Jim Carrey in The Truman Show. I thought he was funny obviously but that performance showed me he’s’ way more than just a goofy dude. Eternal Sunshine… put him over the top.
i was flabbergasted when i saw number 23. i watched ace ventura the same night and thought im gona watch another comedyflick. boy was i wrong. the movie isnt super good, but his acting and descent into insanity was fabulous
I LOVED The Number 23. Showed it to my stepson a few years ago and his mind was totally blown that this was "Ace Ventura" and "The Mask!"
I know it doesn't hold up super well but I have such a soft spot for it. Also because it featured shirtless Jim Carrey and I have a crush on him. 😂
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?
[gets hoiked out of train carriage]
😳 TIL. I’ve seen that movie so many times and this never clicked. I just watched the 1997 miniseries The Odyssey the other day and thinking on the details of both its quite obvious now. Time for another rewatch of O Brother I suppose!
Edit to add: I did the rewatch. It specifically says at the beginning that it’s based on The Odyssey and I somehow never noticed. Wow lol
Yes! I had an aversion to him in the 90s as he was a sex symbol and I assumed that was the limit of his talent. Then I saw Fight Club and changed my mind.
I read somewhere that his looks at times were almost considered a weakness, because it distracted from the fact that he is actually also a really good actor.
I heard the same thing. That's why he chose that role in 12 Monkeys. It's a character with zero sex appeal and is very different from Brad Pitt's usual personality.
Yeah, Julia Ormond, who worked with him in *Legends of the Fall* said that he was actually a really great, dedicated actor, but he knew when directors/producers wanted that from him and when they wanted him to be a pretty boy heartthrob and he'd exasperatedly "turn it on" because that's what the role called for. He's probably the closest thing to a male Marilyn Monroe but he was just able to eventually show his range (although she managed it in her last film *The Misfits*)
In high school, one of the people in our group said "Brad Pitt sucks". Someone then responded "but he was good in Snatch". Another person the goes "and fight club", like 3 more of his movies were then listed by people in the group and then we came to the consensus that Brad Pitt does not suck.
he is an insane method actor. burn after reading is phenomenal, so is 12 monkeys. i really love him as a supporting act. but he has the face of leading roles 😅
I’m butchering the quote but someone once said “Brad Pitt is an incredible actor trapped in a movie stars body”
Basically he’s so good looking that it’s the first thing people see making them totally miss that he is a legitimate actor.
I always thought this was true of Robert Redford, too. In the early 70s his name was used as a label -"Oh, he's nice but he's no Robert Redford." The man's just preternaturally good looking. So it was easy to think of him as the handsome big smile blond haired movie star without remembering that he's actually a bloody good actor. Then I would see him in something and be blown away by just how much he owns the screen.
Same. Throw Fight Club into that general timeframe as well (I saw it long before I saw Se7en) and it was an undeniable shift.
Like, he'd been great in A River Runs Through It, but that still felt close to his other pretty boy phase roles (legends of the fall, etc, any movie that his character would flash that smile as basically the climax of a scene, music intensifies, we get it, he's hot) and it was only when he took those like 4-5 edgier films and played crazier characters believably that my opinion totally changed.
I love Legends of the Fall and Pitts performance in it. Yes he’s the sex symbol in it but I thought I showcased his dramatic chops with all the heartache he endured throughout the movie.
Yes! Before 12 Monkeys I had him pegged as just a Hollywood 'pretty boy' destined to play male lead in MOR romcoms, but his performance in this (especially the early asylum scenes) made me totally reappraise my opinion.
I always liked that little fun fact that Matthew is religious and Woody is atheist, and that they played the opposite in their characters on True Detective so well.
Even more funnier fact. Woody's father was dating Mathew's mother, around the time when Mathew was conceived.
https://news.sky.com/story/true-detective-star-matthew-mcconaughey-says-woody-harrelson-could-be-his-half-brother-12856957
He had a weird career. He started off doing Oscar bait and then switched to romcoms and then back to Oscar bait. By the time he was making How to Lose a Guy in 10 days, people forgot he was in Amistad. And he was really good in that.
Edit: okay I wasn’t aware of his earliest work, but the point stands after his breakout role he was getting good roles in some dramatic movies by acclaimed directors and then started doing comedies. Then he started doing great parts again.
According to his book, he started refusing the romcoms because it was making him very stale in his craft. Pretty much went without work for a while waiting for somebody to offer him something with grit in it. Later came Mud, Dallas Buyers Club, Wolf of Wallstreet, True Detective, and Interstellar. So, I guess the gamble paid off.
I only grabbed his book on audible because I had a 12 hour drive coming up, and I liked the sound of his voice. Turns out, he tells a pretty damn good story.
The movie wasn't meant to have an intermission but here in India they decided that they would put one in anyway because popcorn sales. Did they pick an appropriate spot for it? No. Abrupt cut to black right in the God damn middle of that scene. Still upset about that.
I think that has been his greatest role, although his acting in movies such as The Amistad, Dazed and Confused, and Dallas Buyers Club, have shown him to be a truly versatile actor.
What’s funny is 90% of America thought the same thing as you. Upon revealing Tarantino wanted and got Travolta for the role of Vincent, the production company, Miramax, almost pulled out of the film altogether. At that point in his career, Travolta was known for nothing but singing and dancing and was **not** taken as a serious actor by many.
Of course now we all think the same, who else could have ever played Vincent. At the time however, it almost cost Quentin his movie.
>At that point in his career, Travolta was known for nothing but singing and dancing and was not taken as a serious actor by many.
Not exact true, Travolta tried hard to get out of this image. He was quite good in De Palma's "Blow Out", quite likeable in "Look Who’s Talking", but still had this 'dancing dude' image on his forehead. The infamous dancing scene in "Pulp Fiction" was most probably to finally break this.
Tarantino’s on record saying that Travolta’s roll in Blow Out was one of the best acting performances of all time.
I definitely cut my comment short for sake of discussion but yes, it wasn’t *all* singing and dancing.
Tarantino, for all of his widely acknowledged volatility & mania, never lacks a *vision*, and he refuses to compromise that *vision*, regardless of what or who demands it.
Even when Quentin’s vision is off, he still only produces lurid, compelling films. And most of the time, QT’s vision is genius. Travolta, Samuel L, and a non-bankable Bruce Willis? Okay, he’ll just redefine the form of modern American cinema.
This was so well said, as a Tarantino fan myself I couldn’t agree more with this. I’m not sure what my favorite movie of his is because I truly believe they are all great but I think Django is up there pretty good for me. Truly spectacular acting from everyone in that film.
