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Best performance by a bad actor?


Reed

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I've always thought Eric Roberts was pretty terrible, but he was great in The Dark Knight.

 

Eric Roberts was tremendous in Star 80. Very underrated and underappreciated role and performance.  He's so slimy you almost need to take a shower when the movie's over.

 

And it was brought up earlier, but Hayden Christensen was great in Shattered Glass.  He played the smart, lying little shit role so perfectly, you just couldn't wait to see him get his.

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Is Hayden Christiansen actually a crap actor, or is just because in the only thing most have seen him in he was directed by George Lucas, a guy famous directing actors badly?

 

Look at Natalie Portman. She's a terrific actress. But if all you saw her in was Star Wars, you'd think she was terrible.  

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I don't know if that's fair, because Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson rose above the shitty directing, and turned in great performances.  Of course, Hayden isn't in their league, but still.  In his defense though, he was given horrible material compared to the rest.

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The funniest thing about the prequels is how much better both Portman and Christiansen appear to be in scenes with McGregor than with each other.  He not only gives a good performance, he elevates the two of them.

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IMO, McGregor and Neeson were both experienced enough to know to ignore Lucas and stick with their instincts. Portman and Christiansen  were a lot younger and more willing to go along with his terrible advice.

 

I've heard he would regularly tell Christiansen to act as vacant and distant as possible. Throw in terrible dialogue about hating sand, and is it really a surprise how bad he is in those movies?

 

Also: Madonna in Evita. Best theory is she's never really been comfortable with just acting, but the combination of singing and acting managed to get a great performance out of her.

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I've always thought Eric Roberts was pretty terrible, but he was great in The Dark Knight.

 

Eric Roberts was tremendous in Star 80. Very underrated and underappreciated role and performance.  He's so slimy you almost need to take a shower when the movie's over.s.

 

 

Did The Pope of Greenwich Village also stop existing?

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Mentioned in the other thread how shockingly great Denise Richards is in Drop Dead Gorgeous, and it got me thinking, what are the career best performances from people who otherwise do terrible work?

 

Also, I don't think Uma Thurman has ever been any good in anything that wasn't directed by Quintin Tarantino.

Baron Munchausen?

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Didn't Hayden Christiansen get good reviews for shattered glass?

 

 

He got really good reviews for Life as a House. It helped he was playing opposite Kevin Kline.

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Marlon Wayans in Requiem for a Dream.

 

He's been a good actor since Above The Rim.

 

He just got stuck carrying his less talented brother Shawn while going into the family business, which started out great with Don't Be A Menace... and the original Scary Movie but has been diminishing returns ever since...

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People are always going to rip on Shatner but if you watch Wrath of Kahn he just plays Kirk as a man struggling with his on mortality so well. The secene where he goes to read the book and his bifocals are shattered, the look on his face is the definition of "Pyrrhic Victory". Hell even the eulogy he gives for Spock is pretty powerful and the death scene itself is one of the few movie moments that made me cry.

 

James 

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Shatner's not a bad actor, he's a lazy actor who's too comfortable playing to type and hitting the highspots by going so over the top that he's not even really acting anymore, he's trying to break the universe to his will through sheer force of presence.  See also THE INTRUDER, where he turns in an awesome performance in a Roger Corman film.

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