10 Rock Videos Featuring Famous Movie Stars

Photo of Chevy Chase featured in this article on rock videos with movie star guest appearances

Feature Photo: Alan Light, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

10 Great Rock Videos Featuring Movie Star Guest Appearances looks at music videos in which well-known actors actually appear in the video rather than simply showing clips from a movie soundtrack. From Chevy Chase lip-syncing Paul Simon to Robert Downey Jr. walking through an empty mansion for Elton John, these videos used movie stars as part of the performance, the story, or sometimes the joke.

Rock stars and movie stars have crossed paths on MTV and beyond for decades. These 10 videos are memorable examples of what can happen when those two worlds collide.

#10 – Crazy – Aerosmith

Aerosmith’s “Crazy,” from the 1993 album Get a Grip, became almost as famous for its Marty Callner-directed video as for the song itself. Alicia Silverstone, already familiar to Aerosmith fans from “Cryin'” and “Amazing,” appears alongside Liv Tyler, Steven Tyler’s daughter, in one of Liv’s earliest major screen appearances. The two play teenagers who skip school and head out on a wild road trip in a convertible, giving the video the rebellious, cinematic quality that made it a fixture on MTV in 1994. Silverstone and Tyler carry nearly the entire storyline, making “Crazy” one of the clearest examples of a rock video becoming a showcase for future Hollywood stars.

#9 – Angry – The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones’ “Angry,” the lead single from their 2023 album Hackney Diamonds, features actress Sydney Sweeney cruising along the Sunset Strip in a red convertible while archival images of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood come alive on giant roadside billboards. Directed by François Rousselet, the video uses Sweeney’s screen presence to connect the Stones’ long history with a modern Hollywood image, while the digitally transformed billboards turn Los Angeles into a moving retrospective of the band. It is a simple concept executed with plenty of style, and Sweeney’s appearance gave the video an immediate pop-culture hook outside the Stones’ traditional audience.

#8 – Wake Me Up When September Ends – Green Day

Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” from American Idiot, was turned into a short film by director Samuel Bayer. The 2005 video stars Evan Rachel Wood and Jamie Bell as a young couple whose relationship is torn apart when Bell’s character enlists in the military and is sent to war. Although Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the song out of grief over the death of his father, Bayer built a separate wartime story around it, giving Wood and Bell substantial dramatic roles rather than simple cameos. Their performances make the video feel closer to a miniature movie than a conventional band performance clip, which is exactly why it belongs on this list.

#7 – Into the Great Wide Open – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ “Into the Great Wide Open” received one of the most cinematic rock videos of the early 1990s. Directed by Julien Temple, it stars Johnny Depp as Eddie Rebel, a young musician who goes to Los Angeles, becomes successful, and discovers the darker side of the music business. Faye Dunaway appears as his manager, Gabrielle Anwar plays his girlfriend, and Tom Petty himself turns up in several different roles, including narrator, tattoo artist, and record-industry figure. Depp’s performance gives the video the shape of a miniature rise-and-fall movie, perfectly matching Petty’s cautionary story about ambition, image, and fame.

#6 – Shadows of the Night – Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night,” from her 1982 album Get Nervous, turns into a World War II fantasy in a video featuring early appearances by Judge Reinhold and Bill Paxton. Benatar plays a riveter who dreams that she is a flying ace on a wartime mission, while Reinhold appears as an American serviceman and Paxton turns up as a German soldier. The elaborate costumes, aircraft, and adventure-film setup made the video unusually ambitious for the early MTV era, but today the fun is also in spotting two actors who would soon become familiar movie faces. Their presence gives the video an extra piece of Hollywood history.

#5 – You Can Call Me Al – Paul Simon

Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” from the 1986 album Graceland, became unforgettable largely because Chevy Chase appears to take over the entire video. Directed by Gary Weis, the clip places Simon and Chase side by side in a nearly empty room, but Chase lip-syncs Simon’s lead vocal while the actual singer sits beside him looking increasingly resigned to being upstaged. Simon occasionally brings in instruments and mouths backing parts, while Chase uses his height, exaggerated gestures, and deadpan confidence to turn the performance into a running visual joke. With almost no scenery or story, the chemistry between Simon and Chase makes it one of the most recognizable music videos of the 1980s.

Read More: Top 10 Paul Simon Songs

#4 – Walking on Broken Glass – Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox’s “Walking on Broken Glass,” from her 1992 solo album Diva, features John Malkovich and Hugh Laurie in an elaborate period-piece video directed by Sophie Muller. Inspired in part by the visual world of Dangerous Liaisons, the clip places Lennox at an aristocratic gathering where Malkovich appears as a former lover arriving with his new bride, while Laurie plays the Prince Regent. Powdered wigs, ornate costumes, jealousy, comedy, and Lennox’s dramatic performance give the video the feel of a compressed costume drama. The casting works especially well because both Malkovich and Laurie seem completely at home inside the exaggerated period setting.

Read More: Top 10 Annie Lennox Songs

#3 – Queenie Eye – Paul McCartney

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Paul McCartney’s “Queenie Eye,” from his 2013 album New, may have the most crowded celebrity guest list of any video here. Directed by Simon Aboud and filmed at Abbey Road Studios, it begins with McCartney appearing to record alone before the room gradually fills with famous faces reacting to the music. The cast includes Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, Meryl Streep, Chris Pine, Jude Law, Sean Penn, Jeremy Irons, James Corden, Tracey Ullman, Alice Eve, Gary Barlow, Peter Blake, and many others. Rather than build a complicated plot, the video simply lets one celebrity after another appear, dance, listen, and enjoy the song inside one of rock music’s most famous studios.

Read More: Top 10 Paul McCartney Solo Songs

#2 – I Want Love – Elton John

Elton John’s “I Want Love,” from the 2001 album Songs from the West Coast, places Robert Downey Jr. alone in an empty mansion and lets his performance carry the entire video. Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood, the clip was shot in one continuous take, with Downey walking from room to room while lip-syncing John’s vocal. There are no elaborate effects, supporting actors, or cuts to the singer, which makes the actor’s expressions and body language the entire visual story. Released during a turbulent period in Downey’s life and career, the video has an unusually exposed quality, and its restraint makes it one of the strongest examples of a movie star completely taking over a music video.

#1 – My Sweet Lord – George Harrison

The first official music video for George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” arrived in 2021, more than 50 years after the song first appeared on All Things Must Pass. Directed by Lance Bangs, it stars Fred Armisen and Vanessa Bayer as agents sent on a mysterious search by a character played by Mark Hamill, and the video keeps adding famous faces as the mission unfolds. Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Jon Hamm, Rosanna Arquette, Darren Criss, Taika Waititi, Patton Oswalt, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Reggie Watts, and many others appear. The intentionally playful search mirrors the spiritual seeking at the heart of Harrison’s song while turning the video into an affectionate, celebrity-filled tribute to his legacy.