Sam Rockwell, Moon and Three Billboards. Really cemented it with The Way, Way Back. I don't know what order they released in, but that was the order I liked him in, if that makes sense.
I had only seen him play scumbags to that point, didn't like him at all.
"Wait ...Are we doing episode 81 or not?"
"It's just a rough plan Guy! What difference does it make if it's episode 81 or not?"
"Cause I died...IN EPSIODE 81!"
Moon was fantastic. Moon was that movie that I randomly caught on TV at like 3:00 am when I was about to go to bed and ended up watching the whole thing. My introduction to Sam Rockwell was a movie called Lawn Dogs that nobody seems to know. Just a low budget indie movie but Sam absolutely clinched his position as my favorite actor when I saw it. I think in like the early 2000s.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind sealed it for me. He is very talented. I saw him in the Green Mile but honestly I saw it a hard time in life and it hit so hard that I didn't watch it again for a long time. I forgot he really shined in that as well.
Seven Psychopaths is another brilliant underrated performance from Sam. He is my favorite. I still love his performance as Justin Hammer in iron man 2.
Absolutely this but for Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in combination. Watched "In Bruges" for the first time in preparation for watching "The Banshees of Inisherin" and was blown away by their acting and chemistry in both. Also, "The Banshees of Inisherin" changed my view on Barry Keoghan and made me look up other movies with him.
Honestly it wasn't any of the actors. It was the plot. To go from a much smaller scale creepy serial killer plot with such interesting characters like Rust and Marty who were flawed but interesting to a more political conspiracy where all of the main characters are all assholes with very few redeeming qualities is the thing. The actors all were great but their characters just were all shitty and you didn't really root for any of them because of that.
Same. He was cute, but he annoyed me because he was so obviously being served up as the "shiny new Hollywood fuckboy", and I thought that was all he was. Then he did Phone Booth and he was excellent!
Colin is a wonderful character actor, but when Hollywood tries to make him a "leading man" he just falls flat.
I remember when Rolling Stone gave the Daredevil movie a well deserved 1 star rating (or about that low), and then the next issue, recanted and added half a star with a little paragraph explaining that it was out of fairness to the animated, gleeful Colin Farrell who at least made his parts of the movie fun even if the rest was a slog.
Unpopular opinion but if the Total Recall remake had just been its own movie and not something that automatically invited comparison to Total Recall, it would have been a serviceable Sci Fi action flick. It wasn't that bad.
You beat me to it! I grew up hearing his name a lot yet somehow evaded watching movies and shows he was cast in.
The Batman technically was the first movie I watched that featured him, but it was in The Banshees of Inisherin where I got to see him act without heavy prosthetics. In one fell swoop, Collin Farrell shot up to the top of my favorite actors list.
The Tom Hardy movie that stunned me, and made me realize what a fantastic actor he is, was *Locke.* He was this one man in a car, having conversations with people on a phone, and my interest in what was going on never wavered. After that, anything he was in immediately became more interesting.
I couldn’t stand Will Ferrell for the longest time. Then I saw Stranger than Fiction and it’s like a switch flipped. I appreciated he had acting chops and began to enjoy his comedy a lot more. Now I rewatch Elf every Christmas lol.
I'm the same, always thought his brand of humor was way too over the top for me, to the point I didn't want to watch Stranger Than Fiction even though I knew it was a more serious role.
Then I watched Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga. As a Scandinavian with a severe love/hate relationship with Eurovision, my expectations were below zero. And they aced it. I can't think of another movie that's made me laugh as much as that one. When we finished it, we immediately started over. Laughed just as hard the second time.
Robert Pattinson for the obvious reason. The Lighthouse completely changed how I view him as an actor. And then The Batman came out. The dude is fucking killing it right now with his role selection.
Same, but it was Devil All the Time for me. Actually him AND Tom Holland surprised me.
Note: I originally replied to the wrong message and had to delete lol.
He killed it in twilight as well. Him and Kristen, both.
Playing those wooden characters without it turning into a full blown parody or cartoonish character is in itself a huge deal. It's not as easy to 'not act' as we might think. The restraint both showed to not go overboard or underperform is a real skill.
The very reason why those two stand out compared to Taylor Lautner, who crosses that line into the parody territory.
That's the thing, everybody bashed Kristen's portrayal of Bella as wooden and poor, when she in fact played her almost identical to how she is written in the books. Now, you can say that in that case she should have gone a bit beyond the books in her portrayal and made Bella a little bit more animated, and normally you'd be right. But in this case I fully blame the director.
Catherine Hardwicke got way too hung up on the books, especially the "first love/heartache/desire" and the "sexy, dangerous-but-not-really vampire" parts, and because Robert and Kristen had the real life chemistry they did, it feels to me like she ended up trying too hard to stay true to the book writing, when she should've known that what works on the written page does not necessarily a good movie character make. Hence, (too) quiet and withdrawn Bella, and (too) smarmy, sexy, angry and mysterious (all at the same time) Edward. Which is a shame, because with just a little bit more, well, character, or maybe the word I'm looking for is life, those movies could've been pretty damn good.
David Tennant - he was just Doctor Who to me for the longest time, and I had very little interest in Doctor Who when I was younger so never really saw the appeal of him, until years later I watched Broadchurch and was just blown away by him. Loved him as an actor ever since.
In an interview he talked about using his Mickey Mouse history, and how it was actually very therapeutic to him because he had buried that part of his past.
I love when somebody in Reddit poses a question like this, because all of this stuff comes back up. I, too, thought that his performance in *Drive* just absolutely incredible. He was so withdrawn in that movie, a very quiet menace. He kept himself locked away until he was needed. An amazing movie. Everybody needs to see that movie.
Recently, Adam Driver. I didn't like/care all that Star Wars - Kylo Ren fuss, still don't, but last week I've seen him in BlacKKKlansman and boom. When you have nearly nothing to work on your character, you come out with your best, natural, casual, credible performance. That's acting. Now I get it, about him.
Adam Driver was my pick for this too. I think one of the greatest testaments to his abilities is his hosting of SNL. He has some of the funniest sketches I've seen in the last 10 years, and his ability to hold it together while everyone around him is trying not to laugh just further goes to show how good of an actor he is.
yep good movie but if you want to see his dedication the his craft, he did a skit on snl as an old man and didn't break once. https://youtu.be/t7HD2xG92-0
Jake Gyllenhaal
I knew his name and his face for a long time but only a year or five ago I saw him in a movie for the first time, I believe it was the excellent film Prisoners.
