That Was Him/Her?

[happyfilmluvguy]

I've read a few times how you forget that Heath Ledger is the Joker while watching "The Dark Knight". At the moment I'm watching Pirates of the Caribbean and thinking the same thing about Johnny Depp. I honestly see him as (Captain) Jack Sparrow, not Johnny Depp. Name an actor or actress who was seriously into character and you wouldn't have realized it was them unless someone or something pointed it out. Or their performance just dazzled your imagination.

 

[Sharpe]

Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook in 'Hook'. Can't think of others off the top of my head.

 

[Trickeration]

Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook in Hook.

 

[Trickeration]

Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook in 'Hook'. Can't think of others off the top of my head.

Funny that we'd post that only one minute apart. Great minds really do think alike, I suppose.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I would say the wonderful performance of William H. Macy in the TNT movie "Door To Door" about the remarkable true life story of a salesman named Bill Porter who suffered from Cerebral Palsy.
HD

 

[Lady Day]

Isnt that the point of a good actor? To overcome their status and become the character?

LD

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Yes it is. Sometimes for me, they just, as Prarie Dog has put it about Heath Ledger, "he disappears so vividly into the character that the viewer instantly forgets it is Ledger he or she is watching". Most actors do get into character but a small few really dwell deep into the subconscious of that fictional person. It's like, you watch Cary Grant in The Bishop's Wife. For me, I'm seeing Cary Grant, not Dudley the angel. Joan Crawford was Mildred Pierce. Humphrey Bogart was Rick Blane. Marion Cotillard was without a doubt, Edith Piaf.

I was told a story once about Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs. I haven't actually seen it, but I was told that in a scene where Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) visited Hannibal Lector in an institution, he starred at her in a way that truly frightened her, Jodie Foster, not her character. He was not Anthony Hopkins, he was Hannibal Lector, and he made her, an actress believe he was. He could see right through her the way Hannibal was suppose to. Just imagining him starring at me however he did gives me chills.

I agree on Dustin Hoffman as Hook.

 

[Smithy]

Albert Finney as Winston Churchill in "The Gathering Storm". He won an Emmy for it and it is one of the finest performances I've seen.

 

[Edward]

Kevin Spacey in just about everything he's in springs to mind. Especially in Seven. Another is Harvey Keitel - most particularly as the preacher in From Dusk Til Dawn. Didn't recognise him at all until the end credits when I first aw that film, and I'd seen Reservoir dogs already about a half dozen times by that point. Johnny Depp slips completely into character in everything I've seen him in. Patrick Stewart is another - in the past year or two I've had the good fortune to see him as both Prospero and Macbeth, live on stage - an immersion as complete as Ledger's Joker.

Re Jack Sparrow, the first thing I said on leaving the cinema was "that's the best Keith Richards impression I've everf seen!" - later to read that that was exactly what it was. lol I reckon he was donig Michael Jackson as Willy Wonka... lol

 

[Sunny]

Tim Curry in Muppet Treasure Island, after having seen him in The Hunt for Red October. And only then learning he was also in Annie.

 

[Edward]

Oh, hells, yes.... how could I forget the Blessed Tim!

 

[dhermann1]

Cameron Diaz in "Being John Malkovich".

 

[Charlie Noodles]

Gary Oldman and Ron Perlman in just about anything.

 

[DavidVillaJr]

Leonardo di Caprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?"

Is that the right film, he plays a mentally challenged boy?

VERY convincing character - I forgot he was EVER on that TV show with Kirk Cameron....

dv

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Albert Finney as Winston Churchill in "The Gathering Storm". He won an Emmy for it and it is one of the finest performances I've seen.

Here, here; brilliant performance.

Actors may dissolve into their characters; that is wonderful acting, though not always the point. Some might argue that the point of acting is to entertain. Cary Grant and some other actors still always entertain, even while maintaining that consistent character. Think of Al Pacino, always entertaining even in a bad (good) (or is it a good bad movie?)movie, "The Devil's Advocate."

Al Pacino as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice." Devastatingly brilliant. Bogart in "The Caine Mutiny." How about Grant in "Suspicion?" Nice play on his image there.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Anything Paul Muni ever did -- the most protean actor of his time.

 

[Andykev]

There are so many!

And what about Tom Hanks? He was and is "Forrest Gump". Played that role perfectly. Then he was in "Philadelphia" playing the Aids stricken character. He was believable in that role as well.

Then you have to remember John Wayne. He played "John Wayne" in every one of his films. "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" to "The Green Berets"... all the same character, just a different setting.

Jack Nicholson, he plays himself also in many roles, from "As Good as it Gets", to "A Few Good Men"..to "The Bucket List"....it is all Jack, but still believable in each role.

 

[Kassia]

Tim Curry in Muppet Treasure Island, after having seen him in The Hunt for Red October. And only then learning he was also in Annie.

I must be a little bit older than you cause i see Tim Curry in a corset in Rocky Horror Picture show!!! Hahaha....

Sean Connery as James Bond...

Don Johnson as Sunny Crocket in Miami Vice..

Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid in Harry Potter... Altho he was in 2 James Bond movies too..

Harrison Ford as, of course, Han Solo and, later as Indiana Jones...

 

[Kassia]

Gary Oldman and Ron Perlman in just about anything.

Ron Perlman in Beauty and the Beast....

 

[Kassia]

Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook in Hook.

Yes he was good as Hook but i always thing of him as Tootsie..
Ohhh i am definately a bit older then...

And along those lines.. Robin Williams as Mork and later, Mrs Doubtfire...