Actors/Actresses Whose Careers You Follow...

Cafe Society
1

…even though you don’t think they’re THAT great.

For me it’s Jim Carrey. Like most ten/eleven year olds, I thought he was some sort of genius and I was a huge fan when he was on “In Living Color” (and, yes, I know there are those out there that remember him from “The Duck Factory”). I stayed a huge fan up until I was about fourteen and then I lost interest. But I still go and see every movie he’s been in (the only movie I haven’t seen of his is “The Majestic”). I don’t hate his comedy like a lot of people do, and I don’t think he’s that bad of a dramatic actor. I’m just rather indifferent. I do plan on seeing him in “Series of Unfortunate Events”.

Anyone out there follow actors/actresses purely for nostalgic reasons or just because you remember their work since when they were “nobodies” just starting out? Or for any other reason, for that matter?

2

I have watched a lot of awful (and I really do mean awful) movies because they had Antonio Banderas in them, and I think he’s impossibly hot. Trust me, his hotness did not make up for the suck of some of these movies, but now I feel like I can’t miss one.

3

I’m watching Franka Potente since I saw her in Run Lola Run. I was surprised when she showed up in Bourne Identity. Good for her!

Also watching Italian actor Raoul Bova. I knew his name before he broke into American films. He was just in the new AvP.

4

If someone from Star Trek has a role in a movie or show, I’ll generally watch it… even if it’s only semi-regs like Chase Masterson, Max Grodenchik, Aaron Eisenberg, Casey Biggs, Jeffrey Combs, or Salome Jens.

5

Laura Dern for sure. She has such a wonderful artistic sensibility about her.
Jude Law . YUM!
Laura Linney . I fell in love with her in Tales of the City.
Susan Sarandon . A true Hollywood actress.
John and Joan Cusack . I just love their role choices.
Liam Neeson . Again, great role choices.
Antonio Banderas . I agree. Total hotness.

There are more, but I do tend to gravitate towards directors and producers much more than actors.

6

I’ll watch any movie that John Cusack is in. His movies are always fun to watch (okay, The Jack Bull wasn’t exactly fun, but it was a damn fine movie). Grosse Point Blank is one of my all time favorite movies.

7

Mine too. I like the fact that he is involved in creating the projects that he goes into. He is a very smart and creative man in a business not known for that.

8

Famke Janssen - I first saw her in a trashy Fox movie called Model by Day and have watched most of the movies she has done since. I was pleasantly surprised when she was cast as Jean Grey in the X-Men movie.

John Cusack and his sister Joan. He’s a babe and she’s quirky and hard to not be riveted by. So many incredible movies between them…

Stephen Dorff - A great scene chewer and I want to carry his love child.

Reese Witherspoon - I first saw her in Election and was amazed by her talent and have loved everything I’ve seen her in. Okay, except the Legally Blonde sequel.

9

Charlton Heston for me. I’ve seen every movie he made I think. I bought and read the journals he published back in the 70’s, An Actor’s Life, and got his autobiograpy In The Arena as a Christmas gift. I know what his born name was, and why he started using the one he does now. (This started in high school, interestingly enough.)

10

I keep my eye out for anything featuring Johnny Depp or Jude Law.

11

Please tell me you’ve never seen Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama.

12

Morgan Freeman is someone I’ll almost always watch. Except as a bad guy. I just don’t want to see Morgan Freeman as a bad guy.

Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington are other actors I’ll usually watch, although I’ve been disappointed occassionally. Like Morgan Freeman, I don’t want to see either as a bad guy. I didn’t see Training Day for that reason, even though it won an Oscar.

StG

13

Tim Curry, which has caused me to watch some, um, interesting stuff.

Muppet Treasure Island, anyone? :eek:

14

Nicholas Cage. Because he’s a far better actor than anyone thought he was in the beginning, and he’s still a better actor than many think he is now (did that parse right?).

Yes, that means I had to suffer through The Family Man and Snake Eyes, but it also means I got the most out of Matchstick Men and Adaptation. It’s the ups and downs that make it fun!

15

'Cause Muppet Treasure Island is by far the most “interesting” movie Tim has ever done. :wink:

I followed Mark Hammil’s career through all three movies :smiley:

16

Seen 'em both.

Loved Legally Blonde and Sweet Home was okay. Her performance in Sweet Home was fine but the script was terrible. On the up side, it did give Jean Smart a good part.

17

I’ve tracked down films starring/featuring

Paul McGann

Richard E Grant (and no, Withnail and I wasn’t their first film I saw – I was actually following Richard E Grant since Warlock and Paul McGann since Paper mask and was pleased and surprised to see them together when I finally got round to tracking down the vid of Withnail)

Peter Capaldi

Clint Eastwood (since wee tiny childhood in the late 60s; my family liked ‘Rawhide’ and I remember seeing the reruns)

Michael York (at age 7 in 1973, when I saw The Three Musketeers in the cinema with my mum, I thought, ‘Right, then, that’s it, found the man of my dreams, got that out of the way.’) (Oooh, and a ‘Kevin Bacon’ moment – Michael York appeared with Bruce Robinson in Romeo and Juliet – in fact, stabbed him to death in the film – and Bruce Robinson went on to write Withnail and I, which I believe is semi autobiographical, and he’s the ‘I’.)

Simon Ward

Will make serious efforts to track down Johnny Depp films (again goes way back to early in JD’s film career; the only reason I saw Pirates of the Carribbean the premise of which drew a bit :rolleyes: from me was some serious wheedling from a ship-mad friend who told me c’mon, Johnny Depp’s in it, can’t be all that bad, right? :eek: :smiley: )

And also Colin Firth, for mum (he’s all right, actually; I will spend next summer apprenticed to a curator in a London museum who looks just like Colin Firth, and my mum is beside herself with envy)

All through uni, and for years afterwards, I had a friend who worked very hard in computer programming and academic projects who would sometimes just burst out, when she needed a break, ‘I have GOTS to see an Ahrnold movie, dammit.’ She’s very quiet, reserved, and demure, and I think somehow all the explosions and things (she’s nuts about James Bond films, too) were cathartic…though it’s not as if you have to twist my arm to go to the movies with her.

18

I’ve followed the actor **Don Murray ** for a while. He was a pretty big film star in the 1950s and 1960s and has done a lot of mediocre stuff since then. I think it’s interesting to see what kind of work he gets and how he has made a living since falling from semi-stardom.

19

… well, the ‘even though they’re not that great’ part threw me, I suppose that accounts for my seeing Halle Berry in Catwoman and Sanaa Lathan in Alien vs. Predator.

Or any of Kevin Smith’s post-Clerks movies.

Or Sean Connery outside his 007 roles.

20

Two words: Richard Gere