1979 Box Office Hit, Ranked Among 'Best Performances by a Musician in a Movie,' Won Bette Midler an Oscar Nomination

Years before Bette Midlerstarred in such iconic movies as Beaches , First Wives Club and Hocus Pocus , she was a singer with her first movie role ever in the heartbreaking musical drama The Rose .

Directed by Mark Rydell, The Rose starred Midler as a self-destructive '60s rock star, Mary Rose Foster (a character loosely based on Janis Joplin). The 1979 movie was a commercial hit, pulling in a total of over $29 million dollars , as well as a critical success, nabbing four Academy Award nominations — including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Midler. (Quite an accomplishment, especially considering it was her screen debut.)

Midler also performed on the soundtrack album, naturally, with the title track becoming one of the biggest hits of her career. Decades later, both the song and the movie are still considered classics. Billboard  ranked Midler's appearance in The Rose at #23 on a list of the "100 Best Performances by Musicians in Movies," with Melinda Newmanwriting, "Midler slices open an emotional vein and bleeds all over the role in one of the most vulnerable performances ever committed to screen. And of course, that's all before even getting to her singing, which is predictably gut wrenching — and produced a pop perennial ballad in the No. 3-peaking title track."

In a 2015 interview with the Criterion Channel , Midler opened up about how she prepared for the role that would change her life forever.

"I have been listening to R&B really since I discovered R&B when I think I was about 10 or 11 years old," Midler explained. "I've been listening to all that and I think the hardness, the difficulty of those lives for those women…I really tried to bring that to the table."

Midler went on to mention some of the singers who inspired the way she approached the role, including Big Mama Thornton, Nina Simone, and Tina Turner.

Paul Rothchild, who produced Joplin's last album, Pearl , was the logical choice to produce the soundtrack for The Rose, though Midler didn't always enjoy working with him.

"He was a really interesting character," she recalled, calling him "very tough."

"I didn't really like him," Midler admitted, adding that he drove her to sing "until I bled," though she thought the band he assembled was "fantastic."

In addition to extensive vocal rehearsals, Midler worked on her rock star "stage movement" for months before filming started.

"I did gymnastics for like six months before I even started because I wanted it to have like this crawling feeling about it," she said.

"I wanted like the character to be able to do, you know, dips and…I never got to the splits, but we live we live in hope," Midler quipped, noting that she was able to master somersaults and handstands.

"I really wanted to have like a kind of a panther quality to her movement on the stage, especially when she got on the floor," she said. "She was a creature on the stage…there didn't seem to be anything soft…it was always very, you know, lots of punches and lots of angularity so I think we got that."

As for that chart-topping title track, without Midler's input, it might have been a very different kind of song altogether. According to American Songwriter , some of the people making the movie wanted a more up-tempo, rocking tune. But when Midler heard "The Rose," submitted for consideration to producers by actress/singer-songwriter Amanda McBroom, she fell in love with the ballad.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Related: 1987 Box Office Smash, Ranked 'Best Acting Performance by a Musician in a Movie,' Won Cher an Academy Award

This story was originally published by Parade on Sep 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.