Name an actor/actress that you can always see that they’re acting?

AnnE

John McGinley (Scrubs)

Ed Helms (The Office)

As much as I love her, Laura Linney

Tom Cruise.

I think he's too much of a psycho/control freak to ever truly let go and become the character.

He gives a good performance occasionally, but never a truly great one

Anthony Hopkins.

Armie Hammer. (I think his career has finally been put out of its misery though. No more painful attempts at acting for him.)

Jessica Lange. She always does that neck massaging thing in every role she plays to show that she's some fragile doll.

Brando. He always over-acted.

Katherine Hepburn.

Nicole Kidman almost always; Meryl Streep occasionally -- the early roles, Plenty, French Lieutenant's Woman (both appallingly stagey performances), the Iron Lady recently.

Leo Dicaprio

Bette Davis

R7 She didn’t do that in any of her Oscar winning or nominated performances, though she does use that mannerism in other roles. It’s like how Meryl does her eye darting, nose rubbing, and ear scratching.

Gerard Butler

Jennifer Lawrence is one of the more obviously dishonest actresses I’ve seen in recent years. ‘Winter’s Bone’ was a fluke.

Emma Stone’s monologue in ‘Birdman’ sounded like it was being performed in an acting class—it was a Big Speech and not verbalized thought.

Meryl owns this thread. You can practically hear the wheels of her mind churning with self-directed movements and speech. Not that she isn't a good actress but she definitely exudes "I'm acting!"

R15 Leave Meryl alone! I love her tics.

[quote] Meryl owns this thread. You can practically hear the wheels of her mind churning with self-directed movements and speech. Not that she isn't a good actress but she definitely exudes "I'm acting!"

One might even say "Click, click, click."

Meryl Streep in August Osage County.

The ham on the table wasn't as hammy as this bitch. One of her most undeserved Oscar nominations.

Meryl Streep

You bitches are evil 😂

Madonna. When she acts.

R20, you're a bit late to the game. See R17 and R15.

Sarah Paulson. That fivehead cunt couldn’t be subtle if you paid her to be.

With Jessica, Ryan Murphy cast her as the same character over and over again. It’s sad no one else will hire her.

Streep is so well known but she is constantly surprising. She seems fearless.

Agree about Leo. I never feel like he disappears. He is iconic but always forced. Same with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Viola Davis

Cameron Diaz

reading this thread is so exhilarating!

The spawn of M.

Really they are not fit to be called 'actresses'. If horse head hadn't shat them out they wouldn't get a look in for the minor roles they have managed to snag over the years.

Viola has that Juilliard diction and don’t you forget it!!!

R24 Honey, Lange doesn’t want to work. She turned down Tarantino’s offer for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and god knows how many more of Ryan’s offers.

She’s to busy photographing, being charitable, and taking walks with Sarandon to appear at the opening of every envelope.

Denzel

Anna Mae Wong

*too

Depending on the movie, Meryl Streep. Her performance in The Iron Lady was just ghastly and I still can’t believe she won an Oscar for it.

[quote] Cameron Diaz

She acts?

The poster who acts like he is Jessica’s friend is

I love Meryl but her work in season two of Big Little Lies was strange and off. I don’t even think they nominated her for SAG or the Globes, did they?

However, she gave one of my favorite performances of 2020 and of her career in Let Them All Talk. She was subtle and heartbreaking.

R3 how dare you! Laura Linney has this natural effervescent presence, it always reminds you of that confident girl you secretly admired in the high school.

I utterly agree with R3 about Laura Linney. Sorry, R38.

Who else?

Faye Dunaway, though I like some of her work, is so affected. Chiiile, she’s in constant drag Queen mode.

Kate Winslet. Actually all of them. They are actors.

Madonna!

Angelina Jolie.

Nicole Kidman is constantly sighing and perpetually constipated looking.

Hillary Swank. I’ve loved her - quite a bit actually - in three films: Boys Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby, and Conviction (she’s so underrated in this one).

Jodie Foster

Joan Collins has been Alexis both on screen and offscreen ever since the first day she worked in Dynasty.

Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man."

This thread went off track from the very beginning.

Julia Roberts. It’s always a wink wink aren’t I a star with ol’ horse face.

