# Small scenes an actor absolutely nails **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775 "2008-01-31T21:57:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/81 "2008-02-06T19:53:55Z")
The final episode of **Angel**. Illyria: Would you like me to lie to you now? Wesley: Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/82 "2008-02-06T20:13:20Z")
[QUOTE=ladybug] When the Operative first approaches Inara at the temple, she’s standing in the doorway, calm and composed, smiling to greet her visitor. She becomes fearful as soon as she realizes who’s coming up the stairs, but the change in her expression is so subtle that it’s almost imperceptible. I was never a big fan of Morena Baccarin on _Firefly_, but she did an amazing job in that brief scene. [/QUOTE] I agree 100%. That scene always impresses me. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/83 "2008-02-06T21:06:30Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] I honestly don’t know how Harvey Korman and Tim Conway and Lyle Waggoner made it through the show sometimes. So many times I have seen Harvey Korman freeze on stage, knowing if he breathed, opened his eyes, or took a step, he was going to completely lose it. It’s like the actors didn’t care if the audience was there or not, they were there specifically to see if they could make each other crack up. [/QUOTE] I’ve actually heard that was the case; that they were doing the damndest to ‘break’ each other. Tim almost destroyed Harvey on a regular basis, and it was -so- fun to watch! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/84 "2008-02-11T14:01:51Z")
Last night I caught a rerun of the Law Order:SVU guest starring Chad Lowe. The scene at the end of the interrogation (I’m a dirty, diiiirty boy) and that last scene with Margot Kidder (I told her I wasn’t a little boy anymore). That was some damn fine acting! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/85 "2008-02-11T14:42:54Z")
One of my favorite scenes in a movie EVER, it’s not just the acting but everything going on at the same time. I’ll put it in spoilers. Normally I wouldn’t worry about spoiling a 12 year old movie, but no one deserves to have The Usual Suspects spoiled. The scene where Kevin Spacey is walking away from the police station and his foot straightens out I get shivers watching it. I supposed that’s not a “small scene” as requested by the OP. For a small scene that an actor nails, there was about a thousand of those by Bryan Cranston in Malcolm in the Middle. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/86 "2008-02-11T17:52:52Z")
There’s this one scene in **Munich** , where Eric Bana [del]why did I just write banana as his last name?[/del] 's character Avner is sitting alone in his hotel room. He’s been working as an assassin for the Israeli government to kill members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the Munich deaths. So, he’s just killed several people, he’s stressed-out and increasingly paranoid, conflicted about his mission, haunted by guilt, exhausted, and basically at the very end of his tether. He calls his wife back in Brooklyn; she’s holding their baby daughter, and gives her the phone to ‘speak to her papa’. After a moment or two, the baby makes a gurgling noise. And Avner’s face just crumples, and he starts crying without a sound, and he has to pinch himself on the arm to be able to talk to the baby, and it’s one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever seen. Eric Bana’s got way more chops than he gets to display in **Troy** or\*\* Lucky You\*\*. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/87 "2008-02-11T18:51:04Z")
Hardly surprising considering it was Alec Guinness, but the scene near the end of _Hitler: the Last Ten Days_ when the title character finally stops deluding himself that the turnaround is on its way and Germany will prevail and accepts that he’s never leaving that bunker alive (he crashes the model of Germania he’s positioning) is fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/88 "2008-02-11T20:08:48Z")
I was given season 2 of _Rome_ for Christmas and just got around to watching it this weekend. Damn. Having written my undergraduate thesis on Augustus, being a major fan of Colleen McCollough’s mammoth _Masters of Rome_ series, and having watched _I, Claudius_ more than a dozen times through, I was well aware of some of the historical plot twists long before they happened in the show. That certainly did not stop the writers from throwing some brutal curve balls into the mix. One thing caught me completely by surprise, and much to my delight. In the scene where Octavian brings his new fiancee to “meet” his family, he effectively tosses a firebomb into the seething powder keg of Julii household politics. Despite being a physically frail specimen of manhood, he musters sufficient _chutzpah_ to banish Antony – not only from his mother’s bedroom – not only from the family home – but from Italy entirely. And without getting his skull bashed in in the process. He then, to all effect, imprisons his mother and sister to prevent them from embarrassing him any further. Devastated, Octavia turns to her brother’s doe-eyed fiancee and, sweeping from the room, says “congratulations. You’re marrying a monster.” After this shocking spectacle, the uncontested Master of the House regards his bride-to-be for a reaction. The pretty, demure young thing, having not spoken a word throughout the scene, picks up a roasted bird from the banquet table and tears into it with a curious gleam in her eye – a two-second look that suggests a hitherto uncultivated but definitely aroused sense of predatory glee. I positively shuddered. