In this thread, we talked about actors being wooden. What about actors “chewing up the scenery”? (I love that phrase, isn’t that a neat expression?) Who do you think really dominates the screen?
The climax of The Devil’s Advocate, where Al Pacino is running at light speed on a BLZ-bub rant is absolutely ridiculous and totally irresistable.
Other guilty parties acquitted for the enjoyment factor: Barry Fitzgerald in The Quiet Man, Anne Baxter in The Ten Commandments, Laurence Olivier in Sleuth, Joan Crawford in Strait-Jacket, and Peter Ustinov & Una O’Connor in anything.
Lionel Barrymore in anything.
Jeremy Irons in Dungeons and Dragons: The Movie. We’re talking literal frothing at the mouth, here. I’m surprised they didn’t have to equip the cameras with automatic wipers. It’s hilarious.
William Shatner is always golden.
Nick Nolte, in The Hulk.
Towards the end, Nolte and Eric “Bruce Banner” Bana are sitting in a completely black room. Nolte begins to rant and rave at Bana. It looks for all the world like they’re onstage at The Actor’s Studio or something, rehearsing or improvising a scene, and someone just cut it out and stuck it in the movie.
Anyway, Nolte, whose character is a bit of a wacko anyway, begins to rant and rave and get further and further around the bend, and then he literally begins to chew the scenery.
Literally. AND figuratively.
Jeremy Irons’ turn in D&D was pretty over the top, but HE didn’t literally pick any scenery up and try to take a BITE out of it…
Pretty much anything anything Peter O’ Toole does amounts to scene chewing, but DAMN he’s good at it. His insane director schtick in THE STUNT MAN (1980) still cracks me up. Rent it today!
I probably should have included my own pick.
I recently rented Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, (hey, it was a $1.99 rental) and Alan Rickman just hams it the hell up. He sounds even more ludicrous next to the very wooden Kevin Costner. “I’ll cut your heart out, with a spoon! Cause it’ll hurt more!” Hilarious.
Well, if you want to talk literal scenery chewing, you can’t beat the vacuum monster from Yellow Submarine.
One of my favorites is Robert De Niro in “This Boy’s Life.” He plays the abusive father with an over-the-top enjoyment. His accent is particularly effective (whether it’s accurate is another question) in establishing a cartoonish persona, but it never goes too far.
My absolute favorite is Daniel Day-Lewis, whom I consider to be the finest actor of the past 20 years, in both “Gangs of New York” and “The Crucible.” Both performances are stunning examples of personality, charisma and presence. He hams it up a bit, but again, it never seems too much.
Christopher Plummer in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Samuel L. Jackson’s whole acting style amounts to scene chewing. Especially in his Tarantino movies.
Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor in the Superman movies.
William Shatner as Buck Murdock in Airplane 2. Brilliant!
What he said.
And he’s great to watch on Letterman when he tells stories of his early stage days with Richard Harris.
vl_mungo and Mr. Blue Sky Thank you. It’s so nice to have one’s casual opinions validated by total strangers.
Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood
Gary Oldman in THE PROFESSIONAL.
Blasphemous comment ahead:
For my tastes, the Shakesperean school (Old Vic types) of predominantly stage actors doing screen roles – Olivier, Burton, Laughton, Gielgud, and the list goes on – borders on scenery chewing with each line. Granted, some directors manage somehow to tone down their exaggerating on occasion, but in general this whole “method” is based on scenery chewing.
One person’s opinion.
To be balanced with the underplaying (but still effective) styles that developed out of The Actors Studio by way of Brando, Clift, Dean, and the thousands of imitators since.
To be balanced still further by the no-style school referred to in the OP that includes the “wooden” folks.
The main thing is that any actor worth his/her salt can effect a decent performance in any of these “schools.” Those who can’t be effective in some school-hopping are doomed to type casting or to being phased out altogether.
A reasonable synonym for “scenery chewing” is “overacting.”
Nathan Lane is the person for whom this phase was invented.
Kurt Russell in Big Trouble in Little China has always been the defining example of scenery-chewing for me.
And I like the movie too. But you can tell Kurt’s having a ball being outrageous there.