# Who's the worst actor in a truly great movie?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 15, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945 "2016-08-15T19:44:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/1 "2016-08-15T19:44:44Z")
It’s very easy to cite great actors in jaw-droppingly terrible movies. Hell, pretty much EVERY actor with a resume of reasonable length has a terrible dog on there somewhere. As Michael Caine said of Jaws IV, “I haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve heard that it’s terrible. I have seen the house that it built, and it is fantastic.”
But here’s a twist; what is the worst actor, or worst performance, ever, in a truly great movie?
Note that **you cannot yourself think the movie was terrible.** Otherwise the entire thread will be people saying “Titanic won the Oscar but Leonardo DiCaprio is the suxxor that movie sucked.” No. \*\*If you legitimately believe Titanic was just an awesome movie \*\*and deserved the Oscar, but Billy Zane sucked, fair answer. You have to cite performances from movies you think were truly great.
We’ll have two categories:
- Worst Performance By An Actor/Actress In A Truly Great Movie
- Performance By The Worst Overall Actor/Actress In a Great Movie, Given Their Entire Body of Work, But In This Movie He/She Was Not As Terrible As They Usually Are
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/2 "2016-08-15T19:50:52Z")
Dorothy Comingore in _Citizen Kane_. Part of it may be her character, but her performance just doesn’t fit in with everyone else.
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### Author:  [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/3 "2016-08-15T20:25:53Z")
A Walk in the Clouds is a beautiful movie, fun script, great acting…
> **[A Walk in the Clouds (1995) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114887/)**
>
> A Walk in the Clouds: Directed by Alfonso Arau. With Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Anthony Quinn, Giancarlo Giannini. A married soldier returning from World War II poses as a pregnant woman's husband to save her from her father's anger and...
and we have Keanu Reeves delivering lines that take me out of it.
Much Ado About Nothing is a great film (the Branagh version), beautifully shot, some scenes of pure glee…
> **[Much Ado About Nothing (1993) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107616/)**
>
> Much Ado About Nothing: Directed by Kenneth Branagh. With Richard Briers, Kate Beckinsale, Imelda Staunton, Jimmy Yuill. Young lovers, and soon to wed, Hero and Claudio conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles, Benedick and...
and we have Keanu Reeves delivering lines that take me out of it.
Now - I LIKE some of Keanu’s work. But those two movies - argh!
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/4 "2016-08-15T21:05:15Z")
PULP FICTION was robbed at the Oscars – but as good as Quentin Tarantino is at making a masterpiece, he’s jarringly bad at fielding the Steve Buscemi role.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/5 "2016-08-15T21:14:59Z")
**Highlander** was an awesome movie.
Shut up, it was too!
But GAWD Christopher Lambert is awful.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/6 "2016-08-15T21:22:11Z")
> [@Algher](#):
>
> A Walk in the Clouds is a beautiful movie, fun script, great acting…
> [A Walk in the Clouds (1995) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114887/)
> and we have Keanu Reeves delivering lines that take me out of it.
>
> Much Ado About Nothing is a great film (the Branagh version), beautifully shot, some scenes of pure glee…
> [Much Ado About Nothing (1993) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107616/)
> and we have Keanu Reeves delivering lines that take me out of it.
>
> Now - I LIKE some of Keanu’s work. But those two movies - argh!
I’ve never been impressed with his acting; I call him ‘Cardboard Boy.’ He played the stereotype alright as Bill S. Preston, but otherwise he fields a big ‘meh’ from me, even in _The Matrix_.
Most grating for me, although I guess you could call it a good acting job, in a movie that I consider great but most others probably wouldn’t, is Chris Tucker as Ruby Rhod in _The Fifth Element_.
Paul Le Mat in _American Graffiti_ never really impressed me either…he just seemed kind of wooden.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/7 "2016-08-15T21:24:19Z")
Ian McDiarmid (the Emporer) in “Return of the Jedi.” As threatening as your Grandpa when he’s half in the bag. The sissy.
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### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/8 "2016-08-15T21:25:26Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#):
>
> **Highlander** was an awesome movie.
>
> Shut up, it was too!
>
> But GAWD Christopher Lambert is awful.
Didn’t it win an Oscar for “best movie ever made”?
