Performances where an actor or actress was waaaaay out of his or her league

Andie McDowell in Four Weddings and a Funeral

Jack Lemmon in Hamlet.

Keanu Reeves - Bram Stoker's Dracula

Skinny boy Frank Sinatra singing "Ol' Man River" as the very big finale to the Jerome Kern biopic "Till the Clouds Roll By".

Lucille Ball in Stone Pillow. She plays a bag lady on the streets of NYC and yet you can see the shtick of Lucy Ricardo coming through loud and clear. (I don't mention Mame because I think if she had attempted that as just the straight play without music, she would have been more successful).

Kate Hudson in The Four Feathers

Sofia Coppola, Godfather Part III.

Denise Richards as nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones in "The World Is Not Enough" (1999).

Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing.

Jared Leto in Basil. Definitely a high school play type performance

Lemmon is in HAMLET for only a short bit as Marcellus, one of the night watchmen at the beginning, but his flat, awkward line readings are painful.

Jessica Biel in Easy Virtue.

Hayden Christensen in anything

Betty Bacall's final Broadway production, 1999's WAITING IN THE WINGS (Noël Coward), in which she was blown off the stage not merely by Rosemary Harris but by all the other expert character actresses assembled for that cast: Patricia Conolly, Bette Henritze, Dana Ivey, Rosemary Murphy, Helen Stenborg and Elizabeth Wilson. (Of those supporting players, only Stenborg was nominated, but any of them would have deserved it.)

James Franco in Tristan and isolde.

R1, McDowell is an awful actress, but if the director knows how to use her, she doesn't ruin the film, which is what happened here.

Felicity Jones as Ruth Nader Ginsburg. Just....no.

[quote] Betty Bacall's final Broadway production, 1999's WAITING IN THE WINGS (Noël Coward)

During the run of this show, Miss Betty kept bragging how she was best buds with Coward. Finally, Rosemary Harris laid aside her British reserve and read Miss Betty for filth. She went down the list of the other women in the cast and told how each of them had ties with Coward.

I'll also add Kevin Kline as Nathan Landau in "Sophie's Choice". This fucking clown ruined the film for me (and typically does in ANY project he's in). Hamlisch's score is a favorite, however.

Tyra Banks hosting Dancing with the Stars

Ashton Kutcher in “The Butterfly Effect”. It wasn’t a great movie but I distinctly recall he was way in over his head next to his co-stars. I was young when I watched the movie and he was so out of place next to all the actors performing.

I feel like aside from low budget B movies, his was the worst acting I’ve ever seen in a major theatrically released movie.

Michael Keaton on 60 Minutes

Tea Leoni in Deep Impact. Granted, the movie as a whole was shit, but watching her pretend to be a reporter for MSNBC was painful.

Keanu Reeves in Dangerous Liasons.

Elizabeth Berridge in Amadeus. So bad we never heard from her again.

Tippi Hedren in Marnie.

Rob Lowe in that disastrous Alan Carr directed intro to the Oscars years ago......something to do with "young Hollywood." Ended Carr's career.

Olivia de H in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. She is no Joan.

Madonna in "Evita"

Lois Chiles in Death on the Nile. She couldn’t even play dead convincingly!

G. Let me not say any more but draw a curtain of pity and shame.

R28 And what about you fucking self.

Susan Alexander in Salammbô.

Marky Mark in The Departed

Sorry but, Jake and Heath in Brokeback Mountain.

Several big stars turned down Brokeback Mountain. I think director Ang Lee lucked out ending up with Jake and Heath.

[quote] I feel like aside from low budget B movies, his was the worst acting I’ve ever seen in a major theatrically released movie

He was in some little seen movie where he played a hustler of sorts snd he was dreadful. So wooden and void. Nothing there talent wise.

I disagree with some of these. I loved Elizabeth Berridge though I haven’t seen Amadeus in a very long time.

Talking about Ashton Kutcher above.

Jeanne Crain in "A Letter to Three Wives".

Anne Baxter in All About Eve.

Russell Crowe – Les Miserables - the entire movie adaptation sucked, in my opinion, but he stood out.

Chloe Sevigny in Love and Friendship. She cannot do period and her adenoidal voice can’t manage a trans-Atlantic accent and rapid dialogue. Most of the time it looked like she was breathing through her mouth. Her flat affect is fine for disaffected contemporary characters but not Jane Austen.

Producer David Zanuck was dead set on Crain for All About Eve. Director Joe Mankiewicz was dead set against her. The issue became moot when Crain reported she was pregnant.

Crain was fucking Zanuck. Her baby may have been his.

Box office poison!?

Keanu is the all-time champ of this thread.

I'm not limiting this to only movies:

Steven Webber in Jeffrey

Zachary Quinto in Broadway's The Glass Menagerie

Zooey Deschanel in just about anything. (I saw her only in The Happening, and her performance was an absolute horror)

Someone above mentioned Téa Leoni's cringe-inducing performance in Deep Impact. She's equally bad in Hollywood Ending.

Jerry Seinfeld in Seinfeld

Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder in Age of Innocence. Massive cringe for both of them, God, her accent! Ryder looked like a 12 year old and Lewis looked like her father btw. Horrific. Never read the book, maybe in a few years when I can concentrate again.

Honorable mention to John Agar, the Keanu of his time.

Leonardo DiCaprio in that Hoover biopic.

Rami Malek in The Little Things. It's an interesting study in three performances: one ultra natural, two highly technical.

Denzel plays the chief cop, and does pure relaxed naturalism, and it flows out of him like a river.

Malek plays an uptight straight-Joe offsider cop; but he seems at sea, and is horribly mannered, with none of the stellar naturalistic acting of Mr Robot that rocketed him to the top. Bill Magnessan would have been perfect for it.

Leto who plays the 'killer' also delivers a highly mannered, technical performance: I know some thought it terrible, but I thought it brilliant, and entertaining, and that it worked a treat for the character he plays.

Kim Novak in Vertigo.

R25. You’re right that Olivia was n Joan—Olivia could act.

Meryl in the French Lieutenant's Woman.

Meryl in Plenty.

Mery in The Iron Lady.

All horribly stiff and artificial clockwork performances, where you can see the gears turning, and her focus seems to be on her accent.

