Diverse Actors <ahem>

Paulie Gualtieri

was just thinking there of actors that have no range and in some cases no talent , for example Jason Statham can only play himself/the one accent , style , as in lock stock , transporter , and the list goes on , Michael Cain is another , so anyone got any others ???

dahamsta

Tony Sirico

Mansized Wreath

Vinny Jones and Vin Diesel.

ziedth

Michelle Rodreguez is the best i can think of.

MagicMarker

Denzel Washington

Keanu Reeves

Sad Professor

No listing please.

Mr Manfred

Jackie Chan only seems to be able to play an Asian

LCD

Liam Neeson plays the exact same character in every movie. The fairly "normal" looking guy but with a back bone made of pure granite, a little edgy. In some films, like Taken is good. In A Team was terrible.
He is very one dimensional

pickarooney

Paulie Gualtieri wrote: »

was just thinking there of actors that have no range and in some cases no talent , for example Jason Statham can only play himself/the one accent , style , as in lock stock , transporter , and the list goes on , Michael Cain is another , so anyone got any others ???

Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules and Get Carter are hardly the same character.

I'm sure someone will post up that Vin Diesel documentary demonstrating that he can act a bit.

Personally, I don't understand how Tommy Lee Jones has managed to make a career out of growling and staring.

Tipsy McSwagger

Ricky Gervais just plays himself even when he is an animated character.

Sleepy

Johnny Depp is delving into this territory for the past decade or so. He has the ability to play far more range than he seems to... but maybe that's Tim Burton's fault?

the purple tin

Sean Connery, good actor but same accent everytime.
"Ah, Mish Moneypenny"

Skinfull

LCD wrote: »

Liam Neeson plays the exact same character in every movie. The fairly "normal" looking guy but with a back bone made of pure granite, a little edgy. In some films, like Taken is good. In A Team was terrible.
He is very one dimensional

They arent movies. Neeson has a full time documentary crew following him. They release snippets every now and then but its really for a post mortus blockbuster doc.

There is a difference between being typecast and having no range. Michelle Rodriguez has no range. Whatsoever. But I don't think its fair to say the same for Denzel Washington (though he can play being oppressed very well.)
Glory, Malcolm X, The Pelican Brief, Remember the Titans. All fairly differnt roles played to perfection by Mr Washington.

Bobby Baccala

Joe Pesci, always a mobster/criminal.

johnny_ultimate

Sam Worthington: if you want an actor for your blockbuster with the general range of an inanimate statue, he's your man!

I think Joe Pesci has an extremely limited range - from angry asshole to somewhat loveable angry asshole. Now now, that doesn't mean he didn't do a good job in Scorcese joints. But even, to me, his seemingly varied performances in Raging Bull and Goodfellas are somewhat riffs on a theme.

ziedth

Ya Denzel isn't right at all imho. You can't really say that training day and remember the titans are the same character. although it would be amazing if you swapped them

there are some curious ones like Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey who play the same character allot but its obvious from some of their films that they have a very good range. Punch Drunk Love & The Truman Show being examples respectfully.

Funglegunk

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Joe Pesci, always a mobster/criminal.

He plays a lawyer in My Cousin Vinny! (I love that film)

Jennifer Lopez has an incredibly limited range as an actress I think, she's pretty terrible in almost everything. Michael Ironside maybe? He seems to play roughly the same character in every movie. (Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Terminator Salvation...mind you I haven't seen Scanners or many of his other films).

niallon

Michael Ironside is an example of typecasting though, he's just perfect for those roles. Where do you draw the line on actors always playing the same part and actors elevating a movies quality by being so good at that type of part?

For what it's worth though, Michael Cera and his tortoise face will never be able to play anything but the awkward geeky kid, even when he's fifty

Miguel_Sanchez

ziedth wrote: »

Michelle Rodreguez is the best i can think of.

I've noticed she always plays Hispanic women alright.

krudler

Jeff_Lebowski wrote: »

I've noticed she always plays Hispanic women alright.

need a feisty Mexican? she's your woman.

Michael Cera just plays himself, as does Ellen Page.

Fysh

Are we talking in term of the performances they give or the roles they choose? I know it sounds a bit nitpicky, but there's a difference.

Statham, for example, always plays broadly the same character - but he has also (post-Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) generally tended to take roles where this isn't a problem. If you're starring in films like The Transporter series, Crank, The Expendables or Death Race acting range isn't really a requirement.