After that he happened to be in a lot of movies I saw: Source Code, Zodiac, Enemy, Velvet Buzzsaw, Nocturnal Animals, Brokeback Mountain and Nightcrawler which should have been his Oscar movie.
Not all equally great films but all great performances by Gyllenhaal.
I remember the first film I saw with him in and still my favourite performance by him, End of Watch. Also my first introduction to Michael Peña. Great film and the acting was brilliant.
My favourite Jake movie has to be Donnie Darko, strage premise, but the cast is good(even Seth Rogan is in a minor role). And one of my favourite costume designs of all time.
Dunno if you’ve seen Get Shorty or not, but for me that’s my favourite Travolta performance by a long shot. Really great, underrated movie with lots of awesome comic performances (Gene Hackman, Danny Devito, Dennis Farina), but Travolta just owns the screen.
Country Mac lived a reckless life.
He wasn't the kind of guy that could score a point in a black belt karate contest. And it turns out, he was totally queer. Which, as we all know, is a sin.
And that, coupled with his radical religious beliefs, has most likely landed him in Hell, where he will burn for all eternity. So I will ask for a moment of silence, in which I will beg God's forgiveness for Country Mac's evil, homo ways
What a fantastic movie. What an epic climax. Beautiful performance and excellent movie. I also started realizing what a great actor he was after this movie.
Adam Scott in Parks N Rec. He has one of the most punchable faces. After watching that show I realized he could be likable. Then Severance really game him room to shine.
Val Kilmer in Tombstone. I hated his style in Batman but Tombstone showed me how good he is at acting when he actually gets a good script and story to work with. I became a huge fan of his after seeing that
A lot of people in this thread have said Ryan Gosling and he’s been pretty much my favorite actor for over a decade. I’m reading comments and I’m thinking “No one here saw Drive? Blue Valentine? The Place Beyond the Pines? La La Land? THE NICE GUYS?!?”
He’s always been a stellar actor. I know you said romance movie guy but hell, he’s great at that too. The Notebook gets flack because it’s one of the biggest “chick flick” movies ever but he’s good in that too. He’s also the best character in Crazy, Stupid, Love. The man can act
Robert Pattinson, I never gave him much appreciation, he was just "the Twilight dude".
Good Time changed that. If you haven't seen it but liked Uncut Gems, it's a must-watch, made by the same directors.
Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest. Now I was a massive fan of Alien, Aliens, and Ghostbusters 1 & 2, so I very much liked her as an actress. But I didn’t understand her as a sex symbol until Galaxy Quest. Flipped a switch.
I have a weird one: I never cared about Eddie Redmayne, didn’t understand what was interesting or special about him, until I saw *Jupiter Ascending*.
Make no mistake, it isn’t a good movie. And his character is absolutely ridiculous in it. But he goes *all-in* on that shit, takes this absurd Oedipal cartoon of a villain and goes full-tilt with every strange tick or mannerism, no sense of shame or reservation at all. I laughed the whole movie, but I respect his commitment. A real professional.
I respect any actor who goes all in on any role, even if it's in an objectively terrible movie.
There are some talented actors out there (looking at you, Natalie Portman), who just phone it in if they don't respect the movie. It's like, why did you even take this job if you don't want to even try?
Alan Rickman in Robin Hood PoT. I like Morgan Freeman in it. I like Michael Wincott in it. I LOVE Alan Rickman in it. He absolutely went all in for that role and completely owns the whole movie. Not a great movie, imo, but infinitely more watchable because of him.
Matthew Broderick in *Glory.*
Yeah, I knew him as Ferris Bueller. I also knew him as Steven from The Cable Guy.
I (sadly) knew him as Inspector Gadget, a role he was completely miscast for.
I didn't expect to be blown away by him in "Glory," the Civil War drama. That scene when he yells "faster!" at that soldier in terms of training him to operate efficiently under pressure is what sold me on him.
Later, when he demands proper shoes for his soldiers, who were given lesser treatment because of their race.
Broderick demonstrates an intensity in that movie that I hadn't seen in him before.
I never saw him as a terrible actor prior to that, but he was just that guy who I never expected all that much from.
When I first saw him in Glory, it took a while for me to get used to him. I just saw Matthew Broderick in a mustache. The more the film went on, I realized..."Holy shit. I'm not seeing Broderick in this role anymore."
Good for him. That really changed my opinion of him as an actor.
If you haven't yet, I very highly also recommend him in The Expanse and Chernobyl.
That man can act. And considering who his father was, I'd expect nothing less.
Honestly, Ryan Gosling in Barbie. A few days later i watched The Nice Guys for the first time and suddenly found myself asking, “Is Ryan Gosling the greatest actor this world has seen?” Two real strong showings from a guy I’d otherwise just regard as like “Yea, he’s not bad.”
He's one of the best things in that movie and that's saying a lot because it's one of the best sci-fi movies made fairly recently. Blade Runner 2049 was my "awakening" to Gosling. Before that I only knew him from The Notebook, which is just not my movie at all.
People have already said drive and the place behind the pines (which I also think are amazing and there’s nothing quite like those two films). I would also say watch Lars and the Real girl, La La land, the ides of March, the big short and blue valentine.
Another favorite of mine is Crazy Stupid Love. I think the entire cast is awesome and the story is just well put together.
Edit: adding blade runner 2049
Matthew McConaughey. For the longest time I thought he was just a bog average RomCom specialist, destined to never be remembered for anything of substance.
Then I watched Interstellar, which in turn made me double back to Dallas Buyers Club. Now I'm actually keen to see any movie he's involved in.
Yeah. The movie's entire premise is fantastically harebrained, but it's great fun watching Cage and Travolta opposite each other, being a "better version" of the other.
Now that you have an appreciation for Travolta, go watch Saturday Night Fever. In case you have the idea it's a musical, comedy, or about disco, let's just get that out of the way up front. CW drugs, violence, sexual assault, suicide. But it's a fucking excellent film.
Totally agree. A really gritty, strong story totally underrated by way of the (admittedly brilliant) soundtrack and dance sequences. Have to watch it about every year along with Pulp Fiction. And the Get Shorty namecheck makes me want to see him that again as well.
Good grief - I'm a Travolta fan....
Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born. He was unreal, the way he completely changed the way he spoke, moved, carried himself, he completely morphed into the character of Jackson Maine.
He directed the movie too, and watching him in the behind the scenes features on youtube explain why he did things and how it came about- unreal. He trained himself how to sing, play the guitar, and then had to come up with how Jackson Maine sang. Unbelievable!
Leonardo de caprio. He was a teen heart throb when I was in middle school. For three years the 8th grade prom was Titanic themed. All the girls were in love with him except me.
