# Who's the worst actor in a truly great movie? **URL:** \ **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:** 3
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/41 "2016-08-16T07:51:23Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Mickey Rooney in **Breakfast at Tiffany’s**. I don’t know which was worse, the character or the actor. Ding, ding, ding, ding! It’s not just that the racial impersonation is offensive by our standards, or that it didn’t mesh with the rest of the movie: Rooney doesn’t even pull it off well by Vaudeville standards. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/42 "2016-08-16T07:53:25Z")
Tippi Hendren in _The Birds_. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/43 "2016-08-16T08:02:45Z")
I guess it’s arguable if _Terminator 2_ is a “great” movie, it is great _fun_, at least. But what is true is that Edward Furlong sucked in it. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/44 "2016-08-16T08:08:02Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > I will NOT stand for this! > > She was\* far far\* worse in **Four Weddings and a Funeral** and **Green Card**. > > I’ve said this here before, but if I ever win a billion dollars, I’m remaking those movies with the right true proper actress for these roles CGIed into her place, Julia Roberts. While not a truly great movie, she was also the worst thing about the decent-to-good film “St Elmo’s Fire.” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/45 "2016-08-16T11:02:01Z")
> [@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! Similarly I want to go back in time and break Keanu’s kneecaps so that they can cast someone else in _The Devil’s Advocate_. Brad Pitt. Edward Norton. A two-by-four. Anyone else but Keanu. Such a good film, ruined by the lead. > [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > My nomination is the original gas station attendant in Waynes World 2. > > Fortunately they rectified that pretty quickly. 😃 > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Meet Joe Black Pitt gave a goddamn Oscar-winning performance in that next to the blibbering idiocy that was Claire Forlani. Her entire role seemed to involve just standing there and pouting. (Mind you, it wasn’t a great film all around anyway.) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/46 "2016-08-16T11:33:30Z")
George Clooney in just about every movie he’s ever made, especially _Up in the Air_ and _The Descendants_ which both won screenplay Oscars. Sophia Coppola in _The Godfather III._ While debatable whether or not that’s a “great” film, the Acting Quality to Movie Quality ratio is probably the lowest among all examples mentioned so far. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/47 "2016-08-16T11:56:44Z")
Not so much a rotten performance, as rotten casting: \*Gandhi \*was a truly great movie. It didn’t take me long to become totally immersed in it, feeling like I was actually watching history. And then here comes Candice Bergen, knocking me over the head with the fact that I was watching a movie. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/48 "2016-08-16T12:01:45Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Sophia Coppola in _The Godfather III._ Just be glad that the movie was produced by Francis Ford Coppola, rather than Aaron Spelling. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/49 "2016-08-16T12:16:39Z")
Hmm, guess I touched a nerve with the **Andie MacDowell** cite. Too funny, and all true. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/50 "2016-08-16T12:53:40Z")
Okay, I know the movies had many problems and were overall quite bad, but Martin Freeman was such a bore through all of the Hobbit movies that I think he was part of the problem. After having such lively and interesting hobbits like Merry, Pippen, Sam, and Frodo it was a let down to see Freeman play Bilbo with such a yawn. He was the lead for the overly long trilogy and had the opportunity to carry the movies on his back and give them some emotional punch but instead just played it wishy-washy flat. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/51 "2016-08-16T13:15:02Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Ding, ding, ding, ding! > > It’s not just that the racial impersonation is offensive by our standards, or that it didn’t mesh with the rest of the movie: Rooney doesn’t even pull it off well by Vaudeville standards. Asian Mickey has to be the winner. It’s hard to imagine anything worse. Kim Darby got mixed reviews in True Grit. She seemed ok to me, Wayne himself didn’t like her and others thought she wasn’t right for the role, but compared to “Ha om Glin Camel” she was outstanding. Robert Francis was a wooden performer in The Caine Mutiny. He only made a few films before dying in a plane crash, I don’t recall seeing him in anything else. He contributed nothing to this great film. Sort of an inverse case, in The Bridge on the River Kwai Geoffrey Horne played the Canadian commando on the raid. He was just a normal actor so he was remarkably noticeable as the only actor with lines who did not not overact to the extreme. Every other member of the star-studded cast was so hammy that Jewish cannibals wouldn’t eat them. Those guys chewed so much scenery they nearly deforested Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where it was shot. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/52 "2016-08-16T13:51:39Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > The role practically screams that it was written for Buscemi. What, he didn’t have two days to knock out the part? Thanks to you and **The Other Waldo Pepper** , all I can think of is how much better Pulp Fiction would have been if Buscemi had Quentin’s role, and Quentin had been Buddy the Waiter. I’m surprised Sofia Coppola hasn’t got more hate. When I read the thread title, I expected the OP to have the provision: “. . .besides Sofia Coppola?” Man, Glen Campbell in “True Grit” is a tough one to beat. Just. Bad. After seeing Hailee Steinfeld in the Mattie Ross role, she made Kim Darby look pretty sad by comparison as well. . . Actually, I kinda want to take Wayne and digitally insert him in the remake. I’d miss Robert Duvall, but Barry Pepper did well as “Ned Pepper” (that casting makes me laugh like a little kid.) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/53 "2016-08-16T13:52:30Z")