Adam Driver owns this thread

Another vote for Jennifer Lawrence. How that bitch is an Oscar winner is truly baffling.

R18, Sissy Spacek should have had Meryl’s role in August. Now there is an actress you can count on for subtlety and actions coming naturally from a richly developed interior life.

R53 Spacek would’ve been interesting.

Lange would’ve been stunning as Violet, along with Robin Wright as Barbara and Tuesday Weld as Mattie Fae. Sam could’ve kept his part; in fact, preferably so.

R4 Tom Cruise is truly great in Collateral

Miss Spacey, latterly of Netflix and the legitimate theatre

Streep gets a lot of flak but people talk about her ALL THE TIME.

I do hope Jessica gets a good screen role again. She had a lot of screen time in Feud but she was completely miscast as Joan Crawford.

Sean Cody’s Daniel

Lange will probably come out with an obscure indie in a few years that’ll win or come close to winning her a third Oscar.

Unlike most of her peers, she’s won the three most distinguished acting awards, most of them multiple times. She’s good and I don’t blame her for not wanting to do much else outside of focusing on traveling and her photography. She was never as hungry as most of Hollywood is. She still has under 50 credits.

I don’t know if she always does it, but I saw The Goodbye Girl on TCM recently and that so describes Marsha Mason. She just seemed to be impersonating an insecure neurotic woman, not acting one. Very annoying and Richard Dreyfus wasn’t much better. Nonstop shtick for many scenes. Yet apparently when this movie came out it got raves.

And I hate to say it but I can see Sally Field acting in almost every movie I’ve seen her in.

And most importantly, Meryl still fangirls.

Totally agree r53. Spacek is somehow underrated. She really should be getting the meaty roles as Meryl does.

And she should have Halle Berry's Oscar. Her performance in In the Bedroom was astonishing. The slap scene was so powerful. The way Spacek was trying to contain her rage and then unleashed it. That's acting that is effortless and authentic. You felt the pain of her character.

Did Frances really shit in a bucket in take after take?

Thank you, R50, the thread was getting mighty long without Julia Roberts' name coming up.

Meghan Markle

Ben Stiller

CZJ

Really, all the way to 62 and NO Anna Kendrick? She’s queen of what I like to call “Her master’s voice” where she cock’s her head like the little dog at the victrola and then scrunches her face up and then seems to hold it one note too long as if she’s awaiting applause.

Cate Blanchett, Judy Davis, Nicole Kidman: three overmannered Australian hams.

R66 Bitch, Cate and Judy are perfection. You can have Constipatia Sighs.

Most of you guys are guys are crazy. I like her a lot but Brie Larson as the southern mother with a brown perm in that recent ‘Just Mercy’.

R68 I loved her in Room but she’s irked me since.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick....

I second R67, Cate and Judy are both very good actresses.

[quote] that so describes Marsha Mason

When she was recurring on Frasier she was the same way.

R70, see R17 and R15, and while you're at it, see R20.

Cher

Streep

R65 Anna who?

Ashley Judd and deliberate diction.

R73 I get the feeling that you’re a hurt Streep fan. Your “over it” tone is endearing, actually. You know we love her!

There are some gestures & expressions in certain Streep performances (Silkwood, Cry in the Dark) that are analogous to the Uncanny Valley effect, somehow too real. The fact that they are so obvious is what generates awe.

R79 Cool post and I agree. That they’re so obvious generates awe? How do you mean?

Streep as Silkwood retrieving a sandwich from the refrigerator, it's ridiculous but I'd watch the movie just to see her do it again. Number of things like that, somehow amazing.

R30 What role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did Lange turn down? The only hag I recall in that was Brenda Vaccaro and it was a 'blink and you miss it' appearance.

Meryl FUCKING Streep. Scene chewing monster.

Michelle Collins--former View co-host--said on her Sirius show that Kidman constantly looks like she's freezing.

Jared Leto

R82 The ingenue Sharon Tate, and she would have pulled it off seamlessly, she is THAT good!

Every actor in The 10 Commandments. Moses!

R1 As soon as I read the thread title, I thought Anne Hathaway. Funny how she was the first response

R62 yes, Spacek is breathtaking in that.

OT, but Nick Stahl also gives a powerful performance, especially in scenes with the equally-indomitable Marisa Tomei. Incredible that he was only 21 at the time of shooting.

