Actors You Never Liked But Then Won You Over in a Single Performance

Mickey Rooney, reconsidered late in the game.

He was the star of that hated classic film star thread. I get both sides of the coin.

Sometimes old age imposes a humility and even gravitas on the cockiest and smarmiest of performing personalities.

Andie Macdowell in sex, lies, and videotape.

I was hugely resistant to Clint Eastwood at first, didn't like those silly western movies he was always doing early on but found he became much more interesting in the Seventies starting with Play Misty For Me in '71, to Escape from Alcatraz in '79. I kind of suddenly "got" his dark, dry sense of humor and respected the fact he was willing and wanting to explore the vulnerable side of his psyche and image.

I generally found Demi Moore to be an empty, narcissistic presence, but on very rare occasions, I got why she became a movie star.

One instance was in Mortal Thoughts, a hazy thriller from 1991 directed by Alan Rudolph, whose movies are generally slow and force the actors in them to fill the screen with something besides their current popularity.

Another was Flawless, a feminist heist film with Moore and Michael Caine (who elicits polarized opinions here on Datalounge.) They have to invent a backstory to explain her wobbly British accent, but she's convincing in the period (mostly 1960s) and successful in creating a sympathetic character that extends beyond the didacticism that the dialogue occasionally lapses into. I could envision Demi Moore as a protagonist in Douglas Sirk/Ross Hunter films.

Neither Flawless nor Mortal Thoughts was a hit, unlike so many of her big films where I thought she was terrible. Maybe star power in the 90s and beyond is more rooted in posturing than presence.

Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love.

[quote]I always found Daryl Hannah vapid and boring, a pretty blonde actress cast repeatedly as the romantic goal of a leading man.

That's why I hit her

Al Pacino. Always thought he was way overrated. Then I saw him in You Don't Know Jack and thought that man can ACT!

Leo Dicaprio in"What's Eating Gilbert Grape" owns this thread.

I am a lifelong Manniston hater, but that film where she plays the grifter who pretends to get raped in a hotel room showed me she had finally learned something after a few decades on the job.

I never had much love for Clark Gable, but I really enjoyed him as a terrific villain in the pre-code Barbara Stanwyck/Ann Southern film Night Nurse, which is a treat from beginning to end.

While I never disliked Ingrid Bergman, I was never a huge fan. However, her performance in Murder on the Orient Express never ceases to draw me in. I'm never certain if she's playing comedy or tragedy, or if she knows she's pulling off both at the same time. Sidney Lumet had to divvy up a lot of screen time among a lot of big movie stars, so he made the most of Bergman's interrogation scene by running the camera on her for a five-minute shot, in which she makes her befuddled, anxious ex-missionary into a truly great character.

She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this one, a win that was decried by many and questioned by Bergman herself, but I've always considered it a just reward for a lifetime in film and for showing how to take on a minor role and make it an unforgettable performance.

Andy Griffith's relentless affability on his TV show wore me down, but the spin he put on a folksy character turned manic, magnetic megalomaniac in A Face in the Crowd almost turned me on.

Tom cruise in magnolia

I second R2, and she confirmed with her performance in Altman's Short Cuts. I will add...

Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas. Based on what we'd seen, I had no idea she had it in her.

I agree with the OP. Daryl Hannah was a revelation in Kill Bill. Who knew?

I think Tom Hiddleston is a pathetic closet case and a bad actor most of the time, however I have to admit I liked his performance as Loki and that he totally stole both Thor movies.

R15 Had you seen a lot of Hiddleston before Thor?

Anyway, for me it's Scarlett in Her. I still don't think she's a great actress, but her best performance is in a film wherein you never seen her.

Meg Ryan in 'Hurlyburly'

I used to loathe and despise Michael Douglas and really wanted to punch his face in everything I ever saw him in. But his performance in The Game made me reconsider his talent as an actor. I found it to be a really affecting performance. Then he hit me with a double whammy the next year in The Wonder Boys.

I always wanted to throat-punch Ethan Hawke till his performance in Boyhood. Ditto Patricia Arquette in the same.

Never liked Josh Brolin's till No Country for Old Men. He was like a different actor.

Also, Kristen Stewart in "Clouds of Sils Maria."

The first Emile Hirsch film I saw was The Girl Next Door and I really thought it was crap, and that he was a whiny little jerk in it. But then I saw him in Lone Survivor and he won me over. His performance was great. I'm too lazy to watch films just for an actor alone so I've not seen him in anything else since. But I could look at pics of him all day long. Sexy guy.

I'm surprised you haven't seen him in Milk. He's good there. He also plays gay in a small independent film called Imaginary Heroes with Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Daniels, Michelle Williams, and the hot, but forgotten Kip Pardue. It's one of those Ordinary People-lite, dysfunctional family dramas. He's also great in Prince Avalanche with Paul Rudd.