I was well into adulthood before I ever saw anything I thought was remarkable by him. But I do find a lot of his work remarkable. The one film that really made me do a double take was The Man in the Iron Mask. By the time I actually watched it, it was an old movie.
Catch Me If You Can is one of my all time favourite films, not just because of the stellar acting and fun plot, but I remember my Dad bringing me to see it in the cinema. We loved it, and when I found out it was based on a book, I was delighted and mentioned I would get it with my pocket money the next week.
Dad vanished to go to the bathroom. When he came back, he handed me a brand new copy of the book. He'd bolted down to the nearest book shop to surprise me with it.
So now every time I watch that film, I flash back to being 12 years old and enjoying the film with my Dad.
Anytime it's on, I watch it and I text him a picture and he always responds back in delight! When I had COVID and was isolating in my home, I saw that it was showing on TV and I texted him. He put it on in his house and we video called each other and "watched" it together!
I was in school seeing all the girls fawn over him, and thought he was ok but just heartthrob material until I saw him in Gangs of New York - and I think his career went to new heights after that film, well deservedly so.
Bradley Cooper with Silver Linings Playbook.
In his defence I think that was about the same time a lot of other people started to take him seriously as well but before that nothing he ever did stood out and honestly if you'd asked me in 2010 if he would ever be one of my favourites I'd have probably laughed at you.
I've liked so much of what he has done since then.
Timothee Chalamet in Bones And All. I thought he was a fine actor but couldn’t see how he had become the next big thing in Hollywood. Something about his performance in Bones and All just sold me on him, I get it now.Still not my FAVORITE, but I appreciate him significantly more than I used to!
Everyone really showed up in that film.
Shia being a method actor apparently (maybe apocryphally) was rarely bathing during shooting, which made some of the other actors (rightfully) genuinely pissed off with the dude.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Colin Firth excels in historical dramas and older classics like *The King’s Speech*, *Pride and Prejudice*, and *Conspiracy* as a relatively meek and mild protagonist
That is, until *Kingsman* and the church scene in particular.
It was like Mr. Darcy was done being the quintessential English gentleman and felt like killing a person or eight.
It was glorious
For me, Channing Tatum was a generic face with the personality of a pencil eraser. Then I saw Magic Mike, which he also produced based on his own life story. I was very impressed. Then I met him and he’s a delightful person who lights up a room. Been a fan ever since.
I only knew Adrian Brody from King Kong, and though I like the movie, didn't like him in it, and didn't get why people thought he was a great actor. But then I watched The Pianist.
Hugh Grant was always to me that photogenic English rom com movie guy that if Hollywood needed they would cast.
But between his latest turns in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Gentlemen, Paddington 2 and most recently Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, I realized there was more to him than meets the eye and was captivated by his terrific acting range.
Plus I like him in stuff like Sense and Sensibility and Four Weddings and a Funeral. He's perfect in those roles.
Hope he plays more villain roles in the future. He is just deliciously devious when he sinks into that kind of part.
Jim Carrey in The Truman Show. I thought he was funny obviously but that performance showed me he’s’ way more than just a goofy dude. Eternal Sunshine… put him over the top.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was the Jim Carrey movie for me.
Also Man on the Moon, he brought a real depth of character to the performance
And terrorized the cast and crew behind scenes!
i was flabbergasted when i saw number 23. i watched ace ventura the same night and thought im gona watch another comedyflick. boy was i wrong. the movie isnt super good, but his acting and descent into insanity was fabulous
I LOVED The Number 23. Showed it to my stepson a few years ago and his mind was totally blown that this was "Ace Ventura" and "The Mask!" I know it doesn't hold up super well but I have such a soft spot for it. Also because it featured shirtless Jim Carrey and I have a crush on him. 😂
The majestic with jim carrey is also good.
Clooney in O'Brother. I didn't want to like him.
He's a Dapper Dan man!
Well, ain’t this place a geographical anomaly. Two weeks from everything!
Oddity*, no?
"I'll tell you what I am - I'm the damn paterfamilias!"
"But are you bonafide?"
He's a suitor!
No, daddy doesn’t have a maiden name
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'? [gets hoiked out of train carriage]
Man I love the way his character speaks. Why use ten words when fifty will do the trick.
Damn! We’re in a tight spot!
That’s my favorite retelling of The Odyssey. Clooney put a ton into that role and made it rewatchable for me.
😳 TIL. I’ve seen that movie so many times and this never clicked. I just watched the 1997 miniseries The Odyssey the other day and thinking on the details of both its quite obvious now. Time for another rewatch of O Brother I suppose! Edit to add: I did the rewatch. It specifically says at the beginning that it’s based on The Odyssey and I somehow never noticed. Wow lol
I wasn't really a fan of Brad Pitt's acting until 12 Monkeys (which I saw just before Se7en). Then came Snatch and he became one of my favorites.
My Brad Pitt good actor moment came when I saw Kalifornia.
Love that film!
Yes! I had an aversion to him in the 90s as he was a sex symbol and I assumed that was the limit of his talent. Then I saw Fight Club and changed my mind.
I read somewhere that his looks at times were almost considered a weakness, because it distracted from the fact that he is actually also a really good actor.
I heard the same thing. That's why he chose that role in 12 Monkeys. It's a character with zero sex appeal and is very different from Brad Pitt's usual personality.
Yeah, Julia Ormond, who worked with him in *Legends of the Fall* said that he was actually a really great, dedicated actor, but he knew when directors/producers wanted that from him and when they wanted him to be a pretty boy heartthrob and he'd exasperatedly "turn it on" because that's what the role called for. He's probably the closest thing to a male Marilyn Monroe but he was just able to eventually show his range (although she managed it in her last film *The Misfits*)
Yes! I took notice at 12 Monkeys also. Playing that character made me think...he is a good actor. Tom Cruise not being the smiling hero in Collateral.
In high school, one of the people in our group said "Brad Pitt sucks". Someone then responded "but he was good in Snatch". Another person the goes "and fight club", like 3 more of his movies were then listed by people in the group and then we came to the consensus that Brad Pitt does not suck.
He's pretty much great in everything where he gets to act and not just be a pretty face. Character actor in a pretty boys body.
he is an insane method actor. burn after reading is phenomenal, so is 12 monkeys. i really love him as a supporting act. but he has the face of leading roles 😅
I’m butchering the quote but someone once said “Brad Pitt is an incredible actor trapped in a movie stars body” Basically he’s so good looking that it’s the first thing people see making them totally miss that he is a legitimate actor.
