It’s surprising to a lot of people to realize that there are plenty of actors that know their way around a guitar and are actually good enough to take their act out in public as several of them have done. This isn’t to say that all of them are going to suddenly form a supergroup and go on tour, but it does sound as though quite a few actors have put in the time and effort to make certain that they can pick up a guitar and start plucking the strings whenever they feel like it, which is more than a lot of us can say since there are a lot of folks out there that couldn’t play a chord if our lives depended on it since some folks just aren’t musically-inclined and others just don’t care enough to pick up the skill. But one has to think that some of those that have been doing this for long enough might have been picking it up as they went along, and others might have picked it up later when they had a bit of downtime. However it happened, there are actually quite a few actors that have a bit of skill on the guitar.
Here are a few actors that are surprisingly good at playing guitar.
5. Kevin Costner
This has been in the news before so it’s not quite as surprising but it’s still not something one sees Costner doing all the time and as a result, it’s not something that a lot of people might remember that he’s capable of doing. After all, it’s not as though he picks up a guitar and starts strumming all the time in his movies, though there have been a couple of moments that he’s managed to pick up an instrument and strummed just for the scene, not doing anything serious. If you can recall, he did pick up a guitar that he yanked out of Tim Robbins’ hands in Bull Durham, but he didn’t do any real playing.
4. Kevin Bacon
For some reason, Kevin Bacon does look like someone that would be able to play guitar but it’s hard to imagine why unless one has actually seen him in the act. In the movie Stir of Echoes, he does sit and pluck at the strings of an instrument for a little while as he’s trying to figure out what tune he’s been hearing in his head for a while. Funnily enough, it’s his on screen kid that ends up showing him the proper chords since the kid is attuned to the world in a way that his father is, but has a much stronger connection and therefore is able to figure things out a lot quicker. It’s humorous in a way, but also kind of creepy.
3. Hugh Laurie
This isn’t too surprising really since once a person picks up an instrument it’s usually easy enough to tell if they know what they’re doing or not simply by how they hold it since a lot of those that play the guitar tend to have a very set way of handling the instrument. That might sound like a lot of hogwash, but it applies to so many things in life that if one happens to notice the comfort and ease with which a person handles any given tool that they’re familiar with it becomes easy to guess that they’ve put in the time with it at some point. So to think that Hugh has paid his dues when it comes to learning how to play, it’s a no-brainer.
2. Ricky Gervais
This one comes as something of a surprise since just looking at Ricky it’s not evident that this would be something he’s good at or enjoys, but that’s why it’s important not to judge a book by its cover since people can surprise you when it’s least expected. The fact that he plays the guitar isn’t that big of a deal but it is kind of impressive since it shows that he has a range of skills that he enjoys and can employ whenever he needs to. That’s the kind of talent that carries a person further than if they’re good at just one thing, but it’s not likely that we’ll see Ricky filling a music hall anytime soon based on his guitar solos.
1. Ryan Gosling
Again, it comes back to that comfort that one shows when they’re holding onto the instrument and how their fingers move when playing. Granted, in the movies when people are playing an instrument many folks that know something about it would point out that they might be playing something wrong or not playing the tune that’s being heard. But the fact still remains that the level of comfort takes time to earn and to really settle in.
There are quite a few actors out there that play guitar.
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