A number of you mentioned actors you liked but you didnt feel could act until you finally saw a film where they "acted". Which is not what the OP asked for.

So I am going to stick with you and ignore the OP's criteria.

I never though much of Edith Massey as an actress, just an amusing freak, until Polyester.

Thanks R22! I'll check those films out next time I feel like watching a movie. I see trailers and/ or read reviews and think that I must get around to watching them but never seem to do it.

Annette Bening.

It's not that I thought she was a bad actress, but she was so freaking hyped, and I just didn't get it, which made me dislike her. But then I saw her in Mother and Child, in which she played a woman who had given up her daughter for adoption years before. She was completely unadorned - no Botox there - and she blew me away. I finally got the hype, and now I am solidly pro-Bening.

Jeremy Renner in Arrival.

He's so... nothing in that film though.

I disagree... he played a role outside his usual action hero thing, and was a good compliment to Amy Adams' character.

Nicole Kidman in 'To Die For', up to the time of that film's release I despised her, after seeing that film I've loved her (or at least forgiven her) in all of her subsequent performances.

Sylvester Stallone in Copland. It's been years since I saw it, so I don't know if I'd still feel the same way, but he was warm and sad and compelling. Who knew?

Nicole Kidman was amazing in To Die For but I can't it now without thinking she is doing a parody of Meg Ryan's "America's Sweetheart" schtick.

r23 has stated her boundaries.

I'm still not a huge fan of Kristen Stewart. But, she kind of won me over in Still Alice.

The actress who I never really cared about, Nicole Kidman, was amazing in "Big Little Lies." The same goes for Reese Witherspoon.

There are two kinds of great performances given by lousy actors. The rarer one is the case of a truly good acting by someone who is obviously, based on most of their other performances, a dreadful thespian. Andie Macdowell in sex, lies, and videotape is a prime example of this kind of anomaly - maybe there was something about the character she related to, maybe it was all about Steven Soderbergh knowing how to manipulate her, but it works beautifully. Then there are the more common cases of bad acting being well used - Kidman in To Die For was her usual fake self, but it was just what the character she was playing called for. So was Tom Cruise in Magnolia or the best of them all, Kim Novak, whose usual uncomfortable onscreen presence was just right in Vertigo.

None. I am always right the first time.

Before I couldn't stand Lili Taylor. I think it was her character in "Six Feet Under" that really soured me to her. But then her performances in the series "American Crime" have now made me a big fan.

I didn't like Ed Norton, really disliked him in that heist film set in Montreal with DeNiro. I get that he usually plays annoying characters but I just didn't want to see him at all. Then I watched Kingdom of Heaven which was pretty bad, I mean Orlando Bloom is a waste of film but Norton made it worth watching--and he was wearing a silver mask on his face the whole time. He also directed a film and starred in it with Naomi Watts, enjoyed that too.

Natalie Portman in Jackie.

For me, Portman was always someone who snuck into the prestige party by choosing roles that where in service to a highly singular vision (Woody Allen, Darren Aronovsky, George Lucas) - making her abilities as an actor seem slight and slightly overacted.

But I loved Jackie and thought she was absolutely phenomenal in it. That movie single-handedly changed my whole opinion of her.

Are you thinking of "Painted Veil," R38? Norton and Watts starred in it, but it was directed by John Curran. I, too, loved that movie, although I've been sold on Norton ever since "Primal Fear."

Ditto Kidman in To Die For. That's a killer performance. She's nailing it on Big Little Lies, too, as is Reese who's the best she's been since her Election/Freeway days.

Charlize Theron in Young Adult really took me by surprise. She was brilliant in Monster, but one was never really sure if it was the makeup doing the heavy lifting or not. It was wonderful to see her play such an unsympathetic monster while still looking like a million bucks.

I never really got Julia Roberts until My Best Friend's Wedding. She took a character who could have been played as a monster and filled her with so much charm that you couldn't help but root for her. I also thought she was the best thing in that August: Osage County movie.

R39 It same with me for Portman and Jackie.

Penelope Cruz in Vicky Christina Barcelona.

You haven't see Penelope Cruz in "Volver"? I would argue that her performance in that is light years better than VCB.

I always felt Warren Beatty was boring as hell until he delivered a chilling, all-out performance in "Bugsy".

r41, I felt the same about Julia Roberts on both counts. I never harbored the DL hate for her, but I wasn't much of a fan. Maybe we need to see her in somewhat unlikeable characters rather than bland romantic heroines. She can be comprehensible when she's doing questionable or awful things. Ambiguity may be her strong suit.

