James Spader is a method actor who is known for being meticulously prepared when he does a role. Maggie Gyllenhaal made comment about Spader that she bumped into him in LA after they had made the film Secretary. They talked a few moments and after he left she realized that she did not know this person at all. Maggie realized he had stayed primarily in character for the whole shoot. When she talked to him during their chance meeting he was himself…a much different person.
I had the opportunity to meet Spader a few years ago and talk to him. The thing that struck me, a huge Boston Legal fan, is that I did not think of Alan Shore once during our meeting. He just didn’t look like Alan Shore or give off any Alan vibes. On that day James proved to be a bit shy or reticent, but friendly and very nice.
His work in Dream Girls was excellent, and were it not for Norbit being released in the same year, he would have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor and would have stood a good chance of beating Alan Arkin who really was not doing anything that amazing in Little Miss Sunshine.
Then you haven’t seen Truly Madly Deeply. Of course, neither did anyone else.
I always suspected Lorre saw Sheen and had the idea “If I can get this guy to play himself and give him a great supporting cast, I’ll have a hit sitcom.” If Sheen thinks he was acting in that role, he’s even crazier than he’s been acting lately.
For real acting, someone mentioned in a thread that when they first saw House, they wondered “Who is that American actor who looks so much like Hugh Laurie?”
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.
You can call it acting, but it doesn’t change the fact that the skillsets are completely different. Playing yourself is not the same as playing someone else. This is obvious because there are people that can just do one and not the other.
My suggestions are people like Tim Allen, Roseanne Barr, and other standups who got their own show (though there are of course exceptions.) I would also name anyone who hosts their own show. Because if what Tim Allen does is acting, then so is what Craig Fergusen does.
Yep. A movie from 1993. Jackson’s IMDB listing has in the neighborhood of 90 credits after Jurassic Park. I repeat myself: I like to see Jackson in movies, but I also believe there’s a reason why a percentage of people believe he basically plays either himself or very similar variations on the same type of character in many of his movies. That belief/myth may actually be based on the work he’s done in the last several years, as opposed to his entire career. I also believe that can be true without saying Jackson isn’t a fine actor. IMO, Jackson fits the criteria the OP laid out.
So the “look down, then look up with just your eyes” thing is not ACTING?
My vote is for Tom Cruise. I just see Tom Cruise trying to be cool. In Tropic Thunder where he changed his look and acted all crazy, I just saw Tom Cruise trying to prove he could be a chameleon. But it didn’t work because I still just saw Tom Cruise.
First, when someone does standup, they take on a persona. It may be close to their real personality, exaggerated, or very different. When you do a show based on a standup act, you obviously develop a character around the one in the act. Been that way for years. I trust you don’t think Jack Benny was actually cheap.
For non-standup actors, do you think they started out playing themselves? That they kept going to auditions and refused to play a character, until someday they give them some sides that were about them?
Nah.
The annoying sidekick in Lethal Weapon is not the brutal gangster from Goodfellas who is not the laconic burglar from home alone and none are Leon Bernstein in The Public Eye.
Joe Pesci doesn’t have the biggest range in the history of acting, but he does have a good amount and doesn’t belong in this thread. There’s more than Scorcese in his career.