, but I think he came across with a decent rock vocal while expressing some passion. He's not a singer but he performed the song well enough. This was a case of character and personality over musical finesse.

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[–] couzijn 11 years ago

Total agreement here. I have been a singer in a chamber choir for over 25 years, I know something about singing technique, I am not tone deaf, and I can distinguish between trained and untrained voices.

Yes, Brosnan's voice is untrained. True, he lacks control over his breath. And indeed, even non-singers can hear that he is not a professional singer. But that said, I do find that Brosnan did a pretty good job. I like the 'rough' colour of his voice, the notes were not off (in spite of the occasional bends and twists that were probably meant as ornamentation) and his performance very much suited the role he played (NOT a rock star or super hero).

Given the ambiguous nature of this movie - seriously campy yet toying around with some dramatic moments - I think it was a wise decision to *not* have professional singers act the parts, or to dub the actors' voices. That would have shifted the movie and the songs too much to the serious side, where they don't belong. For me, the somewhat amateurish voices give extra charm to the collective comical effort. (And no, I don't mean that Brosnan singing was unintentionally funny :-)

Besides, who in their right mind would criticize Brosnan (or Firth, or Skarsgaard) for the quality of their dancing - not in the same league as Michael Jackson, Elvis or Gary Glitter...???) I say: apply the same perspective to their singing, and appreciate it for what it is, not for what it doesn't need to be.

[–] mikainen 11 years ago

Exactly. I wonder how many critics here can sing themselves. Brosnan was alright for a nontrained singer.