Terrible performances by great actors

Jodie Foster as Nell

Meryl Streep in "Doubt" is ham beyond belief. She sounds exactly like Cloris Leachman as Nurse Diesel in "High Anxiety". When I started laughing at Streep's voice, I was invited to leave the movie theater where I was seeing the film.

I was fine with Streep in "Doubt" (despite the wacky nun's habit), but she was ridiculously over the top in "August: Osage County."

Al Pacino was a fine actor when he was younger, but almost everything he's done in the past 25 years is awful, with "Scent of a Woman" and "House of Gucci" being genuine career lows.

Gene Hackman as Lex Luther in Superman II.

I don’t know if he’s considered a “great” actor, but Tom Hanks was absolutely embarrassing in Forrest Gump.

Something called "Ozark El...."

Oh, you said "great actor."

Never mind.

Marlon Brando in The Island of Doctor Moreau, rockin’ the caftan and scarf:

Herro...

Sean Penn in Mystic River. Utter hambone.

[quote]Al Pacino was a fine actor when he was younger, but almost everything he's done in the past 25 years is awful, with "Scent of a Woman" and "House of Gucci" being genuine career lows.

I can’t stand his yell-speak schtick. In Scent of a Woman, it was as if he was speaking in a raised voice at his own character the way stupid people speak in raised voices around the blind.

Olivier was absolute shit in the TV movie of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof".

Viola Davis as Michelle Obama on the Showtime series "First Ladies" The lips.

Meryl in The Iron Woman. It's just a caricature, not really acting.

Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher. It's extremely generous to call her great, but I'd at least consider her generally skilled and capable of nuance and restraint. I read that she didn't allow her boyfriend, the director, to direct her at all out of fear it would effect their relationship. Darling, if you're going to fuck a man for a juicy role (and why else would she be with that fuggo?) you should at least make the most of the part!

Streisand in For Pete’s Sake?

Counterpoints:

I loved Brando in Dr. Moreau. He knew precisely what he was doing. No one in that film was going to upstage him.

And Gene Hackman was ace as Lex in the Superman movies. He has a deft touch with comedy and it worked quite well opposite the magnificent trio of career criminal Kryptonians.

OP, I can only assume you didn’t see Olivier in “The Boys from Brazil”

He was even worse

R10 I agree with you about young Al being an incredible actor and older Al being way too OTT. I didn't think he was as bad in the Gucci film but the way he portrayed Aldo seemed too American to me.

I haven't seen it since it came out, r15, but I remember the movie as being silly but Barbra was fine.

Jackie Bisset in Wild Orchid Two.

Take your pick...

Fredric March in "Inherit the Wind."

Olivier in Inchon

Bette Davis in "Connecting Rooms."

Barbara Stanwyck is Union Pacific

IN Union Pacific. Sorry.

Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Was Mickey Rooney ever a “great actor?”

Marlon Brando - Mutiny on the Bounty

Judi Dench in the movie version of "Cats."

R19, the joke is labeling Barbra Streisand a "great actor."

Olivier as Shylock. Mickey Rooney was hilarious in B at T

I know that it's a DL truism that Streep was terrible in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, but I'd direct anyone who calls her "over the top" in it to watch Deanna Dunagan's Tony-winning performance in the same role. I've yet to see anyone acknowledge that Dunagan was every bit as broad in the part.

For the record, I thought that both women were brilliant in it. But small-scaled they weren't.

While I often defend Streep on this board, I'll admit that her filmography contains at least 2 terrible performances: THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (even she admits that this one didn't work) and FALLING IN LOVE. I'm also not wild about her Big Scene in THE HOURS (the one in the kitchen).

R32, yeah, hilariously bad

Mickey Rooney peaked very late. He’s quite affecting in the Bill TV-movies and somewhat frightening in Babe:Pig in the City, which is a fucking masterpiece.

Helen Lawson in "The Josephine Baker Story." That full body blackface....Oy!

Sam Elliott in 2015's "I'll See You In My Dreams" I was laughing so hard at his character. I couldn't take him seriously.

Also anything Blythe Danner.

Patti as Rose

Cher in Burlesque. Sorry.

I just didn't buy Julia Roberts as Harriet Tubman

I agree somewhat R33. Violet is a crazy nasty matriarch role that can't be underplayed. I saw Dunagan onstage and she was brilliant.

I think the difference between her and Streep is that she embodied the part while Streep was "acting" it for the most part.

One scene that Streep did absolutely nail was the one where Violet is on the swing telling a story about a nasty trick her mother played on her about a present.

I'd also say that Amy Morton was infinitely better than Julia Roberts as the oldest daughter.

The CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF with Olivier doesn't have one decent performance in it.

The only Olivier performance from his last years that was impressive was in BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.

Anybody is better than Julia Roberts in anything.

Julia Roberts sucks.

Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”

Jared Leto in Basil

Playing a Victorian era English gent. He's as bad as you'd expect from that description

Heath Ledger in The Four Feathers. I don't know if I'd call her great, but Kate Hudson is awful in the same film

How can we omit you-know-who in Meet the You-Know-Whos?

And what a train she was, r25...

I didn't go nuts over Meryl in August, because I thought the movie itself was bullshit. But there was one part, where Violet is really drunk and she puts on a record and starts dancing to it in the living room that made the hairs on my arm stand up. My father was an alcoholic and used to behave similarly, and Streep had the movement and the affect done perfectly. I was brought immediately back to being a kid and watching that behavior from him.

I have to disagree. I love Union Pacific and Stanwyck is just fine. Young Robert Preston, Joel McCrea and hissabble villian Brian Dunleavy are hot. Not a great film but DeMille decided to do a Western and as was his wont, it was big, spectacular and fun!

"Stanwyck may never have been as good as Davis at her best, but she was never as bad as Davis at her worst. In fact, she never gave a bad performance."

Glenda Jackson in THE INCREDIBLE SARAH. She was playing Glenda Jackson.

Maggie Smith in TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT. Mannered beyond belief.

Judy Davis in FEUD as Hedda Hopper. A clownish performance, though you could say it's what that crap script deserved.

Streep in MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE was the definition of one note. And while I wouldn't say her performance in POSTCARDS is terrible, I would say it's oddly out of synch with the rest of the movie. I don't know if that was her intent, but she seems to be playing in a different movie from everybody else.

[quote]Maggie Smith in TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT. Mannered beyond belief.

I caught this a few months back finally. I liked her in it, but Katharine Hepburn who was the original choice, probably would have been a much better fit.

The one who really sticks out in this movie is Cindy Williams. She seems too modern for the rest of the film and her scene doesn't really gel with the rest of the film.

Meryl is great in Postcards!

Agree, r54. Travels is one of my favorite films but it is very, very flawed and has its definite ups and downs. But when the film and Maggie are good, they are wonderful.

R51, her "Irish" accent was abysmal. And I say that as a fan

James Franco in Queen of the Desert. So, so bad.

Meryl Streep when she sings. In anything. YIKES.

Speaking of Al Pacino.... in that Adam Sandler movie Jack and Jill. Oh the humanity!

I just didn't buy Robert Redford as Sen Joseph McCarthy

Marlon Brando - Desiree

Anyone want to elaborate on what was so bad about Meryl's performance in August:Osage County? I'm related to someone like that character, and it's like she's starring in a really bad lifetime movie. I'm not sure how anyone could portray her histrionics without looking foolish.

Leo as J. Edgar.

R60 no - his scenes are actually hilarious. I could never get thru the rest of the movie - probably the worst of all time - but anyone who can be THAT entertaining in a movie THAT abysmal has got it going on. I could watch that Dunkaccino clip everyday.

That’s why all his scenes are available to watch separately so no one actually has to sit thru the movie.

Laura Dern in Rambling Rose

She was hammy.

[quote] Olivier as Shylock.

Have you seen George Arliss in the role?

Leslie Howard in GWTW. Whatever did she see in him?

A bad toupe and a little dick?

Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman and Plenty. She said on Graham Norton she considers the first bad, but both are excrutiatingly clockwork, where she seems more focused on getting her accent right than being emotionally true.

[quote] Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman

I don't care about her so-called 'terrible performance' in this beautiful film.

She was playing psychopathic prick-teasing bitch with which the audience had no sympathy. The audience cared more about the beautiful cinematography and the lovely Jeremy Irons playing a character not unlike Charles Darwin.

[quote]I think the difference between her and Streep is that she embodied the part while Streep was "acting" it for the most part.

As I always say about Streep, you can hear the wheels turning inside her head. Click, click, click.

When I watch your films, Kate, all I can think is “Lick, lick, lick.”

[quote] Click, click, click.

Yes, the woman was a calculating, machinating lying bitch who destroyed the lovely, love-sick man.

[quote]Click, click, click.

It's so true. She's very mechanistic: most especially for some reason when doing English character roles. I often play a game with myself when watching a Streep film, judging when she'll do a gesture or intonation I know she'll do, down to the second. Click, click, click. Unlike a genuinely naturalistic actor like Denzel.

However, in Out Of Africa she was truly great.

May get racked over the coals for this as he won an actual oscar for it but Sean Penn as Harvey Milk was ATROCIOUS. Like, objectively terrible, ott and cartoonish. I still cringe.

