# Actors that are considered good, but really aren't?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 18, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935 "2008-04-18T19:42:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/1 "2008-04-18T19:42:43Z")
_Matt Damon_ - Granted, this guy has never been in a flop. Every movie he’s been in is top notch. He is a good actor, but not very versatile. He is usually very cautious, quiet and reserved in every role. I’ve never seen him actually **ACT** like someone else.
When I say “act”, I mean actually play a different human being. A great example would be to go from Leonardo DiCaprio in Gilbert Grape to Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator. That’s acting.
_Harrison Ford_ - Another good actor that isn’t really all that good. Yes, he too has been in great movies and is a good actor. But if you really pay attention, you can see that every character he’s played with the exception of Regarding Henry is the same character. Very stern, quiet, wooden like character.
How about your lists? You have any to add?
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/2 "2008-04-18T19:46:51Z")
Actors come in two catagories–those who play a character (Eddie Murphy is always Eddie Murphy) and those who can act (Tom Hanks does not play Tom Hanks). Name any actor and it is very easy to catagorize them.
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### Author:  [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/3 "2008-04-18T19:49:15Z")
[QUOTE=diggleblop]
_Matt Damon_ - Granted, this guy has never been in a flop. Every movie he’s been in is top notch. He is a good actor, but not very versatile. He is usually very cautious, quiet and reserved in every role. I’ve never seen him actually **ACT** like someone else.
When I say “act”, I mean actually play a different human being. A great example would be to go from Leonardo DiCaprio in Gilbert Grape to Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator. That’s acting.
[/QUOTE]
No offense, but… **The Talented Mr. Ripley**?
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/4 "2008-04-18T19:52:23Z")
Julia Roberts is one I’ve never thought could act.
I think Damon is pretty good, though.
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/5 "2008-04-18T20:21:01Z")
Han Solo was stern, quiet, and wooden?
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/6 "2008-04-18T20:22:57Z")
Actually, Leonardo diCaprio is one I’d put in this column. He got raves for _Gilbert Grape_, but playing a retarded character really isn’t all that hard. Though IRL the retarded can be as complicated (or as obnoxious or as nice) as other people, there’s usually not a lot of nuance written into retarded roles, including Gilbert’s brother Arnie. After that performance Leo went mainly into the “Tom Cruise/Cocky Young Man” mode for several performances (though I’ll admit _Aviator_ was a different and very good performance).
I won’t say that Meryl Streep is an Empress With No Clothes- she does have talent- but I’ve never thought she was _as_ talented as credited. She gets a lot more credit than she deserves for doing fake accents (most of which are the same whether she’s playing Polish, Italian, or Slavic).
Jessica Lange is just, imo, flat-out awful. Her sing-songy cadence = mental illness/nymphomania/flirtation, etc., depending on whatever the crazy woman she’s playing needs at the moment.
Tommy Lee Jones plays Tommy Lee Jones in pretty much everything: a gruff, tough, way-sharper-than-he-may-seem-at-first good ol’ boy.
At his best Peter O’Toole is an acting god, but he’s very inconsistent and often settles for cashing a paycheck for walking around looking dignified and amused. I thought his best acting in years was, ironically, in the low-brow blockbuster _Troy_, and then learned later that he hated the director and the production with a passion. I’ve wondered if it’s because the director told him to “STOP PLAYING PETER O’TOOLE and ACT!” He was also good as the murderous old king in _Stardust_, but then in _The Tudors_ he’s His Holiness Peter O’Toole.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/7 "2008-04-18T20:27:40Z")
[QUOTE=diggleblop]
_Harrison Ford_ - Another good actor that isn’t really all that good. Yes, he too has been in great movies and is a good actor. But if you really pay attention, you can see that every character he’s played with the exception of Regarding Henry is the same character. Very stern, quiet, wooden like character.
[/QUOTE]
In “The Frisco Kid,” Harrison is a happy-go-lucky bank robber alongside Gene Wilder, not stern or quiet or wooden at all. I didn’t think he was all that stern or wooden in “Frantic,” either.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/8 "2008-04-18T20:29:28Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu]
Han Solo was stern, quiet, and wooden?