Felicity Huffman; Rami Malek; Michelle Williams; Robin Wright; Ed Harris; Judi Dench; Tom Hanks; Sandra Bullock; Kate Winslet...

I never believe these people in any role.

Jude Law. He is smirking, smug, and self-conscious in everything. Apparently posh-boy accents and pretty-boy looks make up for absolute ineptitude.

Sissy Spacek reminds me of Candy Clark, another underrated and excellent actress with an alliterative name.

Clark is marvellous in my favorite obscure gay movie DOG TAGS (2008).

Meryl once said that as a young woman she went to see Liza in “The Act” who was ‘larger than life’ and informed her as to the kind of actor she wanted to be. So for those who don’t care for M’s acting style, you can blame Liza!

Maggie Smith. Meryl Streep. Katharine Hepburn (but in "Suddenly, Last Summer" her actressy quirks were brilliantly used. Otherwise, can't stand her).

Sean Penn, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Laurence Olivier.

Stephen Fry. Altogether too neurotic, silly, and affected. But then, he’s not really a proper actor anyway, is he?

#93 have you even seen "The Lion In Winter"? She nails it spectacularly. That bitch Barbra tied with her for the Oscar*

Not really important enough today to matter, but Ginger Rogers, in any of her "dramatic" roles, always seems to be trying very hard to "act." As charming as she could be in comedy, she really took herself too seriously otherwise.

Robin Williams

Is there an actor who didn't make this list?

Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett. Both very tasteful actresses but they’re always performing.

R7 Lange doesn’t do that once in Julie Taymor’s superlative TITUS.

Perhaps Jessica only does that playing weak scripts, to beef up thin material.

Agreed r97. After being gifted the Oscar for [italic]Kitty Foyle[/italic], she thought that she was a serious actress and turned down many roles she deemed unworthy of her post Oscar.

Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas

Armie Hammer

I forgot to mention the champ, Cate Blanchett. Her karaoke Hepburn was one of the most cringe-inducing performances I've ever seen.

The FRAUS love her but she ALWAYS seemed so ACTRESSY to me- MEG RYAN

Christian Slater, and I say this with love as a fan. Invariably he just plays versions of himself.

His attitude and the fact that the camera loves him is enough to make up for it, though.

From Law And Order SVU- he is a TERRIBLE actor - Detective Munch, can't remember his name.

R107- He is/was good looking and I bet he's HOT in the sack.

James Dean. Unwatchable.

R110, YOU'RE TEARING ME APAAAAAAAAART!

R110- I agree. I watched him in Rebel Without A Cause.

I was saying to myself- Stick a Fork In Him , he's DONE.

I'm back with another one, Audrey Hepburn. I know she's beloved by many and did admirable charity work, but in every performance, she seems to be in love with herself. She's very ungenerous with the other actors in any film since she inhabits a separate world that can only include her. She carried mannered wistfulness to an extreme.

R8- I LOVED Marlon Brando in the Godfather movies but in Streetcar Named Desire he was a total HAM. What a FRIGGIN overrated movie.

STELLA!

R113 Agreed. Audrey H played her image over and over. She ruined Breakfast at Tiffany's trying to play a party-girl. Capote said he wrote it with a Marilyn Monroe type in mind (dumb-but-smart) and was disappointed in the casting.

What character was breathy and horny in OUATIH?

Breakfast At Tiffany's would have been sensational with Marilyn, though it would have taken forever to film and MM would not have been happy playing a prostitute.

BTW, MM is someone who manages to never appear to be acting.

Jessica was to play an old corpse.

R82 That’s the role and now you know why it was reduced to a blink and you’ll miss it cameo. It was bigger, juicier, but Mizz Thang was off doing photography and had to show her loyalty to Turtle by doing AHS Apocalypse and The Politician. I’m still pissed at her for doing that especially considering what a fan of hers Tarantino is. I also think the Uma revelations may have irked her enough to turn it down. She’s Ethan Hawke’s favorite actress/biggest crush from his youth and she, Sam, Ethan, and Uma would hang out back in the day. (Incidentally, two ruggedly handsome Scorpios and two ethereal Tauruses.)

R101 Can you imagine Meryl, Glenn, or Sissy trying this?

