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In Reply to: Is Benicio del Toro the best of the post-Pacino/DeNiro/Nicholson posted by tinear on December 03, 2003 at 06:35:09:
I think your criticism of Sean Penn actually applies to late-career DeNiro/Pacino/Nicholson, all of whom are among the worst of the post of their own name-making period. I see the same person (put actor's name here) or character playing their lines or emotions (rather well) but not characters or roles; I think the distinction is easily overlooked. I have the same problem with Anthony Hopkins. I'm sure it has a lot to do with type-casting, but it's type casting that the actor's in question are accepting. They keep playing the same characters over and over. Where's the challenge? Penn's different, but the critics overstated the accomplishment of his overblown performance in Mystic River.Phillip Seymor Hoffman, I think, is among the best actors working today. He labelled as a "character actor", which is meant to be dismissive or ancillary but, but which taken literally describes what you'd want from any actor. Watch a handful of his performances back to back: his ability is astounding. I read a piece on him once that referred to him as a human chameleon. I think that's right on. But he's not leading-man material. He's beyond any leading man in ability, but doesn't have the look.
Follow Ups:
When you think of it and the characters he has portrayed, doesn't he rise to the top of the list?And many earlier stars played "themselves" and rarely strayed from that.
Agreed on all points.I think most big hollywood stars are mainly good looking men and women with strong, compelling (or at least inherently theatrical or dramatic) personalities beyond which their acting ability rarely if ever strays. They may be good, even excellent actors, but only in so far as one might convincingly play for people in one's day-to-day or interpersonal or intimate relations emotions that are plausibly one's own as opposed to reinventing one's self as someone else entirely. The latter requires considerably more skill, but for most movie goers the personality-cult that draws them to the theater (and on the basis of which most movies are marketed) blinds them to the limits of the former.
actors as have ever been around together...but they're not REALLY leading men, are they? The greatest leading actors have something heroic about them, but the three aforementioned are almost anti-hero types. Great actors, though.
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