who would people say is underrated, for me it would be jared leto, having seen most of his films, he is able to pull off very different characters/roles, and is happy to emerse himself in the role (ie gaining the weight for chapter 27, training his body for alexander, going dangerously thin to play the drug addict in requium for a dream etc, some of his moves include:
fight club, lord of war, alexander, requium for a dream panic room, how to make an american quilt, basil, the black and the white, pre-fontaine, urban legend, switchback, girl interuppted, american psycho highway, the thin red line, loneley hearts chapter 27
I think there is a lot more to acting than 'Gaining weight' 'loosing weight' and 'Building muscle' for various roles. In many ways, this is used by companies now to gain publicity for the film - and it's really quite annoying. Some actors can portray a character brilliantly without having to change themselves physically. De Niro felt he had to do what he had to do in Raging Bull. It was brilliant. Now, everyone is doing it for the most stupid of roles - it's method gone mad. Sometimes it can help, often it comes across a desperate attempt to grasp a character.
Leto is a decent actor though, but not for the reasons you mentioned.
Forest Whitaker, always in the shadow of other African American actors like Jackson, Washington and Freeman. Although the latter three are great, Whitaker is superbly versatile. He also tranfers well to the small screen playing a blinder in The Shield.
Spartacus.. Forest hitaker is now filming with Keanu Reevs on the set of his new film "The Night Watchman " I think they under rate keanu as an actor and feel he i better than they say. I think channel 4 should have a keanu night of films, like ITV dvd with the matrix trilogy ( they spread it over 3 nights)
I think Woody Harrelson is extremely underrated. He has done to many silly comedy films put proves himself being a brilliant actor over and over as soon as he does something serious. Has anyone seen the trailer for his new one, The Walker. I found it on Youtube.
"Thank you for your concern, but I never fly economy"
Originally posted by chezi: Spartacus.. Forest hitaker is now filming with Keanu Reevs on the set of his new film "The Night Watchman " I think they under rate keanu as an actor and feel he i better than they say. I think channel 4 should have a keanu night of films, like ITV dvd with the matrix trilogy ( they spread it over 3 nights)
I'm sorry, but I do find Keanu rather wooden, although he has been in some good films.
Anyone got any overated actors to discuss? Or actors that should never have been actors? (aka, who the hell gave them a part in a film?)
Jared Leto - I think he may be under-publicised rather than underrated, as although he has been in a fair amount of high profile films he doesn't seem to have much of a profile himself. He's not a bad actor but I've never really seen him in anything where I felt he excelled. And your list of his movies would be enogh to put anyone off anyway - many of them are total stinkers!
Keanu Reeves is an excellent actor providing he is playing either 1) A vacant teen stoner (dude!), which might prove problematic these days given his age, or 2) An intense but slightly vacant reluctant hero. He should never be expected to show emotion (not even 'anger', which even the most basic of action hero types can usually pull off), or do 'romance' (see 'The matrix' series if you think I'm kidding about that one, me and an ironingboard have had steamier sessions) but most of all, and this is very important, he should never, NEVER try to do an English accent.
Ben Foster is so under rated, he's most recently been in 3:10 To Yuma, and he is fantastic in that. He's not been in that much, but what he has been in, he's a memorable character and a very good actor.
These are actors who I think had, not only great acting talent, but also screen presence/charisma and star quality but who,probably because they were not pretty enough,usually ended up getting small supporting roles rather than the leading roles they deserved.
David Warner - The Omen, Time Bandits, Time After Time. Despite his immense charisma on screen he never seemed to get leading roles in big Hollywood movies. Got more recognition in the theatre than as a movie actor.
Stubby Kaye - Guys and Dolls,Sweet Charity, Cat Ballou. A great musical performer who was as good an actor as he was a singer; got more recognition on Broadway than he did in Hollywood.
Burgess Meredith - Will forever be remembered as The Penguin on the old 60's Batman TV Series and The "Rocky" films but was a great actor.
Ernest Borgnine - A great supporting actor in some marvellous movies but who remembers that he won an Oscar and a Bafta for his role in "Marty"?
Dean Stockwell - Great child movie actor and great adult movie actor and well known from his role in the TV series "Quantum Leap" but always ends up getting small supporting roles,often in low-budget sci-fi movies.
I think the impression they are underrated is how they are represented in the media and how they choose to behave. A lot of them would be more famous if they did things controversial that ended up in the press. Some actors avoid the media frenzy which probably limits their success but they get more freedom.
Kevin Bacon - Probably the most underrated actor around, he never gets much recognition for his roles
his performances in Murder In The First, Sleepers, Mystic River The Woodsman and Where The Truth Lies were brilliant and worthy of oscar nominations, he was also great in Flatliners, The River Wild and Stir Of Echoes
Originally posted by all sainty: tom cruise....ive seen alot of his movies and i cant understand why he hasnt won an oscar!
His performance in "Vanilla Sky" rates as the most embarrassingly awful performance I've ever seen in any film ever. Tom Cruise is NOT a good actor. Which means, yes, he'll probably be awarded an Oscar at some point.
Originally posted by all sainty: tom cruise....ive seen alot of his movies and i cant understand why he hasnt won an oscar!
His performance in "Vanilla Sky" rates as the most embarrassingly awful performance I've ever seen in any film ever. Tom Cruise is NOT a good actor. Which means, yes, he'll probably be awarded an Oscar at some point.
'Born on the Fourth of July', 'Magnolia', 'Rain Man', 'Jerry Maguire'. Cruise has put in some damn good performances.
I really don't like Tom Cruise, I totally agree with CousinTeresa, he is not a good actor. The only film I think he is acceptable in is 'Interview With The Vampire.'