Cate Blanchett’s pretty bad in Lord of the Rings. She talks and moves likes she’s on muscle relaxants

Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. Every gay stereotype. I didn't see it on first release, only later on cable. I stuck with it until he started flaming out, dancing around to Callas singing. "This is why we can't have nice things" I thought as I turned off the TV.

Although I love the movie, Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Apart from a few scenes, she is a complete ham in it. A more subtle performance would have worked better. It probably held up better in 1950 than it does today.

Dustin Hoffman in Rainman.

[quote]Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. Every gay stereotype.

Tom Hanks didn't write the script.

R79 - Gloria Swanson is playing a former silent movie actress so she is meant to be hammy.

Joanne Woodward in A Fine Madness, a rare bad performance. Joanne is strident and unfunny in this comedy.

LEE GRANT in It's My Party. Italian mothers everywhere should have been offended.

Woodward is also not good in another semi-comedy THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS with George C. Scott. But the script is so bad, it's really not her fault. A terrible movie.

Come to think of it, A FINE MADNESS is pretty bad too.

A Fine Madness is ruined by Sean Connery - every role he played is full of *attitude*, that's all he does in movies. Now of course Connery didn't write the script, but it's very one dimensional, as is his performance. Lots of male stars became "all attitude" in the 1960s, Rock Hudson too.

Regarding TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT, Smith is only good in the flashback scenes where she's playing close to her age. But that's a small part of the movie and she's dreadful the rest of the time.

R86, I would add Paul Newman to the "all attitude" list in a number of films, especially in stuff like HARPER.

True, R88, thanks for pointing it out.

Jim Franco is a “great actor”?

R11 Olivier’s Big Daddy is one of the most excruciating performances ever captured on film. His Southern accent is Dick Van Dyke-caliber.

[quote] LEE GRANT in It's My Party. Italian mothers everywhere should have been offended.

Why? Her character was Greek.

Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady.” I thought she was all wrong for it.

R93, agree. She was too posh, you're not surprised when she turns into a swan. Too old as well

Also agree with Leo as J. Edgar. Even Armie Hammer out-acted him

I might have to turn in my gay card for this, but I have never gotten the adoration for Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment. I find her to be the weak link in an otherwise terrific movie.

And I like Debra in other movies. But there's such a hardness and coldness to her in this, especially in the scenes with her kids. Not that Shirley is exactly warm either. But with Shirley, its more passive aggressive. Debra just comes off as a raving bitch.

I wonder how it would have fared if Sissy Spacek had been cast as originally intended.

Might be an unpopular opinion: While Heath Ledger was a very compelling and nuanced actor - but his final film playing the Joker was distractingly awful, mannered, mumbly, and scenery chewing. I think the hype of his getting that role, and then the hype of his tragic death made everyone have rose colored glasses when watching and critiquing his performance.

[quote]I have never gotten the adoration for Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment.

I have never gotten the adoration for the MOVIE Terms of Endearment.

R96, totally agree. I thought he was hammy

R96 and R98, completely agree. I am not really a fan of the Christopher Nolan Batman films in general, but find his performance almost unwatchable.

I disagree re: Winger. She played Emma heartbreakingly real. She had a lot of anger at herself for getting stuck in a bad marriage and realized that it was more important to her to prove her mother wrong than to be happy. Those kind of self esteem issues are going to manifest themselves in all kinds of ways, and Winger (and the writing) understood that perfectly. Emma is one of the most human, imperfect, fascinating characters ever in film. She doesn't give the audience an easy route to liking her, but you cannot help but watch her.

Some say Anne Bancroft in night, mother. The Bronx Anne miscast as a Southern housefrau but I think she has her moments.

^Bancroft was miscast in almost everything after the Graduate.

[quote] Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.

Moron.

Bancroft was wonderful in GARBO TALKS, 80 CHARING CROSS ROAD, the remake of TO BE OR NOT TO BE, and HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

^ yup, and The Turning Point.

The Brookses

^ Is that terrible or great?

[quote] I know that it's a DL truism that Streep was terrible in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, but I'd direct anyone who calls her "over the top" in it to watch Deanna Dunagan's Tony-winning performance in the same role. I've yet to see anyone acknowledge that Dunagan was every bit as broad in the part.

You can be way over the top on stage and have it work.

It's much, much harder to do that on the screen. The screen is very intimate.

[quote] I just didn't buy Julia Roberts as Harriet Tubman

No one intelligent has ever called Julia Roberts a great actress.

[quote] The screen is very intimate.

Yes, Flora Robson mentioned she had a favourite device of slightly raising her eyebrow when on stage at the Old Vic Theatre.

