Though this iteration of my longest running series will be catnip for movie buffs, I'm confident saying even the most casual film watcher has been struck at least once by a totally unexpected portrayal by a well-known actor. Film geeks like me, please try to build an entire monument. For the rest of you: If you think one or more portrayals you've seen fit the criteria below, please join the fun. There's always a chance I might have missed a movie you cite, giving me an excuse to further indulge my film jones.
First, think of film actors who have largely played "types" for the bulk of their careers. Begin with earlier movie history by recalling the roles people like Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn played in most of their movies. A bit later, think perhaps of the kinds of parts Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, or Faye Dunaway typically played, especially during their heydays. Eliminate from your mental picture the chameleons who changed type often - e.g., Bette Davis, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep. Also set aside any portrayal where prosthetics did part of the job of lifting an actor or actress out of the kind of role you'd grown accustomed to seeing them portray. For example, discard Charlize Theron's deservedly praised turn in Monster. Now, given those parameters, who - in your mind - belongs on a Mt. Rushmore of unforgettable "against-type" portrayals? Drum roll please, for my indisputably brilliant choices, alphabetical by last name of the actor, and showing a clear modern bias:
1.) Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich (1999) - In this quirky Spike Jonze film, the perpetually dazzling Diaz is the frumpy housewife of John Cusack, a frustrated puppeteer.
2.) Harrison Ford in Mosquito Coast (1986) - Ford's everyman hero type morphs into an unhinged megalomanic in Peter Weir's faithful adaptation of the eponymous Paul Theroux novel.
3.) Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition (2002) - Our modern-day Cary Grant becomes a mob assassin in this dark, brooding film directed by Sam Mendes.
4.) Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001) - Although his roles have arguably had him working outside of "type" more than Diaz, Ford, or Hanks, this ferocious award-winning portrayal of an implacably unlikeable corrupt cop - a part far removed from most of Washington's work - earns him a spot on my Mt. Rushmore. Director: Antoine Fuqua.
I await your nominations.
Neat idea, Pat. What I ended up thinking about is actors who became stars -- the first time I remembers seeing them on the screen and thinking they were headed for a special career.
ReplyDeleteJack Nicholson - Easy Rider
Gene Hackman - Bonnie and Clyde
Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep - The Deer Hunter
Richard Gere - Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Helen Mirren - Cal
Brad Pitt - Thelma and Louise
Daniel Day-Lewis - My Beautiful Laundrette
Glen Close - The Word According to Garp
Now I will have to think of actors like Michael J. Pollard in Bonnie and Clyde, whom I thought was terrific and whose career never went anywhere.
Jim; Thanks for the comment and thanks (maybe?) for taking my film-addled brain down yet another tributary. Because my movie jones is so indiscriminate, I've seen all the films you mentioned above, except for Cal. I largely agree with your assessments; many startling "breakthrough" roles cited, if not film debuts. I would add to your esteemed list Mickey Rourke's first major turn, two short scenes in "Body Heat". Re your second wondering, i.e., the "whatever became of?" variety, I submit Kathleen Lloyd, who starred alongside Nicholson & Brando in "Missouri Breaks", never to be seen again in any major release. See what I mean about what you've unleashed? Darn you anyway.
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