# Actors that don't really act **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 18, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343 "2011-11-18T14:56:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Aeris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Aeris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeris)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/101 "2011-11-21T15:23:32Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > I think it’s worth noting the difference between good “actors” and good “character actors”. A good actor looks like a real person on screen, behaving a in a way that makes you believe that you’re looking at a real person, living believably, rather than a person on a movie set with bright lights in their eyes. This does not mean that such a person has any kind of range; I usually believe that Tom Cruise\* is living in whatever role I see him in. However, I never, ever feel like he’s anyone other than Tom Cruise. For an example of a lousy actor, watch most child actors. They’re usually reciting lines, painfully, and it’s patently obvious that they’re not any good at acting. > > A good character actor does not appear to be the same person on screen in different roles. He or she is a radically different person in different roles, sometimes to the point that a viewer cannot identify the actor in different roles. For instance, I have never successfully identified Christopher Guest in a role until after I’ve seen his name in the credits or otherwise been tipped off to look for him. He entirely changes into a different role when he acts. > \*I’m holding him up as an adequate actor, not a great one, for what it’s worth, and I recognize that his earlier work is better than his more recent work. Thank you. I agree. I came on here to say that I think everyone is getting hung up on that distinction. I can not stand Al Pacino. He plays the same person in every movie. He has such a distinctive vocal pattern and tone that he always just sounds like Al Pacino. He never seems to vary his mannerisms or anything about his behavior from character to character. I prefer actors who are constantly changing themselves for a role such as Cate Blanchett. However I think it ultimately depends on the roles that an actor chooses. For instance, Cate Blanchett is always choosing roles that are different from the last role she played and she often does period films. Al Pacino is ususally in a similar role so he will act similarly. On a related note, I was recently watching Inside the Actor’s Studio with Sarah Jessica Parker (why she was even on, I don’t know.) One of the students in the audience asked about her mannerisms for Carrie Bradshaw and how they were so similar to her own. Her response was something like “Hmm. I’ve never thought about changing my mannerisms for a character.That is really interesting.” :smack: I wanted to punch her.\* \*sometimes I’m an acting snob. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_In_Black)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/102 "2011-11-21T16:36:11Z")
I’d say Sean Connery. He always seems like the same character to me. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/103 "2011-11-21T20:06:01Z")
Over 100 posts, and no mention of [del]Rocky Rambo[/del] Sylvester Stallone??? He even shares his initial with Spongebob Squarepants!!! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/104 "2011-11-21T20:16:29Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Watch\*\* Out of Sight\*\*, then **Up In The Air** , then **O Brother, Where Art Thou?** , then **Syriana** , then **Burn After Reading** , then **The American** , then **Three Kings** , then **Good Night, and Good Luck** , then **The Good German** , then **Michael Clayton** , then **Fantastic Mr. Fox** and then you’ll be able to discuss. Yeah, he played George Clooney in all of them, whats your point? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/105 "2011-11-21T20:36:49Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > You don’t think winning the Oscar for FORREST GUMP required him to play a role differently than when he won the Oscar the year before, in PHILADELPHIA? (And which of those recycled his award-winning persona from BIG?) I think it did require that, and he didn’t deliver. He played a high-flying lawyer as only slightly more intelligent and less naive than Forrest Gump, who was only a slurred-voice version of his character in Big, who was supposed to be a 12-year-old in an adult world but managed to seem really rather mentally-challenged rather than just gauche. The man has the range of a paper aeroplane. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Well, actually, in Hanks’ case for me it is, because I don’t like the character that he consistently plays, but YMMV. Hugh Grant’s been mentioned, and yeah, he doesn’t seem to have much of a range, but he’s very good at what he does. In Love, Actually he managed to make a politician likable. Arnold Schwarzenegger has very little range indeed, but I loved him in all his film roles - and I always knew what I was going to get. (Funny - the Firefox spellchecker doesn’t redline Schwarzenegger. :D) Stallone doesn’t count for the OP’s purposes. Not just because he has acted a bit in at least one role (Copland) but because I doubt he’s that much like his roles in real life. I mean, he _wrote_ the script for Rocky, wrote a few other scripts and directed several films from as early on as Rocky II. He’s no dumb-ass. > [@Lust4Life](#): > > Incredible movie, one of my top ten. > > But I’ll offer JimCarrey, and I have to agree about John Wayne, he was the same in war movies, the same in cowboys, the same in Ghegis Khan, and was the same IRL. Carey can act really well when he wants to. His range is at the extremes - he acts the dumb manic type in his stupid films like Dumb and Dumber, and the quiet, troubled type in films like Eternal Sunshine, but in the Truman Show he managed a bit of both. He did a really good job of being the everyman who was also totally unreal. ---
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/106 "2011-11-21T21:16:23Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > I have seen the bolded ones , and I stand by my opinion. They are all just slight variations on Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Even Capote. I really don’t understand all the internet love for the guy. I don’t see how Brandt in _The Big Lebowski_ and the Bronx priest in _Doubt_ can be seen as the same variation on anything, aside from “male human beings.” And **Untoward\_Parable** didn’t even mention his role in Boogie Nights. We do have to be careful about confusing “lack of range” for “typecasting.” Morgan Freeman is most certainly typecast at this point in his career. Same for Jack Nicholson. I’m interested to see how George Clooney is in _The Descendants_ since he seems to be breaking away from the two roles he normally plays: smooth talker and/or deadly serious man dealing with deadly serious business. (I think he’s good in both those kinds of roles, by the way.) I think the best answers in the thread are actors who aren’t even playing a type. They’re just, you know, taking up space on screen. **Sr Siete** was dead-on with Jason Statham. Statham is not acting - he’s just furrowing his brow and saying lines in his “tough guy” voice. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/107 "2011-11-21T21:20:23Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Over 100 posts, and no mention of [del]Rocky Rambo[/del] Sylvester Stallone? COP LAND proves he was capable of playing a doormat who struggles to be amiably world-weary but only ever got to just _ **plain** _ weary – and fat, and sad, and a little too in love with what could’ve been and a little too fond of hitting the bottle in the meanwhile. ---