William Wyler told her that her raised eyebrow was the equivalent of 3 feet when shown on the big screen.

All you have to do is see Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack in "The Bad Seed" to see how two highly praised stage performances come across as ludicrous when the actresses were asked to film the same play too quickly before they could figure out how to tone down their effects.

Adapting a great stage performance for film is an artistic challenge very few of us have mastered!

Ruth Buzzi as the "Love Boat" ventriloquist.

Uta Hagen is a legendary stage actress, famous for Tony-winning performances creating the roles of Georgie Elgin in "The Country girl" and Martha in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Wooklf?"

But she is unintentionally campy as Maria the German maid in "Reversal of Fortune": "My lady is NOT di-a-bet-ic!"

R100, I agree completely, one of the finest performances of a complex character in film.

Nancy Kelly's performance still works because she is aware of what her daughter is capable of, yet it tormented because she loves her and doesn't want her to go to prison. Patty's pretty terrific -- you know that the movie ending was tacked on because of the censors. It does help to watch the movie from as far away from the screen in the room you can get though. Yes, Kelly especially should have had the director tone down her performance, but it's still a great, fun film to watch. Partly camp, partly deeply touching human drama during Eileen Heckart's two big scenes.

R113, I thought that was Kathy Griffin!

[quote]R100 I disagree re: Winger. She played Emma heartbreakingly real. She had a lot of anger at herself for getting stuck in a bad marriage and realized that it was more important to her to prove her mother wrong than to be happy.

Emma was one of the most talented mothers, and daughters, ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Texas. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

I'm reading Terms of Endearment right now and boy, is it different from the movie. Much more emphasis on Aurora than Emma.

Streep shouldn't be on this thread at all. She is not a great actor, merely adequate at best.

She’s not a great actress, though usually effective… but this scene of Susan Hayward’s is the worst acting I’ve ever seen by a major star. Call me cosseted.

When she’s yelling up the stairs and heaving on the banister I lose it!

Christian Bale in Vice. A very affected performance. He looked like he was doing an SNL skit.

R121- its a pity that clip ends before we get the scene between Susan and Bette. We know they hated each other in real life and in the scene Susan smirks at Bette's anger at her. Susan Hayward was afraid of no one!

Geraldine Page was considered to be a great actor but her Oscar-winning performance in A Trip to Bountiful is unwatchable. She is equally awful in Interiors but that has camp appeal.

[quote]We know they hated each other in real life

Did you know that Susan's idol, Barbara Stanwyck, was less than fond of Bette too?

Jerry Lewis in The Day The Clown Died.

[quote]R215 Did you know that Susan's idol, Barbara Stanwyck, was less than fond of Bette too?

Stanwyck’s personal carpet muncher, The Widow Steele, turned her against Davis early on.

Actually, Stanwyck got mad at Davis when she showed up late on the 1932 version of So Big that they appear in together.

Stanwyck must have had good professional boundaries. She must have been furious Crawford got MILDRED PIERCE when she herself had a deal with Warner Bros. and wanted the role.

(And frankly, Stanwyck would have been better as Mildred.)

R5- He's not even a GOOD actor and he's humble about the talent he doesn't even have.

R129- I can picture her as Mildred Pierce. I bet she would have done a good job playing her too.

She would have been a bit more ferocious and hard headed. Crawford mostly plays Mildred like she’s a sap.

Olivier as Lawrence Harrrrrdeman in The Betsy. Poor Katherine Ross had to watch him fuck a maid.

R129- Still this is one of THE best scenes in cinematic GAY history.

Honestly, a ton of Oliver's later performances could qualify for this thread

Stanwyck would have broken Veda's nose with that slap

Anything Robert DeNiro has done in the last 20 plus years. He has become a total hack.

R135 Misspelled, doubly ignorant.

Nicholas Cage in "Peggy Sue Got Married".

I know he's easy pickings because of the career choices he's made over the years, not to mention his crazy reputation, but he IS a very talented actor, capable of turning in the occasional great performance.

I remember watching this movie and being completely baffled by what he was doing onscreen. I can't recall ever seeing a performance that seemed so out of sync with everything else around it.

Apparently Cher dug it, and picked him for "Moonstruck" based on his work in "Peggy Sue", but I just didn't get it. At all.

Maybe he knew the movie was shit, and just decided to swing for the fences and do whatever the fuck he wanted.

R139, I doubt it since his uncle directed the film.

Robin Williams, The Angriest Man in Brooklyn. To be charitable, maybe it was the film more than Williams. To be charitable.

R128 Nobody wore shoulder pads better than me.