Beanie Feldstein in Funny Girl.

Lea Seydoux in Spectre and No Time To Die. Has two expressions: moody and sleepy. Zero chemistry with anyone. It's like watching a fashion model who's been thrown into acting, and been asked to emote. She could play a doughy baguette, but that's about it. I could feel sorry for her if I didn't know how much she's being paid.

I liked Michelle Pfeiffer in "AOI" but my god, Wynona was painful. There are actors that just CANNOT do period.Wynona is the worst. Both she and Keanu stunk up Dracula so bad.

Most of the actors on the revamped version of "Boys in the band", especially after seeing the original. Only the guy playing Bernard and the guy playing Larry seemed to even get near to the quality of the og actors playing their characters.

[quote]Jake and Heath

I thought Heath was excellent but Jake was so community theater it was cringy.

If Joan had played Miriam in HUSH, HUSH you would have known she was up to no good from the get-go, so Olivia was the better option in the end.

I liked Quinto in GLASS MENAGERIE, but not in BOYS IN THE BAND.

Katharine Hepburn in [italic]Undercurrent[/italic]. Ludicrously unbelievable as a damsel in distress. One of her worst performances. Next to [italic]The Iron Petticoat [/italic] with the moronic Bob Hope.

R13, I saw it during previews in Boston. Bacall was definitely out of her league and she needed to be prompted several times.

At the stage door after the matinee, there was a large van to transport the cast and one limousine for Miss Bacall.

Hugh Jackman's singing in, oh, almost anything, but "Les Miz" is much too hard a sing on his unusual combination of nasality and throatiness, and on his listener's ears -- though still not as bad as Russell Crowe's singing.

James Franco in "Oz the Great and Powerful."

Such an amateur.

Bruce Willis in [italic]Bonfire of the Vanities [/italic]! Should have banned his no talent ass from Hollywood for his performance in this. Even Melanie Griffith outshone him and that’s saying something.

Speaking of Melanie Griffith.....Shining Through

R57, you forgot Dragon Seed!

Rooney mara in the dragon tattoo film. Noomi Rapace was far superior.

Al Pacino in Revolution (1985)

Keanu Reeves and his English accent in Dracula.

Channing Tatum owns this thread.

"Kim Novak in Vertigo."

Wrong.

SPOILERS COMING UP, SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS: Yes, she struck a lot of false notes in the first half of the film, as "Madeline", but she was supposed to. Novak made a crap ethereal Hitchcock blonde because she was about as ethereal as Marie Dressler, but as it was all fake she wasn't supposed to be right. But as Judy, the real person, the solid, lonely, foolish, downmarket slut Judy, Novak was perfect! She's real, vulnerable, and tragic as she lets her romantic feelings and guilt suck her into Scotty's spiraling madness, It's the performance of her career, once you understand it.

"Vertigo" is Hitchcock's most overrated film.

In Union Pacific, Barbara Stanwyck plays a salt o' the earth Irish lass and her accent is NOT good. This is the only bad performance I've seen from her

THANK YOU, R53, so gratifying to seen that someone else feels the same way I do about Lea Seydoux. Not sure what the Bond producers were thinking casting her in not one but two films! Eva Green was WONDERFUL on “Casino Royale” but Seydoux always conveys somnambulism!

Speaking of Bond, I know that Denise Richards gets a lot of flak for being cast as a nuclear physicist, but she was hot off “Wild Things”‘at the time, so at least can understand what the producers were thinking. But they did her not favors by saddling her with a cringeworthy name and then introducing her in the film stepping out of coveralls into a tank top and short shorts. So I’ll cut her some slack.

Tom Cruise in "Far and Away"

Lea Seydoux radiates sensuality and is a hot blonde, so I can see why straight men cast her in things. I just haven't seen her do anything except be sensual, she should be cast as the secondary Bond Girl, the one that Bond always gets killed halfway through the movie, not the primary Bond Girl that he develops feelings for.

Is "No Time To Die" worth a couple of bucks on streaming, BTW?

r73, No Time To Die is worth seeing on the big screen. Seydoux -- so bland and uninteresting in Spectre -- is at least more engaging in NTTD.

Andie McDowell in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Sex, Lies & Videotape.

Katie Holmes in Batman Begins. Like it or hate it, this was a movie made by talented people where all the other lead actors brought their A game. Holmes sticks out like a sore thumb. I especially hate the part where she drives Bruce Wayne into the slums and gives him a WHINY lecture on privilege.

R76, totally agree. I can't stand her lispy baby voice. HAAATE

R48 I also liked Leto's performance. I think he was the best actor in that movie. Malek's character was incredibly two-dimensional. Mannered is probably the best word for it. It's like he decided his character was going to be an abrasive asshole and didn't take it beyond that. He would have been right at home on a network procedural.

I've always wondered what "Oz, the Great and Terrible" would have been like with a competent leading man. Maybe there was a time when James Franco could act, but by the time the movie was made he'd stopped acting and was a full-time smug snarky bastard, and it just didn't work.

The role would have been perfect for a younger Johnny Depp, but by the time the movie was made Depp had also given up on acting, and had become a full-time drunken slob. So who?

Love her r70, but Stanwyck was never really good with accents. Watch how her English accent comes and goes in [italic]The Lady Eve[/italic].

Andie McDowell is surprisingly not-awful in Neflix's recent Maid.

R76 r77 I agree. There was something about her whole performance and vibe that didn't jibe with being a hard nosed Gotham prosecutor. She seemed like she belonged in another film, like a romantic comedy about a ditsy female lawyer.

This one is a bit obscure but I would add Kim Catrall in the 2009 film The ghost writer. McGregor an Olivia Williams were phenomenal as was Pierce Brosnan. But Cattralls mannerisms and smirking seemed off, like they didn't match the tone of the film. Even though it was a small part it was a bit jarring.

