What is “mannered” acting?

When you can see them playing the part rather than being natural. "Click, click, click" to quote an actress.

It's basically doing too much, a sort of OVER clarity. It's unrealistic behavior and speech that breaks the illusion.

It sometimes overlaps with

Unnatural, like you can almost see the wheels turning in their heads. Hard to quantify, really.

A related concept in acting theory is "indicating"--acting that points to itself, rather than acting that hides its artiface. I think Baxter was generally a very good actress (Ambersons, Razor, Eve--in the latter, some of the indicating seems intentional, so we share in the horror of seeing someone with an interior sense of core self) and even occasionally later she can be fun, when she crosses the line beyond anything natural. I'm never bored watching her, even at her breathiest or most histrionic.

[quote] I'm never bored watching her, even at her breathiest or most histrionic.

Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!

So, basically, the Dynasty reboot, right?

You rang?

When I think of mannered, I think of actresses like Eileen Brennan and Madeleine Kahn.

Katharine Hepburn used to do ladylike mannered acting much of the time - possibly to hide the fact that she was really a tough, butch lesbian.

Where you see the actor. Great acting is when the actor disappears and all you see is the character.

Comedy seems to work best when it’s slightly heightened, slightly more real. Even exaggerated reactions can be hysterical, as in a farce, like “A Funny Thing.”

Kahn’s performance in that bit is hilarious, because her transition to titillation is so smooth, and unexpected.

In All About Eve the character Baxter played was a phony schemer, so I think the mannered quality in her performance works. To me a mannered performance is Renee Zellweger in Cold Mountain - it just came across as a Hollywood actor doing a fake cornpone routine. I was surprised at all the acclaim Zellweger got (although I've liked her in other things)

Cornpone pussy.

Zellwegger was acting in a totally different movie than everyone else. How she got a fucking Oscar for that is inexplicable.

There are many styles of acting and they can all be effective if done well.

Meryl's acting in Still of the Night is incredibly mannered and pretentious.

I guess I always assumed "mannered" referred to pre-method acting. You know, stagey without any psychological angle or attempt at realism.

I think all of the holsters were mannered-- Davis, Crawford, Shearer. And the fakey high-falutin accent didn't help.

PS Ginger Rogers was not mannered though.

Oldsters

I think mannered acting can work, especially in comedy or if someone's playing a Norma Desmond type character or a king or queen or something. Typically, if you're playing a housewife from the Bronx, you wouldn't want to be mannered and you'd want to make it as real as possible.

To me, mannered acting is a bit like porn. It's hard to describe exactly what it is, but you know it when you see it.

I do think Streep is guilty of this a lot. Sometimes, it can work like in Death Becomes Her or She-Devil where she's playing larger than life characters. Unpopular opinion, but I think she's better in comedy than drama.

It's not always a bad thing. Sometimes it's part of a performer's whole persona.

Faye Dunaway was often incredibly mannered. But that was her schtick ... hypertense butterfly.

I actually prefer the glamorous method of acting employed by Davis, Crawford and Lana Turner. If I want to watch boring everyday people, I can turn on the news, or go to Wad-Mart.

Faye Dunaway was the last to fully utilize this larger-than-life acting style. That acting style died out with her career. Meryl is just pretentious.

I forgot about Jessica Lange. Her acting style is reminiscent of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

I usually think of it as having a bag or tricks (or tics) that can be easily mimicked--Jack Nicholson, Tommy Lee Jones, William Hurt, Jeff Goldblum, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, though every now and then one of those gentlemen will stop phoning it in and give a performance that reminds you why they're considered great.

Totally agree with R16 about Zellweger in Cold Mountain. I don't know what it is about the South that brings out the ham in actors. I thought all the leads were miscast but Zellweger was unwatchable.

I heard Annette Benning is teaching a course on it at the local learning annex.

Lots of twitches and gestures.

see Beto.

[quote]r28 I heard Annette Benning is teaching a course on it at the local learning annex.

Annette is a great actress. She's shown a variety of styles.

A performance can be mannered, it just has to mesh with the overall style of the film.

