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Mt Rushmore of Actors
- Thread starter Rumble Thunder
- Start date
Love John Candy. Very funny and entertaining.
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
- 2,854
- 15,665
- Disclosures
- I never actually learned to play very well
Re Bryan Cranston
He was phenomenal in Breaking Bad. Also Malcolm In The Middle, and that episode of X-Files “Drive” that Vince Gilligan was a big part of.
Fast forward and I’m watching Your Honor on Showtime, starring Bryan Cranston. Very good show. But he frequently exhibits Walter White mannerisms. I don’t know what it is but sometimes those familiar acting “tells” take me out of the show.
As much as I like his work, top-tier actors generally don’t repeat themselves. Every character they play is an all-new creation. I don’t see that in Your Honor.
Also he was woefully miscast in the Godzilla movie, in which he had possibly the worst toupee in the history of movies. I couldn’t stop looking at that thing on his head, which head was probably shaved at the time for BB.
If Bryan Cranston is on the Mt Rushmore of actors, so is Aaron Paul.
Edit: I think Aaron Paul is awesome but don’t know if he can play a character not rooted in Jesse Pinkman.
He was phenomenal in Breaking Bad. Also Malcolm In The Middle, and that episode of X-Files “Drive” that Vince Gilligan was a big part of.
Fast forward and I’m watching Your Honor on Showtime, starring Bryan Cranston. Very good show. But he frequently exhibits Walter White mannerisms. I don’t know what it is but sometimes those familiar acting “tells” take me out of the show.
As much as I like his work, top-tier actors generally don’t repeat themselves. Every character they play is an all-new creation. I don’t see that in Your Honor.
Also he was woefully miscast in the Godzilla movie, in which he had possibly the worst toupee in the history of movies. I couldn’t stop looking at that thing on his head, which head was probably shaved at the time for BB.
If Bryan Cranston is on the Mt Rushmore of actors, so is Aaron Paul.
Edit: I think Aaron Paul is awesome but don’t know if he can play a character not rooted in Jesse Pinkman.
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Shame that the character actors get so little recognition in discussions like this. (It could be argued that they're the bass players of the film trade.)
Older women performing in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s would play working-class mothers in one movie and society matrons in another, more often than not delivering delicately subtle performances in each role.
Great quote from Orson Welles, on directing character actor Everett Sloane in The Lady from Shanghai:
"He was worrying about how to approach playing the part [of a wealthy, malevolent lawyer], so I gave him crutches to hobble around with. Actors love playing cripples."
Older women performing in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s would play working-class mothers in one movie and society matrons in another, more often than not delivering delicately subtle performances in each role.
Great quote from Orson Welles, on directing character actor Everett Sloane in The Lady from Shanghai:
"He was worrying about how to approach playing the part [of a wealthy, malevolent lawyer], so I gave him crutches to hobble around with. Actors love playing cripples."
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More...
Martin Sheen
Timothy Hutton
Sean Penn
I don't know how great they are, but I like a lot of their performances.
Martin Sheen
Timothy Hutton
Sean Penn
I don't know how great they are, but I like a lot of their performances.
List too long to be fair to those not included but I’ve been on an Orson Welles kick this week. Amazing. Honorable mention to Edward G. Robinson in The Stranger.
Too many great ones to narrow it down by pure excellence, so I'm going to go with actors that, for me, just have a special way about them.
Jeff Goldblum
Christopher Walken
Gene Wilder
Powers Boothe
Honorable mention: Gary Oldman
Jeff Goldblum
Christopher Walken
Gene Wilder
Powers Boothe
Honorable mention: Gary Oldman
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True, and I could make dozens of lists comprising actors like Alan Arkin, Brian Dennehy, Brad Dourif, Yaphet Kotto, Jason Robards, Vic Morrow, John Cazale, Luis Guzman, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, John C. Reilly, Walt Goggins, Michael Shannon, Teri Garr, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack, Allison Janney, and Ann Dowd (it's telling of the roles available that this list is mostly white guys). But if I'm going to have to put four busts on a boulder, the ones I always had an inexplicable connection to are :
Harry Dean Stanton
Richard Jordan
David Morse
Michael Moriarty
Honorable mention also to Loretta Young, playing Orson Welles's villainous character's lovelorn wife in the same movie, who is called upon to deliver a line of dialogue that's among the most (intentionally on the part of Welles, I suspect) clankingly clumsy examples I've ever heard in a movie.
In response to Welles's character Charles, who has just suggested (disingenuously) that Germans are intrinsically warlike and should be wiped from the face of the earth, Loretta intones earnestly:
"Oh, Charles, I can't imagine you're advocating a Carthaginian solution!"
Malkovich
Malkovich
Malkovich
Malkovich
Fred – Alan Reed, Wilma – Jean Vander Pyl, Betty – Bea Benaderet, Barney – Mel Blanc
My Mt Rushmore of actors would include:
Rock Hudson
Chris Rock
Sharon Stone
Emma Stone
Cary and Hugh Granite
Rock Hudson
Chris Rock
Sharon Stone
Emma Stone
Cary and Hugh Granite