My Best Friend's Wedding gave her some really great small moments. There is one point where she is passing under a bridge debating whether or not to confess her feelings and we see the chance slip away as the sunlight falls on her face. She carries the scene like an old-school movie star.

Also great in Osage County - the best performance in the film, though I also liked Juliet Lewis quite a bit in it.

I agree with R45 - I always found Beatty more annoying than boring - never more so than in MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, a film hailed as a masterpiece but only comes alive when Julie Christie is onscreen. The only films where Beatty manages to give a real performance IMO are BONNIE AND CLYDE, parts of SHAMPOO, and BUGSY.

I agree with Nicole Kidman in To Die For, Penelope Cruz in Volver, and I'll add Goop in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Laura Dern in "Big Little Lies"; I warmed to Nicole Kidman slightly but still don't care for her that much.

And I still loathe Tom Cruise and don't imagine that changing.

I also thought Beatty was DOA in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, r47. I've never thought he was much of a presence on the screen. He was stunningly handsome in his youth, but there just wasn't much beyond that for me.

R4, Demi Moore's performance in "If These Walls Could Talk" devastated me. It also immediately turned me around on her as an actress.

I couldn't stand Shailene Woodley (especially with all that Bernie Sanders shit), but I think more favorably of her after "Big Little Lies."

I thought Shailene Woodley was awful in Divergent, so I was surprised when she brought me to a Minor Mary Moment at the end of The Fault in Our Stars.

Never cared for Jim Carrey, and still not a fan, but his performance in "Doing Time on Maple Drive" was absolutely outstanding.

Somnambulist Rick Donovan and his rubbery horse cock nous a jamais impressionné until his piercingly effective performance in The Bigger and the Better

Jim Carrey in I Love You, Phillip Morris.

I can't stand the mugging and manic performances elsewhere, but he channels it well into a completely bananas gay con man.

Robin Williams in Shakes the Clown.

I like him best in small doses.

Matt Damon in the Departed. I'd always found him pretty bland before, but he nailed that role.

I thought Jennifer Connelly's Oscar win for A Beautiful Mind was highly undeserved but she won me over in the dinner table scene in Little Children.

Gwyneth Paltrow in "Sliding Doors"

Always disliked Jane Fonda's performances but she is great fun in Grace and Frankie.

There are actually people watching Big Little Lies?!

r60, I like Jane better than Lily in Grace and Frankie, but Lily is the one always nominated.

I'll watch Jane Fonda in Frankie & Johnny when she apologizes for her treasonous acts during the Vietnam War. But probably not.

Cher...Silkwood. And again in Mask.

R56...Robin Williams in ONE HOUR PHOTO.

r1, Daryl Hannah TRANSFORMED in Steel Magnolias. Her character was flawless and had no relation to her true self. Long before Kill Bill.

I thought Daryl Hannah was all cosmetic and disastrously cast in that role^, though I'll further confess that I didn't like the movie at all.

She was better in Blade Runner, though it didn't call for much other than glacial posing, which she did in a spectacular fashion.

Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear. Now he's one of my favorite actors.

I liked Jennifer Connelly better when she had big titties.

How could you not like Steel Magnolias, you fucking communist.

Ted McGinley in "Married With Children"

Linda Lavin in "Sean Saves The World"

Kathy Bates In "Misery"

Madonna in "Dick Tracy".

Judy Garland in "The Wizard Of Oz".

Glen Close in "101 Dalmatians"

Ellen DeGeneres "The Ellen Show" on CBS

Tommy Lee Jones in "The Fugitive"

Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones"

Susan Lucci in "All My Children"

Johnny Galecki in "Big Bang Theory"

Bea Arthur & Estelle Getty in "The Golden Girls"

Steve Martin & John Candy in "Planes, Trains & Automobiles"

Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman"

Hugh Jackman in "X-Men"

Danny DeVito in "Batman Returns"

r63, Jane has apologized repeatedly. Now you're free to enjoy the show! I don't watch because I can't stand the bitterness of the Lily Tomlin character.

Channing Tatum in 21 JUMP STREET.

Internal Affairs was a great turning point for Richard Gere and his career. Before that film, he typically played seemingly uncaring cads who were really good underneath it all - which he was never very convincing at because there's something called emoting , which he either was incapable of doing or wasn't interested in even trying. But in Internal Affairs he played just the reverse, a seemingly great guy who underneath is a monster - and he's chilling and is a real actor giving a real performance (finally). His acting was by and large a joke until then, at least imo.

Since then he's still been embarrassingly bad a few times (um, First Knight) , but more often than not he's been good, and that movie as it turned out marked the beginning of a much better phase of his career.