**Author:** ![Untoward\_Parable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Untoward\_Parable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Untoward_Parable)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/108 "2011-11-21T21:33:13Z")
I think there is a problem with perspective when we evaluate an actor we don’t like, like my mother cannot eat spicy food, No matter what you give her if it’s spicy that’s all she’s going to notice about it. Philip Hoffman always is going to have Hoffmaness to his characters, so if you hate him as an actor well you’re not going to notice his range. You really need to see him in Flawless (great Robert Deniro flick btw) if you aren’t sold on his versatility anyway. I’m sure there are actors that I don’t give credit to on range because I can’t stand them. Perception is one of the least reliable things about human beings after all. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/109 "2011-11-21T22:57:56Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Over 100 posts, and no mention of [del]Rocky Rambo[/del] Sylvester Stallone??? He even shares his initial with Spongebob Squarepants!!! You leave SBSPs out of this . That sponge can ACT! ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/110 "2011-11-22T00:27:32Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Yeah, he played George Clooney in all of them, whats your point? If you honestly think the Oh Brother Clooney is the same as the Michael Clayton Clooney there’s something more going on here. Oh lord, I just realized this turned into just another Bash Actors I Don’t Like (Especially If I Don’t Like Their Politics) thread. Silly me. I’m surprised a teabagger hasn’t weighed in with Sean Penn’s “lack of range.” ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/111 "2011-11-22T00:57:10Z")
> [@Aeris](#): > > I can not stand Al Pacino. He plays the same person in every movie. He has such a distinctive vocal pattern and tone that he always just sounds like Al Pacino. He never seems to vary his mannerisms or anything about his behavior from character to character. I prefer actors who are constantly changing themselves for a role such as Cate Blanchett. However I think it ultimately depends on the roles that an actor chooses. For instance, Cate Blanchett is always choosing roles that are different from the last role she played and she often does period films. Al Pacino is ususally in a similar role so he will act similarly. But the funny thing is that up to a career point, Al Pacino was not over the top or spoke like he smokes 3 packs a day. Mrs Cad says he started that character in _Scent of a Woman_ (I never saw it) and never changed. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/112 "2011-11-22T02:48:34Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Yeah, he played George Clooney in all of them, whats your point? What nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/113 "2011-11-22T02:51:39Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > They are all just slight variations on Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Even Capote. I really don’t understand all the internet love for the guy. I haven’t seen him in enough roles to say that he’s super duper amazing, but the nervous sycophant he plays in The Big Lebowski is nothing like that curt, opinionated blowhard he plays in Almost Famous. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/114 "2011-11-22T03:09:50Z")
> [@Untoward\_Parable](#): > > I think there is a problem with perspective when we evaluate an actor we don’t like, like my mother cannot eat spicy food, No matter what you give her if it’s spicy that’s all she’s going to notice about it. Philip Hoffman always is going to have Hoffmaness to his characters, so if you hate him as an actor well you’re not going to notice his range. You really need to see him in Flawless (great Robert Deniro flick btw) if you aren’t sold on his versatility anyway. I’m sure there are actors that I don’t give credit to on range because I can’t stand them. Perception is one of the least reliable things about human beings after all. Actually, I like Phillip Seymour Hoffman just fine, and I think he is one of those actors who has a knack for choosing good scripts, for which I give him a lot of credit. I just don’t think he deserves all the acclaim he gets. He is a good actor, not a great one. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/115 "2011-11-22T03:27:30Z")
Sam Elliot. Though I love him on the screen, his roles are always Sam Elliot. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/116 "2011-11-22T06:05:05Z")
I really don’t think Seth Rogen is acting. He basically plays himself in every movie he’s been in. I’ve never seen the Green Hornet but I’ve seen almost everything else that Rogen is in, and he always plays Seth Rogen. In _40 Year Old Virgin,_ he was a little cockier, and in _Funny People_ he was a little more of a sad sack, but it’s really the same character. I like him, though. I don’t mind that he plays himself. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/117 "2011-11-22T06:32:21Z")
**Equipoise** and **Knorf** , what is the one Clooney movie that best illustrates his incredible range? I will watch it. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/118 "2011-11-22T07:57:49Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I’ve never seen the Green Hornet… You’ll be pleased to know that he plays himself in that movie. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/119 "2011-11-22T10:21:01Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#): > > If I may, I’d like to suggest that he isn’t those things in: > _Where the Buffalo Roam > The Razor’s Edge > What About Bob? > Mad Dog and Glory > Ed Wood > Rushmore > The Royal Tennenbaums > Lost in Translation > The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou > Broken Flowers_ > There are others as well, but this is a good list. Re Bill Murray as laconic, dry, etc… I’ll give you all those EXCEPT “Ed Wood”- his John “Bunny” Breckinridge WASN’T all that & a bag of smarmy on top? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343/120 "2011-11-22T10:29:52Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I thought Justin Bieber was kind of good in the original _True Grit_. I, for one, will give you the praise you deserve for this. Wonderful! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-that-dont-really-act/603343.md?page=7)