To think that very few celebrities have the 'x factor'

[Bargaincatfood]

not an intellectual thread
Especially not most of those who won the show?! I remember the year 1direction were in it, my friends and I used to watch it before going out. We used to talk about the curly haired one, he wasn't that good looking, wasn't the best singer or the best dancer but my god was he mesmerising. Even my mum commented on him. Now he's the only one out of that insanely popular band with any semblance of a career.
It makes me think how few celebrities there are with that utterly mesmerising, star quality, where they're the only person you pay attention to on stage. It's hard to distinguish this from talent, obviously you pay attention to someone with an amazing voice. But that's not enough on it's own, as poor Leona found out.
I used to think it about Corrine Bailey Rae too, she was just so unique in tone and beautiful, but then she faded into oblivion so i mustn't have been in the majority.

Who has the X factor for you?

I think Britney onstage had the X factor back in the 2000s. I also think Paris Hilton has it and Naomi Campbell. Tom Cruise used to.

Agree about Robert Sheehan but he is in The Umbrella Academy which is a pretty big show.

Kate Winslet has it for me, I find her so compelling.

There was a thread a while ago (not on mn) about how Instagram killed the "IT girls". Paris Hilton was voted the last non celeb and the altimete one because people loved her for the character she created. Rihanna was the last remaining it girl during her red hair days. Everything else now is fair game. Being an IT girl is based on fantasy and untenable looks and wealth. Instagram took that way from the younger generation.

@debbrianna

There was a thread a while ago (not on mn) about how Instagram killed the "IT girls". Paris Hilton was voted the last non celeb and the altimete one because people loved her for the character she created. Rihanna was the last remaining it girl during her red hair days. Everything else now is fair game. Being an IT girl is based on fantasy and untenable looks and wealth. Instagram took that way from the younger generation.

This is an interesting point, and I think hits the nail on the head.

James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Freddie Mercury all had it.

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora combo has the x factor.

Slash and Duff too from GNR.

Perrie from Little Mix. Yes that sounds cringey but I think she was good enough to go solo and if you watch Little Mix perform as a group, she stands out every time. Her voice is killer!

For actors, it would definitely be Julia Robert's. Oh and Brad Pitt for sure.

Heath Ledger?

I am going to agree to disagree. I think nearly all famous people - especially actors - are very charismatic in real life, otherwise they wouldn’t have got to where they are. Hundreds of people try to make it and they have out shone all the failed and average and probably good but unknown actors to become stars. I just don’t think they could do that without a dose of the X Factor. And also - I definitely don’t agree that girls aloud were like karaoke singers. I have heard them all sing live and they can all sing really well. But Nicola in particular is an amazing singer.

Michael Jackson had it in spades. Pure magic.

Queen at Live Aid, Radio Gaga is almost unparalleled.

George Michael at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert singing Somebody to Love, perfection.

Most celebrities nowadays are just puppets. Very few actually write the music, which is a key consideration IMO.

@CallMeRisley

OP said 'Frank from Arctic Monkeys' I said I hadn't heard of him. If there is no 'Frank', I suggest you take it up with them.

@ChequerBoard

I always thought Michael Hutchence had some kind of other worldly performance intensity.

He had shedloads of charisma. INXS's music was pretty meh, standard soft rock stuff, but Michael Hutchence definitely had the elusive x factor.

Showing my age here, but Ian Charleson was very charismatic. He died so young but achieved so much in his short life.

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.
Nelson Mandela.

It's interesting that charisma can sometimes be a bad thing - Jim Jones is a good (bad) example.

[quote KatherineJaneway]@CallMeRisley

OP said 'Frank from Arctic Monkeys' I said I hadn't heard of him. If there is no 'Frank', I suggest you take it up with them.[/quote]
@KatherineJaneway I did take it up with the OP- I quoted her post which first mentioned “Frank” and asked the question below. I think she must’ve have tagged you in that post and so that’s how your name came into it, but I didn’t mention you and I wasn’t asking you. I quoted the OP and was asking the OP.

I think this thread just proves how subjective these things are, because lots of film actors/musicians people are saying they find insanely charismatic are people I find about as charismatic as wallpaper. (And I’m sure vice versa.)

Sometimes I think it’s mostly the way other people respond to them that confers the ‘it’ factor — I was once having a difficult conversation in the lobby of a Knightsbridge hotel when the whole place sort of stopped and people started staring, and I realised two men I’d vaguely noticed coming in but classed as just a pair of American suits were Robert de Niro and Al Pacino.