😂

Brenda Vaccaro was in OUATIH??

Go away Lange Loon

The Lange Hater is irked.

I didn't know this until recently, but very few film directors these days actually give actors direction on their interpretation of their character. The actor is expected to develop it themselves and bring it to set with no rehearsal.

Emma Watson in the Harry Potter movies

[quote]MM would not have been happy playing a prostitute.

R117 I agree with all you say EXCEPT Holly Golightly was NOT a prostitute, she was a 'party girl' - yeah, semantics but Holly had her cigarette holder and upper-class clientele!

Katharine Hepburn

Dustin Hoffman

Bradley Cooper

R127 Two out of three correct. I think Dustin Hoffman is good 99% of the time.

Blake Lively.

In fairness, though, I will admit that her Serena van set Woodsen on GOSSIP GIRL was consistent (perhaps the most consistent on the show), eminently watchable, and very likeable, albeit also extremely shallow, one-note and out-of-character according to the books (and the books were shallow to begin with). Thankfully, for a CW teen drama, her skills were advanced enough.

Albert Nobbs

125 comments and no mention of Kevin Costner? Bitches, slipping, and all that.

You just know he practices every close-up face in the mirror before he steps onto the set.

Jane Fonda

R131 Kevin Costner is amazing.

Let me add that Blake’s sister Robyn is a far more natural, more skilled, less mechanical actress. She at least doesn’t sound as if she’s reading off a prompter, or silently saying her lines in her head.

Another vote for Leonardo DiCaprio. Insufferable.

Tom Cruise in "Collateral" is exactly the type of performance this thread is talking about.

It's a good performance on the surface. He's going through all the correct motions, and it's good enough and it works. It's fine. He's a tightly wound psycho in real life so his energy is well suited to play a tightly wound psycho on screen.

And people fell all over themselves praising him because it wasn't the usual Tom Cruise role. It was an unexpected choice for him, so people gave him a lot of extra credit just for that reason.

But I didn't really buy it for a second. I was aware the entire time I was watching that this was an actor, acting.

Click clack tick tock...

Keanu Reeves - if you can call that acting.

Like nails on a chalkboard

Robert Downey, Jr. and John Cusack. IMHO, they appear to be "performing," rather than acting.

Another vote for Ashley Judd. Every line reading is so measured and mannered.

Her best work.

Natalie Wood

R142=Pauline Kael

Hardly, r143...

I have 142 blocked so it must be from an insane asylum

Kristen Stewart... seriously.

Angie Dickinson. I saw her in some terrible old movie from the 90s recently and she just didn’t convince.

I’ve seen it all. The exhalation of Robyn Lively with the degradation of our greatest actresses as “hams”.

*exaltation

Since people are identifying all the great actors

Daniel Day Lewis

Judi Dench

The greatest living cunt in the spoken language, F. Murry Abraham

R148 The greatest actresses always do have a ham or two of a performance in them. It’s almost a rite of passage.

Who else?

Sandra Bullock. She’s charming but also has a bit of a wink wink to her.

Sandra Bullock has a less talented Jodie Foster way about her with leading men or single mothers. I assume they're playing women who have gone muffin diving or would like to but alas choosing the conventional lifestyle of man, children and a lifetime unhappiness. When they play divorced characters I assume the back story that she gave that life a try but choosing to live her truth in the lady pond.

Cate Blanchett, though I know most people disagree. In every role I've seen her in (15 thus far) her acting has been excruciatingly obvious, sometimes just hammy like LotR stuff, but in dramas, if the editing doesn't catch it, you'll see her blank looks when others are speaking and she hasn't reacted, I guess she's "saving it" for the shot/reverse shot takes. Just saw The Aviator a couple of months ago and I would swear she was looking for her marks once, but I doubt Thelma Schoonmaker would have missed it.

R153 = Nicole Kidman

Linda Lavin and Bonnie Franklin were torture to watch.

[quote]James Dean. Unwatchable.

About a thousand years ago someone on Usenet called him "Mr. Acting Pants" and that's how I've referred to him ever since. Seemed like he would be great to know in real life, but an absolute mess on screen.

Damn it, Schneider!

Sharon Stone owns this thread.