[/QUOTE]
Yes. I jumped out of my seat when he screamed after hitting Darth Vader’s ship. Until that time, he had shown less emotion than Chewbacca.
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### Author:  [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/9 "2008-04-18T20:44:57Z")
I’ve always thought that _Dennis Quaid_ was a remarkably shitty actor. It astounds me how he keeps getting work. His agent must be legendary. Now, he’s no worse of an actor than say _Keanu Reeves_, but Keanu doesn’t seem to take himself all that seriously and his projects generally reflect that so I don’t mind him. Dennis Quaid, on the other hand, seems to take himself very seriously - or at least that’s the impression I get.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/10 "2008-04-18T20:47:13Z")
Kevin Spacey has always struck me as being lauded beyond his ability as an actor. A post in a recent thread praised his death scene in LA Confidential - it seemed to me that Kevin merely shifted from his normal vacant stare to a just slightly more vacant stare.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/11 "2008-04-18T21:34:08Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
At his best Peter O’Toole is an acting god, but he’s very inconsistent and often settles for cashing a paycheck for walking around looking dignified and amused.
[/QUOTE]
That’s because he’s not an actor…he’s a MOVIE STAR!
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/12 "2008-04-18T21:47:30Z")
Sam Jackson
Mathew Fox (don’t know how universally lauded he is but someone here recently called him great)
Scarlett Johansson
Denzel
Cary Elwes (good in comedies but HORRIBLE in dramatic roles)
Dakota Fanning (I’m a kid who acts like an adult. Weeeee.)
The kid who plays the kid on Heroes (see Dakota Fanning)
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### Author:  [@Stringer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringer)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/13 "2008-04-18T21:48:09Z")
Russell Crowe is an awful actor. He plays the same character over and over, and his “emotional” scenes are completely wooden. Can’t stand him.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/14 "2008-04-18T21:50:54Z")
[QUOTE=Struan]
Kevin Spacey has always struck me as being lauded beyond his ability as an actor. A post in a recent thread praised his death scene in LA Confidential - it seemed to me that Kevin merely shifted from his normal vacant stare to a just slightly more vacant stare.
[/QUOTE]
I think Kevin Spacey was pretty good until he got the memo about how good he was. Now he just comes off as unbearably cocky to me. He always looks like he’s on the verge of bursting into laughter and telling the audience how inferior they are.
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### Author:  [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/15 "2008-04-18T22:43:05Z")
**Sampiro** , Jessica Lange is who I had in mind when I opened this thread, but you forgot to mention her inappropriate smiling. She did it in just about every scene in _The Music Box_. Horrible.
Also, from what I can tell, Jack Nicholson pretty exclusively plays Jack Nicholson.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/16 "2008-04-18T22:47:09Z")
But Jack Nicholson is so awesome to watch that it doesn’t even matter, to me.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/17 "2008-04-19T00:26:30Z")
Parker Posey seems to get some acclaim but I’m not sure why. I’ll admit that she was good (my opinion) in “The House of Yes” and she was passable in the Christopher Guest films (though outshone in each by others) but that’s the most charity I’m willing to give her. I get the impression that people like the _idea_ of “Indie Queen” Parker Posey more than her actual acting.
I saw “The Oh in Ohio” recently which was God-frickin-awful.
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### Author:  [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/18 "2008-04-19T00:45:04Z")
John Wayne was John Wayne in every movie I ever saw him in. Not that that’s a BAD thing, you understand. But he was always the same–tough as nails, ready to fight for right, and staunchly loyal, (not to mention drop-dead sexy).
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/19 "2008-04-19T00:56:18Z")
I really get to be the first person to say **Al Pacino**? Cool. He _sucks_ and hasn’t done a decent job since _Scent of a Woman_. There are a lot of people who play the same character all the time, Denzel, Nicholson, DeNiro etc, but at least those guys play those characters well and with some semblance of reality. HooAH!
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### Author:  [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-are-considered-good-but-really-arent/445935/20 "2008-04-19T01:07:07Z")
So far no mention of the basking shark of cinema, Nicolas Cage? He mouth breathes so much I expect him to ignite and take off like some kind of meat-scramjet.
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