In this scene, her behavior is somewhat "mannered" ... but the shifty, manipulative character of Myra is putting on a performance for the jeweler, so it makes sense.

R25, I think Sharon Stone in her 90s peak - especially in Basic Instinct, Intersection and Casino - had that Golden Age, larger-than-life quality.

See any Lesley Ann Warren performance.

This is an interesting thread. I'm an actor and I think of "mannered" as sort of fussy, self-conscious acting where the choices are really apparent. I like an actor who has craft, but you don't want to see it.

I've always found Donald Sutherland a little mannered for my taste, and same with Glenn Close. They're both wonderful actors--it's a personal thing. Like in THE WIFE, those scenes with Glenn sitting there with that devastated look on her face. It felt like she was "doing a face."

However I totally agree with the above poster who said there are many styles of acting and people can be marvelous in them.

[quote]r31 I think Sharon Stone in her 90s peak - especially in Basic Instinct, Intersection and Casino - had that Golden Age, larger-than-life quality.

She's so good in CASINO. There's so many different moods in that performance.

It's a great part.

Thank you, R33, for your comment about Donald Sutherland.

His performance as Clark Clifford in "Path to War" - talk about mannered.

You could actually see him think .... "OK. Now it's time to steeple my fingers like Clifford."

So, so distracting.

Could someone provide a link to the Rebecca thread mentioned by the OP?

I can't get the Search function to work.

John Malkovich can be mannered in certain roles, but when he does so it typically works with the role and production.

Here you go, R36:

This is the opposite of mannered acting - there's nothing "pinned on".

You bet, R35, glad we agree. And it pains me, cuz ORDINARY PEOPLE is one of my favorite films, and I like Sutherland in it quite a lot, but the penultimate scene of him crying at the table is not my thing. Of course there was a story there-- they did it and Sutherland bawled and had a breakdown, practically. Redford wrapped principal photography, saw the footage and didn't like it. Called Sutherland back weeks--maybe months?--later and they did it again, much more toned down and held back. It's good, but you can kind of feel it's from a different energy or something. Like it doesn't connect with his earlier stuff in the film.

Love R39's clip -- god Jane Fonda was great in that. I love that kind of acting. Pacino in DOG DAY AFTERNOON is another, it's just so visceral. Love them both.

I think what I like is when the actor uses herself in a truthful way-- so you get a sense of her "Jane Fonda-ness" in KLUTE. Those famous actors have it in droves early in their careers; I'm thinking of Nicholson in FIVE EASY PIECES, so forth. Later it becomes harder to maintain, because they are famous and the public has a strong sense of their brand, their persona, so forth.

I'd be curious to ask an acting teacher how much of this has to do with relaxation, too. I always am so impressed with how relaxed Robert Redford is on screen. It's why he's one of my favorites. I just find I can breathe while I watch him.

All of Warren Beatty's early performances (up to "Bonnie and Clyde") that I've seen are the epitome of empty, mannered (Method) acting, where what's on screen is all about the actor and his little tricks, which do nothing but call attention to himself and fail to create a believable character. "Mickey One" is particularly awful. It's interesting to see him in "Splendor in the Grass", where Natalie Wood and Barbara Loden give moving performances in good roles, and there he is next to them on screen, grand-standing like Warren the Great Actor in a mannered way that distances him from his co-stars and from the character of Bud, the Kansas high school student he is supposed to be playing.

I like the "mannered" style, I think it works well, especially if one is playing a historical figure, a classic work of literature, upper-class WASPs, etc... I also think it works well in Sci-fi. But, like others have said in this thread it doesn't work for more ordinary characters or ordinary situations. I prefer my movies to be less about real life and more of an escape with larger than life characters.

I dropped out of an acting class, one time, because the instructor said I was too mannered, and he wanted us to be more natural in the "method" style. But, to me mannered came to me naturally. I didn't want to BE the character, I just wanted to PLAY the character. I wish I had continued on with acting, so I could have been a success and rubbed his nose in it. We did have a showcase before I quit, and I was the only actor in it that people actually liked.

[quote] I saw parts of French Lieutenant recently. It didn't age well. Streep is very mannered and it really pales compared to her later performances.

