Thanks to Justin Timberlake’s prominent roles in Inside Llewyn Davis, Friends With Benefits, and The Social Network, we’ve grown used to seeing the once peroxide-blonde ‘N SYNC star acting with aplomb on the big screen. Pop stars, especially those of the synchronized-dancing, lip-synching, less technically “musical” genres that dominated the early aughts, seem particularly well-suited for acting — because really, they were kind of acting the whole time.
No one else from the Billboard charts of the 2000s, except maybe Jennifer Lopez, has made it to Timberlake’s level of feature film success. But even JT started somewhere — namely, with the made-for-TV prince-and-pauper redux Model Behavior (2000). As it turns out, tons of other pop stars tried to earn their own “/actor” crowns in movies you may (The Aviator) or may not (Carmen: A Hip Hopera) have seen. In celebration (and in memoriam) of these forgotten career detours, we bring you 20 films that surprisingly feature pop stars from the beginning of the millennium.
Justin Timberlake, Model Behavior (2000)
Justin and his white man’s ‘fro starred in this Disney original movie alongside Psych‘s Maggie Lawson (and bonus: Kathie Lee Gifford). Timberlake played model Jason Sharp, who gets fooled by Lawson’s Alex Burroughs and Janine Adams — a high school girl and model who swap places so each can escape her normal life.
