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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 25, 2019 18:18:04 GMT
A perennial debate. He has certainly totted up a huge number of horrible performances in awful movies. But he has also scored some great (or, at least, appropriate) performances in fine films. Can a bad actor do that? Perhaps he can. I really do not know. Actors can be bored by the films they make too--or get bad direction--but in Cage's case I cannot think of him without his constant quirky attitude or exaggerations. Maybe FACE OFF is an exception since he is supposed to be Travolta and it is Travolta who obviously is having fun imitating Cage.
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Post by london777 on Mar 25, 2019 18:31:54 GMT
Laurence Olivier. Always a privilege to see him on-screen and he never lets us forget it for a minute.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 25, 2019 20:48:35 GMT
Laurence Olivier. Always a privilege to see him on-screen and he never lets us forget it for a minute. This segues into another subject of interest--how center-stage actors defer to the one who is speaking and how they react to scene-stealing. There's an anecdote I heard with Olivier when he was making Dracula. Donald Pleasence was constantly eating to draw attention to him and Olivier reportedly said: "I know what you are doing-cut it out."
I think Olivier was more eccentric than Laughton was in Spartacus--in the scene with Ustinov before the battle, Olivier sneaks in a couple of exaggerated reactions in response to Ustinov telling him he had already met Spartacus. Especially his eye-rolling "Whaaaat?" moment. In that case actually, Ustinov was less eccentric than him.
But, with really eccentric actors like Malleson, I think it is hopeless to try to equal or upstage him. I notice the other actors usually just stand back and let him monologue.
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Post by hi224 on Mar 25, 2019 23:47:31 GMT
Chrissy Walken Michael Shannon.
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Post by marshamae on Mar 26, 2019 1:29:19 GMT
Re Oliviers method of dealing with scene stealing
John Barrymore , in THE GREAT MAN VOTES, was filming a tricky monalogue with Virginia Weidler on his lap. She was twiddling with his tie, when suddenly he leotard to his feet dropped her on the floor, called her a little bitch scene stealer and stalked off. The thing is , he was right. The director, Garson Kanin, owned that he was watching the child instead of Barrymore. When they were ready to do the scene again., Virginia sat still as a mouse, and Barrymore took his moment.
Eccentric actors- my vote is Ned Glass. Jon Lovitz whose family was friends with Glass, says that Glas would always talk about how he was nuancing his performance in a particular film, and he was always exactly the same.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 26, 2019 22:04:48 GMT
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 26, 2019 23:45:45 GMT
Hmm-how many dramas is she known for? I think comedy acting would not qualify since I am thinking about drama performances.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 26, 2019 23:51:22 GMT
Hmm-how many dramas is she known for? I think comedy acting would not qualify since I am thinking about drama performances.
K. That was not mentioned earlier … getting perplexed about what you are actually looking for. It looks pretty much open to personal interpretation. Will read with interest to see what develops.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 27, 2019 0:46:18 GMT
K. That was not mentioned earlier … getting perplexed about what you are actually looking for. It looks pretty much open to personal interpretation. Will read with interest to see what develops. I figure with comedy that one has more leeway to act strange--but with drama you are supposed to concentrate on the story. In the case of Malleson, he injects comedy into whatever movie he appears. Even Peeping Tom. But as I said, I dont see it as scene stealing in the usual sense. In Thief of Baghdad where his daughter is upset and he comforts her--he isn't any less eccentric but you don't get distracted by his behavior or taken out of the moment. But yeah its all very subjective.
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Post by telegonus on Mar 27, 2019 6:33:25 GMT
Klaus Kinski ought to have been my first choice but I came too late to the feast:
After Kinski I'd have to add Tim Carey and Dwight Frye,--two big "duhs", but WTF.
I'd have to add Clifton Webb, Una O'Connor and surely, the truly, madly, deeply eccentric Elsa Lanchester.
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Post by telegonus on Mar 27, 2019 6:41:31 GMT
Damn near the entire cast of Touch Of Evil, hey? Don't let's forget Akim Tamiroff.
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Post by Prime etc. on Apr 13, 2019 7:01:18 GMT
Having watched a 1972 episode of BANACEK with Margot Kidder in it (she even makes reference to Superman!), she DEFINITELY qualifies.
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Post by koskiewicz on Apr 13, 2019 16:03:42 GMT
Ernest Thesiger immediately comes to mind. Strother Martin is another. Una O'Connor, Patrick Magee, Slim Pickens, Sterling Holloway, Hugh Griffith, Gert Frobe, Jack Elam, Elisha Cook and Jerry Colonna round out my list. Wilfred Brambell, anybody?
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Post by teleadm on Apr 13, 2019 19:47:36 GMT
Sir Ralph Richardson, a Shakspearean giant, loved driving moterbikes fast, had a parrot that was allowed to nibble on anything, took Sunday walks with a mice in his pocket, breakfast was gin and tonic, was totally impossible to interview. Sir Ralph and his BMW Sir Ralph makes an entrance
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Post by koskiewicz on Apr 16, 2019 14:48:03 GMT
if not already mentioned, surely the Marx Bros qualify...
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Post by Prime etc. on May 25, 2019 23:20:07 GMT
Ernest Thesiger immediately comes to mind. Strother Martin is another. Una O'Connor, Patrick Magee, Slim Pickens, Sterling Holloway, Hugh Griffith, Gert Frobe, Jack Elam, Elisha Cook and Jerry Colonna round out my list. Wilfred Brambell, anybody? I'll give you Thesiger--definitely Strother Martin, O'Connor, Magee, but I would not include Pickens because unless he had a British accent in real life I think he, like Tommy Lee Jones, tended to just play a variation on himself (Jones is also eccentric). I don't think Pickens had the "self-aware" quality that I associate with the best eccentrics.
A couple more I consider total eccentrics--Margot Kidder, Nicol Williamson.
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