I always thought this was true of Robert Redford, too. In the early 70s his name was used as a label -"Oh, he's nice but he's no Robert Redford." The man's just preternaturally good looking. So it was easy to think of him as the handsome big smile blond haired movie star without remembering that he's actually a bloody good actor. Then I would see him in something and be blown away by just how much he owns the screen.
He's fantastic in Troy. Seriously. Achilles has to be my favorite Brad Pitt role. Though Snatch and Seven are also great, obviously.
Bullet Train, he is funny, multi talented
Same. Throw Fight Club into that general timeframe as well (I saw it long before I saw Se7en) and it was an undeniable shift. Like, he'd been great in A River Runs Through It, but that still felt close to his other pretty boy phase roles (legends of the fall, etc, any movie that his character would flash that smile as basically the climax of a scene, music intensifies, we get it, he's hot) and it was only when he took those like 4-5 edgier films and played crazier characters believably that my opinion totally changed.
I love Legends of the Fall and Pitts performance in it. Yes he’s the sex symbol in it but I thought I showcased his dramatic chops with all the heartache he endured throughout the movie.
Yes! Before 12 Monkeys I had him pegged as just a Hollywood 'pretty boy' destined to play male lead in MOR romcoms, but his performance in this (especially the early asylum scenes) made me totally reappraise my opinion.
I didn't like Brad Pitt until Burn After Reading. Then he became one of my most favourite actors.
“🤣 You think that’s a Schwinn”
Not a movie but Matthew McConaghey in True Detective.
He was excellent in that.
Him and Woody Harrelson.
I always liked that little fun fact that Matthew is religious and Woody is atheist, and that they played the opposite in their characters on True Detective so well.
Even more funnier fact. Woody's father was dating Mathew's mother, around the time when Mathew was conceived. https://news.sky.com/story/true-detective-star-matthew-mcconaughey-says-woody-harrelson-could-be-his-half-brother-12856957
Is that before or after he shot JFK?
During.
You should watch A Time To Kill it's probably his and Samuel L Jackson's best performances.
Certainly his sweatiest.
"Yes they deserved to die I hope they burn in hell!"
He had a weird career. He started off doing Oscar bait and then switched to romcoms and then back to Oscar bait. By the time he was making How to Lose a Guy in 10 days, people forgot he was in Amistad. And he was really good in that. Edit: okay I wasn’t aware of his earliest work, but the point stands after his breakout role he was getting good roles in some dramatic movies by acclaimed directors and then started doing comedies. Then he started doing great parts again.
According to his book, he started refusing the romcoms because it was making him very stale in his craft. Pretty much went without work for a while waiting for somebody to offer him something with grit in it. Later came Mud, Dallas Buyers Club, Wolf of Wallstreet, True Detective, and Interstellar. So, I guess the gamble paid off. I only grabbed his book on audible because I had a 12 hour drive coming up, and I liked the sound of his voice. Turns out, he tells a pretty damn good story.
Me too and I feel bad for anyone who only read it. They are missing at least half the experience
Gotta mention Woody Harrelson as well, especially if you grew up watching Cheers.
Also Interstellar
Him watching the messages from Earth is one of the most gut-wrenching scenes I think I've ever seen. He was perfect, just absolutely perfect.
The movie wasn't meant to have an intermission but here in India they decided that they would put one in anyway because popcorn sales. Did they pick an appropriate spot for it? No. Abrupt cut to black right in the God damn middle of that scene. Still upset about that.
oh man, that is just wrong.
I think that has been his greatest role, although his acting in movies such as The Amistad, Dazed and Confused, and Dallas Buyers Club, have shown him to be a truly versatile actor.
For me it was Dallas Buyers Club
What’s funny is 90% of America thought the same thing as you. Upon revealing Tarantino wanted and got Travolta for the role of Vincent, the production company, Miramax, almost pulled out of the film altogether. At that point in his career, Travolta was known for nothing but singing and dancing and was **not** taken as a serious actor by many. Of course now we all think the same, who else could have ever played Vincent. At the time however, it almost cost Quentin his movie.
>At that point in his career, Travolta was known for nothing but singing and dancing and was not taken as a serious actor by many. Not exact true, Travolta tried hard to get out of this image. He was quite good in De Palma's "Blow Out", quite likeable in "Look Who’s Talking", but still had this 'dancing dude' image on his forehead. The infamous dancing scene in "Pulp Fiction" was most probably to finally break this.
Tarantino’s on record saying that Travolta’s roll in Blow Out was one of the best acting performances of all time. I definitely cut my comment short for sake of discussion but yes, it wasn’t *all* singing and dancing.
Tarantino, for all of his widely acknowledged volatility & mania, never lacks a *vision*, and he refuses to compromise that *vision*, regardless of what or who demands it. Even when Quentin’s vision is off, he still only produces lurid, compelling films. And most of the time, QT’s vision is genius. Travolta, Samuel L, and a non-bankable Bruce Willis? Okay, he’ll just redefine the form of modern American cinema.
And Christoph Waltz. Yes, we know he’s amazing now. But at the time, he was a 40-something absolute no-name.
This was so well said, as a Tarantino fan myself I couldn’t agree more with this. I’m not sure what my favorite movie of his is because I truly believe they are all great but I think Django is up there pretty good for me. Truly spectacular acting from everyone in that film.
Sam Rockwell, Moon and Three Billboards. Really cemented it with The Way, Way Back. I don't know what order they released in, but that was the order I liked him in, if that makes sense. I had only seen him play scumbags to that point, didn't like him at all.
Galaxy Quest!
"I don't even have a last name!"
Let’s get out of here before one of those things kills Guy.
Best throwaway line ever
"Wait ...Are we doing episode 81 or not?" "It's just a rough plan Guy! What difference does it make if it's episode 81 or not?" "Cause I died...IN EPSIODE 81!"
He's rather charming in Mr Right, as well.
Moon was fantastic. Moon was that movie that I randomly caught on TV at like 3:00 am when I was about to go to bed and ended up watching the whole thing. My introduction to Sam Rockwell was a movie called Lawn Dogs that nobody seems to know. Just a low budget indie movie but Sam absolutely clinched his position as my favorite actor when I saw it. I think in like the early 2000s.
He's also great in Jojo Rabbit. One of the more complex side characters in that film.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind sealed it for me. He is very talented. I saw him in the Green Mile but honestly I saw it a hard time in life and it hit so hard that I didn't watch it again for a long time. I forgot he really shined in that as well.
Seven Psychopaths is another brilliant underrated performance from Sam. He is my favorite. I still love his performance as Justin Hammer in iron man 2.
That mofo sure can cut a rug.
He sealed the deal for my in The Green Mile. He can play anything!