Tommy Lee Jones seems to bring broadly the same style of performance to every film he stars in. Sometimes it works excellently (No Country for Old Men), other times not so much (Batman Forever).

Deus Ex Machina

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Joe Pesci, always a mobster/criminal.

Ah no, he's great in comedy roles too: Lethal Weapon, Home Alone, My Cousin Vinny. He's actually a great actor, Raging Bull showed a more insecure, subservient roll and he played it just as well as the psychotic villain which he known for.


I'd say Clint Eastwood is very similar in a lot of his roles, a gritty, masculine presence who has a underlying sensitivity. It doesn't matter if an actor is a one trick pony as long as the trick is awesome.

phil1nj

Ben Stiller is someone who in my opinion has only two speeds; awkward, nervous types, prone to bouts of stuttering and stammering or just a downright angry asshole (a la Dodgeball or his "Friends" character). He pulls the odd exception out of his hat now and again (Zoolander etc) but not very often.

Deus Ex Machina

phil1nj wrote: »

Ben Stiller is someone who in my opinion has only two speeds; awkward, nervous types, prone to bouts of stuttering and stammering or just a downright angry asshole (a la Dodgeball or his "Friends" character). He pulls the odd exception out of his hat now and again (Zoolander etc) but not very often.

I think he's a genuinely shit actor.

GastroBoy

Jennifer Aniston has basically played Rachel in everything since Friends ended.

phil1nj

GastroBoy wrote: »

Jennifer Aniston has basically played Rachel in everything since Friends ended.

Except "Horrible bosses" maybe, or perhaps I missed that episode of "Friends", you know the one with the slutty Rachel Greene

Mark Hamill

phil1nj wrote: »

Ben Stiller is someone who in my opinion has only two speeds; awkward, nervous types, prone to bouts of stuttering and stammering or just a downright angry asshole (a la Dodgeball or his "Friends" character). He pulls the odd exception out of his hat now and again (Zoolander etc) but not very often.

The way I see it, he has three settings:
1) Well meaning but unlucky nice guy (Meet the Parents, There's Something About Mary, Night at the Museum, 95% of his films etc.)
2) Angry assh*le (Dodgeball, Happy Gilmore etc)
3) Clinically retarded (Zoolander)

Anything else is just a combination of two or more of these settings (Tropic Thunder is 1 and 3, The Mystery Men is 1 and 2).

Paulie Gualtieri

though someone might have mentioned jean claude van dam , but maybe he's just not on anyones radar as an actor

Sleepy

GastroBoy wrote: »

Jennifer Aniston has basically played Rachel in everything since Friends ended.

She was quite good in The Good Girl but you could argue that was the exception to prove the rule...

Riskymove

pickarooney wrote: »

Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules and Get Carter are hardly the same character.

sure his big break through was in Zulu as an upper class english toff

Mickeroo

i think its more to do with the roles actors choose or are offered rather than the actor's actual capability. De Niro and Pacino have been pretty one note thorughout their careers in many ways (bar a few exceptions I'm sure) too, yet they're still seen as two of the best.

paddyismaddy

joey tribbani

Vin Diesel can act, strangely enough. He was in that movie, Find Me Guilty. As for Michael Cera, he really is someone that is a one trick pony. Don't get me wrong, I like that trick and he is good at it, but I'd much prefer to see him expanding away from the usual.

the purple tin

Seen one Steven Seagal movie you seen em all.

krudler

Mickeroo wrote: »

i think its more to do with the roles actors choose or are offered rather than the actor's actual capability. De Niro and Pacino have been pretty one note thorughout their careers in many ways (bar a few exceptions I'm sure) too, yet they're still seen as two of the best.

last two movies I enjoyed De Niro in were Stardust and Everybody's Fine, Pacino was good in Insomnia but he's just shouty pacino now

Mickeroo

Sleepy wrote: »

Johnny Depp is delving into this territory for the past decade or so. He has the ability to play far more range than he seems to... but maybe that's Tim Burton's fault?

I think he's still pretty different in most of his movies, even the Burton ones. he was actually great in Dark Shadows, flawed as the film was. You could draw similarities between Alice in Wonderland and his Willy Wonka performance maybe, but neither of those were anything like Captain Jack imo.