However, I’m struggling with calling something a great movie where you thought the lead actor was awful. For the record, I like the movie myself.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/9 "2016-08-15T21:28:38Z")
I don’t know that Watchmen is a “truly great movie,” but I think it aspires to be… and is held back by Malin Akerman’s inept, wooden performance.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/10 "2016-08-15T21:42:24Z")
_The Searchers_ is a great movie. And while John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter weren’t great actors they were well cast in roles that fit their abilities.
But Natalie Wood was miscast as Debbie. Even in what are supposed to be highly emotional scenes, her performance is listless.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/11 "2016-08-15T21:48:43Z")
Welles’s _Touch of Evil_ - one of my faves, with one of the greatest openings in cinema history - but Dennis Weaver’s spasmodic milksop character was in need of soaking in lye for 24 hours.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/12 "2016-08-15T21:55:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> Performance By The Worst Overall Actor/Actress In a Great Movie, Given Their Entire Body of Work, But In This Movie He/She Was Not As Terrible As They Usually Are
Never was a Burt Reynolds fan (ok for _The Longest Yard_ and _Deliverance_ he’ll get a biscuit) but I thought he was pretty good in _Boogie Nights_.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/13 "2016-08-15T21:57:15Z")
_Lost In Translation_ is a near perfect movie, IMHO. The biggest flaw is Anna Faris’s small scene. Just ruined that part. Nowhere near as good as the rest of the cast.
_Animal House_ would have been a much better movie if someone other than Tom Hulce was cast as Pinto. Hard to find anyone in that cast with a notable role that was worst.
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/14 "2016-08-15T22:13:07Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> -
>
> _Animal House_ would have been a much better movie if someone other than Tom Hulce was cast as Pinto. Hard to find anyone in that cast with a notable role that was worst.
Now that you mention it…\*\*Amadeus \*\*is a truly great movie, but I wonder if it would have been better with someone else in the title role.
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### Author:  [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/15 "2016-08-15T22:29:01Z")
What was so bad about Hulce? He did what was required of the role, didn’t ham it up or try to steal scenes, and was pretty convincing as a dim bulb frat boy.
Tom Hardy’s cheesy Scottish accent in _The Dark Knight Rises_ is just one of the reasons the movie blew chunks, but it was really popular.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/16 "2016-08-15T22:43:08Z")
**Sex, Lies and Videotape** and **Groundhog Day** are truly great movies, and **Andie MacDowell** was awful in each. Her woodenness played to her role in SL&V, and Bill Murray just acted past her in GD.
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### Author:  [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/17 "2016-08-15T22:59:27Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#):
>
> Welles’s _Touch of Evil_ - one of my faves, with one of the greatest openings in cinema history - but Dennis Weaver’s spasmodic milksop character was in need of soaking in lye for 24 hours.
This whole category is owned by Orson Welles, because of his patchy career.
Mr Arkadin is flawed but would be good except for the guy in the lead role. Just ruinous.
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### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/18 "2016-08-15T23:23:06Z")
Mildred Pierce (1945) was truly a great movie.
Jack Carson in Mildred Pierce… was Truly Dead Weight.
Twenty-First Century Equivalent: See Greg Grunberg.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/19 "2016-08-15T23:26:30Z")
> [@Folacin](#):
>
> Didn’t it win an Oscar for “best movie ever made”?
I saw ze highlander movie! It was sheet!
My nomination is the original gas station attendant in Waynes World 2.
Fortunately they rectified that pretty quickly.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/20 "2016-08-15T23:46:40Z")
Brad Pitt’s acting talent went from passable to pretty good sometime around 2000. Before that, he basically had two acting modes, big cheesy grin or rubbing his hands over his head in craziness/anger/distraughtness. He did those two well enough and his roles allowed him to largely coast on them, but you could see the occasional place where neither was called for and he seemed a bit out of his depth. After 2000, he’s been a solid and sometimes even very good actor. But pre-2000, he was probably the weakest lead part in:
Seven
12 Monkeys
Meet Joe Black
He was sufficient. His presence didn’t crap all over the movies he was in (unlike Keanu Reeves in some of the movies he’s been mentioned for - but which I don’t find to be great), but you definitely wouldn’t miss him if he’d been swapped out with someone else.
(I can’t say whether he was good/mediocre by the time of Fight Club. I feel like it was still his mediocre period, but that the role only needed him to be happy and loud - one of his early specialties.)
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