Of course, he'll always remain a joke to some, but there you go...

Betty Hutton as Hedda Gabler

John Giegud in "Hellzapoppin."

Troy Donohue in "Richard III"

Judith Anderson as Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls"

R68 For me with Mitchum it was “Out of the Past”.

Charlize Theron in “Monster”. Prior to that, I thought she was vacuous, annoying, and had limited talent. Then I watched her movie “Monster” and I was astounded. She was magnificent. I’ve been a fan ever since. I always admired her support of gay and lesbian rights. She is an amazing woman and she has my utmost respect.

Robin Williams in "World's Greatest Dad."

Before that I thought he had two modes: manic and cloyingly maudlin. But "World's Greatest Dad" was his "Election" or "To Die For."

Robin Williams on an episode of Homicide. It is his only performance I completely enjoy. (So I guess he did not win more over.)

[quote]I always found Daryl Hannah vapid and boring, , a pretty blonde actress

Me too and she wasn't so pretty once I kicked the shit out of her

R78 I tend to agree but actually The Birdcage was a happy exception - perhaps his best performance.

I'm another one who's always right the first time except when I like somebody and then they give a performance or let's just say a series of them that makes me hate them forever.

I'm looking at you Al.

Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas. She previously had given no clue she had it in her.

Excellent choices all around. Some for actors I already like (Ingrid Bergman, Annette Bening, or more controversially, Andie McDowell), others who totally hit it out of the park in one particular role.

One that surprised me how good he was: Clark Gable in It Happened One Night. So effortlessly charming and fun to watch. It seems to easy, that's because it's not.

I'd probably seen Christian Bale in a dozen films, and never much liked him. He was competent, but always stiff and closed off, never open or funny or likeable. But recently I saw "American Psycho", and I was blown away! He's fantastic in the role! Even though he's playing a blank of a man, he's magnetic and hilarious and crazy, for once in his career he totally opened up to the camera and let it rip, and the results are just stunning.

Although... He may have impressed the hell out of me, but I can't say he exactly "won me over". Instead, he made me wonder what kind of a person can only open up and have fun when he's playing a serial killer.

Ali MacGraw was mostly a horrible and limited actress. But Sidney Lumet directed her in this little gem called "Just Tell Me What You Want", and I thought she not only was terrific, but Oscar-worthy,

Same for her co-star Alan King. It was a real oddity.

Sandra Bullock in "Infamous"

I used to enjoy "Moonlighting" and thought Cybill Shepherd did a decent job there, but about 2 weeks ago saw a 1980s movie she did with Robert Downey Jr called Chances Are. The premise was ridiculous but they played it seriously and Cybill was surprisingly touching. She usually played the icy blonde but when she got a chance to do vulnerable I was surprised how good was and Downey was great in it.

Matthew McConaughey in "Dallas Buyers Club" - never really cared for him before, thought he sucked and overplayed comedy in other films, was overhyped from the start, seemed full of himself and not the great-looking likes some PR people gushed, but he was terrific after half-starving himself in his role in this film

Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained

Steve Martin in Pennies from Heaven.

I hated him on SNL, never got his humor, would have walked out of The Jerk had I not gone with a friend. I always thought he had this really sleazy element that no one else had caught on to.

Herb Ross caught on to it. He was perfect casting as the smarmy song-sheet salesman in Pennies. And I have loved most of his film work ever since.

I totally agree R86. Ali MacGraw was fantastic in that movie. It’s too bad she wasn’t offered sophisticated comedy roles. That’s where her talent is and I think she could have landed some great roles in the 1980s.

OP = Jackson Browne

Going back a few more years....decades.....than most of the others on this thread. I had ALWAYS hated ray Walston who annoyed me to no end in EVERY thing I saw him in.....Damn Yankees, South Pacific, My Favorite Martian, Portrait in Black....

Then late one night, an early 90's remake of OF MICE AND MEN was on, and I stopped to watch a bit....it starred John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.....and their was that old bastard Walston playing Candy.....and he was great....almost stole the movie....

their = there.......and make that Ray with a big "R". Where is the edit button????

[quote]Robin Williams on an episode of Homicide. It is his only performance I completely enjoy.

Do you remember who played his son?

Charles Bronson in Hard Times - I liked him in ensemble movies like the Dirty Dozen, but the movies that starred him truly sucked. Bad editing ruined Hard Times, but there are some great moments in there with Bronson, James Cobourn and Strother Martin.

Good call on Richard Gere in Internal Affairs. And Copland convinced me that Stallone could act.

I always loved Drew Barrymore - just for being Drew. But I never thought she was a particularly good actress. I'm still not certain.

But she was fucking amazing in Grey Gardens!!!!!!

