The drill instructor in “Full Metal Jacket” was probably some of the best acting I’ve seen. Of course, since he was a drill instructor in real life, it probably came naturally to him.
You mean R. Lee Ermey? I’m hoping that in the final episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Ermey will play the bad guy and during the big interrogation scene when Vincent D’Onofrio’s character psychoanalyzies him, suggesting Ermey committed the crime because his parent’s didn’t love him enough, Ermey will grab a gun, shoot D’Onofrio and then himself.
Ermey was originally hired as a technical advisor. He’d sent a tape showing what a DI was supposed to be like and he was hired AS the DI.
Well, it’s a truism that the Academy voters like to SEE what they’re voting for. That means an Oscar-winning performance is often a very showy performance, one that includes several highly emotional scenes… or better yet, a rant. Or, best of all, a performance as a mentally or physically handicapped person!
And that irritates me no end. NOT because the people who’ve won Oscars for such roles are bad actors. On the contrary, most of them are very good actors! It’s just that, in my opinion, it’s FAR easier to play Forrest Gump or Rain Man or Hannibal Lecter or a blind Army officer than it is to play an ordinary man with ordinary emotions. Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman Anthony Hopkins and Al PAcino are all superb actors who’ve given wonderful performances over the years, but who’ve won their Oscars for one-note, gimmicky performances.
Look, Anthony Hopkins was effective in a cartoonish role (Hannibal Lecter), but the role he DESERVED the Oscar for was Stevens, the butler in “Remains of the Day.” In numerous scenes, he was able to convey with his eyes alone what the repressed, stoic Stevens was really feeling. THAT takes skill that playing a psychopath doesn’t.
Similarly, Al Pacino was magnificent as Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” because he was so restrained. Sadly, his restraint was not rewarded- his hammy overacting in “Scent of a Woman” was.
Geoffrey Rush has been so good in so many movies that it pained me to see him win an Oscar for his performance as David Helfgott- a performance that amounted to nothing more than an imitation. If THAT’S acting, then Rich Little should win the Oscar every year!
Although I agree with you in general, I disagree about Forrest Gump. Forrest was far from one note, watch the scene where he finds out he has a kid. Tom Hanks just floors me in this scene every time. It’s one thing to have a flat mentally handicapped character travel through a movie…it’s a totally different story when you add emotions to them - and make them fit that character.
Sorry about the hijack. I feel I should add something of my own. A couple months back, I saw Eternal Shine and thought both Kate and Jim did a fantastic job. While someone like Kate may get a nod, Jim never will. Speaking of Jim, I thought he was robbed of at least a nominationi for The Truman Show.
I agree with Astorian. I’ve alway believed that Hanks didn’t deserve Oscars for Philadelphia or Gump; he deserved them for Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan.
I agree. Or as Frank in 84 Charing Cross Road. There’s this one scene where Anne Bancroft’s character writes to say she can’t come to visit them at the bookshop in London, and he has this extremely crushed look, all with his eyes alone. But he can’t show too much emotion in front of his employees.
A while back, I attempted to get into community theatre and auditioned for the part of a Victorian-era cop who only had a few lines. He knocks on the door as the ingenue tries to seduce the leading man.
After I left the stage, the next guy up mimicked holding a nightstick and rolled his eyes back and forth, while twitching his upper lip. Just like Charlie Chaplin or one of the Monty Python guys would do. I knew he was definitely going to get that part. This guy was a natural character actor, and this was just in community theatre.
He demonstrated there is so much more to acting than saying your lines.
Back to the OP’s reference to Nicole Kidman. Years ago I saw Russell Crowe interviewed on TV when he and Nicole were much less famous. He was asked who he would most like to work with and said Nicole Kidman. He said that in the movie Flirting there is a scene where someone mentions her characters actions and she blushes. Crowe said that he didn’t how it was possible to blush while acting.
Years ago I saw part of a telemovie with Haley Jole Osment, pre The Sixth Sense. He is sitting on a bed reading a letter from his mother, who has decide to go off and leave him. There is a voice-over of the mother reading the letter but essentially Osment is sitting in silence looking at a piece of paper. He begins to cry and sits there reading with quiet dignity until the snot is running down his face.
Me, in my First Grade play.
I was a buttercup. 