I just flew in from London, and boy is my mouth tired.
More recently, he did a dramatic role on* The Good Wife*, and he was great. If he wants to stretch himself, he should stick to dramatics; he couldn’t possibly be worse in Death of a Salesman.
Yeah. As a producer and writer, he sucks. He sucks underwater. He sucks fish pee.
How Two Broke Girls has stayed of the air is up there with the riddle of the Sphinx.
Schwimmer played an annoying character of Friends, but you can’t confuse that with Schwimmer the person. He was really great as Robert Kardashian on the show about the OJ Simpson case that recently aired on some channel at some time. I watched it on On Demand, so I don’t actually know when or where it aired. It would have been possible to ham up that role, and he didn’t. He held back just enough.
Friends was really light fare, so it seems like a lot of other people could have done just as well, and the might be true, but that doesn’t mean that the people who did do it were of necessity light-weight actors.
Two good looking lead actresses.
Studio 60 was a great show, which pretty much guaranteed it’d get cancelled early on…but I seem to recall that part of the problem was that Perry had to go into rehab again. (Of course, I used to be a big fan of SNL, so that might have predisposed me a bit.)
I think Friends had some excellent writing, and a winning ensemble that was stronger than any of its individual parts. Chandler had many of what I thought the funniest lines. His character was wicked smart, cynical and sarcastic - traits I imagine would appeal to many Dopers.
I find the new Odd Couple unwatchable (and as a kid I LOVED the old show). My wife watches it herself. As bad as so many elements are, MP’s acting is the worst. I saw an ad for it the other day, and asked my wife if she thought his acting wasn’t horrible, and she said something like, “I think he’s growing into the role.” So there are folk who appreciate it. To me, it seems like he’s basically yelling all of his lines, almost intentionally coming across as unbelievable.
He was good in Band of Brothers, playing an asshole officer.
Although just about all of us, as well as dozens of posters on the Odd Couple message board on IMDB, think Perry is bad on the show, is there a chance that his performance reflects his conscious take on the Oscar character? In other words, is the shouting, monotone performance being done on purpose?
Here’s part of his interview from LSSC. Clearly something’s up with his face/mouth.
He sure looks a great deal older. My thought is coke + alcohol…the alcohol gives the slurring, and the coke keeps him ‘up’ for the interview.
That might just be the problem. They went out and hired the wrong Matt.
That’s easy; people like Kat Dennings’ boobs and Beth Behrs’ legs. And the milf-fetish crowd likes Jennifer Coolidge.
Had they cast say… Lena Dunham as either of the leads, the show would have sank faster than you could say ‘Titanic’.
See, what I was really going with there was, imagine Matthew Perry playing Felix and Matt LeBlanc playing Oscar: what does everyone say? That they’re each just doing what we already knew they could do? That they already showed it in their iconic roles, and racked up the Emmy nominations to prove it? That the producers might as well have cast Jon Cryer as Felix and Charlie Sheen as Oscar?
I think Perry took the role of Oscar because he wants to (a) play as un-Chandler-Bing a part in a sitcom as possible, and to (b) get everyone saying “Wow, I had no idea.” I think he’s gotten some of that by earning more Emmy nominations as a dramatic actor than he ever did as a comedic one, but I think he craved the opportunity to hit this curveball out of the park; if he’s a petty man, I think he’d want people to say “He’s killing it as Oscar, but Matt LeBlanc could never play Felix” – and if he’s not a petty man, I think he instead stops at wanting to hear “He’s killing it as Oscar, which I never would’ve believed when I was watching him play [del]Felix[/del] Chandler.”
And I’m doing a lot of “I think” there, but I think I’m right.
I was thinking when watching an episode that Perry reminds me a bit of Charlie Sheen in his armchair smartass delivery.
I haven’t seen the show, but I can’t imagine his performances can possibly be any worse than the voice acting he did for Fallout New Vegas. His work was the worst thing about the game.
He used to play a cute young smartass. Unfortunately he’s neither young nor cute anymore, and it’s very hard to be a likable smartass when you’re middle aged and not attractive. (Maybe he should ask Lewis Black or Ron White for some pointers.)
Wouldn’t that require Lewis Black or Ron White to be likable?
I’m tempted to try it, since I like Thomas Lennon, but Oscar is a schlub. Mathau and Klugman were schlubs. Perry ain’t.
Add me to the list of Matthew Perry fans who are wondering WTF is going on with him right now. Every time I watch the show – due to the outstanding other cast members, notably Lennon, and some bizarre loyalty to Perry – I think to myself that he used to be able to act. Friends, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Go On, Mr. Sunshine, The Whole Nine Yards…all way better performances than what we’re seeing these days.
I’m enough of an Aaron Sorkin fan that I go through phases of re-watching Sports Night, The West Wing, and Studio 60*. Whenever I see Perry on the latter two it just kind of makes me sad.
*The Newsroom hasn’t made it to the rotation yet.