Quentin Tarantino supposedly almost despaired of making INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS because he couldn’t find anyone who could be magnetic in four different languages. Anyhow, he then found Christoph Waltz and the day was saved.
There have been a lot of good ones named, but one who has been overlooked is Michael Keaton in “Beetlejuice”. Also in “Birdman”. His role in “Batman”, while quirky, was subdued to play against Jack Nicholson.
I agree with Shatner. I notice how he played the scenes as Captain Kirk, but I never felt it out of place for the scenes.
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in particular Jeremy Irons in the Dungeons and Dragons movie… so very over the top there, it was the best thing about it.
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You are incorrect - it was the* only good *thing about it. And with purple lipstick!
I’ve always felt that Shatner deserves more credit than he gets. The Enterprise bridge was made of pastel-colored plywood. If Shatner hadn’t been absolutely earnest and convinced (as opposed to convincing) that he was on a starship in the Ceti Alpha system, the audience wouldn’t have believed it, either. Just a little wind and a nod and the whole thing could have turned very silly, very fast. The show spawned a fanatical fanbase that has stuck with it for 50 years. He must have done something right.
And even when he isn’t using it, you know he has a Jimmy Cagney impression ready to go; it’s like watching a quick-draw gunslinger with an twitchy trigger finger!
The Langoliers.
Ralph Fiennes in In Bruges. As Voldemort in Harry Potter he seems ready to eat not just the the scenery but the other actors.
Well, he only got an Oscar nomination for it, but I defy you to do an exaggerated parody of Burgess Meredith’s performance in the ROCKY movies. Uh-huh. No, see, I asked you to do an exaggerated version. Like, deliver the same lines, but in a way that’s decidedly more over-the-top. Yeah, that’s not – you’re not pulling it off.
Agreed!
Jane Lynch. I first noticed her in a scene in King of Queens, later as Spencer Reid’s schizophrenic mother in Criminal Minds, and most recently in glee.
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Gary Oldman in True Romance.
He’s also great in “Leon The Professional” – the scene I’m thinking of:
AH! I had forgotten about that one. Good choice!
She’s also in The Fugitive (with Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford) but in a much more subdued performance. (And she got fourth billing, I think, for a minor role. I heard that her role was planned to be larger.)
You should watch him in Coppola’s Dracula. That made his SOTL performance look understated. :eek:
Simon Callow can chew pretty well. The ones that come to mind are Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love, and as Charles Dickens in Doctor Who.
No mention of Robin Williams yet? He was the best natural chewing the scenery actor that ever was.
You ask the impossible, sir.
Do you think Mr. Scott’s portrayal of Patton as scenery chewing?
IMO, he was portraying (loosely) a person who deliberately affected a larger than life persona in front of his troops.
Richard Burton in Exorcist II-The Heritic, and even moreso in Hammersmith Is Out!.
If you want a scenery-chewing George C. Scott film I’d nominate “Hardcore”.
“Oh my GOD, thats MY DAUGHTER!”
They apparently told Nicolas Cage to chew as much scenery as humanly possible in FACE/OFF, and then apparently told John Travolta, “okay, now it’s your turn.”