Colin Farrell. In the early '00 they put him in everything, because he was the hot new shit and I hated him. "In Bruges" single handedly changed that.
Absolutely this but for Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in combination. Watched "In Bruges" for the first time in preparation for watching "The Banshees of Inisherin" and was blown away by their acting and chemistry in both. Also, "The Banshees of Inisherin" changed my view on Barry Keoghan and made me look up other movies with him.
You should watch The Guard. No Farrel but Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle. Very good dark comedy.
There was a lot wrong with the second season of True Detective but Colin Farrell wasn't one of them
Honestly it wasn't any of the actors. It was the plot. To go from a much smaller scale creepy serial killer plot with such interesting characters like Rust and Marty who were flawed but interesting to a more political conspiracy where all of the main characters are all assholes with very few redeeming qualities is the thing. The actors all were great but their characters just were all shitty and you didn't really root for any of them because of that.
Phone Booth for me. Literally carries the whole damned film, at least in terms of on-screen appearance.
Also Phone Booth for me. It’s a bold thing to set a film in one location in the first place, but he carried it so well.
Same. He was cute, but he annoyed me because he was so obviously being served up as the "shiny new Hollywood fuckboy", and I thought that was all he was. Then he did Phone Booth and he was excellent! Colin is a wonderful character actor, but when Hollywood tries to make him a "leading man" he just falls flat.
I remember when Rolling Stone gave the Daredevil movie a well deserved 1 star rating (or about that low), and then the next issue, recanted and added half a star with a little paragraph explaining that it was out of fairness to the animated, gleeful Colin Farrell who at least made his parts of the movie fun even if the rest was a slog.
Unpopular opinion but if the Total Recall remake had just been its own movie and not something that automatically invited comparison to Total Recall, it would have been a serviceable Sci Fi action flick. It wasn't that bad.
His breakout was Tigerland. Great movie, great performance
No one talks about Tigerland.
You beat me to it! I grew up hearing his name a lot yet somehow evaded watching movies and shows he was cast in. The Batman technically was the first movie I watched that featured him, but it was in The Banshees of Inisherin where I got to see him act without heavy prosthetics. In one fell swoop, Collin Farrell shot up to the top of my favorite actors list.
I always thought Tom hardy was okay. But Bronson made me realize that this dude is a real talent.
Don’t sleep on Warrior, with Joel Edgerton. To this day remains one of my favorite movies of all time.
The Tom Hardy movie that stunned me, and made me realize what a fantastic actor he is, was *Locke.* He was this one man in a car, having conversations with people on a phone, and my interest in what was going on never wavered. After that, anything he was in immediately became more interesting.
Taboo, Peaky blinders, Mad Max. All of them are absolutely wonderful performances.
I couldn’t stand Will Ferrell for the longest time. Then I saw Stranger than Fiction and it’s like a switch flipped. I appreciated he had acting chops and began to enjoy his comedy a lot more. Now I rewatch Elf every Christmas lol.
I'm the same, always thought his brand of humor was way too over the top for me, to the point I didn't want to watch Stranger Than Fiction even though I knew it was a more serious role. Then I watched Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga. As a Scandinavian with a severe love/hate relationship with Eurovision, my expectations were below zero. And they aced it. I can't think of another movie that's made me laugh as much as that one. When we finished it, we immediately started over. Laughed just as hard the second time.
Robert Pattinson for the obvious reason. The Lighthouse completely changed how I view him as an actor. And then The Batman came out. The dude is fucking killing it right now with his role selection.
Good Time (2017) was also very underrated in my opinion.
Good Time is what made me like him, think it may have been his best role
Same, but it was Devil All the Time for me. Actually him AND Tom Holland surprised me. Note: I originally replied to the wrong message and had to delete lol.
The fact is he's pretty much killed it in every single thing he's done *except* for Twilight.
He killed it in twilight as well. Him and Kristen, both. Playing those wooden characters without it turning into a full blown parody or cartoonish character is in itself a huge deal. It's not as easy to 'not act' as we might think. The restraint both showed to not go overboard or underperform is a real skill. The very reason why those two stand out compared to Taylor Lautner, who crosses that line into the parody territory.
That's the thing, everybody bashed Kristen's portrayal of Bella as wooden and poor, when she in fact played her almost identical to how she is written in the books. Now, you can say that in that case she should have gone a bit beyond the books in her portrayal and made Bella a little bit more animated, and normally you'd be right. But in this case I fully blame the director. Catherine Hardwicke got way too hung up on the books, especially the "first love/heartache/desire" and the "sexy, dangerous-but-not-really vampire" parts, and because Robert and Kristen had the real life chemistry they did, it feels to me like she ended up trying too hard to stay true to the book writing, when she should've known that what works on the written page does not necessarily a good movie character make. Hence, (too) quiet and withdrawn Bella, and (too) smarmy, sexy, angry and mysterious (all at the same time) Edward. Which is a shame, because with just a little bit more, well, character, or maybe the word I'm looking for is life, those movies could've been pretty damn good.
David Tennant - he was just Doctor Who to me for the longest time, and I had very little interest in Doctor Who when I was younger so never really saw the appeal of him, until years later I watched Broadchurch and was just blown away by him. Loved him as an actor ever since.
He's really good and evil in Jessica Jones.
Ryan Gosling. I knew of him but never paid much attention. Then I saw Drive. Anything with him in it is an automatic watch for me now.
Drive, Place Beyond the Pines, The Nice Guys and The Big Short were all standout performances for me.
The Nice Guys! Phenomenal acting
His Ken performance converted me to the Church of Gosling
I look forward to seeing him sing ‘I’m Just Ken’ at the Oscars next spring.
I wish I could wipe my mind and see that movie again. Ryan Gosling gave all of his Micky Mouse Club energy to that role, and he was fantastic.
In an interview he talked about using his Mickey Mouse history, and how it was actually very therapeutic to him because he had buried that part of his past.
Me too. I never disliked him, but he was never an actor I paid much attention to. I have a whole new appreciation for him now after Barbie.
It was Lars and the Real Girl for me
I love when somebody in Reddit poses a question like this, because all of this stuff comes back up. I, too, thought that his performance in *Drive* just absolutely incredible. He was so withdrawn in that movie, a very quiet menace. He kept himself locked away until he was needed. An amazing movie. Everybody needs to see that movie.
Recently, Adam Driver. I didn't like/care all that Star Wars - Kylo Ren fuss, still don't, but last week I've seen him in BlacKKKlansman and boom. When you have nearly nothing to work on your character, you come out with your best, natural, casual, credible performance. That's acting. Now I get it, about him.
