Singers Turned Actors: A Career Retrospective- Mariah Carey

All I Want for Christmas is You. I can guarantee that most of you reading this article have already heard this song at least once this holiday season. Ever since the 1990s, Mariah Carey has been known for having one of the greatest voices on the face of this Earth. With her five-octave vocal range, perfect pitch and her famous whistle register, she continues to this day to make millions and millions as a singer. However, I personally believe that she’s more popular in recent years for being the “Queen of Christmas”. From producing multiple Christmas albums and songs to even embarking on Christmas concert tours, Mariah might as well open her own Santa’s workshop as a business venture. Speaking of business ventures though, she’s actually had quite a few. This even includes an acting career. She’s been considered a diva by many so she might as well channel her dramatics to different characters, right? For this list, we’ll be taking a look at Mariah’s many acting roles over the years. She must be playing a character (so no I won’t be covering her recent televised Christmas specials nor her infamous feud with Nicki Minaj on American Idol) and it must be a film (sorry Empire fans) Let’s get started.

1999- The Bachelor- llana

No this has nothing to do with the ABC reality dating show. It’s a remake of the 1925 film Seven Chances and a romantic comedy-drama fantasy film starring Chris O’Donnell and Renee Zellweger. In her acting debut, Mariah plays Ilana, an opera singer who turns down O’Donnell. Of course, she starts off playing a singer, but at least it perhaps unintentionally goes back to her roots. Mariah’s mother is an opera singer and Mariah was originally trained in the genre before wanting to branch out. For her start in acting, Mariah did actually seek out an acting coach and believed it made sense to start out in a small role before going big. This small role alone ended up teaching Mariah a major lesson in film acting. It ended up being a physical pain especially since Mariah declined to have a stunt double. However, she had yet to feel the emotional pain of making a movie.

2001- Glitter- Billie Frank

Well, that was quick. Despite starting off small, she was soon offered her very own movie. It was called Glitter (which honestly sounds ridiculous but then again, she has album names like Butterfly, Rainbow and Charmbracelet) and she was to play a singer which was not too far off from playing herself. However, Mariah was pushing for a look at the 1980s post-disco era. Originally, Mariah was given full creative control on not only the movie but also the accompanying soundtrack. Unfortunately, all that glitters is not always gold. Unfortunately, the film suffered greatly, and it wasn’t even Mariah’s fault. During this time, there was massive drama surrounding her leaving Columbia Records and switching to Virgin resulting in the movie being in developmental hell and Mariah was beginning to suffer a mental breakdown while promoting the film. As a result, the release of the soundtrack was delayed until September 11th, 2001, a day that ended up being a worldwide tragedy where no one wanted to go out and buy a new album. The film itself came out not too long afterwards and became a box office bomb. It received negative reviews from critics and at only her second movie, Mariah received the Golden Raspberry award for Worst Actress. Needless to say, it was a major step back in her career and Virgin Records ended up terminating her contract. Thankfully, Mariah was able to revive her career in the next few years and in recent years, #Justiceforglitter became a trend. It turns out it’s true. What goes around comes back around in the end. Until then though, Mariah had a lot to prove to the public.

2002- WiseGirls- Raychel

Mariah was actually working on another film around the same time as Glitter but this one was more of an independent film. Premiering at Sundance, Mariah appears as one of the three waitresses working at a mobster operated restaurant. While the film itself received negative reviews, Mariah’s performance was praised with some considering it a comeback after the failure of Glitter. One of the producers spoke highly of Mariah’s work ethic and wanted to make a film with her which unfortunately never came to fruition. All of this may have been overshadowed though with rumors of a feud and physical altercation between Mariah and her co-star Mira Sorvino. Today though, all that we know is that Mariah at the very least threw a saltshaker at Sorvino.

2003- Death of a Dynasty- Herself

This film is a satire of the hip hop industry. It therefore made sense that Mariah (who has delved into the hip hop genre) would be among one of the many cameo appearances in the movie. Aside from this movie being forgettable, I also find the title to be extremely ironic. At this point, her latest album Charmbracelet received criticism for her apparent poor vocals. While this was far from the last time her performances would be criticized (her disastrous appearance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve special for example), she was at her lowest low, her rock bottom. For lack of a better term, she really needed a “Hero”.

2005- State Property 2- Dame’s Wifey

A crime film that was apparently a sequel to the 2002 film, this movie stars an abundance of rappers and other musicians. Not too different from Mariah’s last film including the fact that it was entirely forgettable. I must add though that this time however, her music career was the opposite from before. In 2005, Mariah released The Emancipation of Mimi. With hits like “We Belong Together”, Mariah was back at the top of the charts and being hailed as one of the modern era’s greatest entertainers. Let’s see if Mariah can find similar success in the acting world.

2008- You Don’t Mess with the Zohan- Herself

One last small appearance before we get onto the good stuff. Although I said before that Mariah couldn’t just be playing herself (apologies for the Death of a Dynasty mention earlier in this case), I had to mention this for the sheer fact that she was making a cameo appearance in an Adam Sandler film. In yet another bizarre film of his, Mariah appears singing the national anthem at a game. A couple of her songs even appeared on the film’s soundtrack. Unsurprisingly, the film was by no means great but at least she didn’t end up like Al Pacino and the joke that became of his appearance in the far worse Jack and Jill a few years later.

2008- Tennessee- Krystal

After some years, Mariah finally got the opportunity to play a major role in a movie again. Albeit another aspiring singer but at least this time it was in a road drama. Now the thing is that Mariah eventually revealed that when she first started to pursue acting, not a lot of directors were willing to take her seriously. That’s because they couldn’t see past her image as a singer. Although the film once again received negative reviews, Mariah was able to catch the attention of the film’s producer Lee Daniels and even though last time this happened nothing came out of it, this time was going to prove a different story.

