“Labyrinth” (1986)
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, securing Bowie’s involvement as the Goblin King Jareth was such a major feat in the development of Jim Henson‘s fairy tale fable “Labyrinth,” that the orbit of the film shifted slightly to accommodate him. The film’s writer, Terry Jones of ‘Monty Python‘ fame, rewrote the script (under protest) to allow more screen time for the character and for his songs, and when Bowie reportedly felt the script lacked humor thereafter, it was again rewritten to keep him onside. Also featuring a polish from Elaine May, the family film is the story of a young girl (Jennifer Connelly) who has to face all sorts of otherworldly dangers and adventures when her little brother is taken, on her urging, by Goblins, whose king falls in love with her. It was a flop on release, which allegedly depressed Henson so much he never directed again, and critically the reception was mixed at best. But the film developed a life on VHS thereafter and for a whole generation of sleepover-aged kids, Bowie’s Jareth, with his 80s fright wig and “you remind me of the babe” nonsense dialogue, is one of his most indelible creations. While the Maurice Sendak-indebted film is not an out-and-out success, the casting of Bowie is kind of genius, as he brings his trademark ambiguity to making the villain both attractive and repulsive, lending the film, which is all puppets and riddles elsewhere, a slightly more grown-up slant as a result.
READ MORE: Watch: Celebrate David Bowie On Film With 4-Miinute Supercut
“The Prestige” (2006)
It’s hard to believe there ever was or ever will be Bowie’s like again. And yet, a few times in his movie career he played real-life historical figures, and each time it made a certain kind of sense. And so somehow the news that he was to play Serbian physicist/inventor/engineer/genius Nikola Tesla (who famously worked for and then fell out with Thomas Edison over alternating vs direct current) in Christopher Nolan‘s underrated adaptation of Christopher Priest‘s brilliant novel, came as the kind of surprise that immediately felt unsurprising, to the point of obvious. Indeed, Nolan himself stated he couldn’t think of anyone else for the small but pivotal role, and went so far as to fly out to meet Bowie to convince him, after he’d initially turned the part down. As with all the real-life characters he played, it’s hard to tell if Bowie feels right here because he brings Tesla to life, or because he makes us think that maybe Tesla was a bit like Bowie — mercurial and magnetic and a little above the petty affairs of men. But whether Bowie was an actor of great versatility and range seems somewhat beside the point when he brought something that simply no one else could have. And in this deliciously twisty, ultimately nihilistic story of Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman‘s rival magicians, his character lends a welcome, scientific/supernatural tinge to proceedings — because he’s Tesla? Because he’s Bowie? Does it matter?
“Basquiat” (1998)
One of the most iconic artists that ever lived, Andy Warhol’s been played by some fine actors, often memorably — Crispin Glover in “The Doors,” Jared Harris in “I Shot Andy Warhol,” Guy Pearce in “Factory Girl,” Bill Hader in “Men In Black 3.” But it’s fitting — because they knew each other, because the musician named a track on “Hunky Dory” after him, because they were two of the most singular creative forces of the second half of the 20th century — that maybe the best Warhol performance came from Bowie, in Julian Schnabel’s “Basquiat,” his biopic of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The film is occasionally self-serving (Gary Oldman plays a surrogate for the filmmaker), but well worth a watch, thanks mostly to a titanic performance from Jeffrey Wright as the title character. And Bowie is perfect as Warhol — wryly funny, pouring his own innate weirdness into a Warhol-shape, but never quite becoming a caricature, with his mentorship of Basquiat becoming oddly touching. It felt, from a distance, like stunt casting, but Bowie never lets it become so.