Oh and look at this

pixelburp

If I was looking for genuinely talented & diverse actors, I've always thought you need to move past the A-listers and look to the character actors; the 'jobbing' professionals who tend to get 2nd/3rd billing a film, and the smaller parts. Maybe it's because they can't guarantee the bigger roles, they have to be more malleable to a wider range of characters.

Sleepy

pixelburp wrote: »

If I was looking for genuinely talented & diverse actors, I've always thought you need to move past the A-listers and look to the character actors; the 'jobbing' professionals who tend to get 2nd/3rd billing a film, and the smaller parts. Maybe it's because they can't guarantee the bigger roles, they have to be more malleable to a wider range of characters.

I once saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman interviewed when he talked about his first day in drama school when he walked into his dorm and his room-mate, who was similarly ordinary looking, took one look at him and said:

"We better be good."

Luckily for PSH, he was, never found out the room-mate's name though, guess he wasn't as good.

OldeCinemaSoz

The Sly wasn't very UP to much in the italian stallion...

but he wuz pretty good in ROCKY

"Adri...aaaaaannn!!!"

:cool:

telly_lover

Paulie Gualtieri wrote: »

was just thinking there of actors that have no range and in some cases no talent , for example Jason Statham can only play himself/the one accent , style , as in lock stock , transporter , and the list goes on , Michael Cain is another , so anyone got any others ???

john wayne immedietly springs to mind

charlton heston

sean connery

clint eastwood

harrison ford

tom cruise

will smith

hugh grant

steve mc queen

roger moore

pierce brosnan






its quite a long list

sxt

telly_lover wrote: »

tom cruise






its quite a long list

How do you figure that?

telly_lover

Sleepy wrote: »

I once saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman interviewed when he talked about his first day in drama school when he walked into his dorm and his room-mate, who was similarly ordinary looking, took one look at him and said:

"We better be good."

Luckily for PSH, he was, never found out the room-mate's name though, guess he wasn't as good.

philip s hoffman has incredibly range

telly_lover

sxt wrote: »

How do you figure that?

he is incapable of not being intense , cruise is like a sports star , extreme focus and dedication and a huge competitive streak , the guy just isnt a natural actor

Kylo Ren

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Joe Pesci, always a mobster/criminal.

My Cousin Vinny, All the Lethal Weapons he was in, Raging Bull, Gone Fishin'.

All I can think of now. Probably a load more in his earlier career.

Paparazzo

I like Jack Nicholson, but he always plays Jack Nicholson.
What about Ronald Lee Ermey? If you're wondering, he's the drill sergeant (What is your major malfunction, numbnuts?) in Full Metal Jacket. Take a look at his list of parts and notice a pattern:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000388/

In fairness, he does a good job!

Paulie Gualtieri

Paulie Gualtieri wrote: »

though someone might have mentioned jean claude van dam , but maybe he's just not on anyones radar as an actor

Jean Claude Van Damme can actually act. Check out his wonderful movie JCVD, in which he does this absolutely incredible monologue -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlKdcooqhY8

telly_lover

Paparazzo wrote: »

I like Jack Nicholson, but he always plays Jack Nicholson.
What about Ronald Lee Ermey? If you're wondering, he's the drill sergeant (What is your major malfunction, numbnuts?) in Full Metal Jacket. Take a look at his list of parts and notice a pattern:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000388/

In fairness, he does a good job!

yes but jack has a very broad personality which he infuses into various charechters he plays

he has so much charisma that its difficult to forget who he,s playing , he,s jack

pickarooney

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Joe Pesci, always a mobster/criminal.

Tommy from Goodfellas and Leo Getz from Lethal Weapon were poles apart though. Tommy was genuinely scary while you just wanted to cuddle Leo.

Savman

Arnold "Diversity" Schwarzenegger ftw.

MaxSteele

dahamsta wrote: »

Tony Sirico

*Tony Soprano enters the room*

Paulie :" OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Cork boy 55

Dale Dye the ultimate "diverse" actor

He plays mid to senior level USA army officers in Movies and tv shows
Same character in every movie, it easy for him as thats what he did in real life. He also is a military technical adviser on various sets
no-nonsense, clean cut, tough talking, professional.

All that varies from movie to movie is his rank.

He is more of a prop than an actor, he just turns up at the command post or the bunker or the war room or staffroom gives a few orders or offers advice. He makes occasinally trips to the front.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Dye
look at his
Filmography on wiki and look at role section
LOL( in fairness he does play the occasional Sergent)