Harvey Keitel Is Literally the First Person You Hear From on Beyoncé's Album

That man's voice on "Pretty Hurts"? That's the Bad Lieutenant himself.

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Complex Original

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Last night, Beyoncé gave the world a rare and special gift: a new speaking part from American actor and impressive crying person Harvey Keitel. The first voice you hear on "Pretty Hurts," the first track for Beyoncé's new self-titled album, is Keitel's.

A Brooklyn native, just like Jay-Z, Keitel got his start working with Martin Scorsese in the director's first film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967). He played J.R., a young Italian-American working-class dude struggling with Catholicism, neighborhood beef, and girls. He then starred in Mean Streets, another Scorsese picture, where he played Charlie, a young Italian-American working-class dude struggling with Catholicism, neighborhood beef, and girls.

If you're only a casual Scorsese fan, you probably know Keitel from Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. He was Mr. White, the guy who cried in a way that made you uncomfortable. If you want to hear his most uncomfortable crying, though, you need to check out Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, the inspiration for the crazy Nic Cage movie (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans) from a couple years back. In Bad Lieutenant, Keitel—no joke—gets into a shouting match with a hallucination of Jesus Christ. It's one of the most impressive performances of the 1990s. 

This has been a PSA about Harvey Keitel and Beyoncé. Now let's get back to the album.

[h/t to Alex Engquist]

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