Gaming World Forums
General Category => Entertainment and Media => Topic started by: Strangeluv on June 22, 2008, 09:31:58 pm
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We've seen good performances, but what about those performances where the actor actually seems to step out of his own skin to portray somebody else, real or fictional? This kind of work is meticulous and can be pain-staking and does not just rely on the alteration of physical appearance but perhaps mastering an accent or voice, copying the body language, mimicking the very essence that made the person they are portraying stand out. They have to actually EMBODY the person they are acting.
It's a big risk but there's usually a big pay-off and I will list ten performances like that now:
10.
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Robert Downey Jr. as "Charlie Chaplin" in Chaplin (1993)
Most of you know Robert Downey, Jr. in his starring role in "Iron Man". Downey Jr. is a fine actor and after some drug rehab, he reinvented himself and starred in films like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, A Scanner Darkly and Zodiac. However, before the whole drug thing, he did Chaplin, where he portrayed the lovable silent film-era actor Charlie Chaplin (come on, you've gotta know Charlie Chaplin...) Downey brings with him all the slapstick and adoration that Chaplin was known for, as well as portraying a darker, more disturbed side of the actor. He portrays him with astounding accuracy, mimicking all the characteristics of the real actor.
Some may argue that acting may not be so difficult if one can just watch some clips and mimic them but when you're actually portraying a loved actor ON FILM, it demands a tremendous amount of responsibility and talent to do so. Downey was nominated for an Oscar for this role.
#9.
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Viggo Mortensen as "Nikolai Luzhin" in Eastern Promises (2007)
Viggo Mortensen is most famous for his portrayal of Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since then, I think most people thought he would be stuck in that type of role, the rogue adventurer of sorts. Then he met David Cronenberg and did "A History of Violence", where he played a complex lead role. He teams with Cronenberg again to do "Eastern Promises" and does an even more complex role. He basically steps into the skin as Nikolai and the Viggo Mortensen we all knew had disappeared for the 90 minutes that was Eastern Promises. He pulls off the mannerisms and the Russian accent almost too convincingly and he was nominated for an Oscar for the role, so it's good it wasn't overlooked.
#8.
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Philip Seymour Hoffman as "Truman Capote" in Capote (2005)
Philip Seymour Hoffman never bothered much to dive into mainstream cinema. I think the most mainstream thing he has done is play the villain in Mission Impossible 3. He has stuck mainly to independent flicks or not-big-budget artistic films like Magnolia, Boogie Nights, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Charlie Wilson's War. He had already established himself as a good actor by the time he signed on to do Capote, however, to play the real-life writer, Truman Capote, writer of the book "In Cold Blood".
For those of you unfamiliar with Truman Capote, he is fricking difficult to pull off. He has a high-pitched voice that almost sounds unnatural, he laughs a funny way, his effete mannerisms (he was gay, by the way), he had a style of his own. Hoffman lost a bunch of weight to play Capote, trained his voice to sound like Capote's and mimicked all the mannerisms so well that you couldn't tell it was Hoffman anymore. He won an Oscar for this role.
#7.
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Edward Norton as "Derek Vinyard" in American History X (1998)
Edward Norton is an actor who never turns in a bad performance. You may know him at least from the new Incredible Hulk movie or from Fight Club. He usually plays intelligent, introverted meek characters. Then he did American History X. American History X is the story about a very violent Neo-Nazi named Derek Vinyard who reforms and discovers his brother is going down the same path and must stop him.
Norton packed on a ton of muscle for the role and shaved his head. The thing about American History X is that it portrays Vinyard in three different stages of life, so Norton has to look and act three different ways throughout the movie; a gawky teenager, a violent skinhead and the reformed skinhead. He turns in a tour-de-force performance that he has not equalled yet and he was nominated for an Oscar for the role.
#6.
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Charlize Theron as "Aileen Wuormos" in Monster (2003)
Charlize Theron you may know as the woman from The Italian Job and a bunch of other stuff. She always plays these feminine type roles - lady to the leading man, if you know what I mean, so she didn't really have any space to do any physical transformation performances. However, in 2003, she signed on to do Monster, portraying the real-life serial killer Aileen Wuormos, who lured men in as a prostitute and then murdered them for their lust.
There have been many crazy woman roles but I don't think any can match up to this one. Theron really brings the Wuormos' manic behaviour as well as vulnerability to the role and I guess it helps that they look like fuckin' duplicates, gaining weight for the role and shedding the pretty woman look aside. Theron won an Oscar for this role.
#5.