Drew really was genuinely phenomenal in Grey Gardens. Easily her best work. I've always liked her and thought she was charming, but she genuinely moved me in that film.

I've always found Nicole Kidman to be rather cold and icy, but I thought she was phenomenal and hysterically funny in To Die For. She should have won the Oscar for that. That's her best performance although I thought her performance on Big Little Lies this past year was a close second.

R98 Did you see Nicole in Born? One of her more obscure. Difficult film, but that's my fave of hers.

I never understood the hype about Paltrow until I saw her in Hard Eight and she blew my mind in that movie as Clementine. Then I saw her in Proof and Sylvia Plath and now I wish she did more acting instead of shilling her stupid vagina pebbles. She is a very good actress, very versatile, even in stupid movies like View From a Top she pulls it off.

Nicole Kidman was indeed really, really good in "Birth". I thought I was the only one who still remembers that movie and her performance in it.

Also, Kevin Bacon as the reformed pedophile trying to start some semblance of a normal life in "The Woodsman". To this day, it boggles my mind that he didn't even get nominated for one of the most subtle and yet incredibly powerful performances of that year (2004.) I wouldn't say that I had particularly disliked him before that but I had never thought of him as a particularly good actor either. I was amazed he had that kind of performance in him.

I've never liked Robin Wright, but I enjoyed her in the new Blade Runner movie.

[quote] Daryl Hannah TRANSFORMED in Steel Magnolias

Are you kidding? That's a famously horrible performance. Paula Poundstone even has a classic comedy routine about how bad Hannah is in that film.

Winona Ryder is a terrible actress, but she gave one really fine performance in The Age of Innocence. Apparently the only way she did it was Martin Scorsese had to shout at her, "Less! Less!" all the time during filming.

Here's a practically iconic example: There was an actress who was famous more for her connections to other Hollywood names than for the few awful performances she gave in a handful of films. She then changed it 180 degrees with an out-of-nowhere Oscar winning performance

Anjelica Huston in Prizzi's Honor.

(her performance came from out of nowhere, her Oscar win was completely expected by the time she did).

Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. Granted, the reason why his performance was so good was because he was basically acting out his real life story (and he has even admitted as much), but man it's rare to get your heart wrenched that hard by a performance.

Gwyneth Paltrow is actually quite a fine actress, and was excellent in Emma and Proof. her trouble is not that she can;t act: her problem is that she's an asshole in real life.

Mickey Rourke was great in The Wrestler but Marisa Tomei stole the movie from him.

Did anyone mention Andie MacDowell in Sex, Lies and Videotape? She was also great in Short Cuts and Green Card. Awful in almost everything else.

Marisa Tomei in anything. But that's no treally what this thread is about.

James Franco in King Cobra.

Divine in Hairspray

How could you not think Hiddleston was great in Night Manager?

I take those 2 back. I just woke up and didn't pay attention to the criteria. I always LIKED Franco and Divine but every rare once and while I see they can really act.

The same with Anniston. I LIKE Anniston but as many do, consider her a lightweight, but every 10 years or so she sharts out a performance. As does Sharon Stone.

The Night Manager is completely forgettable. Loki is great though.

Where did Drew find that performance of Beale in Grey Gardens. I think she had a lot of ideas being a Barrymore and thus from an illustrious family. There are probably Beale like characters in her family history. She was just great! As was Lange.

Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl

Scarlett Johansson she's always awful but she was great in "Her"

Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life

Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire. He was supposed to be horrible as Lestat, but he really embodied the character.

Also Keanu Reeves in I Love You to Death. He cracks me up in that movie, whenever I need a laugh I just remember him jumping in fear at the blow up dinosaur.

R120, I had forgotten about I Love You to Death. It’s a bit ueven, but still quite funny, especially the scenes with William Hurt and Keanu Reeves.

Agreed with the posters upthread who mentioned Drew Barrymore in “Grey Gardens” — an outstanding performance.

Ted Danson in Damages.

Jessica Biel in The Sinner

Darryl is majorly unappreciated in SM. I agree with R66. We have a family member who is an “Annelle,” and Hannah just nails it.

Naomi Watts in " The Painted Veil"

This is going way back. I was a student of film school, saw lots of old movies and read lots of old movie star bios. But I just never got the "mystique" of Grace Kelly. I had seen her Oscar Winning role in The Country Girl, clips from a few other performances, but still wasn't won over.

Channel surfing one night, I came across a classic movie I had somehow missed, and started watching Hitchcock's Rear Window.

It clicked! Big time!!

Rear Window was the 2nd movie we watched in film school. The first was Sirk's Imitation of Life.

Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby", an incredible performance.

Diane Keaton in Looking for Mr. Goodbar.