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/89 "2008-02-11T20:15:21Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] I The pretty, demure young thing, having not spoken a word throughout the scene, picks up a roasted bird from the banquet table and tears into it with a curious gleam in her eye – a two-second look that suggests a hitherto uncultivated but definitely aroused sense of predatory glee. [/QUOTE] Ah yes, a fantastic moment. The actress’s name is Alice Henley. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/90 "2008-02-11T20:20:45Z")
The Herzog version of _Nosferatu_. The scene where Harker cuts his finger. And Kinski, as Dracula, tries to turn away - and then SWOOP! He can’t stop himself. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/91 "2008-02-11T20:30:06Z")
Harry Potter, After Prof Umbridge says “Tell them I mean them no harm” “I’m sorry, Professor, but I must not tell lies” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/92 "2008-02-11T22:37:06Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] Harry Potter, After Prof Umbridge says “Tell them I mean them no harm” “I’m sorry, Professor, but I must not tell lies” [/QUOTE] Pretty much everything about Imelda Stanton’s performance in HP was dead on- she was the “sweetest” and most evil villain on screen in years, total psychopath. Of course she’s been on the red carpet before but I was still disappointed she didn’t get an Oscar nomination for this performance. On the first season of BETTY there was an actress named [Octavia Spencer](http://imdb.com/name/nm0818055/) (from Montgomery AL [where I now live] though I don’t know her unfortunately). She played a demented immigration case worker and she was B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T both as a comedic and as a dramatic actress. It would have been easy to play the character just for laughs but she also showed you the desperate/pitiful side of the character. Anyway, her “DO ME LIKE MARIAH!” scene was one of the funniest I’ve ever seen. (Hell, she stole a scene she wasn’t even _in_- it was a phone call from her character and even though she wasn’t seen just knowing how she’d have played it was fantastic.) ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/93 "2008-02-11T23:41:38Z")
A great movie all around, but the dialog-less ending to _Big Night_ with Tony Shaloub (Primo), Stanley Tucci (Secondo), and Marc Anthony. The brothers, Primo and Secondo, had a big fight the night before, and yet you could feel their love for each other the next morning. That’s the way men apologize and make up. No words necessary. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/94 "2008-02-11T23:42:42Z")
[QUOTE=ladybug] Definitely a memorable scene. Andre Braugher was the reason I watched that show for so many years. As soon as he left, I lost interest. There’s one scene in _Serenity_ that I thought was beautifully done. When the Operative first approaches Inara at the temple, she’s standing in the doorway, calm and composed, smiling to greet her visitor. She becomes fearful as soon as she realizes who’s coming up the stairs, but the change in her expression is so subtle that it’s almost imperceptible. I was never a big fan of Morena Baccarin on _Firefly_, but she did an amazing job in that brief scene. [/QUOTE] And she becomes fearful not because she knows who he is, but because of what he is. She doesn’t know him as The Operative, she just senses he’s a completely amoral monster who’s not there to enjoy some time with a Companion. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/95 "2008-02-11T23:53:18Z")
I’m going to mention Giovanni Ribisi in The Gift. In a vastly underrated movie, he stands out, playing a deeply troubled young man being “counseled” by Cate Blanchett’s character. I am thinking of one scene in particular when he confronts the abusive thug played by Keanu Reeves who is threatening Cate Blanchett’s character’s children. Reeves’s character pulls a gun and Ribisi _steps toward him and the gun_, so that the barrel of the gun is against his forehead and screams, “Do it! PLEASE!” I remember literally gasping out loud, because he completely nailed the anguish and despair of someone in the grips of a mental illness and unable to take action to end their own torment. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/96 "2008-02-12T00:56:04Z")