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Peter Sellers as "Captain Mandrake / President Muffley / Dr. Strangelove" in Dr. Strangelove (1962)
I had to throw in an oldie in here. Some of you might know Peter Sellers as Inspector Closeau from the old Pink Panther movies (no, not the Steve Martin ones) but we're not talking about Pink Panther, we're talking about Dr. Strangelove and the multiple roles Sellers played in it. He played Captain Mandrake, a timid man caught in a bizarre one-on-one with the comically paranoid General Jack D. Ripper. He played President Muffley, a president, presented with very serious low-brow fashion, who has no idea what to do when Jack Ripper goes crazy and orders his men to bomb Russia. And he played Dr. Strangelove, a very very very eccentric German scientist whose own hand wants to attack him. Yeah, all in the same movie, and you could never tell that they were all the same person.
Yeah, and also Eddie Murphy played a white guy in Coming to America hehe Sellers was nominated for an Oscar for this (these) role(s).
#4.
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Gary Oldman in EVERY MOVIE HE HAS EVER BEEN IN.
Gary Oldman is probably the most underrated actors today. He is a fucking chameleon. He has the ability to transform into any role that is given to him. The diversity of roles he plays is so broad it's not even funny. Oldman came to prominence in the mid-1980s after a series of well-reviewed performances and has since retained a career as both a lead and character actor, appearing in over 50 films, including: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, State of Grace, Bram Stoker's Dracula, True Romance, Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, The Contender, the Harry Potter film series and Christopher Nolan's Batman film series. He has also portrayed a significant number of real-life historical figures on screen, such as Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears, Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, Pontius Pilate in Jesus and perhaps most notably, Sid Vicious, his portrayal of whom in 1986 biopic Sid & Nancy.
Oldman has received much critical acclaim over the years for his diversity of roles and mastery of world accents. Revered film critic Roger Ebert has long been a fan of Oldman's work, hailing him as "one of the great actors, able to play high, low, crass, noble", while Janet Maslin called him a "phenomenal" actor who "since Sid and Nancy has taken on a string of new accents and dramatic identities with stunning ease." Oldman's acting style has, however, occasionally been referred to as being excessive and over-the-top by some critics. This may perhaps be in part due to a long run of being cast as eccentric and outlandish villains, something of which he eventually grew tired. Oldman, however, is also noted for playing reserved, non-villainous roles such as in The Contender, Batman Begins, and Harry Potter film series.
#3.
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Christian Bale as "Trevor Reznik" in The Machinist (2005)
We're getting to the really serious ones now. Christian Bale is most known for playing Bruce Wayne in the new Batman movies and as the psychotic Wall Street worker in American Psycho. In between those two, he signed on to do The Machinist to play Trevor Reznik, a horridly emaciated insomniac with a mysterious paranoia that drives him over the edge.
Christian Bale starved himself for over 4 months prior to filming, as his character needed to look drastically thin. Allegedly his eating consisted of one can of tuna and an apple each day (approximately 275 calories), although there are conflicting reports on this. According to the DVD commentary, he lost 62 pounds (28 kg), reducing his body weight to 120 pounds (54.4 kg). Bale wanted to go down to 100 pounds (45.3 kg) but the filmmakers would not let him due to health concerns. He later regained the weight, plus an additional 40 pounds (18 kg) due to weightlifting, in preparation for his role in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.
Serious stuff!
#2.
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Leonardo DiCaprio as "Arnie Grape" in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1992)
We all know DiCaprio from Titanic and his stints in Martin Scorsese's films, Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed. But how many of you know about What's Eating Gilbert Grape, where he played the most convincing mentally retarded child ever? DiCaprio trained for his part at children hospitals for mentally challenged children to prepare for this role and he pulls it off fantastically, so convincingly that audiences were wondering how they got that mentally retarded boy to act so good since DiCaprio was an unknown back then. If you don't believe me, see the damn movie. The transformation is so incredible, it is unreal. You ever want to argue that Leo has never turned in a terrific performance? See it.
Leonardo DiCaprio earned his first Oscar nomination for this movie.
#1.
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Billy Bob Thornton as "Karl Childers" in Sling Blade (1995)
Nowadays, Billy Bob Thornton is most famous for playing that drunk asshole in Bad Santa, followed by a whole line of drunken asshole roles. Maybe it's collateral for being married and divorced to Angelina Jolie, I don't know. But before all that bullshit, in 1995, he wrote, directed and starred in a little indie movie called Sling Blade. It tells the fictional story of a simple man named Karl Childers who is released from a psychiatric hospital where he has lived since murdering his mother and her lover at age 12. He befriends a young boy, begins a friendship with the boy's mother and must confront the mother's abusive boyfriend, as well as his own dark past.
The first time I saw this film, I could not believe that this character was played by Billy Bob Thornton. Anyone who has any doubt that Billy Bob Thornton has the potential to be a terrific actor, see this film now. He is virtually unnoticeable as his character Karl Childers, in mannerism, appearance and voice. In a scene, Karl describes to a young girl how he came to being in a mental hospital and, accompanied by the lighting on the set, this has to be one of the creepiest moments in cinema history--the way Thornton rubs his hands together as he speaks, shaking his head, never making true eye contact. You cannot tell what is going through his head - does he want to stab this girl or is he just shy? It is an amazingly complex role and Thornton totally immerses himself in the role to make my #1 for this list.
