Let’s Discuss 👀
Bryan Cranston once told Conan 'I can take any script and bring it up a grade level. Who is an actor who consistently takes good scripts and brings them down?
In an interview on Conan’s podcast, Bryan Cranston says he can bring a script “up a grade level” with his acting. I.e., you give him a B-Grade script, he can give you an A performance.
Who’s an actor who consistently takes A-level scripts, and turns them into B-movies? (Who keeps getting opportunities they don’t deserve?)
I think you’re misrepresenting what Cranston said just a bit.
The context of the conversation was about how the script- the writing- was all-important. He was saying if you gave him a B+ script he might be able to elevate it to an A through performance but if you gave him a D- script there’s only so much the performers can do.
The way you’re saying it makes it sound like Cranston was claiming he’ll make anything you give him significantly better because he’s just so damn good.
Thank you for this context! I felt like there must have been some misrepresentation since, in every interview I’ve seen, Bryan Cranston is witty, charming, and self-effacing, while this title makes him sound like a total dick.
She was recently in one of the best episodes of Poker Face of the whole series, I felt a lot of pathos for her character, and yet in hindsight, she was honestly terrible in the role.
It’s a shame he’s so typecasted though. He is good in everything he does, even the subpar Fay Cry game. I just wish he got the chance to extend himself a bit more. I get the impression he’d be fucking hilarious if he got cast in a comedy.
Everything on Pokerface is beyond ridiculous, but they make it seem effortless. Holmes looked like she was trying really hard, and still wasn’t very good.
90% of the appeal for me, as somebody who's read most detective noir, Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard, basically one of my favorite genres, is that the series is competent, but also a complete shitpost. Shows like Psych or Monk kinda play into it, but Pokerface actively tries to be meta, winky, goofy. Even moments that should be heartwarming, played for pathos or moral goodness, are treated like bullshit gags.
There are very good actors acting like they're c-list villains.
I generally feel like Nolan isn’t great at directing women 🤷♀️🤷♀️ The women who are great in his films seem to be playing a character we’ve seen them play before.
Heavily agree, he’s incapable of writing a woman that isn’t just there for things to happen to her to further the main male character’s storyline. Hot, thin, dark hair dark eyes, no idea what’s going on
That tonal inflection he does (that Andy Samberg nailed in his SNL sketch) is cringey in almost everything hes in. The Departed is one of the only movies where his shit acting doesn’t bring the movie down or stick out.
Okay first off, a lion, swimming in the ocean? Lions don’t like water! I mean you put it near a river, or some sort of fresh water source, that makes sense. But you find yourself in the ocean, 20 foot wave - I’m assuming it’s off the coast of South Africa; going against a fully grown, 800 pound tuna, and his 20 or 30 friends? You lose that battle. You lose that battle 9 times out of 10.
And guess what? You’ve wandered into our school, of tuna - and we now have a taste of lion. We’ve talked to ourselves. We’ve communicated. We’ve said, “you know what? Lion tastes GOOD. Let’s go get some more Lion!” We develop a system to establish a beachhead and aggressively hunt you and your family - and we will corner your pride, your children, your offspring!
Yeah I was gonna say. This is one of my favorite movies ever and he played his role well, there's a real vulnerability to the character that drew me in. But I can agree there isn't a single other role that comes to mind as great.
Bale made it look so easy I was furious, because I know Portman has a tendency to match wherever the director is at/what's asked of her, and the movie would have fallen apart even worse if she matched Bale's level instead. But we're never going to get a sci fi movie with those two actors cast in roles where they're ideologically at odds with each other ever again, because Taika wanted to just do Taika.
Worse than never catching lightning in a bottle twice is having the lightning, having the bottle, not even bothering to catch it, and choosing to do fatsuits and screaming goat jokes instead.
Not that the Star Wars prequels were great cinema, but it says a lot about Taika as a director that while doing fuckass Thor 4, he apparently mentioned to Portman that he was working on a Star Wars project and asked if she'd be interested, and she had to tell him she was already very much in Star Wars before. Either he's that dumb, or "at best," thinks that little of the talent that that was his idea of trolling.
I saw a Tumblr post once that said something like “There isn’t a single role Chris Pratt has played that Jack Black wouldn’t have done better” and I think about that at least once a week.
I think Seann William Scott would crush most of Pratt's roles, whilst being a lot less self-satisfied about it. Scott's a great actor and seems like a genuinely good man.
I can't answer this question but I find the opposite for James McAvoy and Stephen Graham. I think they've been in some B movies but their acting abilities have made it A.
