I think there might be some confusion about having some basic acting skills and being a character actor. I think some people above are confusing the two. Basic acting skills (of which many of the young actors just don’t possess) includes things like blocking (standing so the audience can see everybody,) voice projection, timing, etc. Being a character actor means creating the illusion that you are no longer yourself but someone else completely.
In some of the examples above, bad character actors (like Willis) have had a few films where they displayed some basic acting skills. On the other hand, they never, ever became the character.
Well, he was speaking English in Star Trek, not French, and there’s a long history of Russians being played by English actors - so that they’re still foreign, but understandable (in any case, again he’s speaking English, not Russian, and the bloke above me says he didn’t speak at all anyway). His character in the X-Men is English.
You’re right about Connery, though. His accent was his trademark, so I guess giving it up would have been detrimental to the film’s success.
Keanu Reeves does try to act, it’s just that he mostly fails. When he’s just being himself, he’s enjoyable to watch.
Playing a Spaniard with a Spanish accent would be “detrimental to the film’s success”? If by “detrimental”, you mean “bare minimum effort”, then I agree.
But I think we all agree that Sean Connery trying to sound Spanish would be horrific: *“Dawn-day Too Airs, Compadray?” *But, how much time would it have taken to change the script to “Scawttish warrior”? 30 seconds?
Hey, wait, the protagonist is named MacLeod! He’s supposed to be a Scot! So … they went and got a Belgian to play him! Is anyone bringing critical thinking to bear on a movie script at any time during the months and months of the film-making process?
Welllll, I guess they get paid whether it makes sense or not…
That’s why Nathan Lane has done so well in Hollywood - either critically or popularly.
Except for a very few cases, all movie, TV and Broadway actors fit into characters other people have made. If you are convinced they are all playing themselves, it is just good evidence of what excellent actors they are. Clearly every actor brings something of him or herself into a role, but only a few get to have scripts written around their stage personas. Not that this is who they really are - it is just a role which clicked and which they repeat for the audience.
I wonder how many people who think actors don’t work hard have ever been on a New York or Hollywood movie or TV set.
