Mickey Rourke? Really? So your saying he plays the same character in Man on Fire as he does in Sin City? Really?
I just want to point out that typecasting can make an actor seem less expressive than he or she is capable of. Ron Perlman is my favorite example; way back in the TV series Beauty and the Beast he definitively demonstrated nuance and subtle emoting in his character, but since then he’s almost always been signed on as a taciturn badass, tho a little bit of Vincent comes through when he’s played Hellboy in scenes with Selma Blair. Edit note: he’ll be in a movie called <ahem> Badass, tho not as the title character.
No, he’s a great one. One of the very best, in fact. Watch Boogie Nights and Scent of a Woman back to back.
He deserves every ounce of praise that he gets.
For a run-of-the-mill action picture I thought he was great in Mission Impossible III. His villian was so evil I wish he would have saved the performance and used it as a non-literal Penguin in the rebooted Batman franchise.
No “great” actor would have turned in the godawful fake accent he did in Cold Mountain. (Delivered in his usual style.)
I thought he played the wonderfully flawed father of Leonardo DeCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, 180 degrees away from his usual character.
Never saw it, but he doesn’t have a usual style.
We’re both from Georgia, I think, so I’m with you on crappy accents. I’m not going to hold that against him, since born-and-bred southerners usually can’t even turn in a passable genteel accent on screen.
In other words, plenty of great actors turn in crappy accents from time to time.
Fair enough. It’s been so long since I’ve seen it, wasn’t sure if that was one of his roles that he was “Bill Murray” or not.
I agree with Sitnam–I only see Clooney in every one of those roles, so he epitomizes what the OP is looking for, as does John Wayne. Whereas Sean Penn is an unbelievable ACTOR. I watched the movie MILK, and I could not find Sean Penn in there.
Another example of great acting is Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade; again, I can’t find the actor in there, it’s all the character.
It’s always funny: people think they know what actors, especially famous actors, are like in real life. The actors seem so familiar. But the people who think so are flat out wrong.
If you want to see Morgan Freeman doing something different, and doing it well, check out a movie called Street Smart.
He plays a creepy, scary bad guy brilliantly. Christopher Reeves, of all people, turns in a pretty decent performance as well.
The film was directed by the occasionally brilliant Jerry Schatzberg.
I don’t know but every time I see Steven Hawking in everything he sounds exactly the same. They even have to jazz it up with background music to cover it up. Really how many ways can you glare into a camera, geez.
Aw, c’mon. Even Sam Elliot admitted that he always played Sam Elliot.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Coen Brothers.
I have to disagree with this characterization. Did you see Spun or The Wrestler? I didn’t even realize it was him in Spun until the credits ran.
I’m pretty sure it will require at least two films to show range.
Sean Penn is such a freakin self-righteous egomaniac that its impossible to watch him in any role without having his stupidity slap us in the face. Actors should remain in the background.
The Men Who Stare at Goats
- not a good movie, but a different character.
pretty sure this becomes “wonderful asset to humanity.” if you agree with him lol. If it were less offensive to people that others have strongly expressed political views maybe the world wouldn’t suck so much. Just a probably true thought lol.
Audiences watching actors are supposed to suspend belief and imagine that the actor is the character he is playing. When we see Penn for example on the screen we are reminded of the guy who likes to shoot his mouth off, not the character he is playing.
Part of the reason the world sucks so much is that people have strongly expressed political views. This is an indication that they are rigid thinkers and more interested in lecturing than listening.