Ryan Reynolds in Lady in Gold, distractingly not believable

Jason Alexander in Love! Valour! Compassion! It’s like halfway through the movie, the director said, “I give you permission to camp it up a bit.” Jason never captured the happiness that Nathan Lane captured in reeling off those facts about Broadway shows or the saucy aspect of appearing in an apron nude. The one role where chewing the scenery was a plus and Jason decided to tone it down.

r11, Biel was out of her league in [italic]Easy Virtue[/italic]; however, she was a last minute replacement for Jessica Alba. Afterwards there was either a blind item or just plain gossip about how surprised and relieved the cast was to find that Biel was easy to work with.

R70, The scene in "Executive Suite" where she breaks down in the boardroom makes me laugh out loud each time I see it.

Alba probably would have been even worse than Biel

R76! Yes! Katie Holmes was so out of place in that movie. That movie had an amazing cast of actors and then there was Katie Holmes.

[quote]All horribly stiff and artificial clockwork performances, where you can see the gears turning, and her focus seems to be on her accent.

Okay Katherine Hepburn.

Now how you feel about Meryl Streep without stealing one-liners from Hepburn?

Justin Timberlake in The Social Network. It’s all these young actors trying their best in a David Fincher film and then yeah, JT just shows up with his soft spoken voice.

Demi Moore-The Scarlet Letter Julia Roberts-Mary Reilly

Both of them looked as confused as the audiences were as to why they were in period pieces.

Winona Ryder in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Sophia Coppola in The Godfather Part III

Anne Hathaway in Brokeback Mountain

Tom Cruise, Born on the 4th July

Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained. I've heard a lot of people call his performance in that film 'terrifying', and I DO NOT GET IT AT ALL. To me it seemed like a parody of flamboyant gay 'villain' that miserably failed at being even mildly amusing. And it wasn't supposed to be a parody, was it?

Ryan Phillippe in Gosford Park.

Justin Timberlake's solo career.

Leo in Catch Me If You Can and as Howard Hughes

Ana de Armas is supposed to play Marilyn Monroe when she can't even give any emotions in the films she "acts" in.

Mariel Hemmingway as Dorothy Stratton in Star 80

Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs

Blake Lively in The Town

Tom Tryon in practically anything

Carrie Underwood in The Sound of Music.

Definitely DiCaprio as Hughes in THE AVIATOR. God, what was Scorsese thinking? Hughes was known to be sexy, and DiCaprio is just a man-child.

Katharine Hepburn playing Chinese in DRAGON SEED. Even Luise Rainer managed that better.

Robert Taylor in "Camille".

Neil Diamond in "The Jazz Singer".

Katie and Keanu in The Gift. Blanchett did a creditable job as a white trash woman with a psychic gift and Giovanni Rabisi's performance as over- the-top loony as it was still moved me by film's end. Hilary Swank as a dumb-whore abuse victim who loved her dangerous husband was laughable. This film is probably not well known on DL. But I return to it for Blanchett's and Rabisi's performances.

Speaking of Hilary Swank....she wasn't believable in The Black Dahlia, either

R109 She was too ugly.

Hepburn playing Ninotchka...

"Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained. I've heard a lot of people call his performance in that film 'terrifying', and I DO NOT GET IT AT ALL"

Samuel L. Jackson was the scary one in that clusterfuck of a movie, which wasn't completely without merit but which got so many things wrong it's a failure as a whole.

The movie was easily stolen by supporting players Jackson and Christoph Waltz, which wasn't hard given that the lead was so underwritten, but they were still quite fabulous. I didn't even recognize Jackson for half an hour, I just got more and more disturbed by the role of a slave who is far smarter and meaner than his lazy master.

Jane Fonda alongside Jason Robards, Jr. and Rosemary Murphy (and even Dean Jones) in "Any Wednesday).

Jessica Biel was out of her league on "7th Heaven."

Zoe Kravitz in every role.

[quote]Ana de Armas is supposed to play Marilyn Monroe when she can't even give any emotions in the films she "acts" in.

She's terrific is No Time To Die, where she does a pseudo-Marilyn-as-Latina. It's perfectly judged. That said, so are the few lines she gets to say. Possibly Waller-Bridge's work. If only W-B had taken the whole script in hand.

I don't know how Streep gets a free pass for so many clockwork hammy performances, despite her outstanding ones. It just shows that few actors are consistently great.

Faye Dunaway is one of the greatest movie stars of all-time! Beautiful, talented, iconic, larger-than-life!! I don't think anyone would dispute that. Especially here!....but anybody see her sitcom?????

Ahem!

R18, when I finally saw Sophie's Choice I was shocked that Kline's performance was just a lightly toned-down version of Otto from A Fish Called Wanda. Well, I guess it was the other way around, but I suddenly realized why Kline won for Wanda: because it reminded everyone about Sophie's Choice.

Everything in Sophie's Choice was just OFF, mostly because of the light comedic tone Kline and MacNicol brought to their roles. I guess a lot of the character actors were the same. Everyone was slightly ridiculous and yet the topic was deeply morbid.

[quote]Elizabeth Berridge in Amadeus. So bad we never heard from her again.

When I realized the irritating lady on The John Larroquette Show was Constanze I about fell over, but she really does have an irritating demeanor on screen. I thought that demeanor worked okay in Amadeus, not great but fine.

[quote]Novak made a crap ethereal Hitchcock blonde because she was about as ethereal as Marie Dressler

Oh holy shit I started wheezing at this, I just skipped the laughing at went straight to wheezing and crying. Lord, but that is absolutely spot on.

[quote]she was about as ethereal as Marie Dressler

How could you be so judgemental!

Marie just never got that biopic of Isadora Duncan to show off her skill with seven veils.

r95, I think it would be more accurate to say it was pastiche rather than parody. DiCaprio seemed to model his performance off the over-the-top European melodramas and gialli of the 1960s that were also period pieces. There was always some suave and evil character in those films played by someone like Eduardo Fajardo.

It's not a particularly nuanced performance but I think it's fine. I'm much more favorably inclined toward Di Caprio than others are, I think, I really liked him in Gatsby for instance.

Speaking of Gatsby, Tobey Maguire is completely wrong as Nick.

Anna Netrebko in Lucia di Lammermoor. Met GM Peter Gelb’s darling was totally miscast in a roll she had no business “singing”. But then again, Gelb miscast her regularly. These two clowns need to be thrown out of the Met and never allowed back.

R84. It’s WOMAN IN GOLD.

