Newly minted movie star Harry Styles is on quite the career run lately. He’s not only the star of one of the most buzzed-about movies in decades (Don’t Worry Darling), but he’s also just broken a Billboard Hot 100 record previously held by Mark Ronson and Elton John.
Styles’ smash hit “As It Was” is now the longest-running number hit by a British artist ever. The song just hit its 15th week on the top of the charts and edged out Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” and John’s classic “Candle in The Wind.” Both songs stayed on top for 14 weeks.
Only three songs have had longer runs at the top of the charts. The current record is 19 weeks for “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus. “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber and “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men are tied at 16 weeks.
This is already an amazing, career-defining achievement, but Styles also stars in the number one movie in the country. This puts him in rare company indeed. The last time that happened was in 2002 when rapper Eminem had the top movie with 8 Mile and the number one single with “Lose Yourself.”
The late singer Prince also pulled off this feat in 1984 with the movie Purple Rain and the song “When Doves Cry.” The accolades Styles gets as a singer, however, are much more positive than his acting ones.
His performance in the film was widely panned with the BBC saying Styles “doesn’t feel up to the material here, with leaden line delivery and a lack of light and shade making his scenes opposite Pugh fall flat.”
The New Yorker said that Styles can “carry a tune halfway around the world” but “give the bloke a line of dialogue and he’s utterly and helplessly adrift.”
Don’t Worry Darling is currently in theaters.