[quote]r40 I think what I like is when the actor uses herself in a truthful way-- so you get a sense of her "Jane Fonda-ness" in KLUTE.

She is utterly amazing in that film, and rightly won the Oscar for it. When she cries at the climax of the film, there's no attempt to make it pretty ... a drop of snot actually drips from her nose at one point. This is how people REALLY cry.

And it did tie in to Fonda's genuine reaction. She didn't know how she was going to play that key scene, exactly, but she felt overwhelmed with emotion as she listened to the audio casette that's played in it, and simply responded in an unguarded way.

So what is the adjective that applies to Madonna’s acting? Is that ‘mannered’? Because it seems like her shallow, self-indulgent, shy smirk shows through regardless of the role. It’s an odd quality, and probably the very reason she cannot be cast in anything anymore. Just painful to watch.

I think Vincent D'Onofrio on Law and Order Criminal Intent owns this thread. Close behind is William Shatner in the old Star Trek episodes.... Stock theatrical devices, such as a breathy pause, an overemphasized word that substitutes for a real convincing character, especially when such devices are carried from role to role to role read as "mannered" to me.

R46 isn’t D’Onofrio’s character supposed to have on-the-spectrum emotional issues? It seems like they backed into that character development after his acting got strange.

R43 I'm no fan of that overused, overhyped freaky American woman who seems to enjoy faking foreign accents.

But she was playing two roles in that movie and one of those roles was a maddening, bitchy, manipulative, annoying nutcase.

Dear R42, do you relish you have used the word "I" more than twenty times?

An actor is supposed to be the servant of the author's text.

Thank you, R38, for the link.

Is anyone else having problems with the "Search" function?

[quote]r43 I saw parts of French Lieutenant recently. It didn't age well. Streep is very mannered and it really pales compared to her later performances.

She has said she doesn't like that performance of hers, either.

[quote] Is anyone else having problems with the "Search" function?

Many, many are. There have been threads about it the past several days.

The crappiness of our search function has ruined my life, of late.

R49 I used "I" because I was speaking about me, and my personal experiences. I wasn't attempting to speak for all people who have ever acted, nor every person that has viewed performances. I was instead sharing my personal opinion.

I agree that the the actor is supposed to be the servant of the author's text. That is why I don't agree with "being" the character. It isn't the actor's responsibility to understand the character's motivations or reasoning for doing something, you just do it because that is what is written. And, if the character doesn't have a back story, then there isn't one. My acting instructor wanted us to imagine what our characters ate in the morning, how old they were when they lost their virginity, what their first pet was, and other stupid things that absolutely nothing to do with the script we were acting from. The one exception is if you are in a soap opera or another long running show, where you have continuously played the character for sometime and the writers change, then, I feel, the actor has a right to say, not the character wouldn't do this or say that.

[quote]r54 It isn't the actor's responsibility to understand the character's motivations or reasoning for doing something, you just do it because that is what is written.

There are different approaches to acting. But generally, if an actor does not understand why the character is doing what they're doing, it's unlikely the performance will convey much psychological sense. It will most likely come across as very 2 dimentional.

[quote]r54 And, if the character doesn't have a back story, then there isn't one.

So, they're an amnesiac? If they're supposed to be a human being, they have a backstory. Good actors don't like to be wind-up dolls that just go through the paces, they want to connect with whoever it is they're playing. Understanding (or inventing, if the role is indeed not fleshed out, as written) who the character is and why they're doing what they're doing is how they can speak the lines with authority.

R55 To each their own. A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the best movies of all time. The two stars were very opposite. Brando was, as everyone, knows an early follower of method acting, and becoming and staying in character. Vivian Leigh was not that way, she was known to play cards with crew members, stop in the middle of a hand, go and do her scene and then return and pick up the game where she stopped. The difference was that Brando had to "BE" Stanly, but Vivian just "played" Blanche. While both of them got acclaim, I prefer Leigh's acting in the film to Brando's.

To me it comes down to whether acting is a talent that you either have or don't have, or if it can be taught. And, inhabiting a character instead of just playing a character, seems more artificial and in a way cheating, because you are no longer acting, you are in effect sharing an aspect of yourself.

