posted
Okay, I like actors like Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson and John Malkovich. But every movie they're in, they always play themselves. Which actors are able to immerse themselves so deeply into roles that you can't even tell they're the same person? Here's a few to start off:
Ben Kingsley. I remember seeing Gandhi, Without a Clue and Sneakers within a short period once, and I didn't realize it was the same person. The way he does drama, comedy, hero, villain, making each part appear like the one he was born to play, is uncanny.
Christopher Guest. Can you believe the Six-Fingered Man from The Princess Bride, Nigel from Spinal Tap and the people from Best In Show and A Mighty Wind were played by one dude? Even after I knew, I had to see Princess Bride a few times before I believed it. And his characters from his Saturday Night Live days are just as baffling.
Rowan Atkinson. Can one dude really play The Black Adder and Mr. Bean? 'nuff said.
posted
Seen Sexy Beast? Kingsley is a monster in that one. I remember the New Yorker described him as "the devil incarnate, lightly disguised as a human being."
Johnny Depp's a good one, too. I'd say Kevin Spacey, from things like Seven and American Beauty, but he hasn't made anything good in a long while. Ian McKellen was a great Richard III as well as everyone's favorite, Gandalf. Two polar ends of the moral spectrum. Alec Guiness is great, especially to anyone who saw the BBC adaptation of the John Le Carre Smiley books. And did you know that Luke Skywalked (Mark Hamill) is the Joker from the animated Batman series? That is nuts to me.
[ March 09, 2004, 11:14 PM: Message edited by: Book ]
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posted
I'm looking forward to this new Tom Hanks bank robber movie. I like Tom Hanks, but he always plays himself. If the previews are true, he may actually pull this one off.
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posted
Now, I wouldn't normally consider Willem Dafoe as an actor with much character range, but I thought he really became something unrecognizeable-as-him in Shadow of a Vampire.
I'd also say that I think Bruce Willis has a lot more range as an actor than most people give him credit for.
But the name that immediately comes to mind as not having been mentioned yet is Benecio Del Toro.
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quote: I like Tom Hanks, but he always plays himself.
I'm going to have to completely disagree with you on that one. I'm thinking about Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, and Saving Private Ryan in particular. He may not be a chameleon, but he certainly doesn't "always play himself."
I would add Charlize Theron and Halle Berry to the list, based on their recent performances.
Does John Malkovich always play himself?
He played the simpleton Lennie in Of Mice and Men, a calculating aristocrat in Dangerous Liasons, the honorable and kind Athos in The Man in the Iron Mask, the effeminine king of France in The Messenger, and a sadistic and creepy Russin mafia member in Rounders.
Malkovich does have an innate quality of intelligence and creepiness that he brings to all his roles. (like Hanks and Sandler brings their inherent "nice guy" sensibilities to all of their roles). But I don't think it has severely limited his range as an actor.
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posted
Julianne Moore is also one of my favorites. She was equally convincing in her two very different roles in Far From Heaven and Boogie Nights.
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posted
Edward Norton. Just watch American History X and you will see what I mean. He was downright TERRIFYING as the skinhead leader. Then compare that to some other roles her has done.
Tom Hanks is the exact opposite in my opinion. I thought that he was a horrible casting choice in Saving Private Ryan. When the line of "I teach English in high school" was uttered I was like "yeah, thats what I would have guessed". He totally doesnt come off as a hard-ass. I like him as an actor, but yeah, every role is totally still Tom Hanks.
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posted
I didn't think of Cavizel. I don't know about all his movies, but I had a really hard time recognizing him as Jesus.
Maybe I spoke too soon on Malkovich. Let me replace his name with a different one: Robert DeNiro. For all the credit he gets for his method acting, he seems to have two characters he plays in all the movies I've ever seen: "Funny DeNiro" and "Serious DeNiro", and those two characters are remarkably similar.
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posted
Michael Caine is like this for me. And I second Alec Guiness. Also most definitely Johnny Depp.
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posted
I think the point of Saving Private Ryan was to emphasize that these guys weren't hard asses... they were just guys.
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posted
But Book, Captian Miller was supposed to be such a scary hardass captain that the men couldn't imagine him having another job before the war, especially not as an English teacher.
Then we were supposed to find that out, and he would become more human. Of course, as he is Tom Hanks, my reaction to finding out he taught in school was "of course he thats what he did".
Edit: too many changes to list!
[ March 10, 2004, 01:37 PM: Message edited by: Ghost of Xavier ]
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posted
Godric, just as I was thinking "Bruce Willis", I got to your post. Despite the fact that The Jackal is a completely forgettable movie, there's a scene in it that I won't ever forget. Bruce Willis goes from one character to the next in the same continuous scene, with almost no words spoken, you know who he changed to just by body language. It was striking. I stopped thinking of him as a two dimensional actor at that moment.