Didn't Olivier admit that he took on many of those later film performances because he was offered such obscene salaries nobody would turn them down? I think he deliberately went over the top sometimes so the producers would think they were getting their money's worth.

It's a testament to Kathleen Turner that she was able to deliver such a terrific performance in spite of Cage.

R143 Your first sentence makes sense but your second sentence is pure speculation.

Of course it is speculation, r145. Why do you think I preceded that sentence with "I think"?

Kevin Spacey, Beyond the Sea

Jane Fonda

"Peggy Sue" is a shit movie? First I've heard of that, I think it is one of the better movies of the 80s.

Cage makes a bold choice, yeah, he's way out on a limb, but he really makes it work in the end. What works for me is we the audience all see what a dope Charley is, but Peggy Sue is the only one who doesn't and it makes her character easier love. After many viewings I think the whole thing works wonderfully.

I liked Nicholas Cage in Peggy Sue as the young version of his character.

R97: terms is just dreadful--the predictable tearjerker ending, Nicholson giving his usual performance, Maclaine giving a brittle middle aged version what she'd done before, Daniels miscast as a college professor. Winger is the closest thing to a decent performance given the predictable material. Spacek would have made it better only if they shuffled the casting to make it stronger.

I thought Winger was middling in Terms. Everyone else was more believable than her, and I think it was a well written weepie of the old tradition. I never got the overblown praise for Winger. She never carried a movie and wasn't particularly beautiful or charismatic compared to her peers.

Nicolas Cage only started giving shit performances when he had bills to pay. I love him in all his 80s and early-mid 90s movies, as someone said above he takes risks and isn't afraid to try things that prestige actors don't. He's always MEMORABLE, and that's more important than being technically good or "natural" (which is probably why I don't find Winger that good in Terms - Shirley and Jack were more impactful). Him in Vampire's Kiss is one of the most audacious performances a male actor has given in the last 30ish years. That and Christian Bale in American Psycho.

Meryl Streep is obviously a much stronger actress in general but it was a missed opportunity not to have Jamie Lee Curtis play Suzanne. It’s a little on the nose but she has that grit that Meryl lacks and her real life personality seems closer to Suzanne anyway. It could’ve been a breakout role for her but I could see why she wasn’t cast or didn’t want the role, as she’s always maintained a positive image of her relationship with her famous mom and maybe didn’t want the movie to give the wrong impression.

Under what spell would Mike Nichols EVER cast Jamie Lee Curtis? She's not his kind of girl. He was a terrible snob about everything.

I'm not saying that Jamie wouldn't have been better. Streep is not so much terrible in the part of Suzanne - but everything she does is WRONG. She's just so wrong for it. She could never pull off young party urbanite tough talking drug taking party chick. She completely hit the wall in that performance. With a few comedic grace notes. And her singing with Blue Rodeo????? Ruins the whole movie, enjoyable despite her. At the very end. Shirley MacLaine is who we remember. She was amazing. HER performance was walking a highwire and taking full risk and completely succeeding!

Mike Nichols was a very unhip guy by that time and Meryl was born with irony where others have GENITALS.

Lots of younger and better actresses could have played Suzanne better. But it's not that kind of movie. From Mary Wickes to Conrad Bain on down - it's Nichols saying I'm going to make some cheap and broad entertainment. And no, Annette Bening was not that memorable either. She was just so MUCH better than Streep.

R154 = Pauline Kael

Thanks R155!

R152- Did you like her as WONDER GIRL?

Terms of Endearment is one of those movies people think they're SUPPOSED to like so they say they do. Same with that glorified TV western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

R37, extra points for the "Flying Fuchs" allusion.

Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep and Glen Close in House of the Spirits. What were they thinking?

Butch Cassidy is an enjoyable movie, but not a great one. Newman and Redford clearly enjoyed playing off each other and the mix of comedy and buddy picture made it different from the usual solemnity and single star of most Hollywood westerns. It and the somewhat earlier "Cat Ballou" (as well as other outlay driven films like "The Wild Bunch") made it clear that Westerns needed re-invention even if John Wayne could still make money.

R160, and Winona, too

You ain't seen nothin' till you've seen Streep as a Jewish Mother in Prime.

I love Terms of Endearment. Despite - or because of - their conflicts, Debra Winger and Shirley MacLaine had terrific chemistry together that echoes the tense relationships many of us have had with our parents. The supporting cast, Nicholson, Daniels, and especially John Lithgow in a smaller role, were fantastic, but never detracted from the mother-daughter core of the film. Yes, it’s sappy and manipulative, especially with the now very dated score, but it earns its tears in the end. I think Winger is a huge part of that. She comes across as very genuine - prickly and eccentric - but real. Kind of a feat for the era.