Ooh, R125 that reminds me of seeing a concert by Pavrotti at his height when he'd also scheduled in some spots in the performance for his amour of the time, a soprano. She was lovely: not Callas of course, but lovely, and did very well. However the audience withheld their applause, only a few tepid claps: more in anger at him for jamming her in. The cruel snobbery made me utterly ropeable. These privileged cunts could afford to see a show that would have delighted others without their attitude.

Winona Ryder again, this time as Lady Anne to Al Pacino's Richard III in "Looking For Richard". Embarrassingly bad.

[quote]Susan Alexander in Salammbô.

Bryan Cranston in Trumbo.

Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper in the same film. What a fucking train wreck most of it cast by actors out of their depth.

[quote]Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper in the same film.

Yes, she has a limited range. Within that great, outside of it, terrible. However, her face lost a lot of chracter when she had the big face and neck lift. It's like she's wearing a tight rollneck.

Part of the problem I think is that these days a director rarely shapes the actor's performance: it's left to them to come up with the entire performance before they step onto set. And not all actors are smart. And even when they are, they need second opinions.

Everybody in "The Bonfire of Vanities": Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith... All three of them were woefully miscast as characters that were completely out of their comfort zone.

I didn’t buy DiCaprio as the character in “once Upon a time in Hollywood” at all. He’s such a boy/man. Even at his age now, he still doesn’t seem like a real man. I bet he’s a total closet case queen. He’s hiding something. And it makes his performances seem… false.

Jessica Biel was charming in Easy Virtue. A bit miscast but she had a great talent for physical comedy.

R68 - I don't agree with your take on Novak in Vertigo. I think the actress is the problem. Hitchcock himself later admitted her casting was a mistake. She has to be believable as Madeleine to hook Scotty since he is an experienced police detective that should be able to see through a phony. Novak is too inept to pull that off. As for the idea that this is Novak's greatest performance that isn't saying much.

R56 - I don't agree with this either. Joan was an underrated actress. I bet you didn't guess the reveal in Baby Jane. Olivia de H can play a good girl but her attempt at a bad girl is laughable. She does the fury in the slapping scene awkwardly and she is dull compared to Joan's charisma.

R137, Joan Fontaine was perfection in "Suspicion".

R136, True, compared to what?

R134, I totally agree. He seemed so bizarre in that role and barely had chemistry with Brad Pitt or anyone. And you’re right that he does seem very false. He seems mentally 16.

R118 I made it through five minutes of that - wow, painful

I’m so gonna get dragged for saying it, but Miss Houston in [italic]Waiting to Exhale[/italic]! Only Lela Rochon comes close, but her sex appeal saved her from being as stiff as Whitney. Her scenes with Angela Bassett and Lela are too terrible. They may as well be doing solos. No one is gonna be able to match Angela or Loretta Devine either. Sisters have mad acting skills.

Madonna, in anything. She is not an actress and never was. Blame the money-grubbers always trying to cash in on any famous pop and rock star'a fame, offering them film roles because they're famous in another area of showbiz. Most musicians cannot translate into acting. Same with models, some succeed others don't, Cindy Crawford cannot act to save her life.

Few musicians have succeeded at acting, Bowie and Jagger come to mind. Sting was quite awful, he was OK in "Stormy Monday", but terrible in "Dune" The Bride" and most of his other films.

Prince basically played himself in "Purple Rain". Madonna played herself in "Desperately Seeking Susan".

[quote]No one is gonna be able to match Angela or Loretta Devine either. Sisters have mad acting skills.

WTF are you talking about? You are shocked that Angela can act? Angela Bassett is well known as an actress not a singer.

Melissa Rivers in "Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story" (1994)

….(whispering)…..Dwight Yoakam in Slingblade? He was hot in that southern white trash way. No offense intended.

Eddie Fisher in "Butterfield 8"

David Janssen was initially cast, but Elizabeth demanded they cast Eddie.

My point being r144, it that Whitney was out of her league. That’s the topic of this thread.

R138 I think he meant Joan Crawford, not Joan Fontaine.

And I agree JF was a good actress and possessed of a dark, yearning kind of sexuality.

[quote]Anne Hathaway in Brokeback Mountain

I thought Anne's performance was the second-best in the film, after Ledger's.

In the scene where she is on the phone with Ledger, her face conveyed so much information without saying the words.

It really got to me.

R124 Outside of tights and Hobbit feet Tobey M sucks in every other film he's made. He was risible in The Cider House Rules as Charlize Theron's lover.

R136 My friend called it correctly when he said Kim Novak is basically playing a zombie in "Vertigo".

R143 Courtney Love was quite good in "The People vs. Larry Flynt", though.

R69- I agree and Jimmy Stewart acting like an ELDERLY MAN in that movie. He seemed kind of FRAIL and DELICATE.

Both of the leads in Vertigo are miscast: Stewart is too old and Novak too inept.

But interesting Andie is great in Sex Lies and Videotape, a much more demanding role.

^^^ interestingly

Courtney was adequate. The overpraising threw her career off.

Mark Wahlberg anytime he's supposed to portray someone who's not a dumb thug. Thinking of that laughable Cary Grant movie remake and the Getty movie in particular.

[quote] Marky Mark in The Departed

Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen were the only people I believed in The Departed. DiCaprio and Vera Farmiga frowned a lot, Matt Damon was awful and Jack Nicholson was goofy.

In "The Wrong Box" (1966), it's not so much that John Mills is out of his league as that he's choosing to give his role a shallow "comedy sketch on weekly TV variety show" treatment while all the others--eccentric as their characters are--are nevertheless giving their roles something more nuanced. It clashes with the tone of what the other actors are doing, and I would have thought that a seasoned professional such as he was would have sensed the disharmony.

Jessica Biel in The Illusionist. That movie changed my mind about Edward Norton (formerly I avoided him in anything, now I’ll at least consider it). She was miscast, too contemporary looking in a period drama. Also her story was awkward because she was supposed to be a childhood friend of Norton, yet she’s engaged to a count or prince or something who’d normally be choosing an 18 year old virgin and she looked at least 30 (although she was actually younger, but there was a 15 year age difference between her and Norton). It’s a good fun film otherwise.

