We've all seen Andre 3000 in movies before but never quite like this. In the first clip from the long-awaited All Is By My Side, the Outkast rapper channels legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix in a way we've never before seen on film.
Directed by John Ridley, who recently won an Oscar for his 12 Years a Slave screenplay, All Is By My Side focuses on a brief period in the guitar god's life between 1966 and 1967, when he was on the precipice of global stardom. Here, his future manager Chas Chandler (Andrew Buckley) tries to convince him to move to London, while his lady friend Linda Keith (Imogen Poots) looks on.
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From his lilting voice to his affected mannerisms, anyone who's ever watched an interview with Hendrix knows that the rapper-turned-actor has done his homework. Unfortunately, we'll never get to see Andre 3000 take the stage as Hendrix, after his residence refused to give the filmmakers the rights to any of his catalog. It's a shame, too, since you just know Andre 3000 would kill it. The film failed to leave much of a mark when it screened at TIFF last year, and maybe its lack of a payoff via a climactic performance is part of the reason. Here's hoping it does better when it has its American premiere next week at SXSW.
Check out the clip below. (Rolling Stone)