Whenever you I read reviews and such, you get lots of opinion of course, and if an actor gets slammed the comeback seems to always be, “well he won an oscar.”
And I was looking through the list of Oscar winners (for acting) and I have to admit the people, whose work I knew, were good actors. I might not have liked their roles but they could act.
So my question is to movie buffs, and I do realize it’s just your opinion, what actor/actress that won an Oscar, would you say truly is NOT a good actor.
Now I am talking about an ACTING award, and I mean the ACTOR not the role. I do realize Oscar has a bit of a history of rewarding actors/actresses, later. For instance Henry Fonda won his first Oscar on his deathbed, which is probably why they gave it to him, but Fonda is a good actor. He just didn’t win the Oscar for his best role.
I guess basically what I’m looking for is if someone says:
“Yeah well he won an Oscar,”
I could have a comeback line like “Well so did XXX,” and she/he sucks.
Again I’m looking for winning Oscar for acting (Lead or supporting or whatever as long as it’s acting, as opposed to say, writing)
There was a story about some actor who was very nervous about the upcoming Oscar ceremony when he was nominated until his wife said to him, “Just remember, Luise Ranier won it twice.” I don’t know if she was truly awful, but her acting style is terribly dated now; she would probably fit what you want.
I’ll probably take some heat for this (again), because she apparently has lots of fans and defenders here, but I think Marisa Tomei, who won best supporting actress for My Cousin Vinny, is not a great actress, and that that performance was the least Oscar-worthy of the nominees that year:
Miranda Richardson - Damage
Joan Plowright - *Enchanted April *
Vanessa Redgrave - Howards End
Judy Davis - Husbands and Wives
I’m willing to grant that Ms. Tomei is not a *bad *actress, and that she’s done better work since then, but this particular award has always struck me as especially undeserved.
Cuba Gooding Jr. has made a lot of bad career choices since winning his Oscar, but he was very good as Rod Tidwell in “Jerry Maguire,” so he shouldn’t count.
As for Marisa Tomei, she was VERY memorable in “My Cousin Vinny,” and people who saw it can quote her lines from memory (“my biological clock is tickiiiiiiing!” or “Oh, you think I’m hostile NOW?”). Quick- tell me about Joan Plowright’s most memorable scene in “Enchanted April.”
No? Well, tell me about a standout scene by Judy Davis in “Husbands and Wives.” I’ll wait…
I’m betting most people who profess to be horrified by Tomei’s win never even SAW the other performances they’re sure were more worthy.
I won’t say that Philip Seymour Hoffman isn’t a good actor, though I don’t think he’s anywhere near as great as his reputation, but I don’t think he deserved the Oscar for Capote. He never once ‘sold me’ that he was anything other than a Capote impersonator auditioning for the one man show Tru. (Toby Jones otoh, who played the role the next year in Infamous, WAS Capote, every single word and gesture and look, but wasn’t nominated for any of the major American awards.)
Katharine Hepburn was an American institution but one of the most limited actresses of all time. She won 4 (or 3 1/2, depending on how you count the Streisand tie) Oscars for play the same role: Katharine Hepburn.
And as I always point out, the reason Tomei won was because more people saw My Cousin Vinnie than almost the other four films combined. Unless the actor is well-known, voters don’t vote for performances they’ve never seen (Redgrave might count as well-known, but that pro-Palestinian documentary she had made a few years earlier turned off many voters). People got tapes, but I doubt the voters bothered watching them for a single supporting nomination.
Julia Roberts. She’s amateur theater bad as an actress. She’s never created a convincing character in her life The movie she won her Oscar for was shamelessly contrived Oscar bait, yet she still wasn’t able to give a single line reading any convincing weight or come close to disappearing into the role.
And I would submit The Wrestler for addl. evidence that Marisa Tomei can act.
For who, in general, isn’t actually a very good actor, I’d suggest Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost), Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), and Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls – she has a hell of a voice, but the acting was definitely “meh”).
Yul Brynner never did anything for me. I never felt that he acted as anything other than “Yul Brynner”, as in, “We need somebody vaguely foreign-looking with a deep voice - see if Yul’s available!”
I’ve never been impressed with anything Adrien Brody has done, either. But perhaps it’s his face - he always seems to have this kicked lapdog expression about him.
To be honest I can’t think of a single bad actor who’s ever won an Oscar. Not one name jumps to mind.
There are certainly some actors who have made bad role choices (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and there are a LOT of actors who’ve won Oscars who have very limited range, and don’t do very good work outside of the role they won for - Mira Sorvino, Tommy Lee Jones, Julia Roberts, Joe Pesci, and are all pretty limited in their range but are good at what they do.
There are also two people who’ve won Oscars who weren’t really actors at all: Haing Ngor and Harold Russell. Both men were basically playing themselves, and while they acted some after their Oscar-winning roles, didn’t do a great deal.
I can’t believe someone is putting Phillip Seymour Hoffman in this discussion. Even with his Oscar and his recent praise for ‘Doubt’, I think he’s actually UNDER appreciated. I personally think he disappears into most every role he plays. He’s a wonderful actor.
I agree. If the the nominees that year had been Tomei, Whitney Houston (The Bodyguard), Demi Moore (A Few Good Men), Rosie O’Donnell (A League of Their Own), and Annabella Sciorra (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle), Tomei would not have won.
Some time ago I was out with friends and we met a guy one of them knew. He is a young comedian. When this movie came up he said, “What I don’t get is that everyone says he ‘nailed’ Capote. Who the hell has ever met Trueman Capote to know, maybe Philip Seymour Hoffman just speaks and acts like that.”
He then went on to do a series of “auditions” by PSH for famous roles, all done in the manner of Capote.
The highlight was him shouting, “The truth. You want the truth. I mock your truth handling abilities.”