Not to derail, this excellent thread. But the DL search function has struggled for a long time. I know Muriel is working on it. I actually have always had better luck using google to search for DL threads. Right now I am more plucked about the WWs not working. They weren't for a while, then finally came back, and now it seems patchy.

When I see a good post and want to give it some of that sweet, sweet WW lurrve, but I can't, it's frustrating. And no, bitches, I'm not whining for me. I am happily self aware enough to know I am both witless and devoid of wit.

R45 Speaking of wit, I don't think Madonna is a natural wit, and is too controlling to let a good writer put witty words in her mouth. I think she is far too self conscious to let herself "go" in a role. I don't think she gets camp *at all*, another very big strike against her, and at her age (sorry, but true) she either needs a talent for excellent acting or a feel for camp, if she is to succeed, and she has neither.

Yes, I know my post was a grammatical disaster. Oh, dearing myself. But hopefully you bitches got my meaning.

I was in rehearsals for a college play and we were doing some kind of improv exercise suggested by the "dramaturg" (who I thought was so up her butt). All the actors were looking in the mirror--I forgot why--and at one point I remember her saying my name and the note, "Not so precious." I was SO pissed (embarrassed, I guess) and I never forgot it.

Whenever I hear the word "mannered," I think of "preciousness." That woman made me fear/hate it greatly!

Although I loved the film at the time, Jodie Foster's acting in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS strikes me now as precious and mannered.

I just used the DL search function and typed “mannered”.

Every actor since the Greek stage (500BC), to today, came up.

Point is, they’re all mannered to some degree. The good ones know when and how to use it, or, not use it at all.

Synonyms: Overacting, Overreacting, Affected, Hammy

[quote]r56 Vivien Leigh was not that way, she was known to play cards with crew members, stop in the middle of a hand, go and do her scene and then return and pick up the game where she stopped.

But that doesn't mean she didn't want to understand the character, or wonder about their past. It just meant she could slip in and out of the character very quickly. And, she had just finished doing the role onstage in London, so it was still close to her.

The 2 roles Leigh won her Oscars for were actually very close to who she was as a person, at those stages of her life. She identified very deeply with both Scarlett and Blanche, and you're seeing a lot of her real issues in those performances.

It is true that she "locked" a stage performance, and once the play was up and running the day to day performances never varied one iota.

R59 Sorry about that. Drama teachers are just that, as they can't get roles; I hope that helps take away the shittiness of it all a tiny bit. I also agree with you re: Foster. VERY mannered in really almost every role, perhaps, save, Taxi Driver and Foxes. One could make the mannered argument for Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, but, that style came off as genuinely being the character. Her mannered style came off as try-hard to be her character. But that's just me.

Using that movie as an example of an UN mannered acting style. That would go to Ted Levine who deliciously threw himself into that role. Magnificent.

Isn't R1 the most boring, repetitive, asshole commenter on DataLounge?

For many years now, he never misses an opportunity to insert his stupid, nonsensical, "Click-click-click" comment anywhere anyone brings up the subject of acting. What an utter bore this man must be to have to sit next to.

Especially since Katharine Hepburn (whose quote that is) was INCREDIBLY mannered.

Occassionally unnervingly so.

Back in the day, I remember as a young gayling that actresses like Sandy Dennis and Geraldine Page were called 'mannered' because they used physical "tics" in their performances that some felt made them seem affected - not that you could see them 'acting'. (I love that type of acting which also includes Maggie Smith and others)

Maybe the definition has changed. If it now means being able to see that someone is acting than Meryl Streep is the most mannered actress out there. I can 'see' her acting especially in films like French Lieutenant's Woman, Kramer vs. Kramer - hell even Sophies Choice especially in the choosing between her children scene - BUT I LOVE all those performances. I also love SILKWOOD where I feel Meryl truly lost herself in the character and I didn't see the acting.

It's also probably subjective because their are performances that are praised to the stars by critics that I just don't get, and then other performances that I think are genius that leave others cold.

So Who the Fuck Knows.

R59 "Although I loved the film at the time, Jodie Foster's acting in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS strikes me now as precious and mannered"

Nailed it. Yes!!

