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American v British Actors
goldberry1
Posts: 2,699 Forum Member
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I'm a great lover of my country and all things to do with it but - can think of eg David
Jason but very few others from the UK who make me forget they're actually acTORS
darlin' in the items in which they engage.
I think such as Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Cruise are different people in every role
they play - ie I forget them and they just present the characters.
Overall I think American actors are more natural - ? a legacy of 'the Method' - what do others think?
Jason but very few others from the UK who make me forget they're actually acTORS
darlin' in the items in which they engage.
I think such as Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Cruise are different people in every role
they play - ie I forget them and they just present the characters.
Overall I think American actors are more natural - ? a legacy of 'the Method' - what do others think?
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In my opinion, there are just as many terrible actors of British origin as there are American. Likewise for good actors.
I'm a big fan in general of American actors on film/TV. But Brits like Ian McShane were superb in Deadwood.
He plays himself and even his characters can basically have the same back story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFal553wR3k
I don't think the characters he played in Valkyrie and in War of the Worlds were the same - In Valkyrie he was an aristocratic German officer standing up for what he believed and in War of the Worlds an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary circumstance - both in these parts were trying to deal with things beyond thier control but I wouldn't say Tom Cruise was just playing himself.
Sid Vicious to Lee Harvery Osward, Dracula to Beethoven, James Gordon to George Smiley. I completely believe whatever character he is playing and forgot about the actor all together.
The one I would cite as a 'stand out' performance, ie a world away from any of his others, would be in Tropic Thunder.
Daniel Day Lewis and Lord Olivier spring to mind. Edward Norton as well,
This is a joke, right?
Yes, because of his stature, name and popularity the vast majority of his movie choices tend to be high-profile, box office blockbusters, and yes I will agree that he essentially plays himself in most of these roles, and most of his choices, for whatever reason, are the 'safe' ones.
But then people forget about roles in Born on the Fourth of July...Rain Man...Vanilla Sky...Collateral...and for me his finest acting role, Magnolia.
Most people remember the famous 'Respect the C**k' scene, but both interview scene following this, and the scene with Jason Robards dying are excellent.
I absolutely adore his performance in Magnolia, the most excellent performance in an extremely well acted movie (I believe I added it to the 'best acting performances you have seen' thread on here).
However, I do understand why people don't rate him hugely in general. For every Magnolia or Born on the Fourth of July, there are three or four big budget movies where he phoned it in (although one could argue that those movies only deserved a 'phoned in' performance).
A British actor who isn't an acTOR? How about Christopher Eccleston? Others have mentioned Gary Oldman, one of the best character actors around. Ditto Kate Winslet. American equivalents would include Johnny Depp and Jennifer Lawrence. These are all very fine actors, and the list does not end with them.
Can we not just be grateful that we are able to enjoy their work instead of worrying which country saw their births?
My thoughts exactly. Tom f***ing Cruise?
The same with Angelina Jolie. If you look at her early roles, she was a young acclaimed award winning actress. She was essentially the J-Law of the mid-late 90's. But after winning an oscar, she did Tomb Raider and became a movie star and does films that do not show her talent. She made brief comebacks in award nominated roles such as The Might Heart and Changeling, but her high profiled relationship with Brad Pitt and endless naff movie star roles, people don't label her or take her seriously as an actress anymore. She is very much more of a Celebrity than an actress.