I frequently hear people doing impressions of actors on radio and TV, but they all seem to be actors who were young and popular 25 to 35 years ago. Pacino, DeNiro, Walken, Woody Allen are all still done. Are their any younger actors to imitate that are distinctive enough that a lot of people would recognize right off the bat?
On an slightly related note: does it freak anyone else out that Taxi Driver and Dog Day Afternoon were released almost 40 years ago? Yikes!
I’m constantly freaked out by how long ago things I remember happened.
People (used to) do Keanu Reeves impressions pretty often. Speaking of whom - The Matrix came out in 1999 - 14 years ago. If it was a child, it’d be in 9th grade now. :eek:
Whoa.
Whoa… I remember watching The Matrix very well; very soon it will be the same age as I was when I watched it… this is all kinds of screwed up!
It’s harder now as many modern actors, including most of the great ones, do far more to change their voice and accent than in the past. To do an impression of Daniel Day-Lewis, Heath Ledger, or Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, one would have to do an impression of a particular character they were playing.
This is insanely good [but NSfFW] [spoiler] Aries Spears - Arnold Schwarzenegger Impression (+ Pacino vs. DeNiro in "Heat") - YouTube
De Niro, Pacino, Stallone and Schwarzenegger in one bit.
So for impersonations, you want people that play pretty much the same role in everything, like Vin Diesel, Charlie Sheen, Zooey Deschanel, or Kat Dennings.
I figured there’d be a Tom Cruise impression out there, and there was: Superhero Movie spoofing Tom Cruise Scientology clip! - YouTube
A few impressionists attempt Jason Statham. They are all awful at it, though.
Who is that? He does capture a lot of idiosyncrasies.
Howard on Big Bang Theory did a great Nicolas Cage impression. Plus some old-timers like Pacino and Walken.
Stevie Ryan of StevieTV does impersonations all the time - I’ve seen her do spot-on impersonations of Zooey Deschanel, the Jersey Shore people, Kardashians, other Reality TV people I don’t recognize, etc. I’m out of touch with who many of the people are that she impersonates, but my teens seem to know who they are.
There’s a guy named Tris on youtube who does several impressions that Britcom fans may appreciate: here’s his take on Richard Ayoade’s Moss character from the IT Crowd, and another where he mimics both leads from Peep Show pretty well. (His rendition of Sean Nelson’s vocals at the end of the latter clip needs work though.)
Andy Samberg does a recurring Nicolas Cage impression on SNL’s Weekend Update.
Jay Mohr gets a lot of mileage out of Tracy Morgan. There’s someone out there that does a spot-on Paul Giamatti, but I can’t remember who, dammit.
I’ve seen Justin Timberlake and a couple of not well known (at least to me) comedians do Ashton Kutcher imitations: spastic fratboy, basically.
The cast of SNL do impressions of young actors all the time, Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise have already been mentioned (their “appearances” on Celebrity Jeopardy with Will Ferrel are close to classic), more recently Kristin Stewart (the chick from Twilight) comes to mind.
I think “everyone” has a Pacino, DeNiro, or Walken impersonation because these actors have a large body of work that has withstood the test of time, and at the same time have cultivated and maintained a unique style and presence that is easily recognized and hard to ignore.
New actors, however, often change their style and mannerisms (even accents) for each role, aren’t as well known, and also aren’t as established, so poking fun at them isn’t as enjoyable. The SNL sketch I mentioned above that lampooned Kristin Stewart was spot-on and hilarious to me, but to anyone who hasn’t been forced to watch Twilight or isn’t a teenage girl it would have been meaningless.
Basically, if someone says “‘You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?” they’re impersonating DeNiro. If someone says “WHY…SO…SERIOUS?” they’re impersonating the Joker.
Vanessa Bayer on SNL does a reoccurring Miley Cyrus impression (and it’s totally cool). Miley was actually a guest on Vanessa’s fake Miley Cyrus show, as Justin Beiber.
Which is different from an impression of Jack Nicholson…how?