actor/actress signature movie behaviors (or the Tom Hanks peeing thread)

Cafe Society
1

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed certain behaviors that some actors seem to perform in each movie they are in.

I have two off the top of my head.

Tom Cruise - It always seems that Tommy has to get the “Tom Cruise” sprint/run into his films. These are just off the top of my head, so I’m sure there are more. Feel free to add to the list of films Tom Cruise runs in.

  1. All The Right Moves
  2. Vanilla Sky
  3. Mission Impossible
  4. The Firm

Tom Hanks - Tom Hanks seems to urinate on film as much as possible. Again, off the top of my head.

  1. Cast Away
  2. Apollo 13
  3. The Green Mile
  4. A League of Their Own (one of the great on-screen urinations of all time)
  5. Big
  6. Forrest Gump

First, if you can think of any other movies to add to the lists above, please do.

Also, can you think of any other actors/actresses that have these signature behaviors?

2

Will Ferrell and his shirtless/nearly naked scenes. Too many to count. As well as the extremely violent scenes favored by Mel Gibson and Viggo Mortensen.

3

I know this is a little off with a director here, but Tarantino has his signature “Foot fetish” scene and the “Looking up from the trunk” scene in most of his movies.

4

The director angle is just fine. And I’m sure directors have their own unique calling cards, like Hitchcock appearing as a cameo in many of his movies.

So pop those in if you have them!

5

Val Kilmer often twirls small objects, like coins or pens, between his fingers.

6

Cameron Diaz shakes her butt for the camera in all her movies. It’s in her contract.

7

James Cameron’s crushing feet or tank treads.

Sam Raimi’s chainsaws, “The Classic” and wild POV shots.

8

John Cusack gets caught standing in the rain in a lot of his movies:

  1. High Fidelity
  2. 1408
  3. The Sure Thing
  4. Identity
9

Looks like somebody else noticed the John-Cusack-in-the-rain thing, and put together a YouTube compilation. They also caught a couple more examples that I forgot:

  1. Say Anything
  2. Being John Malkovich
10

Bruce Willis sometimes seems to only do a movie if it has a number in the title:

The First Deadly Sin
Loaded Weapon 1
Die Hard 2
Four Rooms
The Fifth Element
The Sixth Sense
Lucky Number Slevin (a play on words so not quite)
The Whole Nine Yards
The Whole Ten Yards
Twelve Monkeys
Oceans Twelve
16 Blocks
“That '70s Show” guest appearance
Catch .44 (in production now)

George Clooney used to have this move in this early movies where you’d turn his head to look at something and would dip it in the process. Can’t really describe it but my wife got annoyed at me when I pointed it out because then she always saw it. But apparently somebody pointed it out to him because he seems to have stopped.

11

M. Night Shyamalan usually has a one-or-two line cameo in each of his films (not sure about the upcoming one, though) a la Hitchcock.

And Kevin Smith always has Ben Affleck… (and the thing is, I’m only slightly kidding…)

12

Shia LaBeouf and his no no no-tic.

13

Me and my friends used to make a point to notice Jet Li’s hand shake maneuver. When he is getting beaten in a fight, he takes a pause holds his hand out and shakes it as though shaking off a sting. It is the “Okay, enough screwing around,now you are going to get your ass kicked”

It’s pretty common in any kung fu movie, and I know Bruce lee did it a time or two, but it always seemed signature for Jet li.

14

For example at 1:45 of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6abecTih3Xw&feature=related

15

In Wyatt Earp (or was it Tombstone?) when he played Doc Holiday he twirled that little tin cup.

16

Robin Williams trying on different hats in a mirror while adopting comical voices. A Barbra Streisand impression is always included.

17

John Landis and his See you next Wednesday stuff.

18

Jean Claude van Damme always does the splits.

19

Will Smith seems to say “oh, hell no!” a lot, or maybe it just seems like he does.

20

Sparks fly through the air around or near Michael J. Fox in:

  1. Doc Hollywood
  2. Back to the Future
  3. Mars Attacks
  4. Casualties of War

and I think also in The Frighteners, but I’m not sure about that one.