Well, these aren’t exactly small scenes, but I feel compelled to mention them: In _Return of the Dragon_: During the climactic fight between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, there is a brief pause in the fighting. Neither actor says a word, but you know exactly what both characters are thinking. In _Born on the Fourth of July_: Tom Cruise’s character accidentally kills one of his own comrades in a “friendly fire” incident. When he gets back to the USA, he seeks out the victim’s parents and starts to tell them how their son died. As he tells the story, the father (who is a veteran himself) realizes where the story is going, and says, “You don’t have to tell us this.” ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/97 "2008-02-13T04:52:49Z")
_How I Met Your Mother_, Season 1, second to last episode of the season, _Milk_. Ted finds out that the matchmaking service he joined about 15 episodes earlier finally found a match for him, indeed a nearly perfect match for him. He is on his way to his first blind date with this perfect woman, and as he is about to go inside to meet his date, he imagines what his wedding day could be like with this woman (he has some serious long-term plans). The only problem is, the only thing he can think of is looking into the audience of the church and seeing Robin (played by Cobie Smulders), who he knows at this point has strong feelings for him. The camera cuts away from Ted and his bride-imminently-to-be and focuses in on Robin, in the front row, slowly losing a battle to avoid crying. The transition from happy smile to tears is downright heartbreaking. Then again, I generally consider _How I Met Your Mother_ to be an evil, heartwarming, hilarious and downright emotionally manipulative show and now that the Writer’s Strike seems to be over, I can hope to have Season 3 finished and released on DVD some time before I die so I can find out who the hell their mother turns out to be. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/98 "2008-02-13T07:04:35Z")
[QUOTE=Cartooniverse] Wilford Brimley did an amazing turn as the Ass’t US District Attorney at the end of **Absence of Malice**. Brilliant stuff. Nailed the scene, reduced Bob Balaban to the trashy slimy level he truly lives at. ( Well. His character. I’ve worked for Bob. He’s a nice fellow. ) Great bit role. Just classic. Cartooniverse [/QUOTE] OK, I came in to post that very scene. Here are a couple of teasers from the scene from the IMDB: > [@](#): > > James A. Wells, Assistant U.S. Attorney General: Tell you what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna sit right here and talk about it. Now if you get tired of talking here, Mr. Marshal Elving Patrick there will hand you one of them subpoenas he’s got stuck down in his pocket and we’ll go downstairs and talk in front of the grand jury… Elliot? Jim?.. Fine. All right, Elving, hand whichever one of these fellas you like a subpoena and we’ll go on downstairs and talk in front of the grand jury. > District Attorney James A. Quinn: Gallagher’s a government witness. > James A. Wells, Assistant U.S. Attorney General: Wonderful thing, a subpoena. > [@](#): > > Now we’ll talk all day if you want to. But, come sundown, there’s gonna be two things true that ain’t true now. One is that the United States Department of Justice is goin’ to know what in the good Christ - e’scuse me, Angie - is goin’ on around here. And the other’s I’m gonna have somebody’s ass in muh briefcase. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/99 "2008-02-13T08:39:01Z")
In season five of **24** there is a scene where Kim’s new boyfriend is trying to challenge Jack’s authority over Kim and Jack gets increasingly upset with the challenge. Kiefer Sutherland manages to give one look during the scene where it seems certain that Kim’s new boyfriend will be added to Jack’s excessive body count (or at least tortured), but doesn’t because Jack reins himself in. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775/100 "2008-02-14T16:20:32Z")
This one occurred to me last night as I lay weeping into my pillow. It’s from a movie that’s been around for a long time and so I’ll just be obscure instead of spoilering, just in case someone hasn’t seen it. In the movie **Momento** there is a scene with one of the characters in a nursing home or possibly a mental institution. The narrator is explaining that this character can’t remember anyone so he responds to everyone who approaches him as though they were a close friend because they might be. The character on screen is going through this process and the look on his face is so… positive, so beaming and yet the narration is deadpan and the scene is very sad, especially as this character realizes the person walking past doesn’t know him and then responds to the next passerby the same way. I’m not sure it’s the actor who nails the scene because I think the casting is right on, but it makes me a little misty just writing about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-scenes-an-actor-absolutely-nails/435775.md?page=6)