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Post by futuretrunks on May 27, 2020 22:20:40 GMT
DDL? Much of what he's doing as Bill the Butcher is funny, despite the darkness of that character.
Joaquin? Has everyone forgotten Buffalo Soldiers?
Denzel? Alonzo is a hilarious character.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 27, 2020 22:29:43 GMT
This gets into that "checklist" thing I always talk about if you're ranking actors as to best or stuff like that.......in general they can do it, yes or they wouldn't get that great tag slapped on them so easily ......if you're ranking them though some do it far better than others.
Not to pick on him but DDL failed in 2 overt comedies and never went back to it overtly - so is it a little unfair to say he "can't" do comedy ......yes.......but what people mean (I think) is he never conquered it in an overt way the way he did other things.......is he a "great" actor.......very much so.......is he the very "best" actor well not to me...... but "best" gets into all sorts of peripherals anyway.
DiCaprio is exhibit A here - he used to be mocked and in the 2010s he knocked comic work out of the park......
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Post by futuretrunks on May 27, 2020 22:35:03 GMT
This gets into that "checklist" thing I always talk about if you're ranking actors as to best or stuff like that.......in general they can do it, yes or they wouldn't get that great tag slapped on them so easily ......if you're ranking them though some do it far better than others. Not to pick on him but DDL failed in 2 overt comedies and never went back to it overtly - so is it a little unfair to say he "can't" do comedy ......yes.......but what people mean (I think) is he never conquered it in an overt way the way he did other things.......is he a "great" actor.......very much so.......is he the very "best" actor well not to me...... but "best" gets into all sorts of peripherals anyway. DiCaprio is exhibit A here - he used to be mocked and in the 2010s he knocked comic work out of the park...... Which major actresses would you say are most deficient in tackling comedy? |
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Javi
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Post by Javi on May 27, 2020 22:41:23 GMT
This gets into that "checklist" thing I always talk about if you're ranking actors as to best or stuff like that.......in general they can do it, yes or they wouldn't get that great tag slapped on them so easily ......if you're ranking them though some do it far better than others. Not to pick on him but DDL failed in 2 overt comedies and never went back to it overtly - so is it a little unfair to say he "can't" do comedy ......yes.......but what people mean (I think) is he never conquered it in an overt way the way he did other things.......is he a "great" actor.......very much so.......is he the very "best" actor well not to me...... but "best" gets into all sorts of peripherals anyway. DiCaprio is exhibit A here - he used to be mocked and in the 2010s he knocked comic work out of the park...... Which major actresses would you say are most deficient in tackling comedy? Love her but Liv Ullmann couldn't be funny if her life depended on it  And it's not some solemn Scandinavian thing... Harriet Andersson and Bibi Andersson could be very funny at times. Garbo too, no one thought she could do comedy and then Ninotchka came along. |
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on May 27, 2020 22:46:02 GMT
Very different to inject a shade of humor in a principally dramatic performance than to give an outright comedic performance. Jim Carrey injects shades of humor into his performance in The Truman Show but everything regarding the audience emotional intent he is giving there is worlds apart from what he's doing in Dumb and Dumber. The reverse is also true, the shades of drama he puts into Liar Liar are entirely different on a very fundamental level from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
There are a few reasons for it. Some of it is simply time (easier to be humorous for a little bit than carry a comedy), another is the milieu of a piece (easier to be funny when you are standing out as funny among a weightier, dramatic backdrop), and another part is expectation (an audience will more harshly judge the humor of a comedy than they would the humor of a drama).
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on May 28, 2020 15:18:51 GMT
Most actors can do both depending on the role and director. Obviously some have more of a proclivity for one or the other. In general I feel a great comedic performance is harder to pull off that a great dramatic performance.
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Good God
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Post by Good God on May 29, 2020 3:03:13 GMT
The trap the vast majority of actors, including the most renowned comedic actors, fall into when they're acting in a comedy is that they lose their anchor to reality. Part of it is because they believe they have the leeway because they are in a comedy after all and not a drama, and part of it is because they are desperate to be funny and lose sight of all else. To me, a truly great comedic actor is someone who can be funny without ever losing believability.
Jim Carrey is hilarious. But he's merely a great comedic performer. I don't consider him to be a great comedic actor because he's just not believable to me in any of his broad comedies. You look at someone like Johnny Depp in the early Pirates movies and he does something there which I don't think even the best regarded comedic actors can do: Craft a wholly original character that is entirely believable within the purview of his movie and deliver a performance of high comic value without ever looking like he's trying for it. That, to me, is a genius comedic performance. And I think the proportion of actors, even great ones, that can do something like that is vanishingly small.
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And it's not some solemn Scandinavian thing... Harriet Andersson and Bibi Andersson could be very funny at times. Garbo too, no one thought she could do comedy and then Ninotchka came along.