I just watched R39's clip of Fonda. Excellent scene. But watch her in Coming Home again, (or try to). She should be wearing a scarlet "M" on her blouse. Did she forget?

I...am now...emoting...with many looks...to my left...my right...up...down, applying the...Vicks...ointment underneath...my...very...pointy...nostrils.

Deep...breath...must relay...concentration...and...concern.

^^what Jodie was like in bed with men, before she discovered women and realized she didn't have to fake it.

^^ Chick-a-dee...

[quote]I always am so impressed with how relaxed Robert Redford is on screen.

I think he goes from boring to horrible.

He ruined "Out of Africa" with his bad acting.

And speaking of the cast of "Out of Africa" the most 'mannered" performance I have ever seen is Meryl in "The French Lieutenant's Woman." That performance has not aged well. She may as well be Norma Shearer trying to do accents.

As mentioned upthread, "mannered" can work in WASPy roles or a film that wants to remind you that it's an adaptation of a stage play.

Sigourney Weaver in THE ICE STORM

Philip Seymour Hoffman in THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY

Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, which Will Smith plays against

James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause."

His "YOOOOOOOOOOU'RE TEEEEEARING ME APAAAAART!" scene is embarrassing.

Annette Bening can be very good, but she was very "mannered" in "American Beauty."

It was community theater.

R74 I don't know whether or not to agree with you. I just know I loved this scene.

I don't give a shit if an actor is mannered as long as I like a performanceand it feels right . Sometimes heightened acting works. No one wants to see realism in a comedy. I think for example Kate Hepburn was mannered in The Philadelphia Story but it was right for the part, and she imbued the character with a lot of pathos too. Also Davis is usually affected and mannered in everything but it works, there's still conviction behind it. In fact most actors are in some ways mannered a lot of the time.

They don't know how to act. So they're acting like a person who can.

They had some really dumb studio coaches back then.

Being mannered doesn't just apply to WASPy roles. Check out Portnoy's Complaint, Next Stop Greenwich Village, and any Woody Allen film to see mannered Jewish performances.

And don't even get started on mannered acting applied to Italian Americans - Goodfellas and My Cousin Vinny anyone?

Is Daniel Day Lewis mannered?

R79 KING

R56 and R61, Leigh was a British actor. In her day the learned acting by learning to act Shakespeare. To a great extent most British actors still learn this way. They learn to develop a character from the words. This isn't constricting because for most Shakespearean parts the language is so complex that multiple interpretations of a character's motivations are possible along as they all come from the words. Also, having to learn to scan the lines while in character really sharpens the craft. Of course, many British actors can still be hammy or horribly mannered. Ironically, given that we are talking about Leigh, I think Olivier could be overly mannered, especially in his Shakespearean performances. That said, his method (pun intended) wasn't to fault. When he was overly mannered, he clearly chose to be.

There's something about that scene in r48 that has always puzzled me: why does Streep do a slight chuckle to herself at the 0:54 mark? Is it meant to convey that Anna (the actress) has a tiny moment when she breaks out of character?

[quote]r33 Like in THE WIFE, those scenes with Glenn sitting there with that devastated look on her face. It felt like she was "doing a face."

That's why she never won the Oscar. She's only acting on the outside. And you can't hide it. Everyone can tell.

r83, she has been nominated many times, that wouldn't happen if people thought she was a bad actress.

Dataloungers are very impressed by mannered acting sometimes. Two performances I've seen dataloungers praise heavily over the years that seem to me ridiculously mannered are Brad Pitt in "12 Monkeys" and Miranda Richardson in "Damage." On both cases, you can practically see the actors in screen think out their mannerisms (Pitt's finger-twirling, Richardson's Carol Burnett-style grimacing) before they perform them in an over the top style, but Dataloungers seem to find these performances really powerful for reasons I've never understood.

I, for one, love Bening in American Beauty. She was my mother. To a T. I believed her every second.

