Russell Crowe Responds To Adam Lambert’s Criticism Of ‘Les Miserables’

Russell Crowe, one of the stars of “Les Miserables,” responded to Adam Lambert’s criticism of the singing in the movie. Crowe was civil in his response to Lambert on Twitter, saying it was what director Tom Hooper wanted.

“Les Miserables” is already a hit at the box office, grossing more than $100 million worldwide since its release on Christmas, according to Box Office Mojo. Hooper chose a bold route for “Les Miserables.” Instead of pre-recording all of the soundtrack and feeding it to the actors during filming, Hooper chose to have all the singing and performance done live. Many of the film’s actors -- Hugh Jackman aside --are not trained singers, and Hooper was not seeking perfection when he chose the live performance route.

For many, that risk reaped big rewards, with many raving about the performances of Crowe, Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried. But Adam Lambert took to Twitter to voice his criticisms of the movie, in particular the singing.

On Twitter, Lambert praised several performers, including Seyfried, Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, and called Hathaway’s turn “breathtaking.” That said, Lambert’s opinions about the film’s singing performances have drawn the ire of Crowe. Lambert said, “Visually impressive w great Emotional performances. But the score suffered massively with great actors PRETENDING to be singers.”

Lambert went on to explain his opinion on “Les Mis,” saying, “It's an opera. Hollywoods movie musicals treat the singing as the last priority. (Dreamgirls was good).” Several more tweets followed, including, “And I do think it was cool they were singing live- but with that cast, they should have studio recorded and sweetened the vocals. I felt like I should ignore the vocals and focus on the emotional subtext- but the singing was so distracting at times it pulled me out. The industry will say 'these actors were so brave to attempt singing this score live' but why not cast actors who could actually sound good?”

Crowe responded to Lambert’s critique of “Les Mis” with a succinct argument that did not dispute Lambert’s criticism. Responding to a fan’s question, Crowe said “I don't disagree with Adam, sure it could have been sweetened, Hooper wanted it raw and real, that's how it is.”

It was Hooper’s stylistic choices that have led to “Les Mis” being successful and many of the performances, especially Hathaway’s, being lauded, although Hooper had to sacrifice technical perfection to achieve those results.