Kim Darby in True Grit has worsened considerably since Hailee Steinfeld’s awesome performance in the same role in the remake. Steinfeld blows it out of the water. [QUOTE=Lemur866] The role practically screams that it was written for Buscemi. What, he didn’t have two days to knock out the part? [/QUOTE] Buscemi’s already in the movie. He’s the Buddy Holly waiter at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, a role he can obviously do and Quentin Tarantino cannot. I have to admit I’ve never minded Tarantino’s acting in Pulp Fiction. He looks and acts like an ordinary doofus, which is what he’s supposed to be. But Andie MacDowell… yeah. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/54 "2016-08-16T13:54:47Z")
I didn’t mean to be insulting to quality doweling; it _does_ serve an important purpose and can convincingly play itself. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/55 "2016-08-16T14:26:03Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > I’m surprised Sofia Coppola hasn’t got more hate. When I read the thread title, I expected the OP to have the provision: “. . .besides Sofia Coppola?” That’s because _Godfather 3_’s problems went way beyond her performance. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/56 "2016-08-16T14:26:51Z")
Not that _Mary Poppins_ was my fave film when I was a kid, but Dick Van Dyke’s ::cough attempts at a cockney accent cough:: was something to be chortled at. Perhaps one of the most hideous fucked up scumbag low life POS characters I’ve ever seen was played by Telly Savalas in _The Dirty Dozen_ - total misogynist fucking shit-stain. Especially that weird speech he gives after killing a woman. like, whoa-ness. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/57 "2016-08-16T15:25:49Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Thanks to you and **The Other Waldo Pepper** , all I can think of is how much better Pulp Fiction would have been if Buscemi had Quentin’s role Don’t know if it dilutes my point or strengthens it, but while I of course agree that Buscemi would’ve been perfect in the role, as per the thread the key for me is that casting _fill-in-the-blank_ would’ve been an improvement over Tarantino. Like, I don’t think John Cusack would’ve been as good in the role as Buscemi would’ve been; but I also don’t think anyone would’ve mentioned him in this thread, because he probably would’ve been like Eric Stoltz was in that same movie: memorable but unremarkable, apart from just being believable. Still, picture, a bleary-eyed Sean Penn opening that door – or maybe a bleary-eyed Robert Downey Jr, or a bleary-eyed Micheal Keaton – or picture, say, Johnny Depp, or Nicolas Cage (bearing in mind that we’d be talking _1990s_ Depp or Cage, back when that still meant something). There are all sorts of interesting possibilities; I just don’t think Tarantino happened to be one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/58 "2016-08-16T15:40:18Z")
George Carlin was sadly disappointing playing straight man ‘Rufus’ in that cinematic achievement known as Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/59 "2016-08-16T16:34:48Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > George Clooney in just about every movie he’s ever made, especially _Up in the Air_ and _The Descendants_ which both won screenplay Oscars. I have to nitpick: 1. “Up in the Air” won no Oscars at all. 2. If in fact you think George Clooney is a terrible actor, “George Clooney in any film he’s been in” isn’t really an answer to the OP unless you believe every movie George Clooney has ever been in was a truly great movie. “Up In The Air” and “The Descandants” would specifically be good answers, though, if you really think Clooney sucks, but is he an answer to Category 1 or 2? [QUOTE=Face Intentionally Left Blank] I’m surprised Sofia Coppola hasn’t got more hate. When I read the thread title, I expected the OP to have the provision: “. . .besides Sofia Coppola?” [/QUOTE] As buddha\_david points out, The Godfather Part III is not really a “great movie.” I’d argue, actually, that it’s one of the worst movies ever nominated for Best Picture in modern times. It’s true, though, that even if I take a negative stance on the film, there’s a _huge_ disparity between its quality and her acting chops. It’s the most amateurish acting performance I can think of in a movie of that stature and professionalism. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945/60 "2016-08-16T16:40:07Z")
Another vote for Tarantino doing a good job in _Pulp Fiction_. He played an everyday suburban guy in a weird situation quite well. If you put in a oddball-type actor it wouldn’t have worked. The deadpan “Oak is good.” is spot on. In addition to being an everyday kind of guy, it also raises the question as to how does Jules know him, knows he’ll do him a solid, etc. He’s this ordinary guy that straddles two worlds. Buscemi wouldn’t even _look_ the part. He has many other acting credits you can dish on, but not this one. (Luckily, he’s far from the worst actor in _Little Nicky_.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-worst-actor-in-a-truly-great-movie/762945.md?page=4)