I do find it interesting that acting is so polarizing. It's easy to understand why movies themselves can be polarizing since some people simply aren't going to like certain kinds of stories, but even if I don't like a film as a whole, I can admit that the actors did a great job or the cinematography was wonderful. I always figured everyone else would agree and then I started hearing people bash films completely including the performances and technical aspects simply because they didn't like the story. I've always found that approach rather strange. Just because a film is bad doesn't mean the actor's performance is bad. I think Glenn Close's performance in The Wife got a lot of hate simply because the film itself wasn't that great.

R86 You say Bening was your mother to a T.

I say you painted that impression on the black canvas that is Bening.

Most DataLoungers love Bette Davis who is possibly the queen of mannered acting. Even in her best roles. You can't argue that she was ever "real" or that she didn't employ ticks and contrivance that were obvious

Being mannered in my book is when the actor decides in advance that the character should talk like that, laugh like that, move like that, and then he/she follows the instructions in the scene.

R88 You say 'most DataLoungers love Bette Davis'.

I am not one of them.

She was appallingly undisciplined unless being controlled by a master like William Wyler.

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were always ACTING in everything they did. Everything was big and defined and broad. And boy, it was fun. This mannered style can be super fun to watch, because it seems as if the actors are truly having a ball (most of the time). Yes, it typically works more in comedy than drama. For example, both women have made me howl with laughter or make me smirk, but neither has ever made me cry from one of their performances. Ditto Dunaway and Hepburn.

It's a mostly dead style these days. People prefer blank faced bores like Rooney Mara. Less isn't always more.

Brando is such an interesting case-- with STREETCAR, of course he had been running in it on stage for many performances before doing the film, so who knows what he would have been like in the film had he not had all that background.

And Brando studied with Stella Adler, not really with Lee Strasberg, and both had differing takes on Stanislavksi. So saying Brando is a Method actor is right, but a little problematic.

The Method is largely misunderstood--and has come to mean something different over the years, it's so fascinating. Isaac Butler, who co-wrote the oral history of Angels in America, is writing a history of The Method and I think it'll be very good.

Brando could be great or terrible. Kinda similar to Richard Burton in that way.

Mannered acting = Bette Davis

Way overrated as an actor and playing herself in every role in an annoying way

But what Bette Davis does is bring a complete conviction to what she's doing, and she shows imagination. And real vitality.

Some stars from that era just have 1 or 2 of those things.

I can overlook some "mannered" acting if the actor brings a star power that is entertaining. That is their job: to entertain.

The undisciplined Bette was more mannered than King Richard III.

[quote] As mentioned upthread, "mannered" can work in WASPy roles or a film that wants to remind you that it's an adaptation of a stage play. Philip Seymour Hoffman in THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY

He got praised so much for his role in Ripley, but to me it was mannered without depth. He didn't seem like a young man of privilege who could see through others but rather an actor acting as such through whom the audience could see.

Ben Mendelsohn reminds me of Sir Ian at R72.

[quote] . Two performances I've seen dataloungers praise heavily over the years that seem to me ridiculously mannered are Brad Pitt in "12 Monkeys" and Miranda Richardson in "Damage."

I agree with the latter but not the former as being mannered. Pitt tries to inhabit his character in almost every role, but ends up just being Brad Pitt with tics. That's not mannered.

It's just Brad Pitt with tics.

In fairness to Brad Pitt, he is a dreadful actor.

I think it made sense for Eve to be mannered. The character had a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality. When she took off the mask and was a bitch, she seemed natural. Overall I liked what Anne Baxter did with her.

In fairness to Brad Pitt, he was hilarious in "Snatch".

I wish I'd been a great actress like Meryl...

Hepburn moves me at the end of Long Days Journey Into Night when she descends into madness. I find her mannered yet at times very effective. How's that possible?

This is a fascinating thread.

My own 2 cents...