Thornton was nominated for an Oscar for this role, but won an Oscar for writing the screenplay.
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Add to this list! Share your opinions.
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Billy Bob Thorntan is fantastic..
Great list, you pretty much covered most of the corners man.
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Honourable mentions:
Felicity Huffman in Transamerica
Ben Kingsley in Gandhi
Jamie Kennedy in Malibu's Most Wanted......
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Sean Penn in I am Sam.
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Optimus Prime as "Optimus Prime" in Transformers (2007)
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I am interested in Sling Blade now! The way you describe it, I am lightweight SORRY to see Billy Bob Thorton go down the road he's on now, making shit like BAD SANTA and BAD NEWS BEARS (also School for Scoundrels, a really fucking stupid movie).
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Sling Blade is slow-paced (indie movie) but it's worth watching to see Billy Bob Thornton's performance. I couldn't even tell it was him looking at it. It's still hard for me to spot him in the role even while watching it but there's hints of him in there if you watch closely. It's just really really weird to watch that shit and think it's Billy Bob because I had only known him from Bad Santa and Bandits and shit before I saw it.
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I liked Shia LeBeouf in Tru Confessions...
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I agree with you one-hundred percent on the fact of Thorton's performance in Slingblade. The way he expresses his emotion on camera and carries himself as his new persona does a perfect job of "bringing you into the movie". Not only was it his raw emotion, but the physical presence to. Tom Hanks years before had brought the "emotion" yet left the "physical" in Forrest Gump, but Thorton brought his A-Game one could say in Sling Blade. Thorton's had some downfalls recently with some pretty terrible movies, and I have my doubts about the chance of one last "good" movie. Yet we can always remember Thorton as Karl Childers a role just as good as "French-Fried Potaters".
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Man that's so weird with Christian Bale starving himself and all that I think all actors/actresses are secretly into hurting themselves and crap
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you need to watch more movies. no way alec guinness does not make this list. or dustin hoffman's performance in tootsie.
very happy you had peter sellers though!!! i worry sometimes that people might forget about him
what's sad about actors is that we should honestly be able to EXPECT these sorts of performances from these people. but how many actors under the age of 50 can you honestly expect this sort of profoundly immersive approach to their craft? it's sad the christian bale is one of the few that immediately come to mind. despite the fact that he TRIES VERY HARD he's just not a very good actor.
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I wasn't aiming to make a Top 10 Transformations of all time, anyway. I think I purposely picked 10 actors/actresses very well known today, especially those with a movie out right now or had a movie out this year (save Sellers cuz I wanted to throw in an oldbie too), and show that they do have some acting chops.
Hoffman in Tootsie was great, though. I don't know much Alec Guinness roles, though! I have been trying to brush up on my classic films because I am sort of lacking the knowledge of them.
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I like this, it was a good read....wish you mentioned jonny dep.
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In what
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Robert Downey Jr. plays a black guy in the upcoming Tropic Thunder.
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In what
Edward Scissorhands
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Dustin Hoffman was awesome in Rainman (and tootsie)
Also, John Malkovich in Of mice and men.
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Edward Scissorhands
No, that is who he really is...
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alec guiness as obi wan kenobi in star wars: a new hope.............
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Sean Penn in I am Sam.
NO.
NO.
Just... NO.
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Why?
I thought he did a pretty good job. He's in my top 5 retards list
Leonardo DiCaprio, What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man
John Malkovich, Of Mice and Men
Sean Penn, I am Sam
Shia LeBeouf, Indiana Jones 4
See, he's there
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Christian Bale is my hero.
Also what's eating Gilbert Grape? (HIS MOTHER!)
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man i had no idea that was christian bale in the machinist. i thought it was ETHAN HAWKE or something.
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Also what's eating Gilbert Grape? (HIS MOTHER!)
This actually me laugh out loud, and for those who don't know in What's Eating Gilbert Grape Gilbert's mother is morbidly obese.
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If you were going for well-known actors with movies out, you missed Adam Sandler.
...then again, he's still doing in-your-face comedy with bad accents.
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man i had no idea that was christian bale in the machinist. i thought it was ETHAN HAWKE or something.
i just want to throw this out there but i was pretty disappointed with the machinist
that is all
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Adam Sandler in what role? He plays himself in everything.
Also yeah, I could see why Bale would be mistaken for Hawke in The Machinist. I thought it was pretty good.
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...Ugh, Heath Ledger as the Joker fits in this list.............................................
so cliche.
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you haven't even seen the movie yet
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Adam Sandler in what role? He plays himself in everything.
Also yeah, I could see why Bale would be mistaken for Hawke in The Machinist. I thought it was pretty good.
I was thinking Spanglish or whatever it was called.