R147, totally agree about Eddie Fisher. He sucked the life out of every scene he was in.

Julia Roberts in Hook and Mary Reilly and Michael Collins and August: Osage County.

R134, so if he's gay that means he's not a real man?! His character was supposed to be a pampered actor, not a lumberjack anyway

I know I’m alone here but I have to defend Andie MacDowell’s performance in “Four Weddings and a Funeral”. Yes, I agree she is quite stiff at times and her reading of the “is it raining, I hardly noticed” line is especially embarrassing (though I’m not sure any actor could have pulled off that awful piece of dialogue much better?).

Nevertheless I thought she had an incredible charm which the role required. Despite the awful things her character does to Hugh Grant, I never disliked her once - and I can’t say the same for Julia Roberts in “Notting Hill” who I thought was a total bitch. She and Hugh also had a great and natural chemistry that never felt forced.

She pulls off this scene really well.

R164 Actually Julia Roberts was actually rather good in "August: Osage County"; it was Meryl who really was doing some incredibly bad acting and ruined it, turning a great role into a travesty.

I hate, hate HATED Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle. Jeremy Renner, also in that movie, stinks up almost everything he's in. Jane Fonda in On Golden Pond was painful to watch, even as a kid.

[quote] Crain was fucking Zanuck.

No. The man goes into the lady.

It's transitive verb. Subject verb object.

[quote] would have sensed the disharmony.

R161 That was the director's responsibility.

R169 " The man goes into the lady". I read that in Ms Swanns voice.

" Stewart is too old and Novak too inept [in "Vertigo"]."

R68 here, the one who said that Novak is as ehtereal as Marie Dressler. I meant no insult by that, the woman was physically robust, and her persona was earthy and sensual, the opposite of ethereal. And maybe Hitchcock wanted someone who could convincingly play both the ghostlike Madeline and the trashy Judy, but I think the film works better if Judy makes a poor Madeline. I mean, if Judy were a good enough actor to become anything any man wanted her to be, would she be living in a transient hotel and working retail?

The thing is, Stewart's age and frailty work for the movie as well, because he's playing a neurotic who is duped by someone who isn't even good at the part she's playing, and he comes across as the kind of old fool who can be duped by any young woman who wants to take the trouble. The characters are much more flawed and vulnerable than the leads in any of Hitchcock's other movies, maybe even more than the director would have liked. But the fact is, pairing an old fool with a bad actress made for a very believable and twisted relationship, one that believably spiraled into madness.

Both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La Land. They make me cringe.

R159 - another one is Mark as an astronaut in Planet of the Apes.

Similar is Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. I can't see him as a genius. It needed someone like John Turturro.

Julia Roberts in I Love Trouble. She seemed so intimidated by Nick Nolte.

Also, Julia Roberts in Everyone Says I Love You. her performance felt like she wandered onto the set and was asked to cold read her scenes.

R172, Stewart was also too old for "Rear Window" and Grace Kelly being besotted with him was unbelievable.

Stewart was playing stooge for Hitchcock in "Rear Window"; Grace Kelly being besotted with Hitchcock was even more unbelievable.

Yeah, in "Vertigo" it's believable that an old fool and a dim whore would form that relationship.

In "Rear Window" it is not believable that this frail old man would form a relationship with a beautiful, intelligent, self-confident young woman, where he constantly tells her she isn't good enough for him... and she doesn't turn around and pick a different man out of the hundreds who follow her everywhere.

The thing I will always wonder about Sofia Coppola in Godfather 3, is why did Francis keep her after seeing dailies? Did he think she was doing a good job? And why not just get a real actress anyway? The excuse is always Winona flaking out, but young actresses would have been killing each other in airports to get to that set within hours. It doesn't make any sense and never has.

That performance was beyond bad. It's just another level altogether, and not really Sofia's fault. She wasn't an actress. That was all Francis.

Any leading lady being besotted with Stewart was unbelievable. Even Hepburn in [italic]The Philadelphia Story[/italic]. He was outclassed by just about every leading lady he was with, save for the perkily inept June Allyson.

Joan in everything.

Click, click, click - you all know who I'm talking about.

Never seen any of the work by that dude Glenn Close.

Robert Redford in Out of Africa. The actor who played Meryl's ex would have been better in Redford's role.

Redford was terrible in OOA. The film was a snoozer anyway but his flat performance didn’t help matters.

Literally any British actor would have done better in Out of Africa. Was Charles Dance too busy?

Chris Hemsworth in In the Heart of the Sea. It was like someone plopped a dead-eyed, 21st century gym rat in the 19th century

Charles Dance would have been ideal r185.

I agree about Jennifer Lawrence in “American Hustle”. Next to all the other actors, she came off like a young girl playing dress up with the adults.

Charles Dance wasn't good box-office [R185].

[quote]Jason Alexander in Love! Valour! Compassion! It’s like halfway through the movie, the director said, “I give you permission to camp it up a bit.

Well, given that the whole piece is an unredeemable gay minstrel show, yeah, I guess he had to!

plus Meryl hated him.

I think r151 is confusing Tobey Maguire and Elijah Wood. TM never played a Hobbit.

R151 needs to see a ophthalmologist about his cataracts then.

Lawrence playing dress-up or not in American Hustle, she stole the film.

Barbra Streisand in NUTS. People paid to have sex with HER?

When The Naked Gun guy comes out in his underwear and asks if she has any bath salts make it even more hilarious

[quote] Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen were the only people I believed in The Departed.

I still don’t get all the praise that movie garnered. It’s one of the few Scorsese movie I was really disappointed in.

movies ^^^

Yes, Charles Dance would’ve been perfect.

He and Streep played a married couple in a wretched film called “Plenty”. In the film, she slept with him, Sting, ad Sam Neil and still managed to be bitterly unhappy.

R13, Judge for yourselves.

Tracy Ullmann I believe went on record saying that she and Meryl really disliked Charles Dance.

I’m going to be a contrarian when it comes to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the performances of Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. First, I love everything a about the movie. Francis Ford Coppola took all the sensibility of both Roger Corman’s and Hammer’s gothic periods, meshed them together and then elevated them to something unique and special.