Some people think Joachim Phoenix is a great actor (I don't), but his performance in THE MASTER was truly grotesque. Nothing like a recognizable human being. If it wasn't for Philip Seymour Hoffman, that film would be unwatchable.

Honestly Cage in VAMPIRE'S KISS is also in this category. Some people clearly like that kind of "gonzo acting", but it's self-indulgent not audacious.

Brian Blessed in Much Ado About Nothing.

I have long followed this great British actor, on stage and in film. Many found his turn in Flash Gordon to be campy and over the top, but that was the direction of the film. The whole thing is a camp fest/cult classic. His bombastic performance in that film made it special, in my opinion.

But when Kenneth Branagh was on a career high, he was cranking out all kinds of stuff, including reworkings of Shakespeare. His 1993 rendering of one of Shakespeare's lesser comedies "Much Ado", is dull, pretentious, saccharine and utterly pointless. It really lives up to its title. But Brian Blessed as Antonio was cringeworthy. In every one of his scenes, he was chuckling loudly and fakely at everything going on, and made the film all that more unbearable.

The madness starts two minutes in to this clip.

Raul Julia in "Street Fighter." He was having fun with it, but the whole thing was shit.

Christopher Plummer in anything he's made since "Dolores Claiborne." Too many 'dirty grandpa' movies.

Martin Short in "The Santa Clause 3."

Christopher Plummer was nominated for three Oscars in his post-Dolores Claiborne career, winning one. (And more than deserved a fourth for The Insider.) I would wager that he gave his best performances after that film.

R168 That was one of those semi-honorary Oscars they give to old fucks at the end of their career, in part to make up for rejection in their prime.

Al Pacino got one. Morgan Freeman got one. Ruth Gordon got one. And Christopher Plummer got one.

You're an idiot. Plummer never played any "dirty grandpas."

Was there anything Christopher Plummer wouldn’t do for cash during his endless string of dirty grandpa movies period?

Honestly, from Captain Von Trapp to this…

[quote]Ruth Gordon got one.

Nope. She was brilliant in the best role of her career in an amazing film.

"Although I love the movie, Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Apart from a few scenes, she is a complete ham in it. "

R79, that was deliberate! Norma Desmond is meant to be someone who's lost her identity to her star persona, she's lost or deliberately stifled her ability to communicate like a normal person, and to interact meaningfully with others. This has left her unable to form relationships, and completely out of a touch with a world whose tastes have changed or people who retain the normality she has discarded, leading to her complete isolation and increasing madness.

Everyone understands this but you, and gets that Swanson was fucking BRILLIANT. She's playing someone who literally can't express herself without hamming it up, and who doesn't understand that other humans are completely put off by someone who expresses themselves in ham.

Richard Burton pretty much sweeps this category. The highlight of his film career is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Despite occasional flashes of brilliance he spent way too much time phoning it in to collect a paycheck or shamelessly chewing scenery. It makes watching one of Burton's early films (he is especially charismatic in My Cousin Rachel, made when he was still in his 20s) a sad exercise in what the hell happened. Booze happened, obviously, but the loss of what could have been is stark and affecting.

Peter O'Toole also hammed it up in a bunch of junk for $$$

Are we including or excluding the Complete Works of that great ham, Elizabeth Taylor?

Exactly. That big bloated vocal fry or SHRIEKING, talentless FAT HAM, Liz Taylor.

She ruined Richard Burton as much as alcohol. Who gets sober with Elizabeth Taylor?

Liz was far more entertaining than bloviating Richard Burton could be.

Richard Burton was a great man or real intellect, talent and sensitivity. Liz Taylor was a pretty child star turned greedy drunken whore before she was 25. Famously stupid. A COW with nice coloring.

"Liz was far more entertaining than bloviating Richard Burton could be."

Except when she was in front of the camera.

I agree to a degree r173, but Swanson's Norma is not all that "hammy". She's heightened at times sure, but subtle and nuanced all along as well. The parodies, musical and send-ups of "Sunset Boulevard" have given those who are not well familiar with it a false notion that Norma is a caricature and stark raving bonkers from the beginning, but monkey funeral aside, she's clearly not. Though she loses her grip on reality by the fade out, she doesn't start out there.

Of course it remains a singularly brilliant performance even seventy + years later.

R176, that because Elizabeth was a passable actress at best, nothing "great" about her.

Jill Clayburgh made a few stinkers but I nominate I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can. One gets the idea that this was imagined to be an Oscar worthy production but nearly everything about it is off. Jill isn't afraid to go big but isn't supported by the director or the script. The only one who emerges unscathed is Dianne Wiest in a small role. .

