Whenever I think of Juliette Lewis, I picture her sucking Robert DeNiro’s thumb in “Cape Fear,” and I know that probably means I’m pretty twisted.
Because, really, it’s not like that’s the only role she ever played. In fact, she’s a well-respected actress, who has worked with some of the industry’s finest, including directors like Scorsese, Tarantino and Stone.
Early in her acting career, she was the quintessential teen, appearing in movies like “Christmas Vacation” and “My Stepmother is an Alien.” Then she became a slightly off kilter young adult with a bad taste for guys in movies like “Kalifornia” and “Natural Born Killers.”
By the time she was 30, the Oscar-nominated actress had appeared in dozens of movies. Yet, all along, she has said, she was inspired by music. So what does a rich actor/actress with a love of music do?
Just ask Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, and Don Johnson.
That’s right — you form a band. Just like Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Russell Crowe. Just like Eddie Murphy, Philip Michael Thomas and Dennis Quaid.
You get the idea, right? If you’re rich and famous, you form a band, which often — OK, usually — sucks. (Did anyone else endure Billy Bob’s show at the Mid-State Fair a few years back?)
Except Lewis’s band, Juliette Lewis and the Licks, is actually pretty good – and has the reviews to show it.
The band, seen in this video, performs at Downtown Brew in San Luis Obispo Sunday.
Lewis first flirted with music videos years ago, when she appeared in Melissa Etheridge’s “Come to My Window” video. (Lewis played a suicidal mental patient.) Later, in the movie “Strange Days,” she sang P.J. Harvey’s “Hardly Wait.”
Her sound is often compared to Harvey’s, in fact. Her moves on stage recall Mick Jagger. And her Spandex-heavy stage outfits might draw comparisons to Olivia Newton John, circa the ’80s.
Okay, so the Spandex part is not so good.
But thanks in part to her co-writing with Linda Perry (“What’s Up,” “Get The Party Started,” “Beautiful”), she has garnered respect as a musician.
Lewis hasn’t given up acting. But, she’s said, she’s taking fewer roles these days so she can pursue her music career.
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OK, so I’m occasionally slow with technology, but eventually I embrace it.
In 1995, for example, I bought my first CD (Van Morrison’s greatest hits), forever ending my fling with cassettes and vinyl. A little slow, I know. But I made the transition.
Then just last night, for the very first time, I downloaded music from the Internet.
I hear you. It’s almost 2008.
The thing is that downloads always seemed ideal for me since I happen to like a lot of one-hit wonders and yet I don’t want to pay for an entire album just to get one song.
For some reason, I still resisted.
But last night I entered the download world by purchasing George Harrison’s “All Those Years Ago.” I’m doing a little nostalgic video project for my mom and wanted to include that song on it. Then I downloaded Ray Charles’s version of “Yesterday” — also for the video project. Then I downloaded a Phil Collins song just because I really like Phil Collins.
Downloading music is so easy. And with each song, you’re like, “Eh — it’s only a buck.” So I quickly downloaded three more Phil Collins songs. Then I started thinking about all the other songs I could download, which then made me think of the money I could be dropping, which then made me realize why I had resisted iTunes for so long.
–Pat P.
