We know and love Pink for her hard rocking music which includes such songs as “Get the Party Started,” “Don’t Let Me Get Me” and “Just Like a Pill.” But now she trades in her musical ways for acting in her portrayal of recovering addict Dede in the movie “Thanks for Sharing.” History is full of musicians who have tried their hand at acting, but while most of them fail miserably, Pink succeeds in giving us an authentic portrayal of a human being who is trying to overcome her demons. Furthermore, Pink ended up using her birth name of Alecia Moore in the movie’s credits to make it clear how serious she is about acting.
Now many are wondering why Pink used her real name instead of her stage name for this movie. In many ways, it would make more sense for her to use her stage name as that would hopefully get her fans to go to the nearest movie theatre to see “Thanks for Sharing” instead of just waiting for it to come out on DVD and Blu-ray. But when she appeared at the movie’s press conference which I covered for the website We Got This Covered, Pink made it clear why she made this decision.
“Pink was a nickname given to me when I was younger,” she said. “Pink is what people call me referring to music and to some of my friends back in Philly. But outside of that, I am Alecia or mom and I wasn’t given a song to sing in this film.”
When it comes to Hollywood, they just love to typecast actors and actresses. Some believe that because of her persona in the world of music that Pink will forever be typecast as a tough girl or someone who comes from a bad element when she does movies. Either that or, after “Thanks for Sharing,” she might just get cast as an out of control, sex obsessed person. But to hear Pink talk, it sounds like she was just waiting for the right script to come along before she made her big break into acting.
“Until this I had scripts that were as a convict or a runaway, the girl that beats somebody up, the girl that stops somebody from being beat up or Janis Joplin,” she said. “I was waiting for a part in ‘Saved’ but that didn’t happen.”
Since “Thanks for Sharing” deals with the damaging world of addiction, each actor at the press conference was asked what their biggest addictions in life have been. When Pink answered this question, it gave you an idea of what she has been through in life and of how it has come to inform the various projects she has come to work on.
“When I was younger I used to do a lot of naughty things and I’ve seen all of it,” Pink said. “I’ve lost a lot of friends. I think the first funeral I went to was when I was 13. That’s part of what drew me to this; I believe that addiction is addiction regardless of the form it takes and I can empathize and see the pain that it causes everybody whether you’re the person going through it or if it’s someone you love. It’s all around us.”
This movie also offers Pink to do something quite different as it has her playing a part that she didn’t write. Most of her career has been spent doing music and songs she composed herself, so doing something that was written by another person must have been challenging for her (or so was the perception). But while Pink might have lost some control over this particular project, she was not the least bit opposed to doing someone else’s material.
“It’s really interesting,” Pink said. “I’ve been telling my own stories for years and I do write my own songs, but if someone brings me a song that’s wonderful, I’m not going to turn away just because I didn’t write it. I have to be able to relate to it for it to ring true for me to get up on stage every night. But this was an opportunity to tell someone else’s story that I could relate to a little bit, and if we’re talking about music videos then I’ve got camp down. I can do camp all day long, and this was a little less. It was a challenge to be serious, really. It’s really hard for me to be serious.”
The history of cinema is littered with musicians attempting to make the transition from music to movies, and many of them end up making fools out of themselves in the process. Pink, however, proves she’s got the goods an actress with her performance in “Thanks for Sharing” as she holds her own against such actors as Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim Robbins and Josh Gad. Here’s hoping that she does more acting in the future because she has now proven that she’s quite good at it.
SOURCE:
Ben Kenber, “Press Conference Interview With The Cast And Director Of Thanks For Sharing,” We Got This Covered, September 18, 2013.
See also:
‘Thanks for Sharing’ Balances Comedy and Drama Very Well
Gwyneth Paltrow on Going from ‘Iron Man 3’ to ‘Thanks for Sharing’
Joe Swanberg Explores Craft Beers and Actor Improvisation in ‘Drinking Buddies’