I think a mannered performance is something that asks the viewer to consider it as a performance. This can be an aesthetic decision, a psychological one or a historically motivated one. Sheryl Lee in "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" gives a mannered performance because she is playing a teenage girl with a horrific inner life who is trying to keep herself looking as normal as possible. Lauren Bacall in "Murder on the Orient Express" gives a mannered performance because her character is an actress pretending not be an actress. The cast of "All About Eve" give mannered performances because they're all neurotic intellectuals in the theater and none of them can let their reputations for performance down. An actor or actress in Kabuki theater in Japan gives a mannered performance because certain types of readings, poses, vocal tones and costumes have a deeply symbolic value integral to the conception of the work. The cast of Goddard's "Weekend" give mannered performances because Goddard wanted the view to be aware of the artificiality of the film as a construct. Kubrick directed increasingly mannered performances because in some sense his later films are about metaphysics.

I would say that when a performance is about the simple act of it being a performance - rather that what that means in context - we are seeing camp. Which can be superb, but is not quite the same thing.

When a performance simply seems artificial with no contextual or aesthetic delivery we are simply seeing bad acting, bad direction or a combination of the two.

[quote] even if I don't like a film as a whole, I can admit that the actors did a great job or the cinematography was wonderful. I always figured everyone else would agree and then I started hearing people bash films completely including the performances and technical aspects simply because they didn't like the story.

So what you're saying is that your taste is infallible, and that if other people disagree with you about a performance, then it is they who must be wrong.

I'm glad I don't know you in real life. You sound insufferable.

Jack Nicholson is mannered often yet lived and considered a great actor. I don't think mannered always equals bad.

Mannered acting is what gets you 21 nominations and 3 awards.

(I told G, move your hands more. Rub your neck like Jess. Stammer like Geraldine Page. That just standing there looking somber is going to make you lose to that hammy toothy British woman)

Why is Daniel Day Lewis considered mannered in The Phantom Thread? He's very subtle

I'm surprised this thread has gone on so long without any mention of Cate Blanchett. I love her, but she's mannered. A lot of the time it works for the film and character though.

Blanchett is very mannered in Notes on a Scandal. "Here I am here i AM"

I love mannered, hambone actors like that british cow who won the Oscar. At least I can tell she had the time of her life.

Has that freckled queen Redmayne been mentioned? He loves to flail his hands around and deliver his lines in a self-important tone, all while being terribly aware of the camera.

Gee, I don't think I get it. So, if you are "mannered" you act like a dikey lesbian? Is that it?

"Mannered" also can refer to specific mannerisms that performers carry from performance to performance, regardless of the character. They're their Go To choices that seep into all they do, and they grab at them again and again like the drowning grab life rafts.

LOVE Notes On A Scandal. One of the best for both actresses.

Two 4 One!

Mannered AND Melodramatic

I think the acting is alright for the period and specially for the script, let's not act like it was meant to be an Antonioni flick or something.

WHAT about Nicolas Cage?

[quote]R117 Two 4 One! Mannered AND Melodramatic

I love the way she says insinuatingly, "Eve would, wouldn't you, Eve?", dropping her voice lower.

Then she kind of drunkenly steps on her dress climbing the stairs.

I think you're allowed to be mannered when you're playing a Broadway star.

R107, I don't think that's what they're saying. Maybe I interpreted it wrong, but it seems like they're saying that there are some aspects of a film that should be universally loved or hated. For example, I don't like Citizen Kane as a story, but I can't say that it's not beautifully made and has some of the best cinematography of all time. If someone were to say "Christ, the cinematography in Citizen Kane is shit", that person would be a raving lunatic. I also think it's interesting that performances aren't always judged that way. Even if a film is awful, we should be able to say "yeah, that movie sucked, but that actor sure was giving it their best." Sometimes, a lot of people do throw the baby out with the bathwater and bash every aspect of a film they didn't like even if some aspects (acting, music, cinematography, etc) were actually quite good.

Give me an alive, mannered performance over a sulky, sullen "brooding" modern performance any day of the week. I know people make fun of Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment these days, but that performance actually moved me and made me feel something.

Don't people say Jennifer Jason Leigh is mannered? I can see that a bit in the movie Georgia. Mare Winningham is literally doing just about nothing in her scenes, but you're sorta drawn to her wonderful stillness. Leigh is darting every which way like a crazy person. I'm fairly certain that was intentional, though, and it works. One sister is stable and calm and the other is a wild card. I think mannered performances like that can work depending on the context. If Leigh played her character as still and placid as Winningham, the movie wouldn't work.