The ernest but wooden ingénue and young leading man were a hallmark of all those movies, as was the over the top hamminess of the older villain perfectly embodied by Gary Oldham.

The whole movie is so grandly stylized - almost to the point of abstraction - that the young leads sullen awkwardness seems not only appropriate, but entirely intentional.

Roseanne Barr in anything besides her standup. Dreadful actress. Couldn't even rise to the low bar of sitcom acting.

[quote] Actually Julia Roberts was actually rather good in "August: Osage County"; it was Meryl who really was doing some incredibly bad acting and ruined it, turning a great role into a travesty.

Agreed. She ran away with the movie. Then again, that’s star power for you.

Out of the nominees she was easily the best in her category and was far superior ato the overrated Lupita Nyong’o.

Michelle Pfeiffer was terrible in The Age Of Innocence. I assume Scorsese wanted her to show the Fabulous Baker Boys/Catwoman carnality. Winona was fine. Daniel Day Lewis never convinces me as a romantic lead. Too many diffident, shy smiles. Which is not unlike High Grant’s schtick, come to think of it.

Having Redford in the lead for OOA got the film financed. Streep wasn't considered big boxoffice at the time.

The problem with Plenty was mostly due to David Hare's adaptation of his play and the stodgy direction by Fred Schepisi.

R203, you should study the art of film acting where less is more. Roberts overacts all over the place in August: Osage County. I was seriously embarrassed by her performance as she was trying so hard to keep up with Streep and the other actors.

If you saw the Steppenwolf August, Osage County company onstage in Chicago or New York, Amy Morton was the definitive Barbara - and it wasn’t just anger or aggression. She had pain and love underneath and genuine hurt inflicted by the others upon her. Julia Roberts can only play one emotion at a time and chose anger in the AOC movie. (There were several very long threads with the Herbert Ross Troll about how Ross was exasperated by Julia as Shelby because she was either happy or sad but couldn’t do outwardly happy with anxiety and fear beneath it.). It was good solid one-dimensional acting but vastly inferior to what Morton achieved on Broadway.

I think Morton should have won the Tony for best leading actress in a play that year, not Deanna Dunegan.

R206 Glad Roberts didn't keep up with Streep's incredibly bad overacting in that film. Yes, she can be great, or give a typical performance --usually very good, but this is one of those doozies (in the Hazel Burke sense of using the word), really bad.

Jennifer Love Hewitt as Audrey Hepburn

Oh God, R209 that was just awful. And Eric McCormack as Mel Ferrer wasn't much better.

R207, I saw the Steppenwolf production of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY on Broadway and definitely agree about Amy Morton. I loved Dunagan, who was far superior to Streep. But of course, neither is known outside of theater circles, so...

[quote]Roberts overacts all over the place in August: Osage County.

Next to Streep, she is a very model of restraint.

R209 wasn’t she just tragic as Audrey Hepburn? It was like getting Tara Reid as the lead in a biopic about Cicely Tyson!

Michelle Williams as Marilyn.

Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor.

r214 for the win!

R213, Connie Stevens as Marilyn Monroe.

R216, I love that clip. I wish the entire film was available somewhere.

Elizabeth Taylor in Noel Coward's Private Lives on Broadway. She was so hopeless with the dialog they cut substantial portions of it and substituted outright slapstick.

R218 I'm a Coward fan but all the fascinating, scintillating bitchy dialogues occurs in the first scene.

He was hopeless with plots and this one never went anywhere. Audiences DON'T like three-act plays anymore

Julia ROberts in Steel Magnolias. She was too inexperienced to hold her own against the fantastic ladies in that cast. Meg Ryan would have been so much more poignant.

Meg Ryan isn't good, either and she's too old to be Sally Field's daughter

Julia Roberts in Closer.

Sharon Stone in Casino. A performance that was waaaaay overrated & only rewarded with an Oscar nomination because of a decent PR campaign. She simply spent her screentime acting out of her mind. Since then Stone has made a career of believing her own hype with defiant hubris & "looking good for her age".

Stone still lives off of the notoriety of [italic]Basic Instinct [/italic]!

I've always thought John Boles in [italic]Back Street{/italic] was a bit questionable.

r225 Not to mention my tagging skills.

Armie Hammer in Call Me By Your Name. I'm pretty sure the character was intended to be human.

Madonna in Body of Evidence

Mankiewicz wanted the young Paul Scofield but got Mumbles Brando instead.

Jack Lemmon in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT on Broadway. He was, shall we say, underwhelming.

Kim Basinger in "Blind Date" gave an astonishingly unfunny performance.

She was good in certain dramatic roles, but she had zero, and I do mean zero,talent for screwball, physical comedy.

Winona Ryder in ANY movie that takes place before the 20th century...especially in The Age of Innocence (along with Michelle Pfeiffer)

Carey Mulligan in Shame (that "New York, New York" rendition was awful)

HIlary Duff in anything

Brad Pitt in 12 Years a Slave

R219, you have obviously never seen a good production of Private Lives. It does not die after the first scene. I am blessed to have seen the Maggie Smith production after it moved from London to Broadway. She could bring down the house with one arched eyebrow. How many actresses can even arch a single eyebrow? But it's about timing. And being able to handle Coward's language.

After the Burtons closed the show in New York, they took it on a brief tour. When it arrived in LA. Smith was there shooting a film. She was asked whether she was going to see it.

"I don't have the strength" she replied.

Private Lives is a brilliant comedy. What's in the text is hysterical but what's in the subtext is deeply disturbing. I've always thought Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is a poor rewrite, putting the subtext on top.

@. R233

^

It's a very THIN voice!

It's a thin voice.

And though it's not exactly flat.

She'll need a little more than that.

To earn a living wage.

"Private Lives is a brilliant comedy. What's in the text is hysterical but what's in the subtext is deeply disturbing."

What sort of subtext?

R235 Maggie brings a vulgar, working class tinge to her voice before uttering 'Shut...up'.

It's similar to the ghastly grasping Mabel in this Muriel Spark film directed by Jack Clayton.

[quote] subtext?

You should search through Youtube for Toby Stephens being interviewed for his production of 'Private LIves' opposite Anna Chancellor.

1. They talk about the play's subtext in an effort to make this 1930 brittle comedy have resonance for a 21st century paying audience.