R130 Great performance. And one heavily loved and often mentioned on DL.

But had you truly never liked Keaton until Goodbar?

Video on R58 has been removed, but Connelly is terrific in the scene you mention.

Jack Huston as the half-faced killer in Boardwalk Empire.

More like I'd never heard of him before.

Since then I've been waiting for him to do something else that captures the same genius.

I'm still waiting, but there's still hope. He was really excellent

Charlize Theron in Monster was the first thought I had when I clicked on this thread (and the poster upthread who pointed out her performance in Young Adult is right, too--never thought she had that in her either).

Good thread, though--lots of valid career-changing performances mentioned.

Clooney

Alexander Niven (aka Polinsky).

He played a reluctant heroic supporting character in the low-budge festival-gem SAINTS & SOLDIERS, and played the hell out of the role. I can't say if it was desperation to prove himself, excellent casting or if he just needed the check; whatever Niven was doing here worked.

The rest of the no-name cast were exemplary here too which may have brought his performance higher, and even with this said Niven's curiously tender & outstanding chemistry with his co-lead Corbin Allred shows a deep grasp of the genre he is working in and a sensitivity to his fellow actors (or, to Allred, at least).

For context Niven was best known prior to this film as the schmarmy little brother character of 'Charles In Charge', where he seemed awkward & out of place on camera. You wouldn't think he came from a cheap sitcom to watch him perform as an adult.

[quote]James Franco in King Cobra.

Is that a joke? That was such a lazy performance of his.

Same with Jeremy Renner in "Arrival" which someone oddly mentioned earlier.

Jim Carrey -

Sandy Dennis. Can't stand her. If there's a performance that would change my mind, I've yet to see it.

Didn't think much of Anniston until The Good Girl. Same with Kidman in To Die For and Reese in Election

Sandy Dennis is excellent in Another Woman. She has maybe 2 scenes, but manages to steal them completely.

Sandy Dennis reminds me of the retard lady at my grocery store that bags your groceries.

r130 if you like Keaton in Goodbar, I recommend Shoot the Moon if you haven't seen it. I think it's my second favourite performance from her (after Goodbar). She's excellent in it.

Claire Danes was always just a boring man-stealer to me until she played Temple Grandin

Dustin Hoffman. I hated him in the graduate because I hated his character. If was the first time I saw him in anything. I thought he wasn't acting. The Next movie I saw him in was Midnight Cowboy. After MC he became one of my favorite actors.

I had always found Heath Ledger a bit of a vapid pretty boy until Brokeback Mountain, where he was far better than Jake, who is himself a damn good actor. Hayden Christenssen was awful in the Star Wars Prequels but terrific in Shattered Glass. And pre-Loki btw, Hiddleston was very good in two low fi films by Joanna Hogg, Unrelated and Archipelago, so a few people were aware of him.

Adam Sandler in the movie where he plays the chef.

Never got his style of comedy, but he was good in that.

Nicole Kidman in "The Hours"...I didn't think she could pull off Virginia Woolf, but she did.

Sarah Paulson has done one good leading role - Marcia Clark. She is so over rated. It's nauseating that this is what passes for great character actors - a bit of weird, extended adolescence and a speech impediment.

Heath Ledger in Monster's Ball. Didn't understand all the love he got in 10 Things I Hate About You. I thought he was a stock pretty boy but his performance in Monster's Ball changed that. A very small part but perfectly acted. I became a fan.

I agree with Nicole Kidman.

The Other Boleyn Girl is absolutely wretched, and everyone in it overacts horribly, Portman being the worst offender. She's better in Cold Mountain, though Jude Law gives the best preformance of his career in that one-- it's the only performance of his I've ever liked. It doesn't qualify for this thread, since it didn't make me a fan, but I could at least imagine what Minghella saw.

I've always found Domenic Cooper annoying, but An Education convinced me he could act. His Howard Stark in the Agent Carter show I found completely charming.

[quote]How could you not think Hiddleston was great in Night Manager?

I like Hiddleston as Loki, but I thought his role in the Night Manager was nothing more than a perfect example of why he shouldn't be James Bond. Laughable trying to be the tough-guy, womanizing character.

Jim Carrey blew me away in I love you Phillip Norris. First I realized he was more than just a comedian was the Truman Show. Reese Witherspoon in Big Little Lies. I find Nicole Kidman overaged her performance in BLL was hit n miss maybe it's all the botox & collagen

It took Four performances for William Hurt to win me over - Broadcast News, The Accidental Tourist, The Doctor, and Body Heat. Ted Danson was also great in Body Heat and in Something About Amelia.

Great pick, r38. Kingdom of Heaven was sludge, but Edward Norton was so good in it I didn’t realize it was him until the credits..