Mostly agreed, R183. Nicol Williamson is also embarrassingly bad in DANCING. Weirdly, if I recall correctly, Gerry Page doesn't go over the top and comes off pretty well.

Peter O'Toole in Rosebud. Truly an example of an actor walking through a role.

On Gilbert Gottfried's podcast, Phil Rosenthal tells the story of meeting Peter O'Toole and learning all about the financial side of his later years.

O'Toole worked with John Goodman on King Ralph (total piece of shit movie), and learned how wonderful and lucrative it is to be an American sitcom actor. So he called his agents and said "Book me an American sitcom!" They found him a project, co-written by Rosenthal, and lined everything up for pre-production. But at the last minute, the studio suits stepped in and said no. "Peter O'Toole doesn't open a movie, and American viewers have never heard of him. Recast the part!" And it fell apart, and he went back to England.

I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can was a best seller, that's why they hired a name actress like Jill Clayburgh to play the lead.

Clayburgh's character in "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can" is named Barbara Gordon, which is Batgirl's name. I always found that funny.

R186 O'Toole's last 40 years were a non-stop disaster. Alcoholics can't function as human beings.

^He cruised me one beautiful Spring evening, from the windows of Provence restaurant in Soho, as I was walking home from the pool on Carmine and 6th. Most intense blue eyes I've ever seen. He was right in the window. I had paused to look for something in my gym bag, and "felt" him staring at me, from slightly above. He was as old as water at the time. I nodded, he nodded back, and I headed for home.

R190, are you male or female?

^Male. It was probably April, of 1990.

Oh. I thought it was that lady who made out with Suzanne Somers under a fountain waterfall in Vegas.

^It's funny, at the time it happened I thought he looked to be about 80 years old. I just looked him up, and he would have been 58 at the time, younger than I am now...

r189

[quote] Nicol Williamson is also embarrassingly bad

He was a non-event in all his movies.

They only people who claim him to be "great" are those who saw him from a distance on stage— and as we all know stage-acting is a completely different profession from standing in front of a camera.

Nicol's casting is odd and it signals the fact that he is a bastard from the get-go. Maybe that was intentional. The film includes a swag of theatre actors so that is to be praised but it really helped to kill Clayburgh's short run as an A-lister.

I’ll add Rosemary’s Baby to that list, r158. A turgid boring piece of shit that people feel they have to praise.

R192 They'd have to be a frau. Take it from me, Peter O'Toole was all man.

Another Meryl one is Still of the Night. She is meant to be playing a woman of mystery but her performance is all about her hair. Pauline Kael noted that her most exciting character action happens off-screen - she changes the part in her hair. Meryl gets a long-take climactic backstory speech that is all technique.

R198, movies "we're supposed to like" is another thread, but Rosemary's Baby was an excellent film adaptation of best selling book even if you don't like it. That's yet another thread.

I watched Rosemary's Baby recently and I kind of agree it had LOTS of scenery chewing going on in it, especially the hilariously shrill display by Ruth Gordon. And I'm not prejudiced against Polanski; Chinatown is certainly one of the greatest movies ever made.

I'm not really sure how Ruth Gordon got an Oscar for Rosemary's Baby, as she wasn't all that great in it. But I look at it as a pro-active Oscar for Harold & Maude, which she should have gotten and wasn't even nominated.

I finally watched SUNSET BOULEVARD for the first time in the early days of the shutdown. I was and still am blown away by Gloria Swanson's performance. It's actually far more subtle, smart and layered than I expected it to be. It's one for the ages, and it should not be in this thread.

I love Mark Rylance and think he's one of the best actors working today. But lord have mercy is he godawful in ANGELS AND INSECTS.

Jessica Lange in HUSH.

R203 It was out of respect for her many other performances that were overlooked.

I disagree with whoever above said Christian Bale in VICE. It's indeed not a great film because they were able to work so little drama into the story; but the only really fine thing in the movie is the scene with Mary Cheney's (Allison Pill) coming out to her parents. Liz Cheney (Amy Adams) is an extremely cold and ruthless woman, and is clearly ready to reject poor anguished Mary, but then she sees that Dick (Bale) would never ever abandon his daughter. His unconditional love for both his daughters is his only humanizing quality (as we've seen again this last week). Once Liz sees how Dick feels, she also pledges support to Mary, even though she clearly doesn't want to.

All three actors are just phenomenal in the scene, and Bale makes Dick's pivot from cold-hearted politician to loving father completely believable. It's one of the finest things I've ever sen him do (he rarely gets the chance to play any warmth in his movies).

