Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman Livinia Nixon — stars who appeared in music videos before they were famous

Before they were famous some of Australia’s best known film and TV actors were background actors or featured extras in music video clips. SEE THE LIST.

Bobby Fox and Miranda Kerr. Picture: Warner Music.

Before they were famous some of Australia’s best known film and TV actors were background actors or featured extras in music video clips.

Here’s how the likes of Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Tom Williams, Russell Crowe, Travis Fimmel and even Livina Nixon got some early screen time in music videos.

NICOLE KIDMAN

Bop Girl by Pat Wilson

Before the movie musical Moulin Rouge, chart-topping duets with Robbie Williams and marrying Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman had already made her mark on music with this 1983 video clip for Pat Wilson’s hit, Bop Girl. The clip is part of Kidman trivia and captures her at 16, just a few months before she landed her first film role in BMX Bandits. The video was directed by Gillian Armstrong. Unlike many stars who would like to forget their humble early beginnings Kidman has never wanted this classic reminder of her youth airbrushed from her history.

LIVINIA NIXON

Funky Junky by Peter Andre

Channel 9’s weather presenter Livinia Nixon was once the girl of Peter Andre’s dreams in the music video for the 1993 single Funky Junky. Nixon recalled in 2019 “Through my modelling I appeared in some film clips and one of them was the Peter Andre Funky Junky film clip. That clip still gets occasionally played on Rage because every now and again I wake up on a Saturday morning and switch my phone on and get all these texts from people going, “it was on at 4am, we saw you.” I am also in a Japanese karaoke clip. I never heard the song for that karaoke clip but I assume it is some heartbreak, broken up song. I had to walk around Melbourne, past the Yarra, look at the river and nearly be about to cry, walk through the gardens and pick up a leaf and throw it away. It was like something from Lost In Translation. The whole day was totally bizarre.”

MIRANDA KERR

You’re The Boss by Bobby Fox

Who knew model and skin care entrepreneur Miranda Kerr could sing? Very few people did until she appeared with this duet with stage star Bobby Fox in 2014. The accompanying video is lush and stylish and certainly more flattering than one of her much earlier music video appearances in the clip for the Kanye West Pharrell Williams song Number One.

Bobby Fox and Miranda Kerr. Picture: Warner Music.

SIMON BAKER AND TOM WILLIAMS

Read My Lips by Melissa Tka

E Street favourite Melissa Tkautz was the star of this video for her 1992 single Read My Lips. The song remains a cult classic, but the video is also remembered for the brooding hunks who appeared as background eye candy but went on to much bigger things. Simon Baker found huge success in TV in The Mentalist and The Guardian and Tom Williams became a staple on Channel 7 appearing on The Great Outdoors, Dancing With The Stars and The Daily Edition.

JULIAN MCMAHON

This Is It by Dannii Minogue

This much loved clip for Dannii Minogue’s 1993 single This Is it showcases an era of fashion best forgotten. Julian McMahon was the son of former Australian Prime Minister William McMahon, and was forging a career as a model and actor. He was also Minogue’s boyfriend and eventual husband, when he appeared in this clip. The pair showcased their chemistry again in the video for the track This Is The Way.

VINCE COLOSIMO

I Want To Love You by Tina Arena

Seeing Vince Colosimo in a music video was something of a surprise when this track was released in 2015. Colosimo had notched up more than 30 years in the acting game before Arena asked him to be in this clip. It is included as a rare foray into the music video medium for Colosimo.

NAOMI WATTS

That Ain’t Bad by Ratcat

Naomi Watts took a long time to find fame in Hollywood, but before she set off on her overseas odyssey she was not only a well-known actress but had appeared in various TV commercials and popped up in the video for That Ain’t Bad by Australia indie band, Ratcat in 1990. A pre-fame Watts plays the girlfriend in the video and closes it out by blowing a kiss at the camera.

TRAVIS FIMMEL

I’m Real by Jennifer Lopez

Long before he found TV fame on Vikings, Travis Fimmel was America’s favourite male model. After growing up in country Victoria near Echuca. Not long after being scouted by a modelling agent while working out in a gym in Melbourne, Fimmel signed a huge deal to model exclusively for the Calvin Klein brand for a year, and fronted the CK’s Crave men’s fragrance campaign and modelled the brand’s famous underwear.

Travis Fimmel in Calvin Klein underwear advertisement in 2002.

He appeared in music videos for the Jennifer Lopez single, I’m Real, playing a sweaty hunk loading hay onto the back of a

truck, and was then cast as a bloke at a bar in the video for Janet Jackson’s track Someone To Call My Lover. He is now a well regarded actor, having appeared in the series Vikings as Ragnar Lothbrok.

ERIC BANA, HUGH JACKMAN AND ANTHONY LAPAGLIA

Baby It’s You by The Chantoozies

Ok, so it is a bit of a cheat to include this trio as they were all hugely successful film and TV stars by the time they teamed up to muck around, have a bit of fun and support their Chantoozie mates in this video for the song Baby It’s You. The Chantoozies, Angie La Bozzetta, Eve von Bibra, Ally Fowler and Tottie Goldsmith, had just as much fun as the boys, in this clip that is just a great example of Melbourne mates supporting each other.

RUSSELL CROWE

What’s The Difference by Roman Antix.

Then known as Russ Le Roq, Russell Crowe started his career as a singer and guitarist in New Zealand, fronting a band called Roman Antix. They released several singles including What’s The Difference. He might have been performing under another name but the Crowe stage presence was there from the very beginning.

And finally in a shout out to my producer friends at Melbourne’s 3AW radio station. Check out Kylie Minogue’s video clip for her single Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi. Mark Petkovic, who is the technical producer of Nights with Denis Walter and Weekend Breakfast with Darren James, makes two brief appearances in this clip: drinking a cup of tea at a table by a door

at the 1.58 mark and then again at the 2.53 mark when walking out of a

cafe.

MORE NEWS:

TV SHOWS THAT DIDN’T LAST LONG

HOW TO GET A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

UNDERRATED AUSSIE ALBUMS