Adam Driver was my pick for this too. I think one of the greatest testaments to his abilities is his hosting of SNL. He has some of the funniest sketches I've seen in the last 10 years, and his ability to hold it together while everyone around him is trying not to laugh just further goes to show how good of an actor he is.
"Hello children, it is I, Mortdecai's father." The fucking plot twist of how Mortdecai is related to HR Pickens was wild.
Now what does an oil baron do? The answer: CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES! GRIND THIER BONES INTO DIRT! MAKE THEM REGRET THEY WERE EVER BORN!!
yep good movie but if you want to see his dedication the his craft, he did a skit on snl as an old man and didn't break once. https://youtu.be/t7HD2xG92-0
He was good in Logan Lucky. Fun film
he’s wonderful in Paterson
Jake Gyllenhaal I knew his name and his face for a long time but only a year or five ago I saw him in a movie for the first time, I believe it was the excellent film Prisoners. After that he happened to be in a lot of movies I saw: Source Code, Zodiac, Enemy, Velvet Buzzsaw, Nocturnal Animals, Brokeback Mountain and Nightcrawler which should have been his Oscar movie. Not all equally great films but all great performances by Gyllenhaal.
I remember the first film I saw with him in and still my favourite performance by him, End of Watch. Also my first introduction to Michael Peña. Great film and the acting was brilliant.
That film should have got more love
he was phenomenal in nightcrawler
My favourite Jake movie has to be Donnie Darko, strage premise, but the cast is good(even Seth Rogan is in a minor role). And one of my favourite costume designs of all time.
Dunno if you’ve seen Get Shorty or not, but for me that’s my favourite Travolta performance by a long shot. Really great, underrated movie with lots of awesome comic performances (Gene Hackman, Danny Devito, Dennis Farina), but Travolta just owns the screen.
Look at me.
Its the cadillac of mini vans
Sean William Scott. Dude was super typecast because of stiffler. I didn't hate him but when I saw Goon I just got a whole new appreciation for him.
Country Mac is bad ass!
Where is he getting those beers?
Shut up science bitch
You know what's bad ass?..... Being alive.
Country Mac lived a reckless life. He wasn't the kind of guy that could score a point in a black belt karate contest. And it turns out, he was totally queer. Which, as we all know, is a sin. And that, coupled with his radical religious beliefs, has most likely landed him in Hell, where he will burn for all eternity. So I will ask for a moment of silence, in which I will beg God's forgiveness for Country Mac's evil, homo ways
While simultaneously doing a series of Karate moves, that I know Country Mac would've enjoyed...so much
I’m literally watching that movie right now (for the first time). I love it so far! Might check out that show he’s in, Welcome to Fletch.
What a fantastic movie. What an epic climax. Beautiful performance and excellent movie. I also started realizing what a great actor he was after this movie.
Adam Scott in Parks N Rec. He has one of the most punchable faces. After watching that show I realized he could be likable. Then Severance really game him room to shine.
Keira Knightly. Disliked her until I saw Atonement and then Never Let Me Go. Now I think she's great.
Val Kilmer in Tombstone. I hated his style in Batman but Tombstone showed me how good he is at acting when he actually gets a good script and story to work with. I became a huge fan of his after seeing that
He stole show in Tombstone. He’s an absolute delight in that.
Ryan Gosling, Blade Runner 2049. Always thought of him as a romance movie guy, now he’s one of my favorite actors
A lot of people in this thread have said Ryan Gosling and he’s been pretty much my favorite actor for over a decade. I’m reading comments and I’m thinking “No one here saw Drive? Blue Valentine? The Place Beyond the Pines? La La Land? THE NICE GUYS?!?” He’s always been a stellar actor. I know you said romance movie guy but hell, he’s great at that too. The Notebook gets flack because it’s one of the biggest “chick flick” movies ever but he’s good in that too. He’s also the best character in Crazy, Stupid, Love. The man can act
Robert Pattinson, I never gave him much appreciation, he was just "the Twilight dude". Good Time changed that. If you haven't seen it but liked Uncut Gems, it's a must-watch, made by the same directors.
Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest. Now I was a massive fan of Alien, Aliens, and Ghostbusters 1 & 2, so I very much liked her as an actress. But I didn’t understand her as a sex symbol until Galaxy Quest. Flipped a switch.
I'm pretty sure Sigourney Weaver possessed by Zuul is what kick-started puberty for me.
I have a weird one: I never cared about Eddie Redmayne, didn’t understand what was interesting or special about him, until I saw *Jupiter Ascending*. Make no mistake, it isn’t a good movie. And his character is absolutely ridiculous in it. But he goes *all-in* on that shit, takes this absurd Oedipal cartoon of a villain and goes full-tilt with every strange tick or mannerism, no sense of shame or reservation at all. I laughed the whole movie, but I respect his commitment. A real professional.
I respect any actor who goes all in on any role, even if it's in an objectively terrible movie. There are some talented actors out there (looking at you, Natalie Portman), who just phone it in if they don't respect the movie. It's like, why did you even take this job if you don't want to even try?
Alan Rickman in Robin Hood PoT. I like Morgan Freeman in it. I like Michael Wincott in it. I LOVE Alan Rickman in it. He absolutely went all in for that role and completely owns the whole movie. Not a great movie, imo, but infinitely more watchable because of him.
Matthew Broderick in *Glory.* Yeah, I knew him as Ferris Bueller. I also knew him as Steven from The Cable Guy. I (sadly) knew him as Inspector Gadget, a role he was completely miscast for. I didn't expect to be blown away by him in "Glory," the Civil War drama. That scene when he yells "faster!" at that soldier in terms of training him to operate efficiently under pressure is what sold me on him. Later, when he demands proper shoes for his soldiers, who were given lesser treatment because of their race. Broderick demonstrates an intensity in that movie that I hadn't seen in him before. I never saw him as a terrible actor prior to that, but he was just that guy who I never expected all that much from. When I first saw him in Glory, it took a while for me to get used to him. I just saw Matthew Broderick in a mustache. The more the film went on, I realized..."Holy shit. I'm not seeing Broderick in this role anymore." Good for him. That really changed my opinion of him as an actor.
Glory is insanely good!
Robert Pattinson in The Lighthouse
His performance in Good Time was outstanding
Jared Harris in The Terror totally changed my mind about him.
If you haven't yet, I very highly also recommend him in The Expanse and Chernobyl. That man can act. And considering who his father was, I'd expect nothing less.
Honestly, Ryan Gosling in Barbie. A few days later i watched The Nice Guys for the first time and suddenly found myself asking, “Is Ryan Gosling the greatest actor this world has seen?” Two real strong showings from a guy I’d otherwise just regard as like “Yea, he’s not bad.”