Gordon's performance in ROSEMARY'S BABY has suffered because people wanted her to play that same character again and again throughout the rest of her career, but there had been little like it before that film. (She had played a nagging and irritating mother in INSIDE DAISY CLOVER, but almost no one saw it.) She shouldn't be judged badly for that performance just because she later let it become shtick--it really surprised people at the time.

Williamson is fine in EXCALIBUR and THE HUMAN FACTOR.

Williamson was such an asshole and a bully. He pretty much destroyed his career in the USA with the Evan Handler incident for I HATE HAMLET.

R210 - details please!

[quote]R198 I’ll add Rosemary’s Baby to that list, A turgid boring piece of shit that people feel they have to praise.

ROSEMARY’S BABY is a masterpiece of filmmaking.

You will never be whole until you accept that.

Google is your friend, R211 -->

Wow, I didn't know Nicol Williamson was such a handful

R213 That article takes 20 paragraphs to get to the point.

Long story short: alcoholic Nicol Williamson alienated the cast and crew of Broadway’s I HATE HAMLET (1991) with his arrogant shenanigans backstage, then hit costar Evan Handler with a sword onstage.

The younger actor immediately exited mid performance and never returned to the production.

Life’s too short.

Was Nicole the first female to play hamlet?

No, that was me.

No, Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet around 1900.

R165: Are you kidding? He should've won for The Master instead of Joker. He was terrible in Joker.

Is Sandra Burnhardt over 120 years old? She's not pretty but she looks GOOD!

Nicol Williamson = Hopeless drunk.

Saw Ruth Negga's Hamlet at The Gate theatre in Dublin before it went to Broadway. She was terrific, the rest of the production was meh...

R233 Such a horrifying name. It needs to be changed.

I'm waiting patiently to see what R233 will post.

No, R220, I'm not kidding. Phoenix is terrible in THE MASTER, though I guess it's what Anderson wanted, which shows his bad judgement. I found Phoenix less annoying in THE JOKER, but I wouldn't call that a good performance either.

Nicol Williamson and George C. Scott - two notable alcoholics - starred together on Broadway in a production of UNCLE VANYA (with Julie Christie as Yelena), directed by Mike Nichols. I believe it got very good reviews (correct me if I'm wrong), but Scott and Williamson fought constantly after the opening. Nichols must have had a masochistic streak putting them together, especially after what he had to put up with from Scott a few years earlier in PLAZA SUITE.

Anyone here see that VANYA?

Rod Steiger in The Pawnbroker. His intensity sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Here he is not helped by the sledgehammer approach by Sidney Lumet and a generic German accent.

No, no, no, no, no.......it's Steiger's only great performance. I usually tolerate his presence in films, but no, he hit it out of the ball part with The Pawnbroker

So apparently anyone playing Margaret Thatcher will automatically give a terrible performance...

Kelli O’Hara in Sex and the City 2 is a great example of a theater actress who can’t adjust her performance for the screen. It was so mannered and over the top. Yes, her character was supposed to be somewhat melodramatic. Miss O’Hara was acting like she was doing Stravinsky in her scene. It was so out of place and distracting.

R229 Emma Thompson would have been an excellent Thatcher on The Crown, but Miss Anderson is so desperate to stay relevant that she fucked the hideous showrunner for the miscast part. I hope it was worth it for the (extremely undeserved) Emmy, Gill.

Disagree about The Pawnbroker which has so much bad in it it is unwatchable. In The Heat of the Night is a much better film and Steiger is better in it though he plays a supporting role so not sure why he won the Best Actor Oscar.

R231 A great idea, and Thompson would've been closer in age to where the real Mrs. Thatcher was in the 1980s. Also, with all due respect to Gillian Anderson, Dame Emma Thompson is simply a better actress across the board.

Anderson & Thompson are both great actresses, and like all other actresses have had their glory moments and those that they and we would rather forget.

R234 The only regrettable moment I can recall for Dame Emma was her bullshit guest spot on "Ellen" in its final, post-lez days. But that wasn't her fault. That show went completely fucking BONKERS after she came out. I think in that episode, she had left the bookstore to go be a Hollywood personal assistant to Oscar-winner Emma Thompson. How and Why???

It was like the final season of Roseanne. The show went from "Blue-collar struggles and love" to "Let's re-enact Evita and Under Siege 2 whilst living as zillionaires in our little house!"

Funny, R235 -- as I recall the Emma Thompson episode was probably the most purely entertaining ELLEN episode after "The Puppy Show." Sean Penn turned up as "himself" in that one too.

Ben Whishaw in Women Talking. His final scene with Claire Foy is embarrassing. I felt bad for him.

Agreed, R237. He was handled the most thankless of roles, and he made the worst of it.

Cate Blanchett in Lord of the Rings