#3 worst actor nomination thread

Yes i think what we are distinctly seeking here are lack-of-character actors

Is Crispin Glover a good actor? Probably not. But he can never be a bad actor.

I think costner is very valid offering but he's such languid beefcake srs courtroom detective perfection that it alone carries him

He can look away, amused, in a scene where someone says a line of dialogue to make him do so

Bloom? Never.

I will rep for Hammill as a voice actor. That's where he has found his niche for a long time now and probably would have stayed there if not for JJ Abrams.

He's corny as hell in The Flash, but so is everyone on it. I mean, this is a show where my superhero loving 9 year-old even gave up on it after three and a half seasons because it was "too cheesy and dumb".

You're right, I should never have Exhibit A-ed any CW DC show as they're all terrible and dumb even though I keep watching them for god knows what reason.

Something was going on with Olivier in the late '70s. It wasn't just The Jazz Singer ("I hef no son!") but also The Boys From Brazil, The Betsy, A Little Romance... he was just really leaning into accents to a distracting effect

I think he was a prize ham anyway, I dislike English stage acting. Richard III, there's a weird distracting accent for you.

Olivier's fine in Carrie (not a ham) and The Entertainer (a ham on wry).

Bootlegs exist, thats what richard iii sounded like

He can look away, amused, in a scene where someone says a line of dialogue to make him do so

Bloom? Never.

― Qanondorf (darraghmac), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 4:34 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

i love this as the qualifying bar

You're right, I should never have Exhibit A-ed any CW DC show as they're all terrible and dumb even though I keep watching them for god knows what reason.

Ha, we had never watched any of them but thought they might make for a decent show to binge with our son. The first few seasons of The Flash were fine, but then it got dumb and Arrow was a little too dark for him.

xp As an example with costner in mind!

Its an art, this, not a séance

Agree re glover, who is a fine, fine presence and possibly even actor on the cage scale

We are, as stated, looking for the bryan ferry of actors, not the dylan/van morrison of actors

olivier in r3 is about as good as the material deserves

imo the “tru acting” / “playing urself” dichotomy is being taken too seriously itt. people who can’t act can’t play themselves

Yep imo

Bloom/ratface tho?

Could never

i support the nomination of kit harrington. he's absolutely terrible in silent hill 3d: revelation, a movie i like bc it is kind of terrible but he's very bad in it still

ryan o neill, gene kelly, jude law, benedict cumberbatch

I've been neck-deep in Depression-era film over the past half a year or so and am struggling to think of anyone from that era who has been unjustly feted, as I've been pleasantly surprised that the big names have really lived up to their rep. W.C. Fields is maybe kinda terrible? I don't know if he really qualifies though because he's just a walking vaudeville act.

Oh, Lon Chaney Jr. was the worst. Nepotism run rampant, that.

Sorry to stir up so much controversy but it must be done.

Ryan o neill yes

The rest, not close tbh

Kelly an awful actor but imo clearly called out at the onset the "special function" case

Yeah I'm not wild about Astaire's acting but that's not necessarily what he was there to do.

xp im sorry i thought this was a thread

gene kelly

remind me post-COVID never to meet up with any of you to watch movies

You say that like that’s a bad thing

Jude Law is good in tons of things

i saw him i tate modern once and that was the only time he was convincing

He was fun in the late '90s when he played bitches.

jude law was born to play the role of lenny belardo aka the young pope.

Lol I saw him in the Whitney once

I've been neck-deep in Depression-era film over the past half a year or so and am struggling to think of anyone from that era who has been unjustly feted, as I've been pleasantly surprised that the big names have really lived up to their rep. W.C. Fields is maybe kinda terrible? I don't know if he really qualifies though because he's just a walking vaudeville act.

Not Depression-era, but I saw "Double Indemnity" recently and there's some terrible acting in that - not by the three leads I hasten to add.

is there a "what makes acting good or bad iyo?" thread? I often find these discussions a little bewildering in terms of shared assumptions / frames of analysis

Can we nominate for particular subcategories of acting? There were a few scenes in that recent Kidman/Grant HBO thing (which was terrible) wherein Hugh Grant (who I'd say generally is okay and not terrible) was crying and it was maybe the worst and most embarrassing cry acting I've ever seen, really a spectacle. It was worse cry acting than I could have done. So I nominate him for worst cry actor on that basis.

Natalie Portman. Like how is it possible to be the worst actor next to a newbie Chris Hemsworth in an MCU movie? And in everything else?

worst cry acting is Claire Danes, no contest

xp
^that level of specificity makes more sense to me, since the exact failure to convince can be pinpointed

anyway sorry to be chin-stroking on the worst actor thread

there are no bad actors, there's just poor casting, bad writing and bad direction

Yes please break things down for those of us who are merely spectating the thread, permanently unable to develop insights into visual media in any way

Also gyac that username is incredible

worst cry acting is Claire Danes, no contest

― Roz, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 17:10 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a really odd thing 2 say

is there a "what makes acting good or bad iyo?" thread? I often find these discussions a little bewildering in terms of shared assumptions / frames of analysis

― rob, Tuesday, February 2, 2021 11:08 AM (thirty seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

This has always been a little confounding to me, too. I'm often like 'wait, he/she is supposed to be good? and he/she is supposed to be bad?'. The clearest criteria I can think of for good acting is if you see enough of a particular actor being just a regular everyday human (or as close as actors ever get to that state) and then see that actor portraying a convincingly different person in a given project. Or just like Isabelle Adjani in Possession where I'm like 'you are channeling something from another world rn, holy shit'.

Bad acting is like 'I don't enjoy watching you, please get off my screen'.

no there are definitely bad actors, jude law for instance

acting is v interesting and the criteria for being good are contextual

jude law doesn't qualify for me. his attempt at a long island accent in vox lux is too entertaining

as with most things, driving etc.

xpost sorry old tumblr meme https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/09/claire-danes-homeland-cry-face

Natalie Portman is a very good nomination for this thread. She generally reaches 'third-best actor in a high school production of Our Town' levels of acting performance.

Jude Law is hot

I think if Uncut Gems has taught me anything it's that acting is literally easy and anyone can do it if they're directed to just say lines and be themselves