Penn Badgley Sings As Jeff Buckley In ‘Greetings From Tim Buckley’ [Video]

Back in September we reported the first trailer had dropped for Greetings From Tim Buckley featuring a rather whimsical Penn Badgley. It was the first look at Badgley as Jeff Buckley, the son of folk musician Tim Buckley. When the trailer hit the film world, it certainly sparked interest as the younger Buckley was a highly regarded and protected figure in the music world.

In this exclusive video, Badgley performs “Once I Was”, which was a cover the younger Buckley sang at St. Ann’s Church in homage to his late father, who he met once before his passing.

Penn’s casting as Buckley sparked some controversy. With rumblings of actors like Reeve Carney to Robert Pattinson and James Franco rumored to play Buckley in other failed incarnations, Badgley is now the only person to portray the singer who drowned in the Mississippi river in 1997. While many suspected Badgley to lip sync to Buckley’s prolific eight octave range, the trailer showed Badgley using his own voice, which sparked outrage from Buckley’s fans. However that was only a glimpse and now we have a full video of his performance.

It seems like Badgley really did his homework on Buckley’s soaring vocals if its any consolation for those die hard fans. While the performance might come off as an impersonation, anything other than staying close to Buckley’s vocal intonation would have been seen as a massive error on the actor’s part, so we’ll give him credit where credit is due.

As told by Spinner, Greetings From Tim Buckley’s plot is as follows:

“The movie tells the story of the younger Buckley’s first public performance — at a tribute concert to his dad, Tim, who died of a drug overdose before Jeff was only 8. While troubled by his father’s legacy and his desire to make a name for himself, the 1991 performance was the breakout moment in Jeff’s career, thanks in part to his beautiful rendition of “Once I Was.”

Greetings From Tim Buckley, which will be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in April is not a typical biopic in its structure. Instead of focusing on Jeff’s life, the film focuses on the interlocking paths between Jeff and the father he barely knew.

Watch the video here.

Watch the trailer below: