One-note Screen Actors

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One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 1:42pm

Last night I watched JACK REACHER starring Tom Cruise. While I enjoyed the flick, it occurred to me that Tom's performance seemed like the same one he's put in every movie I've ever seen him in. It was that typical smug grin on display throughout while attempting to pull off a convincing Hardy Boy.

Also, this may come as a surprise to some of you but I gotta lump Tommy Lee Jones and him in the same category. I recently saw TLJ's work in EMPEROR. I couldn't escape that same old folksy cadence to his voice and his tendency to talk over other actors with indifference in the dialogue. I fell asleep while watching LINCOLN on two occasions so I don't know if he was off autopilot for once.

Perhaps the two are being typecast these days because both seem stuck in a single gear on screen.

Just curious, do any of you have any actors to add to the list?

#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.

Updated On: 8/9/13 at 01:42 PM

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 1:49pm

Jennifer Aniston, who has been playing Rachel Green for the past 20 years.

I also find Zoey Deschanel pretty much the same in everything she's in.

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 1:54pm

Im with you on Aniston-no idea why she is getting high profile projects. She is a flop magnet.

Keanu Reeves-no charisma, no nuance.

Winona Ryer-she was the "it" girl for a while but she really showed her true colors. She is a pretty flat actress.

"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal "I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 1:56pm

Gene Hackman played different variations of the same character literally every performance. And so what? I'd rather watch someone who plays A and B that goes deep than someone who "transforms" and calls attention to their performing while not inhabiting a person.

If I can see the acting, it's not good acting.

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 1:59pm

Kevin Spacey -- the living embodiment of monotone.

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 2:05pm

Marky Mark. usually a stiff irish blue collar thug

FINDINGNAMO, SNAFU, THEATERDIVE, JORDANCATALONO, LIZASHEADBAND, PALJOEY: You all claim to "IGNORE ME" I wish you would and stop constantly commenting on my posts. Thanks ...................................................................................................................................... The MOST POPULAR and DANGEROUS Poster on BWW! Banned by the PTA, PTC and the MEANGIRLS of BWW..................................................................................................................... ...Ukraine Girls really knock me out, they leave the west behind..........................

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 4:12pm

As much as it pains me to include him, I'm going to add a late entry...Mr. Lawrence Fishburne. He's been stuck in 'Morpheus-mode' since the Matrix franchise. Whenever in tune into the series HANNIBAL, I expect him to offer Will a choice of a red or blue pill.

And lest anyone forget, Sharon Stone. Sharon and Catherine Trammell are synonymous.

#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 4:13pm

"Jennifer Aniston, who has been playing Rachel Green for the past 20 years. "

The only time where I thought she did not play that role was in 'Horrible Bosses'.

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 4:49pm

I'm saying Morgan Freeman. Now don't get me wrong, I love him, love his voice, but because of the unique speaking style he has, I can't imagine him ever wanting to sound different.

<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES

#10

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 5:33pm

A lot of these people I think have shown range at various points in their careers...

Tom Cruise was astonishing in his earlier dramas like BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, and check out MAGNOLIA if you want to see him give an amazing, ego-less, ugly performance.

Jennifer Aniston gets typecast a lot, but OFFICE SPACE, THE BREAK-UP and (from what I've heard sight-unseen) THE GOOD GIRL all offer lower-key, more subtle variations on her type.

Gene Hackman's range between his Oscar-winning scenery-chewers THE FRENCH CONNECTION and UNFORGIVEN is a marked difference from his Wes Anderson charming peculiarity in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS.

Kevin Spacey definitely has his ticks (and maybe a limited bag of tricks) but I wouldn't call him monotonous. His niche is unsettling and maybe remorseless villains/antiheroes, and he hasn't strayed as much from that as the others, but I like what he does when he does it with good writing/directing to support him.

Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

#11

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 6:08pm

I hate this thread.

#12

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 6:47pm

Don't click on it again then.

<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES

#13

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 7:49pm

Are we ever going to talk about whose idea it was to name a movie Jack Reacher?

I know you. I know you. I know you.

