Everything I have ever seen this guy in he is basically playing the same stiff reserved character, well sometimes it appears as though he is actually bored or possibly drugged. He has no range, he would make a great character actor but giving him any kind of substantial role is crazy.
I was annoyed by his stiff as a board role in the Dune miniseries, then just tonight I watched the Lost In Space movie. Now the movie has a lot wrong, but Hurt is a big part of that. In one scene he takes a already bad line and makes it worse with his delivery, imagine this said in a deadpan emotionless voice(even for Hurt!)
I love you wife.
:smack: Yes I always tell me wife “I love you wife” in a monotone affectless voice, it always makes her smile.
Then later when investigating a bizarre area that he isn’t even sure he will come back alive from to his family, he appears to be on heavy narcotics. Not only is he showing no emotion in this life or death situation, he seems to be doped up and bemused.
Well, he was good in “Children of a Lesser God” and “Body Heat” (or, at any rate, those were two good movies that weren’t messed up by his presence). Haven’t noticed that he’s a particularly bad actor.
But I don’t like him much, because in an interview (I think with Teri Gross on Fresh Air?) he came off as iinnccrreeddiibbllyy pompous and full of himself and his “craft.” That left a sour taste in my mouth.
Hurt does have four Academy Award nominations and one win (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”) plus a bunch of others such as New York film critics and the Emmys. So a bunch of people think he has talent. I don’t know if his pictures make money, or lose great bunches, but I imagine he doesn’t really hurt.
I suppose there are enough roles for a stolid, respected but somewhat stiff person (John Robinson in “Lost in Space”, William Marshall in “Robin Hood”, Ahab in “Moby Dick”) to keep him working. And he has managed to avoid career damage when his former girlfriend Marlee Matlin said he beat her up.
I don’t know of the movies of which you speak, but can I point you in the direction of Midnight Express, Alien, The Elephant Man, The Naked Civil Servant (spectacularily good), Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy and many others. This guy can act.
Played the same intense, remote intellectual in Altered States and was very effective. Maybe typecasting serves two purposes. One: directors know what to expect from a handful of actors who seem to repeatedly play themselves (Alec Baldwin, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, any number of model/actresses who are not Charlize Theron and are routinely cast as the love interest for a bumbling, down on his luck character) and two: audiences know what to expect from actors who repeatedly play themselves such as (see aforementioned examples).
If someone tells me “I’m going to see the new Cameron Diaz movie” I’m pretty confident it will be a bawdy comedy with bathroom humor. Morgan Freeman’s probably gonna play God. And in a Denzel movie? Shit’s gonna blow up, but the town will be saved from certain disaster. And Hurt? Well, he’ll bring tension to a scene as his supporting cast grows increasingly uncomfortable with his expressionless, intense delivery. He’s so good at that I suspect the same tense dynamic is created in his real life relationships, dental appointments, and the grocery line.
I absolutely agree. I suppose it possible he’s an entirely stellar human being (but the abuse accusations never fully leave my mind when he’s on screen). I actively try to avoid seeing films he’s in, especially if he’s more than a cameo. He just makes me feel stabby. Wooden, pompous, arrogant, constipated…there’s not a single positive adjective that springs to mind.
I don’t have very strong negative feelings about many actors, but William Hurt and Ralph Fiennes make me want to engage in wanton property damage, for reasons I don’t begin to understand. Maybe it’s the lack of upper lips.
Gah I forgot to mention the scene that made me post this topic in the first place.
You’ve just found out that due to time travel wibbly wobbly you missed out on twenty years, in these years your wife and two daughters were most likely raped to death by the guy who tried to murder you and your whole family and got you stranded in space in the first place. Oh and due to infection with alien DNA the guy is an eight foot tall demonic looking monster, and once he got bored raping the women(or they died) he started raping…er consensual sexual relationship with your now grown son for two decades.
Hurt manages a look of disgust less than I produce when cleaning out the fridge.:dubious:
I think there’s a place in the acting universe for such as William Hurt, not everyone has to be oozing with blabbering emotion on screen. I remember he played a snooty doctor who got cancer and learned empathy, a reviewer said his character was “a speeding silver bullet of a man” (words to that affect) which I thought was quite apt. His profile does somewhat resemble a sleek hood ornament!
They pass the graves of the mom and daughters, then mutated Smith says something like once he got tired of ravishing the women he got a taste for the son or something, then him and the son look at each other warmly.
Ok so maybe they just died of natural causes, I’ll give you that.
IIRC, Christopher Reeve turned down the not-as-dumb-as-he-looks-but not-as-bright-as-he-thinks role in “Body Heat”, since he didn’t feel he’d be convincing.
I have to wonder what he thought upon watching the other guy sleepwalk through the part; I agree Hurt didn’t mess up, but he was just sort of – there.
I agree with this and with the OP. Hurt seems like a stiff in virtually every role. To me, he’s similar to John Malkovich–this deadpan, distracted delivery that’s supposed to be deep or something, but that comes off as exciting as watching a toaster. The best you can hope for is that he’s cast in a role where it doesn’t matter that much that the furniture seems to be be more enthusiastic than he is.
When I saw him in A History of Violence I was pleasantly surprised. It’s like somebody woke him up or gave him a cup of coffee or something.