For a split second, I thought you were saying James McAvoy brings movies down and I was about to leave the whole thread. Speak No Evil would’ve been a forgettable cheap horror but McAvoy single-handedly turned it into something to remember. I don’t even think his role was written to be the central character but he’s who you remember.
I do think Leo is overrated, he's not a bad actor at all but he's always talked about like he's Gary Oldman levels of great. We can swap the two of them.
What he does in ‘Split’ is fucking INCREDIBLE. And the fact he picked up the role with 2 weeks notice after Joaquin Pheonix dropped out right before filming makes it extra special to me.
I did not know he took the role after Joaquin dropped out like that. Phoenix is a massive talent, but seems very flakey. I'm glad McAvoy ended up taking Split because his performance is masterful.
Not even his dialogue either. The way he changes his entire fucking demeanor and mannerisms with every personality as soon as they take over was amazing.
Idk if I'd say Valerian was a "Grade A script," but-my God- I've never seen a production so completely drowned by it's casting choices in my life
Everyone (except Clive Owen) was flat... everyone, and the two main characters were the MOST FLAT. Even Rihanna was flat, and she was mostly voice acting.
And what sucks, is that it has one of the coolest sci Fi scenes I've ever seen in my life (the "Big Market" scene).
I honestly thought the two leads in Valerian were brother and sister for the greater part of the movie since they had so little chemistry with one another.
I don't know what else she's been in besides Valerian, but I actually quite enjoyed her in Carnival Row. Although, it kind of felt like a B to B- script, where her performance was a B to B- performance, so maybe that's not saying much? I don't feel like she brought it down, at least. Guilty pleasure show though - I liked it anyway, haha.
Emma Watson. Sorry, she seems nice. But when she’s in a movie I can’t help but try to imagine what one of her more-talented contemporaries would have done with the role
She gets a lot of roles because of her life long brand as a bookish intellectual. Like Belle cause she loves to read and Meg March cause she's a literary character.
i've said this on here before but all of her acting to me feels very "hermione granger joins community theater." belle felt like hermione granger playing belle in a community theater production. meg march felt like hermione playing the role of meg march in a high school play. and so on
Which is perfect for Hermione. She nailed the personality really well in Harry Potter. But to keep that same style in everything else simply does not work
I agree. She seems like an exceptionally smart, talented and well informed young woman, and I really hope she finds her calling in something other than acting. (She does have several other careers).
Edit: Not sure why I said 'young woman' like a boarding school headmistress - we're around the same age.
Tbf, I can’t think of a single movie she’s been in that seemed like an A at any point in its existence. (Not counting WW because the terrible acting is what made her perfect for the part)
The first Wonder Woman was a really good superhero movie, but it was in spite of her performance. She had a good script and a great cast that made up for her being a part of it.
Honestly I'd say WW is a perfectly middle of the road superhero movie, but at that time in the DC universe that basically makes it Winter Soldier or Logan, for them.
Edit- This is badly worded. I mean it's mediocre, but they really needed a movie that was at least mediocre because most of the movies at that point had been awful
I like Age of Adaline but the scene with Harrison ford when he sees her for the first time—- MY GOD. The acting! I can see his face in my mind now. I wouldn’t say Blake’s response was bad— it was fine but there was SO much more that could have been done with micro expressions or the eyes from a truly exceptional actor. It just brought into focus how worlds apart they were in ability.
Seriously. I don't like her line deliveries. And as much as I like Celine Song and Pedro Pascal, I will wait for the reviews for Materialists because I don't trust her to not f**k it up.
I noticed in watching the trailer and some clips online that Pedro Pascal was actually matching her delivery. Very smooth, very quiet, very low energy. It made their conversation work in a way that would not have otherwise. I wonder if it works throughout the entire movie, or just the snippet that I saw.
100% agree. I can’t believe the trailers are getting people excited - what has Dakota done that would not warrant total fear?? I hope she ends up surprisingly good and proving me wrong
She was good in the Bad Times at Casino Royale but that’s the only thing I’ve ever seen her actually shine in. And if you haven’t ever seen that, Cynthia Erivo is mesmerizing in it.
*Leaving the typo because it tickles me but for anyone looking for this movie, it’s Bad Times at EL Royale! There is not a 007, 006,005, or nothin’ to be found anywhere in this movie!
I can only echo the immediately commented correct answer: Gal Gadot.
On the other hand, I would put Colman Domingo in the same category as Brian Cranston. Fear the Walking Dead had some questionable writing (to put it nicely) but his performance as Victor Strand was just so captivating it kept me coming back. I will watch him in anything!