2009- Precious- Mrs. Weiss

A year later, Lee Daniels was given the role of director for the movie Precious. Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Daniels did not forget about Mariah and give her the major supporting role of Mrs. Weiss, a social worker who assists the main character, Precious. Mariah got to appear the exact opposite of glamorous, instead looking exhausted and overworked. Although other actresses in the film like Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique received more attention (the latter winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), Mariah still received her own praise and share of awards. The most notable of this being the Palm Springs International Film Festival Breakthrough Performance Award. Unfortunately, that achievement was overshadowed when she was seen accepting the award with Lee Daniels while clearly drunk. Look, I understand award shows can be annoying and you should be allowed to have a good time but especially since she already knew she was receiving an award, she should be lucky it didn’t become Glitter 2.0 all over again.

2013- The Butler- Hattie Pearl

Mariah’s next movie after Precious ended up being yet another film from Lee Daniels. In the film based on the life of Eugene Allen who served as a butler at the White House for 34 years, Mariah plays the main character’s mother at the beginning of the film. Although her participation in the film was likely because she wanted to do a favor for her friend, it was a very tragic role and maybe helped her show a little bit of range to her fans and critics. However, I personally feel that her projects moving forward from this took on a bit of a pattern and far from the juicy material Daniels ever gave her.

2015- A Christmas Melody- Melissa

Ah yes. I had mentioned at the beginning of this article that Mariah is known more these days for being the “Queen of Christmas”. Despite already having one of the most successful Christmas songs of all time, it seems that lately that isn’t enough for her. She might as well make the next It’s a Wonderful Life or Elf while she’s at it. Surprisingly though, it turns out her venture wasn’t heading to the big screen but rather the small one. *Sigh* Of course. A movie on the Hallmark channel. Who could possibly forget those cheesy movies that only your grandmother watches? In this TV movie, Mariah not only played the main character but also served as the film’s director. With this effort, there was no way she was going to become the next Steven Spielberg, but I’m surprised she didn’t take over the Hallmark channel from Candace Cameron Bure. The film received weak reviews as expected but it’s still not as ridiculous as the one year she partnered for a Mariah Menu at McDonald’s for Christmas. Give us money to pay off our mortgage Mariah! Not a Big Mac that we can easily get ourselves.

2016- Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping- Herself

Mariah ended making another cameo appearance in a musical based film. This time a musical mockumentary starring Andy Samberg. Unlike those movies from the mid 2000s though, I actually still remember this one.

2016- The Keys of Christmas- Herself

Mariah just has to appear everywhere regarding Christmas huh? The Amazon gift guide and Swarovski Christmas ornament clearly wasn’t enough for her. I almost didn’t want to include this one considering it seems more like an extra-long music video but apparently, it’s a YouTube original film about helping to spread holiday cheer to a grumpy young man. Just stick to a televised concert every year from now on. Okay Mariah?

2017- The Lego Batman Movie- Mayor McCaskill

I was actually surprised to find that Mariah decided to pursue voice acting as well, let alone a Batman movie. Although she did do those guest appearances on American Dad! A few years earlier. Here, she voices the mayor of Gotham City. Hard to tell though if this was for the attention and paycheck or for the kids. She does have twins with Nick Cannon. Now that I’m thinking about it, it was probably for all of those reasons.

2017- Girls Trip- Herself

Yet another one of her many guest appearances. I promise this is going to be the last one I mention for this article though. I apologize for continuously breaking the no playing herself rule but at least it’s still a movie and one of the best comedy movies of the decade. If she has to keep making cameos, at least make them high quality like this one.

2017- The Star- Rebecca the Hen

Another movie for the kids in the same year. This time in her natural element, a Christmas movie. Specifically, one about the Nativity story where she plays one of the many animals involved. It didn’t get the best reviews, but Mariah sang a song for the film (also called “The Star”) which was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Nice but then there was also her duet with Whitney Houston for The Prince of Egypt years earlier where it won Best Original Song at the Oscars. She can be offered and do better than this.

2017- Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You- Herself/Narrator

In her final release of 2017 (and what has turned out to be her most recent “acting” role), Mariah may have thought that she wasn’t making nearly enough animated and children’s movies. Naturally, she turned her most famous Christmas song into an animated movie. This just so happens to be based on a children’s book that she wrote (Also named after her song that’s not going away anytime soon). In this interpretation of the song, a little girl wants a puppy for Christmas and tries to prove that she’s responsible. Alongside executive producing and creating the soundtrack, Mariah serves as the film’s narrator. By the way, the little girl in question is meant to be a “younger” version as Mariah. It’s pretty obvious not only based off of her design but also because her name is Mariah. The end result is honestly awkward animation and is nauseating to look at. I can hardly wait for her to adapt her other children’s book The Christmas Princess (hint the sarcasm). I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s her next project.

Conclusion

When writing about the story of her life, Mariah Carey called it Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. Mariah’s acting career may not have always been perfect (and perhaps too Christmasy towards the end) but I’m sure she had good intentions with most of her films (aside from money) and worked hard to prove others wrong. You have to consider the fact that she had a difficult upbringing. Singing and entertainment in general has been a refuge for her and at the start of her career, her stage fright was so bad that she wouldn’t go on tour. She’s had her moments, but she’s also grown so much. If anything, if things fall through, she can always become the modern-day Mrs. Claus. She never fails to bring joy and smiles no matter what.

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