Tom Hiddleston's performance is mannered in "Midnight in Paris" and in his 'Loki' role. Mannered performances can act like a great contrast to the more natural performances of the other actors if it is done right or act as a parody, providing interest to the audience and waking the audience up.

Well mannered acting!

Olivia Colman is a VERY mannered actress. What she does very well is cry. Her tears are always hanging on those drooping eyelids. Awful woman. But at the same time, very moving. That's mannered for you: hammy, but proficient.

Mary Tyler Moore's performance in Ordinary People was very mannered. Her mannered performance reflected the fake behaviour of the character who was hiding her pain and inner turmoil behind a facade.

R121 The thing about Citizen Kane is that it's a victim of the critics who made it a masterpiece that is unassailable. Everyone now refuses to see it as anything other than great cinematography. But it's much more. Some of the best , and moving dialogue ever put in film. The speech by Bernstein about the girl in a white dress. The identifying of childhood through common objects. The Hermann Score, the powerful Welles performance. The first in your face depiction of attempted suicide. Great movie.

I'm not a fan of Meryl Streep's mannered performances. It seems to serve very little purpose and lacks charm.

r127: Buck would have never delivered a mannered performance!

R85 - And that's the role Brad Pitt got some nominations for, too. I remember seeing it in the theater and thinking, "Wow. He even fucked THIS role up, too."

I cannot STAND him. Everything he does is false and calculated. Even in interviews. He's "always acting" (and never very convincingly). He has ruined many a film for me.

Julia Roberts is often pretty mannered (not always, though). Regardless, I find her fascinating to watch, no matter what she's in. She definitely has "it," whatever that is. I know she gets a lot of hate here on DL but there's something to be said for someone who you find watchable no matter *what* they do on screen.

I thought Julia Roberts' best performance was, surprisingly, in that ridiculous August: Osage County movie. She was the only one on screen who seemed like a human being and it was refreshing to see her as such a bitter, angry character. There was a surprising lack of vanity there.

Hey Mom - Buck's cock was mannered.

[quote]I'm surprised this thread has gone on so long without any mention of Cate Blanchett.

I thought she was hilariously mannered in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Her plummy Connecticut accent sounds like Tracey Ullman recreating the ping pong ball speech from Auntie Mame.

R133 is 12 and wandered into the wrong thread.

^^ Beth, trying desperately to distract

I always feel Nicole Kidman is acting the part, and not the part. The best acting I have ever seen in a biopic was Judy Davis as Judy Garland, she was so good it was quite frightening. I suppose the opposite to mannered acting is method acting. You hear of method actors not being able to let go of their characters for months after their performance, and if the onus of the method is to actually feel the characters feelings and believe you are the character, I imagine it would be easy to become somewhat mentally unsound in your journey to portraying the character in what is essentially becoming someone else entirely. Does anyone know if Faye Dunaway is a method actor, she still seems to be Joan Crawford in real life lol.

Hepburn in that Coco clip. Jesus.

It's like she wringing every last word from her dusty, atrophied twat.

[quote]r134 I thought she was hilariously mannered in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Her plummy Connecticut accent sounds like Tracey Ullman recreating the ping pong ball speech from Auntie Mame.

But she is playing a gratingly superficial person - her performance is pitch perfect and gives such a good contrast to a lot of the seriousness around her.

It's an intentionally mannered style.

^ I totally agree. She was playing a mannered person.

R128 Hepburn may have appeared OTT in that Coco clip. But that's because stage-acting is bigger than screen-acting.

SJWs like to complain about Larry being OTT playing the Mahdi.

I say that the Mahdi was a mad Jihadist. And he was playing a performance outdoors to rouse a mob of 3000 cultists.

With my Miss Bunny. Nuff said.

Sandy Dennis gets that alot. I disagree. She is a true original. And my all time favorite actress.

R144 Are you a fan of Steel Magnolias?

Sandy Dennis was always said to be mannered, but whatever she was, she was great. You can never take your eyes off of her when she's on screen. To me, that's talent. She was known for playing mostly wackos and kooks, so she sometimes used a few of the same tics and mannerisms.