#14

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 9:03pm

Anthony Anderson
Shia LeBouf
Zach Braff (even though I adore him)
Mark Wahlberg
Lindsay Lohan
Zooey Deschanel
Zac Efron (though he tries)

I don't WANT to live in what they call "a certain way." In the first place I'd be no good at it and besides that I don't want to be identified with any one class of people. I want to live every whichway, among all kinds---and know them---and understand them---and love them---THAT's what I want! - Philip Barry (Holiday)

#15

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 9:07pm

I agree with Borstal, there are the good kind of one-note and then there is the bad-kind. Some actors have that cache, which admittedly can evaporate, while others don't and with the latter, I just don't watch enough of their movies to groan about it. I love Denzel Washington and love his movies. I am HIGHLY aware that most of his movies of late have him in the same mode the whole time. I don't care. He is a charismatic screen presence.

"Are we ever going to talk about whose idea it was to name a movie Jack Reacher?"

It is based on a pretty popular series of novels by Lee Child. Key demo: 18-49 year-old straight males. The description of the character would have you thinking somebody who looks like Ray Stevenson but with the star-power of The Rock. Instead, Tom Cruise got the rights and Tom Cruise is not the Lee Child description of Jack Reacher at all. I know plenty of people upset with that casting.

I hate Kevin Spacey's schtick because I know it will beat Bryan Cranston and Jon Hamm at the Emmys this year because if he can charm AMPAS into giving him 2 Oscars the TV people will throw themselves at him.

#16

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:12pm

Jim Carrey. Great actor, and not nesseacirly monotonous, but I still find him slightly one-note.

#17

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:18pm

Even in The Truman Show?

#18

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:23pm

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND <-----> ACE VENTURA

That's a hell of a note.

#19

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:40pm

The Truman Show is an exception, well at least in my eyes.

#20

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:40pm

I haven't seen that one, Wyn.

#21

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 10:47pm

Kristen Stewart.

"All the while making faces like a baby platypus who forget to take some Beano before eating a chimichanga." FindingNamo in reference to Jessica Simpson's singing.

#22

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 11:17pm

Marky Mark has a name, sue. It's Mark Wahlberg, and he didn't play a "stiff Irish blue collar thug" in BOOGIE NIGHTS. Watch that.

#23

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 11:28pm

re: Jennifer Aniston -

I think Jennifer Aniston is without a doubt one of the finest actresses working today. Her problem is that she frequently picks AWFUL roles that seem to be the "one note" that she's accused of here. But if you look at films like THE GOOD GIRL (which she should have been Oscar nominated for and it's a travesty that she wasn't) and FRIENDS WITH MONEY (a film where the last 5 seconds with her will devistate you with how amazing she is), than you see that she is a phenomenal actress and capable of true Academy Award calibar acting, and I do predict that sooner rather than later, she will have a statue of her own.

I think one of the main problems is that she's not offered those roles that showcase how talented she is. She's best known for comedic roles which she's fine in and sometimes even fantastic (FRIENDS, OFFICE SPACE, THE BREAK UP - even though that one is a dramedy) and maybe that's what she's most comfortable doing. But to say she's "one-note" is to say that you're not familiar with all of her work, and thereby aren't qualified to comment on it.

#24

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/9/13 at 11:42pm

Tom Cruise did give a pretty terrific performance in MAGNOLIA. I think Jordan is right (though I'm really not a huge Aniston fan) about picking the right projects, and being offered the right projects, and working with good directors.

Adam Sandler has consistently made mostly crap (though BILLY MADISON and THE WEDDING SINGER make me laugh) but I think he has...range isn't the right word...depth maybe? PUNCH DRUNK LOVE proves it. He worked with a prodigiously talented writer-director on a project with a lot of merit.

(And sorry for using two PTA films as examples. Coincidence.)

One actor who strikes me as not just "one-note", but lacking any integrity, taste, or even good humor is Kevin James. Has the guy ever made a movie that couldn't be called "awful?" He plays the same overweight bozo who winds up sh*ting himself midway through the film in attempt at humor. (And I'm not against overweight people, comedian or otherwise. Don't take it that way.)

#25

One-note Screen Actors

Posted: 8/10/13 at 12:01am

Aniston is also devastating in Marley and Me, god...I still do not understand how the marketed that film as a comedy. It kills me every time.

"I think lying to children is really important, it sets them off on the right track" -Sherie Rene Scott-

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