When not-so-great actors are great ...

Hawke in First Reformed is a great mention because none of his work (and I mean none of it) prepares you for that performance. I have enjoyed seeing him branch out these past couple years. Playing a Viking king in The Northman, a zany John Bird in a historical period piece, and an even zanier masked serial killer in a Blumhouse horror flick. He's been picking some really fun roles lately.

This might be cheating a bit given its overall arc and I don't like this film the way that some people do - I'm sort of mixed negative on it (I know, I know - don't yell at me) but Sheryl Lee in Fire Walk With Me is one of these......just rewatched it a few days ago actually.....that's a major performance .....

I like her in general, but that was Ellen Burstyn's Oscar dammit.

Clive Owen career's is in a way puzzling but when you read his interviews he's one of those actors that reminds you that there is a life outside of acting, clearly his wife & kids (and city, London) are his priority, at least it was the case when he started to get big in Hollywood (2004-2007), now the kids are adults but the train passed... I think he had it all, right from the begining in the early 90's when he was doing TV shows like Chancer and then got his chance to shine as a Leading man in UK movies (terrific in both, Bent and Croupier).

Anyway, my automatic answer here is Susan Strasberg in kapo, I never particularly find her to be a good actress but here she's brilliant.

Madonna would be remembered as a charming comedienne for her acting in Desperately Seeking Susan - had she stopped making movies after Desperately Seeking Susan

Where is Nikan btw - have all the good people left this board and it's the same 6 people talking to each other..........where you at buddy?

I honestly see actors as a tool for the director. Most actors are perfectly competent for the majority of roles. Rarely, there will be a role that is absolutely dependent on a great performance - DDL in TWBB is a great example - but most lead roles could be handled by anyone, so long as the director knows how to go about telling the story they wish to tell. Robert De Niro did not need to be Jake LaMotta (looking at the nominees that year, Robert Duvall could have done it just as well, although he was too old by that time), Anthony Hopkins did not have to be Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox had already done it quite well), so on and so forth.

I hold that not-so-good actors will never be good in roles that require true greatness, but they can be a good fit for roles that don't require it.