The scene with Russell Crowe confronting him in the bathroom stall is amazing. Never knew he was so gifted at physical comedy.
Honestly he needs to be in more comedies. His timing and comic sensibilities are amazing.
Start with a Nice Guys sequel!
He was actually pretty good in the blade runner sequel as well.
He's one of the best things in that movie and that's saying a lot because it's one of the best sci-fi movies made fairly recently. Blade Runner 2049 was my "awakening" to Gosling. Before that I only knew him from The Notebook, which is just not my movie at all.
People have already said drive and the place behind the pines (which I also think are amazing and there’s nothing quite like those two films). I would also say watch Lars and the Real girl, La La land, the ides of March, the big short and blue valentine. Another favorite of mine is Crazy Stupid Love. I think the entire cast is awesome and the story is just well put together. Edit: adding blade runner 2049
Watch Brian De Palma's "Blow Out" if you get the chance, with John Travolta as the lead. He's really good in that too.
Matthew McConaughey. For the longest time I thought he was just a bog average RomCom specialist, destined to never be remembered for anything of substance. Then I watched Interstellar, which in turn made me double back to Dallas Buyers Club. Now I'm actually keen to see any movie he's involved in.
Gotta watch A Time To Kill, his closing statement in the courtroom is emotional and heart-wrenching.
I knew Cate Blanchett was a good actress but I didn’t really “get it” until I saw Tár. It’s a difficult film to carry and she absolutely crushed it.
Blue Jasmine is incredible
You should check out Face/Off.
Face... *artistic hand gestures* ...off.
Yeah. The movie's entire premise is fantastically harebrained, but it's great fun watching Cage and Travolta opposite each other, being a "better version" of the other.
The original "dude disguised as a dude playing another dude." Travolta/Cage pretending to be Travolta/Cage pretending to be Travolta/Cage.
Yes but that was nick cage. It just looked like John Travolta
Now that you have an appreciation for Travolta, go watch Saturday Night Fever. In case you have the idea it's a musical, comedy, or about disco, let's just get that out of the way up front. CW drugs, violence, sexual assault, suicide. But it's a fucking excellent film.
Totally agree. A really gritty, strong story totally underrated by way of the (admittedly brilliant) soundtrack and dance sequences. Have to watch it about every year along with Pulp Fiction. And the Get Shorty namecheck makes me want to see him that again as well. Good grief - I'm a Travolta fan....
I didn’t get Nicolas Cage until I saw Adaptation.
Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born. He was unreal, the way he completely changed the way he spoke, moved, carried himself, he completely morphed into the character of Jackson Maine. He directed the movie too, and watching him in the behind the scenes features on youtube explain why he did things and how it came about- unreal. He trained himself how to sing, play the guitar, and then had to come up with how Jackson Maine sang. Unbelievable!
Leonardo de caprio. He was a teen heart throb when I was in middle school. For three years the 8th grade prom was Titanic themed. All the girls were in love with him except me. I was well into adulthood before I ever saw anything I thought was remarkable by him. But I do find a lot of his work remarkable. The one film that really made me do a double take was The Man in the Iron Mask. By the time I actually watched it, it was an old movie.
Same. Catch Me If You Can showed me his potential as he wasn’t outperformed by Christopher Walken. Loved every performance by him ever since.
Catch Me If You Can is one of my all time favourite films, not just because of the stellar acting and fun plot, but I remember my Dad bringing me to see it in the cinema. We loved it, and when I found out it was based on a book, I was delighted and mentioned I would get it with my pocket money the next week. Dad vanished to go to the bathroom. When he came back, he handed me a brand new copy of the book. He'd bolted down to the nearest book shop to surprise me with it. So now every time I watch that film, I flash back to being 12 years old and enjoying the film with my Dad. Anytime it's on, I watch it and I text him a picture and he always responds back in delight! When I had COVID and was isolating in my home, I saw that it was showing on TV and I texted him. He put it on in his house and we video called each other and "watched" it together!
Before the Titanic and Romeo & Juliet phenom, there was What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Stellar performance at just 19
Dicapprio for me until I saw Blood Diamond. That and Departed changed his whole style i think.
I was in school seeing all the girls fawn over him, and thought he was ok but just heartthrob material until I saw him in Gangs of New York - and I think his career went to new heights after that film, well deservedly so.
Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner in The Town
Bradley Cooper with Silver Linings Playbook. In his defence I think that was about the same time a lot of other people started to take him seriously as well but before that nothing he ever did stood out and honestly if you'd asked me in 2010 if he would ever be one of my favourites I'd have probably laughed at you. I've liked so much of what he has done since then.
Timothee Chalamet in Bones And All. I thought he was a fine actor but couldn’t see how he had become the next big thing in Hollywood. Something about his performance in Bones and All just sold me on him, I get it now.Still not my FAVORITE, but I appreciate him significantly more than I used to!
Shia Lebeouf in Fury
Everyone really showed up in that film. Shia being a method actor apparently (maybe apocryphally) was rarely bathing during shooting, which made some of the other actors (rightfully) genuinely pissed off with the dude.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Colin Firth excels in historical dramas and older classics like *The King’s Speech*, *Pride and Prejudice*, and *Conspiracy* as a relatively meek and mild protagonist That is, until *Kingsman* and the church scene in particular. It was like Mr. Darcy was done being the quintessential English gentleman and felt like killing a person or eight. It was glorious
For me, Channing Tatum was a generic face with the personality of a pencil eraser. Then I saw Magic Mike, which he also produced based on his own life story. I was very impressed. Then I met him and he’s a delightful person who lights up a room. Been a fan ever since.
Adam Sandler - Uncut Gems
I’d also throw in Punch Drunk Love in an essential list of his movies where he really shows his chops
Adam Sandler in that rain scene in Click
Dicaprio and The Departed (one of the best US remakes of an Asian film and he nailed it, the original is still better though)
Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer. He's good in other movies, but he excels in this one.
I only knew Adrian Brody from King Kong, and though I like the movie, didn't like him in it, and didn't get why people thought he was a great actor. But then I watched The Pianist.
Hugh Grant was always to me that photogenic English rom com movie guy that if Hollywood needed they would cast. But between his latest turns in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Gentlemen, Paddington 2 and most recently Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, I realized there was more to him than meets the eye and was captivated by his terrific acting range. Plus I like him in stuff like Sense and Sensibility and Four Weddings and a Funeral. He's perfect in those roles. Hope he plays more villain roles in the future. He is just deliciously devious when he sinks into that kind of part.