who is the most versatile actor today?

Excellent call on Toni Collette Nebs!

Jonny Depp

funny thread this one. There's actors named here that I would've said were some of the the most unversatile around. This is of course just my opinion but Nic Cage isn't even a very good actor never mind a versatile one.

I haven't seen a lot of Laura Linney... but definitely agree with Cate Blanchett....

And I can't help but think about Helena Bonham Carter... she seems pretty versatile to me...

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True.

For years she was just another beautiful bit of scenery in Merchant Ivory movies but then I saw her in a TV drama playing a working class stripper. And playing it brilliantly, I must say.

She's a great example of someone who took the risk (forced or otherwise, I neither know nor care) of taking roles well outside their perceived comfort zone. I mean, who now thinks immediately of A Room With A View when someone mentions Helena Bonham Carter?

Apart from me, obviously.

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sorry, bucko, but youre so in the wrong about Robin Williams that it becomes comical that you can make such a bold statement.

hes got so many movies under his belt that its ridiculous on his versatility...its beyond me to have someone question his flexibility on playing many different characters WHILE going from comical to dramatic in the same movie.

unlike a bunch of actors, Robin Williams can spend time in one movie and play comedian, romantic and dramatic...and even intimate and family man or switch it back up to lonely and lost.

This is what makes him versatile, this is what makes him an amazing actor with ridiculous talent.

Good Morning Vietnam was a great example of his versatility and that was back in 87. Dead Poets Society showed that a stand up comedian can play a very difficult and polar opposite role and that was back in 89. in 91, the movie Hook, Robin Williams once again displays incredible versatility as a man going through chracter development from begining to end.

One can go on and on about his movies, the different roles he has been placed in and how he has executed all of them with incredible conviction. Ill just leave it to some of his early ones as an example that hes been exemplifying versatility for YEARS.

The Walking Eyebrow??? Now THAT'S FUNNY!!!! And so very true!

You raise a good point--although John Totorio has had his name above the title as the star of a few films such as Men of Respect and Barton Fink, is he bascially a character actor rather than a a leading man or even a movie star? He's certainly not the leading man-pretty boy type, and in all of his roles I get the feeling that he's really exploring the inner character, the background and motivations that make his character tick. Maybe as a leading man-movie star, he's closer to Paul Muni and Claude Rains and certainly more versatile than a Robert Redford or a Rock Hudson. Cradle Will Rock is probably about the closest he's come to playing a "normal" working man with a family that has an almost normal job except that it's in the theather and he's probably a member of the Communist party and certainly involved in the labor movement and social agitation. In other words playing the sort of roles that some movie stars and directors (John Garfield comes to mind) lived in the 1930s-1940s-1950s.

Not sure if he's been mentioned, but I think Guy Pearce is pretty versatile.

I just read an article that said Daniel Day Lewis was one of the most versatile actors. Who knows though. It's not really a question that has a right or wrong answer. I don't know who I'd pick for sure.

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definitely Will Smith is one of them as good actor as he can portray different characters and not only that he is also a good singer as he already prove from his previous song which been popular in all over the world.l

Indeed. I wonder what sort of career Turturro would have had if he'd looked like Robert Redford, for example?

Two Oscars or three?

Remember him in Neighbours?



Such a big wooden lump was he that I nearly fell off my seat when I saw (and wholeheartedly believed) Pearce in Priscilla QotD. I think he's one of the best actors in Modern Hollywood.

As I visited different websites discussing about this matter I've seen that Johnny Depp always win the voting unanimously...

Lawd, ain't it the truth!!

I wish someone would tell Redford it's time to lose that 1960s hair-do. It looks silly on a man of his extended years.

Probably the reason he didn't get an unanimous victory here is that some of us remember back before the 1980s to so many earlier actors as good or better.

But the title question is the most versatile actor today.

And my original answer was Albert Finney, in his 70s but still making films TODAY! And still much more versatile than Depp, although I have hopes for Depp as he matures.

Guy PIerce
Will Smith
Helena Bonham Carter

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Phillip Seymour Hoffman anybody? The man is just so damn talented and puts a lot of energy into all of his roles.