Everyone has heard of Ed Sheeran, the global superstar. However, what few people know is that he’s a true cinephile.
Sheeran has flirted with acting and has had a brief cameo in Game of Thrones, among other movie appearances. But mostly, his connection to films had been through his music, as he had an original song for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and, most recently Brad Pitt’s F1 movie. Speaking to CBR’s Grae Drake, Sheeran discussed his love for films and declared Goodfellas as the best film of all time.
Asked which is the one film he could never skip, Sheeran said, “Probably Goodfellas, I’d say.”
“That was like, I’d say, my first proper classic film that I saw, and it was basically, kind of by accident.” He recalled, “There was a movie rental place, and I kind of rented it. I think I’d read The Godfather because I wasn’t allowed to watch it and I sort of knew that the movie was kind of like The Godfather. Godfather is something I used to like, look at in my granddad’s VHS collection. And sort of like, dream of watching because I knew it was such a classic.”
The Godfather was released in 1972, and Goodfellas in 1990. Since Sheeran was born in 1991, it was easier for him to get his hands on Goodfellas.
“And then I watched Goodfellas, and then, kind of from there, think it was Goodfellas, and then I watched, obviously, [1995’s] Casino and [1993’s] A Bronx Tale and [1984’s] Once Upon a Time in America. And then I got to see The Godfather.”
“And then you sort of like, dip into these people’s movie catalogs, and you start watching stuff like Raging Bull and all that sort of stuff. So that was like my first experience of, like proper proper, proper cinema.” His love for Goodfellas is deep, as he also has a knife from the hit crime masterpiece, which he explains it’s the one from “the beginning, Tommy stabs him in the car, but it’s a retractable knife.” He clarified he hasn’t met Martin Scorsese, but met Robert De Niro.
He continued, “I’ve got more into foreign films recently. I know this sounds weird, but I find that I watch foreign films a bit more intently because they have subtitles. And I find myself watching, just watching them a lot more. And these amazing films that are being made in Korea and Japan and Germany, France.”
He also brought up 2011’s The Intouchables, “That is, like, one of the most beautiful films of all time. Love that.”
Sheeran also touched upon remakes, noting he isn’t exactly sold on them. He brought up 2024’s Speak No Evil, which he said was “really great until the ending.” The singer clarified, “I was kind of defeated. The point of the ending, it’s so grim.”
Ed Sheeran Had an Eventful Year
2025 was a huge year for Ed Sheeran. He released his eighth studio album Play, was featured on F1 with the song “Drive,” and also released a new Netflix special, ONE SHOT with Ed Sheeran: A Music Experience, where a camera follows him roaming New York City and playing acoustic versions of some of his greatest hits. On top of that, the music special had Adolescence creator Philip Barantini as director, and was a collaboration between him, Sheeran, Fulwell Entertainment, and Emmy Award–winning producer Ben Winston.
Speaking about his music video for “Drive,” Sheeran explained they didn’t film on a green screen. “No, we shot that in a race track. We shot that on a race track. It was f—ing hot that day. It was just the day after doing Coachella, and I had a stinking hangover.”
He clarified that there weren’t cars around him, and explained, “I did some dune buggy stuff. Yeah, we did some dune buggy stuff. But it was mostly like they knew what they were putting in.”
F1 debuts on Apple TV on Dec. 12, while One Shot is available to stream on Netflix.
Images of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro), and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) are depicted above the title for Goodfellas, a city-scape and a dead body.Image by CBR
Release Date
September 19, 1990
Runtime
145 minutes
Producers
Barbara De Fina
Robert De Niro
James Conway