Rising entertainment mogul Justin Timberlake has climbing his way to the top of the industry, as of late, with a slew of high-profile movie roles and growing number of business ventures. But fans of the former boy band singer’s chart-topping music days have often question when the velvet-voiced singer would return the mic. And in his latest interview, Timberlake explains that he would be back on stage now if it wasn’t for his movie career.
“To be honest, my plan would have probably been to do another record, probably right about now. I never stop considering myself a musician. To me, it’s my bread and butter,” Timberlake told British magazine ShortList. “And I mean that in a personal way, I don’t mean that it finances my ‘acting hobbies.’ I joke with my friends that I should have a business card saying ‘David Fincher put me in a movie,’ because ‘Bad Teacher’ got a blessing due to ‘The Social Network,’ and then ‘Friends With Benefits’ came out of that.
Adding, “All the movies I’ve done were just opportunities that came up, but now that they’re all coming out back-to-back, people think, ‘Oh, he’s trying to make a statement by having an acting career,’ ” he continued. “But it’s not like that for me. I don’t ever want to stop doing music.”
To date, Timberlake has scored roles in major films like 2006’s Alpha Dogs, 2010’s The Social Network and this year’s box-office hits Bad Teacher and Friends with Benefits. And according to Timberlake, he never intended to shift towards a full on career in film, but once the transition occurred, he felt the need to distance his life in film from his life as a singer.
“The only conscious decision I made was that I didn’t want to do a movie about a musician, because I felt like that was presumptuous,” he told the magazine. “If ‘Bad Teacher’ had come out before ‘The Social Network,’ it may have curbed it a bit because people got used to seeing me on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and thought, ‘Well, he’s kind of funny.’ I never cared about being taken seriously as a musician.”
Despite Timberlake’s rising star power in Hollywood, fans have become increasingly impatient in their wait for a followup to Timberlake’s last album, 2006’s FutureSex/LoveSounds. But according to the “Cry Me A River” singer, it will be a while before he makes anymore music or movies, for that matter.
“I have nothing on my plate for the rest of the year. I’m getting sick of me,” Timberlake said. “I realize that I’m in a really lucky place because, to be honest, I don’t think I’m that good. I just want to make the right choices. You get to a certain age where you don’t feel the need to be validated by your choices in your career. I want to be validated more by choices in my personal life.” – nicholas robinson
