what makes a good actor?

all the respect to johnny depp for being able to play any role given him, and do it really really well.

all the respect to john candy, for playing the same character in every film he's ever been in.

all the respect to Angelina Jolie's boobies for their outstanding performance in all of her films.


what do you think makes a good actor?

j

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last 3 films i watched:

Dancer in the Dark ***.5
Snatch ***
The Pianist ****

At the risk of sounding pretentious, the best actors are those who simple become:

Bobby DeNiro in Taxi Driver.
Al Pacino in The Godfather.
Michael Caine in The Quiet American.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.
Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia.
Philip Baker Hall in Hard Eight.
Gwenyth Paltrow in The Royal Tenenbaums.
Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut.
Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves.

Just some examples of performances where the line between actor and character blurs, fades, and disappears.

That's great acting.

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www.esotericrabbit.com

I would like to add Marlon Brando, especially for his work in A Streetcar Named Desire, The Godfather and Apocalypse Now.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

i was going to say that a good actor can play different roles and convince us that they are that person and not just an extention of themselves which i think is true but like you said csido, 'john candy, for playing the same character in every film he's ever been in'. so i think good actors dont have to change character for each film. some of them we are happy to watch in the same sort of character but i still think they have to be convincing. if they dont convince us then they arent doing their job.

i also think it has a lot to do with the material they are given and the director. a good example would be if you were to compare the performance of angelina Jolie in tomb raider against girl interupted. they are both good for what the film needed i think but if someone were to pick her best it would be girl interupted (most probably) because the film is better and well written, well directed. but you all know that anyway.

if im wrong tell me.

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I don't have Parkinson's. I inherited my shaking head from my grandfather Hepburn. I discovered that whisky helps stop the shaking. Problem is, if you're not careful, it stops the rest of you too. My head just shakes, but I promise you, it ain't gonna fall off!

Originally posted by The Silver Bullet

This will prove my obvious deficiency in 'good' film viewing... I havent seen ANY of these.

which one first?

im thinking Taxi Driver, because there is so much said about it, same for Chinatown, and Eyes Wide Shut for the Kubrick factor...

j

for Sisboombah:

I like the way you think... So who then, given an excellent Script, and a great director is your fave actor? and for what film?

j

You lucky, lucky bastard.

The Godfather.

if it was me (and ive only seen half of them) i would probably watch the ones that everyone talks about most first so i could see what the big deal was. i havent seen The Quiet American but love michael caine (who doesnt)...i think its already on my long list of films to see...which is slowly going down. also chinatown....seen a little of it when i was really young so i would like to see that....jack is another favourite. never heard of hard eight....or breaking the waves.

also i would add to that list:

kathy bates in misery (she really is dead scary)
susan sarandon has been good in loads of stuff but at the moment i really love her in igby goes down...she doesnt have a massive part but she is so funny when she is in it. dead man walking i would say is a great one too.
samuel l jackson in pulp fiction...he is just plain cool
brad pitt in fight club...also ed norton is good in that but i think ed norton is wicked in american history x too.
robin williams rules in most things but he changed character from funny to serious and my fave of the serious ones ive seen is one hour photo.
john travolta in face/off. he just rules in that film when he is bad.

i cant be bothered to think of any more. there are loads out there for those of you to mention who dont have brain block.

well as always the first film that leaps to my head is moulin rouge just coz nicole kidman is amazing in it and i love baz lurhmann.

seond to come out of my head would be the sixth sense, brilliant set of actors and m night shyalaman (sp?) is always wicked

i also love david fincher so fight club is obviously gonna be up there too because brad and ed were wicked in that film. also not forgetting helena.

omg i forgot meryl streep! i loved her in both the hours and adaptation. and death becomes her actually.

Originally posted by Sisboombah:
agreed, david fincher is great, but i think that The Game was way better than fight club.


agreed, ed norton is excellent, especially in American History X. As for Brad Pitt, i just cant like the guy, maybe cos he's sexier than me or something? And Fight Club in general, after the book, the movie just doesnt make the grade...such a cliche, but its how i feel...

ah yes i love the game too but i prefered it the first 2 times i saw it coz the first i was suprised by the ending and then the second time coz it had been so long since i saw it i had forgotten what happened....the other times after that its been wicked too of course i just seem to enjoy fight club more. maybe its the music.

i never read the book so im fine with it lol. but i can understand coz ive read harry potter and the books are better than the films even though i do love the films too. prefer the books...but prefer the quickness of the films. im just lazy when it comes to reading.

Being able to act through an entire movie without making me think, "I paid MONEY to see this?"

As you can bet, my standards have gotten lower and lower these days.

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You were named after the DOG?

So, do you often think like that, like "I paid MONEY to see this?" ?

I think, a good actor is the one, who can play good. Isn't it easy? And about what makes a good actor... I think good roles. So, a good actor is the one, who can choose good roles.

Yeah. But, then, bad movies/roles often happen to good actors, and vice versa.

I guess the trick then would be to make the most of a bad role or a good one--the choosing of the role can too often be incidental, so it's what the actor does with that role that's important.

These two opinions boil it down for me. There are those actors who become their characters, and those actors whose characters become them, in the best sense. Since there've already been excellent examples of those who become, here are a few (very few--help me out, people!) of the latter:

Katherine Hepburn
Jack Nicholson - who can do both
Humphrey Bogart
John Wayne

And, of course, the immortal Jack Black.

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You were a demon and a lawyer? Wow. Insert joke here."

Talent.

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"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" - Howard Beale

Actually talent is not enough, cos there are a lot of talented people, but not all of them are famous actors. There's also should be an understanding of what they need to do to become a famous actor. That's it.

The topic is what makes a good actor, not what makes a famous one.

Welcome to the forum by the way!!!!

His agent.........

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~ Nikki ~

"I'm your hell, I'm your dream.......I'm nothing in between.......You know you wouldn't want it any other way".........

"Listen, when I slap you, you'll take it and like it"..........Humphrey Bogart..........Maltese Falcon.......

Graze on my lips and if those hills be dry, stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie...........William Shakespeare.......

It makes almost no difference. If the actor's not famous no one can know about his talent.

Thanx.