For me, it is Sarah Bernhardt in The Loves of Queen Elizabeth.

Diane Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway.

Laurie Metcalf as Nanny G on Frasier.

It isn’t that I dislike Tom Cruise, but he never really grew on me, but he has turned in good performances over the years (Magnolia, 4th of July, color of money, tropic thunder, rain man and Colatteral - my favorite) and that does make me respect him as an actor. Just picks a lot of paycheck movies.

R156 funny that's the one performance of hers I DONT like.

R130 you've never liked her in anything else? Have you seen only her recent shitty paycheck movies?

To each his own I guess.

Daryl Hannah sucked in Kill Bill and was autistic in that like she’s been in everything else.

R160 couldn't agree with you more

I didn't think much of Leo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic, but Revolutionary Road was a really good movie.

r54 Is that the "straight" Peter North getting fucked?

R156 how about Dianne Wiest in THE LOST BOYS? She was the only classy & sincere presence in the film, and classy she was too.

I never disliked Ingrid Bergman, but I never got the idolatry either. She was beautiful and could act, but I never thought of her on the same level as other big stars of the same era.

But in Murder on the Orient Express, she sold me. Her looks and her star power had faded, so what’s left is the performance. She won an Oscar for it, which many deride as undeserved, but I find her scenes fascinating. She balances comedy and tragedy, coming off simple and sincere, in stark contrast to the globetrotting sophisticates otherwise populating the suspect list. Even better, Bergman herself, multilingual, with a scandalous past, and a resume of films from different countries, far better matches the profile of the other characters, but she goes all in playing a sweet-natured, anxiety-riddled missionary.

I admit I liken the original Murder on the Orient Express to taking a bath in old-school movie star glamour, and Bergman takes this appeal, inverts it, and makes the film all the better for her performance.

Until I saw them both in THE 24th DAY I didn't rate James Marsden or Scott Speedman at all, thinking the latter pedestrian & the former superficial (and possibly better suited to the stage than screen, his singing voice is good).

The NY Times called Speedman 'white-bread' in this film but I believe this an unfair epithet and one based on his previous performances. Scott's character is chilly & remote, yes, he's supposed to be a grieving sociopath. In his hands the role is certainly not banal or lacking in substance. Marsden for his part showed wracking shivers of vulnerability here, that speak of a strong emotional pulse I wrongly thought he lacked entirely. Their chemistry is fine but I believe that replacing either one would not detract from the performance of the other. I came away impressed with both men.

Carol Lynley always irritated me with her hesitant voice and eternally confused demeanor. I was infuriated as a child when Shelley Winters died and Lynley’s borderline idiot character Nonni survived.

As an adult, I finally came around to seeing Otto Preminger’s Bunny Lake Is Missing and found myself surprised by how sympathetic her character was. She was emotionally fragile, like Nonni in Poseidon, but far more engaging. It’s a great psychological mystery, and her casting helps maintain the suspense.

Note: Keir Dullea is at the height of his beauty here. I know, “Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow” but I like him.

[quote]Is that the "straight" Peter North getting fucked?

Yep

And r54 is right by the way, that was the only scene where Rick Donovan's cock was actually nice and hard.

Just thought of another one.

Hugh Dancy. Always thought he was just good looking, but didn't like him in any of the movies I'd seen. Early on in Hannibal I could tell he was *acting*. But he really hit a stride with the series and when he did that one scene later on in the first season where he's breaking down and asks Hannibal to stop lying to him, he broke my fucking heart. Won me over.

Hugh Grant in PADDINGTON 2.

Carol Lynley was indeed excellent in Otto Preminger’s “Bunny Lake is Missing”, R167, really held her own with Olivier and Coward.

Thank you R165 for your post

Hugh Grant in About a Boy. A brilliant, kind, sleepy little movie.

Andrew Garfield was fantastic in 99 Homes. Better than the excellent Michael Shannon. He surprised me.

Laura Dern in Citizen Ruth

This will sound insane but: Robert Downey Jnr. in TROPIC THUNDER.

That movie proved to me that he really had that praeternatural ability others always said he did. Still not certain I trust his public persona. but in-character even I have to begrudgingly admit he’s good.

I’ve always appreciated Aaron-Taylor Johnson as a man & a pretty face, but did not care for his acting until I saw him as Pietro in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.

AT-J was the only one bringing anything fresh & interesting to that movie. His fake Eastern European accent was superb. What a pity he only had about 12 lines, final cut.