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posted
I'm still trying to think of some that haven't been mentioned, but I've got to say that Ben Kingsley is the best example anybody's come up with so far.
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posted
I gotta give Christopher Guest the top spot, for all the reasons mentioned already. I almost never recognize him just from watching the movie.
Compare Fifth Element and True Romance to see Gary Oldman's range. He's amazing, too.
Cameron Diaz almost always plays herself, but I didn't recognize her in Being John Malkovich. De Niro is another one who is generally himself but can break out when he wants to (that movie about coming out of a coma, for example).
Gotta agree that Robin Williams is never not himself, even in Good Will Hunting. Every movie seems to be a baseline Robin Williams on a different drug. Flubber = cocaine, GWH = valium. (I'm not saying he actually took those.)
Kevin Kline never seems to be anyone but Kevin Kline, but his characters are very different.
posted
About a week after I saw 12 monkeys I heard that Brad Pitt was in it. I didn't believe it and assumed he had a cameo. It wasn't until I re-watched it that I realized he is not just a pretty boy. Since then Kalifornia and Seven have reinforced this enlightenment.
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posted
Why is it that when one clicks to check OSC-Fan's recent posts it says she started the "OSC-fan, or what the heck did happen ?" thread when that was in fact Anna?
Just a glitch?
[ March 10, 2004, 02:28 PM: Message edited by: St. Yogi ]
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posted
Yesterday I was following a thread started by OSC-fan, and when I clicked the re-load button on my browser the thread name and content changed to the "what the heck" thread.
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posted
The mods do not just go around and delete posts by someone wholesale. They do delete specific, complained about posts at times, but not so indiscriminately.
I think you are lying, or you are being duped very badly by someone who was using your account. My personal suspicion is on the former.
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I'm just paranoid enough to wonder if OSC fan has hacked the UBB server somehow, if he deleted all his posts yesterday rather than the mods. I assumed it was Kristine before since she was posting on the other side about the time I sent my complaint.
Next thing I know I'll be wearing a foil hat in Roswell.
posted
skillery: Actually there was a couple of minutes between the deleting of OSC-fan's thread and Anna's.
OSC-fan: How long is it since you've been on Hatrack? And there is no thread at the moment under your name, so what do you mean?
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posted
Maybe Christopher Guest or one of the other, formerly mentioned character actors is channelling OSC-fan and is faking his/her return.
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I think maybe UBB returns a certain database index to the browser, and the new thread took on the index of the deleted thread.
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posted
I'll second Edward Norton.... my lord, compare his role in American History X to his role in Death to Smoochy!
Edit: But yeah, Christopher Guest would have to take the award, if there was one. I still can't really believe that he's the person behind all those different characters.
posted
While I did not do an exhaustive search, as far as I can tell there are no known vulnerabilities for this version of ultimatebb.
This means hacking it would require a fair amount of effort, or a lot of skill, or some very good luck.
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posted
Here's a conspiracy theory: Kristine went around deleting all offensive LDS references that OSC-fan made. OSC-fan realized this and deleted the rest of his posts and threads himself including his own goodbye, to blame the mods, thinking he could get the rest of us to fall for it, and start complaining about "evil" mods, when we know they are fair honest and even overly compassionate at timse. I agree with skillery's indexing theory for why the threads transposed when the one was deleted.
Now OSC fan is pretending to be yet a different person at the same computer to pretend innocence for everything that happened yesterday.
Conspiracy or no, I'm not buying anything OSC-fan says as legit until proved otherwise.
posted
Man, I clicked on this thread and scrolled down to see what was new, and was totally confused. I thought I had clicked on the wrong one.
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posted
I disagree with respect to Rowan Atkinson. I think he's always Mr. Bean, and because of that, I can't watch his movies/ other tv serieses.
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quote:Kevin Kline never seems to be anyone but Kevin Kline, but his characters are very different.
I don't understand this sentence. If he's always himself, how can his characters be very different? And I agree that they are. William Hundert, George Monroe, Ben Hood, Otto West, Paden, Harold, and the Pirate King seem to have very little in common. (Now who can name all of those movies?)
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Hank's men do not consider him a "hard ass" because he stayed up nights sharpening his knife or scalped Germans for fun. They are in awe of him because of his ability to make excellent command decisions, even when those decisions may lead to loss of American lives. Such leadership skills are not inconsistent with the "citizen soldier" angle of the movie.
Captain Miller never used unnecessary violence to discipline his soldiers, and rarely raises his voice to give a command. People followed him because they know that he knew the best way to achieve the objective, not because he is Rambo.
The fact that you were not surprised to find out that Hanks was a teacher means it was a good casting choice, not the other way around. Posts: 1592 | Registered: May 2000
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