Sometimes I think it’s just excellent grooming from people who are used to having to see their own faces in close-up a lot, that it makes them stand out from other people. The only time I’ve ever seen Jude Law in person, it was his groomedness I noticed.

Other times, though, I think actor training gives you a kind of physical intensity that makes people noticeable in crowds. I was going back in after the interval at the RSC once and realised I kept finding my eyes drawn to a short, slight man walking in next to me. I realised after I’d sat down that he was an Irish actor, Finbar Lynch, whom I’d seen on stage once or twice, but it was the way he moved/his physical presence that I’d registered, not his face, which I only saw later.

Harry Styles doesn’t have the X-Factor, he just has superb management (Azoff of Fleetwood Mac, Van Halen, BonJovi, Eagles and more).

He was canny enough to get onboard with them whilst he was still in his boyband where they laid the ground work so he could grab the ‘Robbie/Justin Timberlake’ role when they all went solo.

His music is mediocre and I just saw today he’s launching a cosmetic range, which is just repeating the crap they sold when 1D were selling perfume and make up to tweens - but now its for x10 more $£

Madonna, Prince, Springsteen, Dolly Parton, Tom Jones, Elvis, Aretha Franklin are the stature of musicians that have the ‘X-Factor, whether you like their music or not there is ‘something’ about them that endures. I’m not sure you can compare people like that to a twenty something from a reality tv talent show that didn’t make the original cut as a solo artist.

@GellerYeller

*I thought Robert Sheehan would have had THE BIGGEST career but he really didn't.* I suspect homophobia in Hollywood for this one. He's astonishingly talented and charismatic.

He’s not gay, what’s homophobia got to do with anything?

Agree with lots of these but no one has mentioned Andrew Scott yet. That guy definitely has 'it' for me, talented and charismatic and steals every scene he's in

[quote WhatAHexIGotInto]@DrSbaitso 🤣 Shoeburyness sounds like it's a place in Dorset or something.[/quote]
It’s in Essex. And it’s where MoD does munitions testing - I’m a fair few miles away up the Essex coast and can hear the “booms” fairly regularly.

@aSofaNearYou

Agree about Robert Sheehan but he is in The Umbrella Academy which is a pretty big show.

Kate Winslet has it for me, I find her so compelling.

I find him incredibly annoying for no good reason. Like I want to punch him when he talks.

He might be a bit marmite which is limiting.

@whatagloriousthingtobe

I didn't really think much of lady gaga until I saw her in 'a star is born' that woman is very talented but I always thought she was just abit weird before

Snap... Love her now... Love her quirkiness.. ♥

Just thought of him as saw a meme of him on Twitter but Jeff Goldblum. I think he's got 'it''

Joan Collins - I think she has 'it' as well. Maybe it's the old school glamour. Her comment about her younger husband 'If he dies, he dies' was sheer class.

And Dolly Parton. Keeps her private life very private & I always think she has an aura of star quality about her.

@CallMeRisley

I did take it up with the OP- I quoted her post which first mentioned “Frank” and asked the question below. I think she must’ve have tagged you in that post and so that’s how your name came into it, but I didn’t mention you and I wasn’t asking you. I quoted the OP and was asking the OP.

Then take the tag out because tagging someone IS asking someone.

[quote KatherineJaneway]@CallMeRisley

I did take it up with the OP- I quoted her post which first mentioned “Frank” and asked the question below. I think she must’ve have tagged you in that post and so that’s how your name came into it, but I didn’t mention you and I wasn’t asking you. I quoted the OP and was asking the OP.

Then take the tag out because tagging someone IS asking someone.[/quote]
It’s not possible to edit the person’s post that you are quoting. I think you’ve misunderstood what happened and that if you looked at the post properly you’d have realised I wasn’t asking you.

@JillFromHolt

Agree with lots of these but no one has mentioned Andrew Scott yet. That guy definitely has 'it' for me, talented and charismatic and steals every scene he's in

Yes I agree with him!

@ChequerBoard

I always thought Michael Hutchence had some kind of other worldly performance intensity.

Yes, I didn’t particularly like INXS that much or find his massively good looking but he was so compelling, a sort of can’t take your eyes off thff egg m feeling.

Jim Morrison also had this. Not that I was around at the time The Doors we’re popular. but whenever he’s on TV or a documentary I can’t take my eyes off him. Same with Robert Plant from Led Zep, absolutely magnetic.