I mean just using a voice a crucial trait in the development of the character. I think that there are some actors who never reach this place (Tom Cruise, maybe Bruce Willis), but then there are some actors where you don’t even know what their real voice might sound like (Daniel Day Lewis, Meryl Streep maybe).
Doesn’t necessarily mean you think the movie was great, but a great vocal performance.
I’ll toss two recent ones out there, but I have a lot more on my mind. . .
Tom Hanks as Forest Gump. He’s not really full-on “I Am Sam” sounding. Just somewhat slow, and somewhat straight-forward. With that touch of southern politeness. Endlessly imitated, and easily brought to mind for a reason – it was perfect.
Jeff Bridges as Jeff Lebowski. Not way off from his normal voice, but laid backand varied. He mumbles just enough when he needs to (“I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening”) but busts forth with it when he needs to, (“The old man said to take any rug in the house.”) Not to mention how he nails the “just inhaled a huge hit” voice, (“are you saying the carpet pissers did this?”) Classic.
I am always impressed with Brits who can so thoroughly pull off an American accent that if you didn’t know it, you would assume they are from the U.S. (American actors going the other way don’t pull this off nearly as well.)
I would bet that the typical American audiences -unless pre-equipped with this knowledge- would never guess that Tom Wilkinson and Christian Bale both hail from the U.K. -just to name two actors who are flawless in their delivery of the American accent.
But I would have never guessed that Kelly Macdonald who I know only from No Country for Old Men who plays the character of Carla Jean is
Scottish!
If you have an ear for this sort of thing, there are many subtle shades and nuances of the southern accent and the Texas variation on the theme is whole separate sub-genre. Macdonald’s accent is so dead-on perfect I would have assumed she was born and bred in West Texas. To hear her in the ‘Special features’ section of the DVD using her native accent was almost disorienting.
Johnny Depp springs to mind. His vocal performance is something that stands out in every role he does: Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Raoul Duke, Donnie Brasco, Ed Wood.
Edit to add - Bob Hoskins is another Brit who does a spot-on American accent. I remember him from The Cotton Club, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Mermaids, and had no idea he was British. When I first heard him do his native accent, I thought he was putting it on.
If you’d like to hear Kelly Macdonald’s real accent, just check out Gosford Park. I don’t know if she’s exaggerating it a bit or not, but it’s a delight to hear her. And the movie is terrific.
David Ogden Stiers in MAS*H. It sound completely natural, but it’s completely different from his real voice.
Clark Johnson in Homicide: Life on the Street. Again, his real voice is nothing like the voice he used for years on the show.
And, of course, Hugh Laurie in House.
In these cases, it’s the longevity that impresses me the most. It’s one thing to do a movie with an accent, but quite another to do hundreds of TV episodes with an accent not your own.
Special mention: Kenneth Branagh in Dead Again. You’d never believe from his accent that he wasn’t American.
If we’re talking about a role in which an actor uses only their voice, two Pixar films spring to mind:
Craig T. Nelson in The Incredibles. His performance when…
…he thinks his family has been killed…
…is deeply moving. But my absolute favorite Pixar performance is:
Joan Cusack in Toy Story 2. Jesse talking about being left behind as her owner grew up and left behind childish things like dolls. Just remembering the scene, even though it’s been a few years since I’ve seen the film, I’m getting a lump in my throat and getting misty-eyed. Her saying “Just go…” wrecks me.
Hugo Weaving in V For Vendetta. His face is never seen and the mask he wears has a fixed expression and yet he is still able to portray a full range of emotions & reactions. It’s all based on voice & small body movements.
I lived on the U.S. - Mexico border for 20 years, and I was astonished to learn that that chief bandido in The Magnificent Seven was a Jewish guy from Brooklyn. :o
Another one of these is Mark Addy of Still Standing. I finally saw The Full Monty and looked him up to find out he was born in York. Old York, that is.
Roddy
Chistopher Walken, in Pulp Fiction. He does nothing but look at the camera and tell a story, but he is spellbinding.
Gary Oldman, in True Romance. He plays a black pimp.
Gary Oldman, in Lost in Space. He does not play your typical Gary-Oldman-style psychopath. He plays Doctor Smith! In one scene, Doctor Smith and Major West are bickering. If you close your eyes, you can visualize the original actors doing the scene. Oldman and LeBlanc have the voices down pat.
Another vote for Clancy Brown.
Patrick Stewart could read his grocery list and make it sound epic.
Laurence Olivier in Richard III and Henry V. Kenneth Branagh is better in the intimate scenes, but Olivier was better at the grand speeches.
To me it barely sounds like he is trying to sound like an American. One of the worst attempts at an American accents I have ever heard. I know from other threads I’m not the only one.
And I always hear some Brit seaping into Tom Wilkinson. Hugh Laurie sounded phony to me in the beginning but he has gotten better.
The guy I am very impressed with is Damien Lewis. In Band of Brothers he sounded like he could have grown up in Hersey PA.
Slight hijack: Hanks was inspired to this brilliance by a very young Haley Joel Osment. Osment played Forrest Junior, and invented this. . .accent? style of speech? for the role. Osment did it first, and Hanks liked it so much he adopted it. This info courtesy of the Bonus Features on our Forrest Gump DVD.
I’ll nominate Russel Crowe. I have a feeling the guy’s a total asshole in person, but he owns whatever role he’s in, physically and vocally. He never looks or sounds like the same person!