Sandra Bullock is the most famous closeted lesbian since Katharine Hepburn

R158 Don’t you know, Sharon Stone, is a brilliant actress on this board. Should have won a few Oscars. That’s about the biggest lie going that I’ve seen repeated here.

Sandy lives so quietly with her kids and a big dicked MAN.

WOMAN

I think the perception whether an actor is "acting" is entirely related to the material. Realism is a style and not a virtue or a measure of good or bad art. For instance "realism" is impossible in Shakespeare because of the incredibly stylized language - an actor must use his/her thought processes and voice to put it across and can't simply rely on being "real" (no such thing). Most material is so atrocious these days I barely notice the "acting." If the material isn't good there's only so much an actor can do. I'm not surprised that a poster upthread said directors don't direct actors and movies are shot with little to no rehearsal - it's obvious. I don't mind highly stylized acting if it suits the material. As Blanche DuBois said, "I don't want realism - I want magic!"

R114 RIght, Brando may seem hammy and over the top in Streetcar, but I've never seen another actor play Stanley who doesn't come off totally feeble by comparison.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt.

Streep can be very naturalistic and also bring out the ham when she wants. Even in August: Osage County where she's essentially an elderly drag queen the entire film, there's a wonderful moment that might be some of her best work when she talks about those boots her mom got her. As others have said, it comes down to the material and the direction sometimes.

Why would Streep play material like She-Devil, Death Becomes Her, or The Prom as anything other than a campy drag queen? That's what those roles require. There aren't many moments of poignant soul searching for those characters. She plays the roles as written and for maximum comedic effect. It's a far cry from her performances in stuff like Silkwood or Marvin's Room.

I believe the reason she's so lauded is because she's one of the few actors out there who's equally skilled at both comedy and drama. Not many people can pull both off.

It's the same for Jessica Lange's Ryan Murphy roles. They're mostly camp and she chews the scenery with the best of them.

Except that Ryan Murphy's material is atrocious and that Meryl at the very least finds material in which she can act at something, as opposed to behaving like a well-appointed, well-lit, animated corpse. Jessica Lange may have got some visibility out of appearing in Ryan Murphy dreck but it hasn't won her any respect. BABY JANE, THE NANNY, STRAIT-JACKET and BERSERK are masterpieces compared to what Lange's been slumming in. I find that ironic.

The entire cast of Big Bang Theory

R167 Oh honey, give it a rest already. We know you hate Lange - you’ve made that abundantly clear ad nauseam (it’s apparently pathological with you) - but she won 2 Emmys, 3 Dorians, her fifth Globe, a SAG, a Critics Choice, a Satellite Award, and countless other industry awards for her work in that “dreck,” so your claim is both pathetically laughable and wholly inaccurate. She’s also gained a shitload of younger fans who, six years after the bitch left, still love and talk about her performances on the show and continue to discover her film work. Most of her peers would kill to be as regarded by the industry and, of course, by Meryl Streep herself, who is perhaps one of Lange’s most demonstrative fans.

And, as if that wasn’t enough for a late-career resurgence, she won every theatre award under the sun, including that coveted Tony, a year after leaving AHS. So really, save your tall tales and embittered, rancid bullshit for someone else.

R169 She’s an old bitch. A nasty harpy and shrew from the alcohol and catastrophic plastic surgeries. She will never take another good film role.

Olivier. An old ham. That's what he was.

R170 😂 Simmer down, Tard; you’re working yourself into a tizzy.

She will always have Meryl Streep as a fan and Jane Fonda, Kathy Bates, and Susan Sarandon as best friends, but you probably consider them shrews too.

Jessica works so infrequently, I don’t even know why anyone is talking about her. Titus like most of her old films received bad reviews. Her Murphy TV characters can be funny but they are always very similar: the cutting bitch who is a washed up floozie.

Ms. Lange has worked infrequently by choice since the height of her career. She’s never been hungry or desperate unlike some...

Under fifty credits, baby.

Thank God.

The fury that comes out in some of these forums, I swear. All (well, almost all) of these women are great and capable of giving a great performance or two. Even actresses I don't normally like have delivered a performance I've enjoyed at some point in their careers.

R60, That old-fashioned Neil Simon style of comedy pretty much demands big, broad comic performances. Marsha Mason is capable of being better (ie, Cinderella Liberty).

Sure, R99, but listing the actors you can't see acting is a much shorter thread.

