Get me Johnny Depp! "Sir, we can't afford Johnny Depp." THEN GET ME SKEET ULRICH!

Cafe Society
1

Who have you noticed seems to get work based on the fact that they look or act like someone else?

I am convinced that the only reason Jesse Eisenburg can get a part is that he’s cheaper than Michael Cera.

I just saw a banner ad for a new show debuting called Sons of Tucson, and the lead guy looks an awful lot like Zach Galafinakas, who’s been working for a long time and is finally riding high on the success of The Hangover.

There are tons of others, I see them all the time, but usually they only show up in 1 or 2 things and then disappear, so I don’t know their names.

2

There was an actor, apparently his name is Matthew Bennett, on Battlestar Galactica, who we called “The Poor Man’s Kevin Spacey.”

What’s weird about Skeet Ulrich, is, he looks less like Johnny Depp than he used to. Skeet got older, while Depp is in possession of the One Ring and remains 28 forever.

3

You’re referring to Tyler Labine, who had been on the show Reaper. He is more like a poor man’s Jack Black than Galafinakas…

…but the basic point holds. There are definitely a bunch of actors who get work out there as a lower-rent version of a big-draw name…

…well, except for Christopher Walken. Who will star in anything and act like a poor man’s Christopher Walken doing it, if that is what’s called for;)

4

I’ve heard William Devane described as the “made for TV Jack Nicholson.”

And aren’t all the other Baldwin brothers the made-for-TV Alec?

Come to think of it, what does that make Jim Belushi and Brian Doyle Murray?

5

YES. He’s become a parody of himself. Which, after seeing Annie Hall, maybe he always was . . .

Definitely. Except the crazy preacher one these days.

6

Gregory Peck himself has been quoted for saying “Every script I’m offered has Cary Grant’s paw prints on it”.

7

I see your Matther Bennett, and raise you Currie Graham

8

I think Anna Torv from Fringe is well on her way to being the cheaper Cate Blanchett. They’re even both Australian.

9

It would be nice to see some new talent for a change. Sometimes it seems like the same 5 headliners are the only people starring movies any more.

10

In fairness I find Jesse Eisenburg less annoying and less chronically virginal than Michael Cera (who I used to like on Arrested Development but he’s become overexposed since and plays the same character in everything).

Christian Slater used to be billed as the young Jack Nicholson. Then he was the cheap Jack Nicholson. Now he’s “Christian Slater who used to be big for a while”.

11

There is that old Hollywood saying about the stages of an actor’s career:

  1. Who’s Joe Smith?
  2. Get me Joe Smith!
  3. Get me a Joe Smith type.
  4. Get me a young Joe Smith.
  5. Who’s Joe Smith?
12

Some good examples in this thread (if I do say so myself).

13

I heard some new actor the other day who had Christian Slater’s voice. Who was that?

14

One time I told my brother that our friend Steve looked and sounded a lot like Christian Slater. He said that was gay. I asked why, and he told me because Christian Slater was a good-looking guy. I said why am I gay? You’re the one who just called Christian Slater a good-looking guy.

15

I wouldn’t have thought that he was a poor man’s anything. Maybe he’s done other roles that are better, and this was probably how that role was supposed to go, but Aaron Doral just oozed boringness.

16

John Saxon is the poor man’s Michael Ironsides is the poor man’s Jack Nicholson.

Avery Brooks is the poor man’s Laurence Fishburne is the poor man’s Samuel Jackson.

Mickey Rourke is the poor man’s Ron Perlman.

Charlize Theron started out as the poor man’s Ashley Judd, but now I think it’s the other way around.

17

I always thought of Robert Loggia as the poor man’s Gene Hackman.

18

Is Jamie Foxx the poor man’s Denzel Washington?

19

Nothing to add to the thread, but man, I love the thread title. I can picture a casting director and assistant in a gritty scene with lots of zooms and cuts torn from 24, shouting those lines.

20

It’s the eyebrows. He doesn’t seem to mind trading on it though; a few years ago he starred in the London West End stage version of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.