2. But it also contain higher-quality footage of his parents in the 1972 production.

Thanks very much for posting that very brief clip of Maggie Smith early on in Private Lives but it does not begin to suggest the depth and layers of her performance when I saw it later on.

Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds.

His community theater "Tennesee" accent was beyond cringy.

you get a 2 for 1 with this one. Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in Ghost Rider.

Let's just say the actors playing them as teens were way better.

R241 You should seek out that Youtube interview mentioned at R240.

It contains some higher-quality footage which may match the depth of your memory.

Leo DiCaprio in The Aviator - already mentioned by some here. Way way to young for the role.

Cringingly bad.

Noel Coward was writing the operetta Bitter Sweet for his best friend since childhood, Gertrude Lawrence. Midway through, he realized he'd made the vocal part so hard she'd never be able to sing it. So he wrote her a letter of apology and told her not to worry because he'd had another idea for a play that was so ideally suited for the two them that no one else would ever be able to play her part. The play was Private Lives.

Guinness was good but she was inaudible.

Every line in the first scene crackles with innuendo and wit.

Demi Lovato in Scent of a WOMAN

Angelina Jolie in Salt. Like we were supposed to believe that those skinny ass arms were lethal weapons.

Alicia Vikander in Tomb Raider

[quote] Alicia Vikander

That woman is hopeless. As hopeless as Bella Darvi and all of Daryll F Zanuck's whores.

Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. But I think director Blake Edwards was actually encouraging him so it may not have been entirely his fault. Certainly Edwards did nothing to restrain him.

R254 Blake Edwards deserves all your hatred and disgust. Edwards was happiest doing slapstick and funny voices.

Mr Yunioshi was no different from Inspector Clouseau. Give your hatred to the director not the employee.

R255, His Oscar acceptance speech was ridiculous.

^

Repellant!

Poor Julie was an absolute fool to marry that American loser.

It was a lavender marriage, the same as her first marriage to Tony Walton.

Julie decided she wanted kids which Tony was totally opposed to. So they very amicably split when Julie met Edwards, who didn't care.

I see Julie's life as a tragedy.

So much talent in her younger days but almost everything after 1966 was a mess.

She followed Gladys Cooper, Greer Garson, Aldous Huxley and succumbed to the Siren song of La-la Land in California.

Julie and Tony had a daughter together, Emma.

[quote] Roberts overacts all over the place in August: Osage County.

[quote] Next to Streep, she is a very model of restraint.

August: Osage County is undoubtedly Streep's very worst performance. but at least she's still sort of enjoyable because she's having a grand old time hamming it up.

Julia Roberts is unwatchable because she does what she thinks serious dramatic entails, which is shouting at people. She shouts and shouts and shouts. It's like being trapped in the theater with a shrieking madwoman.

[Quote] Bella Darvi and all of Daryll F Zanuck's whores.

At least they never won unnecessary Oscars.

Rooney Mara in anything where she's playing a human being.

Rooney is a bit Martian-like like that other weird Englishwomen who gets all the roles that Cate Blanchette rejects.

I liked Rooney in Carol....maybe because her character was supposed to be awkward

R265 Tilda Swinton?

r261, I stand corrected.

Brian DePalma has a special skill at bringing out the very worst in his leading ladies. Others can add to the list, but I think that first and foremost is Nancy Allen in Blowout.

She has a big role, and delivers every single line of dialogue with the same preposterous dumb girl obliviousness. She ends up sounding like a combination of a teen from a John Waters movie and a Scoobie-Doo cartoon character.

Carrie Underwood singing and acting alongside Audra McDonald and Laura Benanti in tv "The Sound of Music".

Allison Williams (and surprisingly, given his chorus boy background, Christopher Walken), in tv's latest and un-greatest "Peter Pan".

R262, completey disagree. Roberts does the best job by far in Osage County. Meryl's worst performance is Iron Woman which is nothing but Meryl just doing a caricature in an English accent.

R269, really disagree with that take too. De Palma has good skill with actors who are not great. Examples include Michael J Fox, Angie Dickinson, Rebecca Romjin, John Travolta, etc.

Meryl Streep has been inconsistent over the past few years performance wise.

R272, yes, she is really phoning it in a lot of times. She's resting on her laurels as America's greatest living actress.

I'm already predicting Jane Lynch as Mrs. Brice in the Funny Girl revival.

r274 : As it happens, today is Fanny Brice's birthday.

"Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds."

Pitt was so shitfucking awful in that movie, that I assumed that the financing of the film depended on his involvement.

Nancy Allen gave two decent performances in her career - in CARRIE and I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND.

She is indeed terrible in BLOWOUT, but that film - like much of DePalma's work - is so overrated. Over the last year I re-watched PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, THE FURY, BLOWOUT, and DRESSED TO KILL, and not one of them is particularly good.

But De Palma did get strong performances from Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Angie Dickinson, Margot Kidder (in SISTERS), Genvieve Bujold, and, I suppose, Melanie Griffith in BODY DOUBLE (a film I despise).

R272: I know she sounded nothing like the real Margaret Thatcher.

Madonna in everything.

Ratboy in The King, Little Women, and Dune.

Nancy Allen in Blow Out must be one of the most polarizing performances of all time, because everyone who sees that movie seems to have a different opinion on her performance. Either she broke their heart or annoyed them to no end. I'm more of the former. I thought she took some big risks that paid off and she came across and naive and endearing.

I also like her in Dressed to Kill a lot. She's got a nice mix of sass and vulnerability. Going from an evil character like Chris in Carrie to her characters in Dressed to Kill and Blow Out show that she definitely had more range than people give her credit for.

R281, agreed with your take. I think De Palma is great at director actors.

Wasn't Nancy Allen also De Palma's wife (maybe still is). Who else cast her much?

Looking her up, I guess she did work -- but I never really followed her career post de Palma.

Chris O'Donnell mismatched against Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. A stunning lead performance requires stunning support.

R285 Al Pacino was in insufferable ham in that movie.

Dressed to Kill was a fun homage to Hitchcock. Not great, but fun.