Daniel Day Lewis

Mark Rylance

The Dowager Cuntess

Some other brits.

Joan Allen (sometimes)

Julia and Jodie play the same character every time.

Warren Beatty

Robert Redford

Marilyn Monroe

James Dean

Sharon Tate

Yeah, Jessica Lange with the wrecked face works infrequently because she WANTS to... mmmhmm. She doesn’t want all those choice frau roles that Meryl gets. Absolutely not! She chose to play a nothing role as Marky Mark’s mother in ‘The Gambler’ failure because it was a delicious role! Same with Elisabeth Olsen in fucking ‘Therese Raquin’ or whatever. And Hush with cunt Goop!!!

R112, more like, “stick a clove in him - he’s HAM!”.

R182 Chiiile, she’s always purposefully taken extended periods of time off, even during the height of her popularity. In all honesty, she’s content and why shouldn’t she be? She’s won the awards that matter and she has plenty of fans along with high profile admirers, who are revered themselves, in the industry.

She took “The Gambler,” in which she was marvelous and received raves, because the part interested her and she wanted to work with Wahlberg, who she’s talked about admiring as an actor. She was also probably paid a cool mill for a couple of days of work.

She did Therese, in which she was also fantabulous and for which she also received raves, after Glenn Close backed out. Again, why not? It was a juicy part, she got to travel, and she was, again, probably paid another cool mill. It is a shame that neither film really delivered but Therese is worth it just for her work.

As for Kilronan, that would’ve turned out wonderfully had they not reshot and re-edited it to make Goop Gunt the heroine. Originally, it was far darker and much more tragic. Ms. Lange even beat up Gunt during the climax before she gets killed, but Gunt was vying for an Oscar and so didn’t want to come off as a weak murderer.

In either case, keep yapping away cause I know it quells your madness.

She admires Mark Wahlberg? Your fan fiction is too much Matt.

R185 Enough with the self-projection, Mr. Anscher.

All you are doing is pointing out all of her terrible projects and choices. You are hopeless.

R187 Just setting your silly ass straight. And be honest...

Helen Mirren.

Everyone adores her, she's flawless, she's perfection, she's luminous... and every time I see Gillian Anderson 'act' I roll my eyes and think 'There's Gillian and her ticks'. And, her skin is PARCHED btw, not flawless

I've heard most actors/actresses have no B-game these days.

Why is rehearsal such a no-no these days? Budget concerns? Or a weird belief that rehearsal will destroy the realism when it comes time to film?

YES R138 Keanu Reeves is fine but can't act his way out of a paper bag!

Kim Fields

Lana Turner

R184 Jessica Lange admires Marky Mark?

What the fuck is she on.

Jerry Seinfeld

Sofia Vergara

Judith Light

William Shatner

Leo diCaprio

Matt Damon

Meryl Streep (the thin, unexpected smile she wears in many roles seems to say, "Bow down, bitches, admire my craft!")

Johnny Depp

Robert Downey, Jr.

Annette Benning

Michael Keaton

Jeremy Renner

Another vote for Jodie Foster, mentioned early upthread.

Foster makes a big deal (and a personal point of pride) about never having "trained," no acting classes, formal training, etc. As a kid, her natural instincts served her well in front of the camera. As an adult, much less so: her lack of technique and verbal and facial "tricks" become more and more obvious.

Watch her Oscar-winning turns in THE ACCUSED and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. These are not good, believable performances that hold up over time. At moments, they border on camp.

Another vote for Tom Cruise. When people fell all over themselves over his Magnolia performance I just sighed and rolled my eyes.

Elisabeth Moss in the more recent seasons of Handmaid's Tale. She is all fluttering eyelids, quivering lips and flaring nostrils. She's become a parody of herself

Andie McDowell

Kristen Stewart

I loved Moss on MAD MEN, where she was fresh and surprising and funny. I agree that she spends a lot of screen time in HANDMAID acting with her lips and nostrils.

I’d say Jennifer Aniston but she can’t even act.

I have never seen an actor with greater, more explosive tics than Vincent D'Onofrio in Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

I agree about Angelina Jole . So overrated and one note. Kerry washing is affected and mannered and does that weird mouth thing that is so distracting. When you watch them you never see anything then them , acting as hard as their puffy lips can go.

