What you need to know
Before Brie Larson was an Oscar-winning actress, she was an aspiring pop star.
The 36-year-old recently appeared on Kylie Kelsey’s ‘Not Gonna Lie’ podcast and talked about her impressive career, including her time on Jesse McCartney’s Beautiful Soul tour in the early 2000s.
In 2003, Larson signed on to star in the Disney Channel original film Right on Track, and signed a record deal shortly thereafter. In 2005, Larson released a studio album, Finally Out of PE, which included the single “She Said”.
Later that year, she was asked to be the opening artist for McCartney while he toured in support of his Beautiful Soul album. When asked how he felt when he heard Kelsey, 33, was going on tour with the “Leavin'” singer, Larson said, “I was losing my mind. Are you kidding me? I was so excited. I was going on tour. I had a tour bus.”
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“It’s like a dream. Just like that part of my life, that short part of my life where I was a pop star, it’s such a fever dream and such a weird, so funny and weird and so weird detour,” she continued. “It’s totally weird. Everything’s weird, but the music industry… it wasn’t for me.”
As a singer and performer, Larson was signed to Casablanca Records after posting clips of the song online. Larson wanted to write his own songs and play his own way, but in 2010 he wrote about his frustrations with his label on his MySpace page, saying, “I wanted to wear sneakers and play guitar, but they wanted heels and windblown hair.”
Although Larson switched gears to focus on acting, she told Kelce that she still “loves” music, especially pop music.
“To this day, I think it’s one of the best art forms,” she said. “That’s part of what I look for in my work, and I just do that through character work. But having a universal message told in a way that people can access, clear but abstract enough for people to make it their own, is such a wonderful art form that’s similar and completely different to me.”
She added that the pop star is her “hero.”
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Speaking to PEOPLE in 2024, McCartney reflected on the success of “Beautiful Soul,” 20 years after the song’s debut.
“It was a real whirlwind. I was literally in math class and all of a sudden I was in Japan singing in front of an audience that didn’t speak English but could sing,” he recalled.
“It was quite surprising and strange…we had no idea at the time what kind of impact the song would have, let alone now that it has stood the test of time and passed down through multiple generations,” he added. “Moms who were fans back then are bringing their kids to sing this song. That song has taken on a life of its own, and I’m so grateful for this song.”