Agree w/r124 about Jessica Biel in The Sinner

And call me wacky, but I never understood the lure of Leo until "Gatsby". I know many don't like/loathe the film, but I loved the way he played JG, loved the way Luhrmann filmed him, and even thought he and Cary Mulligan fit as Jay and Daisy. After "Gatsby", I became a fan

R135 I was about to argue that Clooney has won credibility & fans for THE THIN RED LINE, but then had to laugh at myself.

He had all of 2 minutes onscreen (oh, Terrence Malick), and did nothing with it but smize and use that oh-so-charming & masculine warm-tea voice of his. It was less acting, more re-enactment cosplay.

That said, his RED LINE co-stars John Cusack & Travolta were guilty of the same. Gary Oldman & Mickey Rourke should have taken their scenes in the final cut (their performances were left on the cutting room floor. The true stand-out performances left in that film: Dash Mihok; John C. Reilly; Nick Nolte; Elias Koteas; and a highschool-aged, preternaturally-good Nick Stahl.

Brooke Shields. I always found her delivery lacking in intonation, but her white trash Rita Glossner character on The Middle is fantastic.

No one on film surprises me.

Everyone we see has been filtered, coached and edited by the director and cutter.

I thought Tom Hanks was fine but overrated until I saw him in “Captain Phillips” and I don’t think he even got an Oscar nomination for it.

r180 funny you mention that. I remember Brooke Shields played a crazy character on Friends and she was terrific. I think that was what got her Suddenly Susan, which did not use her comedic talents to any great effect.

Shields is actually great at playing off-kilter characters, like her character on The Middle. That's her strength.

Claire Danes in HOMELAND. She's perfection.

Jessica Biel in The Sinner. Pretty great, understated performance from someone who I had originally dismissed as a Mischa Barton/Amanda Bynes type of actress.

R185 I was just reading through this thread and was also going to say Jessica Biel. I just watched The Sinner over the last week or so and she was excellent. I see on The Sinner's wiki page she was up for a Golden Globe against Witherspoon, Kidman, Lange and Sarandon. Reading that category before watching it, I would dismiss her as way out of her depth in that category but I'm genuinely surprised to say I would now say she deserved to win it. Seriously. Even over Lange who I thought should've won. I hope she gets the Emmy.

[quote]I always found Daryl Hannah vapid and boring,

I always found her to be a punching bag.

The unspeakable Catherine Zeta Jones in Traffic.

I could not stand Annette Benning until I saw her in "The Grifters," and she completely won me over.

I'd agree with Brooke Shields. She never had to do much in her early films except stand there and look pretty. I remember seeing her on Friends and thinking she was hilariously funny. She was surprisingly great on Broadway in Wonderful Town. She really is a character actress trapped in a beautiful shell. I think a lot of actors are that way.

I think of Colin Farrell who was being pitched as the next big romantic lead/action hero and he was always awful in those roles. When he got roles with a little depth or quirk to them, he was wonderful. If someone's beautiful, they always try to turn them into ingenues or romantic leads and action stars, but some of them have a lot more to offer. I think, for example, Chris Pine would be much more successful as a character actor than Mr. Action Hero.

Meryl Streep in The Hours

I thought Tom Cruise was terrible in VAMPIRE, and Brad Pitt was at least as bad.

Also didn't care for Lynley in BUNNY LAKE. She seemed more annoyed than distraught about her missing child.

Andie McDowell won me over (for a time) in both SEX, LIES, and VIDEOTAPE and in the Diane Keaton-directed UNSTRUNG HEROES as a mother dying of cancer. She has a new film out called LOVE AFTER LOVE where she plays a grieving widow and she has gotten excellent reviews.

Pitt was horrible in Interview with a Vampire I thought Cruise was great

[quote]Heath Ledger in Monster's Ball. Didn't understand all the love he got in 10 Things I Hate About You. I thought he was a stock pretty boy but his performance in Monster's Ball changed that. A very small part but perfectly acted. I became a fan.

I totally agree. He nailed that part with a nuanced performance...and I did not like the movie.

Oddly enough, I just saw the original Rocky a few years ago. I was surprised by Stallone's sensitive performance. Even more surprising was that he wrote the movie and it was a low budget, freshman movie for Stallone. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the movie.

I have a couple that might irk some folks.

Cher in Suspect. I was used to seeing her same personality in everything she did. But there’s something about her performance that captures me.

Will Farrel in Stranger Than Fiction. I normally cannot stand him; just about everything he’s done is either tired or cringeworthy. But he had real depth and conviction in Stranger Than Fiction, and gave a masterful performance.

Maggie Gyllenhall in Honorable Woman. I've been a fan since.

R53 Did you see Jim Carey in 23? He was creepy fantastic. Nothing like I have ever seen him in before.

Glenn Close in The Wife. An astonishing late-career revelation in acting that needs to be recognised.