Tyne Daly. I can tell when she's going to pause in a sentence. Always plays herself.

Kenneth Branagh

Emma Thompson. Always with that "head girl" sort of earnestness.

[quote] When you watch them you never see anything then them ,

Oh, dear!

Dustin Hoffman in everything, actually.

Emma Thompson gets a lot of sentimental love from the gays but she's capable of terrible and dull performances. She's not very versatile.

Remember when she won the Oscar for writing the screenplay for SENSE AND SENSIBILITY? Some of us anticipated her brilliant career as writer-filmmaker, a smart woman making sophisticated, funny movies for grownups. Well, that was back in 1996.

[quote]Another vote for Jennifer Lawrence. How that bitch is an Oscar winner is truly baffling.

My assumption is the same way she got her acting roles. How many Academy members would one have to bang to attain a plurality?

[quote] Michelle Collins--former View co-host--said on her Sirius show that Kidman constantly looks like she’s freezing.

Not all of her, just the facial muscles. Thanks, Botox!

[quote]The FRAUS love her but she ALWAYS seemed so ACTRESSY to me- MEG RYAN

I’d say Addicted to Love is an exception. She disappeared into that role playing against type as a crazy scorned ex.

Daniel Day Lewis is definitely someone who disappears into roles. In fact, if he hadn’t retired from acting there would be a non-zero chance of him secretely being one of the posters here preparing for a role as a bitter elderly queen.

R15 Spot on!

Helen Lawson.

Bump.

[quote]Another vote for Jennifer Lawrence. How that bitch is an Oscar winner is truly baffling.

I think it's pretty clear how she's an Oscar winner.

Well, since I guess we're necro-fucking this old thread, Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't "disappear" into anything. He's always there with his BIG "RESEARCH," and his BIG ACCENT, and his BIG MANNERISMS. He can fuck off and die, which I think he has done, so fair play to him then. Fuck him and his pseudo-intellectual approach and his stupid affected accents. His wife has less than zero talent, as well. I hope they are enjoying each other.

Also, I have hated that grating cunt Meryl Streep since I was a child. I cannot fathom why people praise her. It's like a meme, a mass delusion. She has never been good in any fucking thing. What is going on there? I'd rather watch anyone else.

Jennifer Lawrence doesn't even register with me. Who is that? She is so minor and will not be remembered anywhere if you have a broad view of anything.

I haven't read the entire thread, but I nominate Kristen Stewart! Really, one of the worst actresses I have ever seen. I can't stand seeing her "try to remember how to act" in every scene. She looks so uncomfortable in front of a camera, I can't figure out how she became an actress. Just awful!

I loved what Pauline Kael said about Meryl Streep: "She's pulled one too many foreign accent one us."

^on us

Meryl has coasted her entire career on the strength of a few great '80s performances. She does get a ton of roles though.

Ashton Kutcher, nothing but a pretty face.

Benedict Cumberbatch is this kind of actor. He's talented and compelling but he never disappears into the role. He's always doing a lot of acting.

R226 I totally agree. I thought this quality was put to really good use in The Power of the Dog and made him work in the role.

What’s interesting about this thread is that some of you are so critical I wonder how are you enjoy any entertainment at all. I’ve seen good performances from all of the people mentioned.

R227 Oh I agree. I also think that's why he was so amazing as Sherlock Holmes, who SHOULD stick out like a sore thumb.

R3 Laura Linney, bullshit. I've seen her completely emotionally nude on screen. Not just a good actress, but a gifted one.

R134 Oh whaat mf'er? Teen Witch? She's not good or natural or someone would have NOTICED the last 40 fuckin years

Matthew McConaughey

Jason Bateman

R201 is a drunk and lonely Glenn Close

Angela Lansbury, all the time.

Markle. She hasn’t ever had a single moment where she’s not acting. And badly.

Angela Lansbury is magical.

I just saw five minutes of an episode of Murder, She Wrote.....she was running to catch up to someone and when she reached him, she continued to run in place, forgetting she arrived?! LOL

Kidman, especially as Virginnia Woolf. Gillian Anderson was ridiculous as Margaret Thatcher albeit Thatcher did have a ridiculous assumed manner and accent.

"I chew your scenery!" "I chew it up!"