Nancy Allen has a better and more beloved filmography than most Academy Award Winners: Carrie, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out (I hated her in the first time I saw the film but changed my opinion on a second viewing), Strange Invaders, Robocop, The Philadelphia Experiment.

Streep can't even muster up a list anywhere near as beloved as those cult films. Streep will be remembered only as an actress with more than 20 Academy Award nominations in films that people are not interested in watching. Nancy Allen may not be remembered but people will still be watching some of her films.

Body Double was by far Griffith's best work, same for Angie Dickinson in Dressed to Kill. The thing that bothered me the most about Allen in Blow Out was her accent; it sounded like a midwesterner's idea of a NYC gangster's moll circa 1930.. De Palma is from Philly and he used locations to great effect, but for a movie so concerned with sound why couldn't he have also paid attention to speech? I think Diana Scarwid could have done something more interesting with the role.

If anybody was out of their league in a De Palma movie it was Deborah Shelton in Body Double. Beautiful to look at but she barely had any lines, all of which were dubbed over by another actress in post-production. She apparently fought with De Palma about her character being too weak/not fighting back, I assume the dubbing was a kind of retaliation.

Angie Dickenson was brilliant in Dressed to Kill. A small part but she understood exactly what De Palma wanted and was able to deliver that performance in spades.

I still would love to see what DePalma's first choice, Lucille Ball would have done with the Dickinson role in Dressed to Kill. It could have been a game changer for her career.

[R233] Bwahahahaha!!! Brilliant.

Maggie Smith/First Wives Club: "Fork."

Michael J. Fox in Casualties of War (1989). MJF in a gritty war movie is awkward and laughable. Also, Sean Penn at his all-time hammiest.

Damon Wayans in The Last Boy Scout (1991). Who can possibly buy him as an NFL quarterback? Plus, no chemistry with Bruce Willis.

R31, Nah disagree on that one. He helf his own and really embodied a Boston hot head cop. Everyone was great in that film. Top notch acting because of top notch director.

[quote]r20 …his was the worst acting I’ve ever seen in a major theatrically released movie

This is the worst I’ve seen. I mean, that yelling on the stairs!

DiCaprio always looks out of his league, but gets away with it for a few reasons:

1. His looks

2. The fact that he's a box office draw

3. In over his head he may be, his acting isn't exactly terrible

[quote]R45 Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder in Age of Innocence. Massive cringe for both of them, God, her accent! Ryder looked like a 12 year old and Lewis looked like her father btw. Horrific. Never read the book, maybe in a few years when I can concentrate again.

I hate that movie. I love a lot of classic literature, but that film’s just a long, slow slog. And the leading male character is just an insufferable simp.

[quote]R62 Speaking of Melanie Griffith.....Shining Through

God help me, I LOVE THAT MOVIE ! !

The female lead in Magic Mike, who was the love interest of Channing Tatum's character. The actress was the daughter of the studio head and was incredibly wooden, she made Channing seem like a serious thespian in comparison.

[quote]R260 I see Julie's life as a tragedy. So much talent in her younger days but almost everything after 1966 was a mess.

She was aging out, and always appeared older than she was, anyway. She was wise to settle into life as the wife of a wealthy Hollywood bigwig and only take on occasional work after that (most of which he gave her.)

[quote]R289 If anybody was out of their league in a De Palma movie it was Deborah Shelton in Body Double. Beautiful to look at but she barely had any lines, all of which were dubbed over by another actress in post-production.

Helen Shaver, is that you?

Streisand as the hooker Doris in The Owl and the Pussycat

Brie Larsen in Captain Marvel

Kenneth "Still An Egotistical Amateur" Branagh

I think Kline plays paranoid schizophrenic in Sophie beautifully. He veers between the extremes perfectly and when in his manic highs he’s magnetic- I’d be putty in those hands.

Halle Berry in every movie she's ever been in. Eg. Monster's Ball, Losing Isaiah, X-men, Die Another Day, etc. She's very pretty, but she's a bad actress.

R306, the best acting she ever did was in this clip where Howie Mandel makes a joke about her running someone over (something she actually did). She acts like she was the victim!

R61 Melanie was the best thing in Bonfire of the Vanities. She was a hoot when she and Tom took the wrong exit.

Steven Weber in the remake of The Shining. He only got the role because everyone else turned it down as they didn't want to be compared to Jack Nicholson plus they were three days away from filming and needed someone.

I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Will Smith in Six Degrees of Separation. He was in way over his head on so many levels. He had none of the “acquired sophistication” the character had and we never saw the calculated narcissist underneath. Smith just played him the only way he knew how-as a nice guy thrown into a situation. He just looks baffled throughout. And the actors who’d played that role onstage had to have some sort of facility with the language of that play. Smith was woefully ill-equipped in every department. Yeah, he looked extremely right for the role but that was it.

R309, he was probably too blinded by his love for Stockard Channing to focus on his performance

Jeremy Renner as the wacky genius in Arrival. Goldblum did it better Jurassic Park and actually gave the impression he could solve equations.

Keanu as Jonathan in Dracula. Every time it's on cable, I tune in and laugh my ass off.

Natalie Wood in West Side Story

Shelley Hack- Charlie's Angels

Lada Gaga on American Horror Story

Armie The Cannibal Hammer in CMBYN.

[quote]r313 Shelley Hack- Charlie's Angels

Cuba in the OJ miniseries. Thank god the writing and the other acting is so good. Its one of the worst high profile casting decisions in recent memory.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I hope the site host doesn't let you continue to spam like this.

Alison Lohman in Where the Truth Lies (2005).

Austin O'Brien in Last Action Hero (1993)

Callista Flockhart in The Birdcage. First, she looked like a corpse with that grey lipstick and grunge dresses. Second, she was 15 years too old for the role (31 playing 17-18 yo). And third, her acting consisted of opening her eyes very wide and scrunching the corners of her mouth which was laughable in the company of Gene Hackman, Diane Wiest, Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. One of the worst cases of miscasting I've ever seen.

R313 Rachel Zegler in WSS

Bette Midler in Jinxed. Whoa, she was hot.

Martin Short as a kid in Clifford. I might have thought he was on drugs to think this was a good idea.

Andie McDowell in “Greystoke;” so bad she was actually dubbed by Glenn Close.

Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air