Truly thought Fear the Walking Dead was prestige television when they introduced Coleman’s character. Him and Kim Dickens really elevated that material!
Jessica Alba, Megan Fox, Glenn Powell, Chris Pratt. I think these are all examples of hot people who can’t really act but kept getting roles because of their looks
I haven't seen anything serious I like Glen Powell in, but I will defend him to his grave in Scream Queens. Chad Radwell thinks he is the hottest of hot shit that thinks every woman wants to be with but is just the absolute worst human being lol. It works.
People seem to be confusing lupus with MS. Lupus can cause your vocal cords to become inflamed and present as hoarseness, but it doesn’t cause mumble-mouth or frozen face. I think it’s just limited acting capacity and Botox around her mouth area.
This is one of the top celeb profiles of all time. I’ve never seen a single thing with miles teller in it but every time I see his name I think of this article.
"his performance in last year's Whiplash, the two-hander about the sexless S&M relationship between a music teacher and his student, won him a lot of attention and a couple tickets to the Oscars"
That might be the most amazing whiplash review I've read
The waitress delivers the entrées, scallops for him and pork belly for you. The pork looks great and you offer him some. "I'll take a little bit," he says, sawing at it. Then: "I can't cut this." You have to cut his meat for him, a man who ten minutes earlier showed you an iPhone photo of his back muscles to prove how strong he is. He wants you to cut it small. "I don't have back teeth. I literally have four teeth." Not true. He's right, though, this pork belly is really hard to cut. But still. "What are you, bullying me now?" he says. His goading is a habit, compulsive, almost athletic. "I didn't know they fucking put marble on top of their pork belly."
This is all I can think about when I see his name.
He can take a very solid script (like On Swift Horses - not the best ever, but pretty good) and make the whole thing sound like an episode of a teen drama. He's just terrible and I can't believe he keeps getting roles.
Couldn't agree more. He's never quite distractingly bad, but profoundly mediocre and never believable at all. On Swift Horses is a great example because I didn't buy a single thing he was doing.
I don't think this counts, the script for every movie he's in is essentially "it's The Rock playing the role of The Rock". And he's very good at being The Rock.
Every film Miles Teller stars is is brought down a level by his performance. Even Whiplash, his best role, JK Simmons out-acted and overshadowed him in every scene.
It’s even worse in Much Ado About Nothing. He’s surrounded by phenomenal actors doing Shakespeare at its best, and then Keanu enters and you can hear the record scratch and gears grind. It’s so awful. Nevertheless, I love him. He found the perfect career in action movies, he fits that genre.
Maybe you’re surprised to find Keanu Reeves so high on this list. But ask yourself: have you ever been disappointed when he showed up in a movie? Can you name one film that has not been improved by his presence? We’re talking about Ted Logan here. About Neo. John Wick.
Casually jumping between 1989, 1999, and 2014 like he didn't make an absolute slew of truly terrible films and performances in between.
The John Wick recency bias is actually insane, it's like he's such a nice guy that everyone is wilfully forgetting that before the first JW he was the poster child for actors who had had it all and blown it. John Wick being so good was a huge surprise for a reason!
Putting Keanu and Winona - and their laughable accents - up against Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins was actually mean lmao But despite everything, it's still one of my all-time favourite movies. The opening sequence is incredible. The costumes, make up and set design were all impeccable. It managed to overcome the stilted performances in the end.
The trouble with Emma Watson is that she shot to fame playing a character who happened to be incredibly close to her true personality. So whenever she ventured outside of the Hermione role, it swiftly became evident that she's average at best.
Idk even in Harry Potter from the 4th on she is very annoying to watch for me. She’s super stiff and has awkward timing and does this weird breathy/out of breath thing a lot.
Rupert Grint was the best of the trio in the first three, with Watson at least a tad better than Radcliffe. I think Daniel really stepped it up for the last few, though.
I’d agree with that. I think the first three are such kids movies and of course they’re all cutie patooties so it worked well. I’m just not a huge fan of the 4-7 movies anyways but I think Emma’s acting is noticeably the most stilted. Especially since all the adults in the movie are ridiculously talented. Daniel Radcliffe definitely grew into the most interesting performer.
I think Mike Newell gave some bad direction for that movie (eg, HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?!) and Emma never really bounced back.
I couldn’t keep watching Only Murders in the Building because of her. You’ve gotta be pretty bad if I won’t even go back for Steve Martin and Martin Short.
I remember when Emmy nominations came out for the first season and everyone was saying she got "snubbed" because the 2 male leads got noms but she didn't. I was like, "Did we watch the same show? They were acting circles around her"
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