The BAFTA and Oscar nominations have reignited the debate: what makes great screen acting by movie stars? BAFTA propose that Ben Affleck gave one of the year’s best screen performances in a leading role in ARGO. Oscar voters whom I would contend are a much more discerning bunch have recognised the work of Denzel Washington in FLIGHT with their nomination in the same category. I happen to think that the British Academy thought that Oscar voters would give the nomination to Ben Affleck, so they did not want to appear foolish by overlooking him. Guess what?
I think we all know great acting when we see it. It involves a TRANSFORMATION. It relates an EMOTIONAL TRUTH and generally has EXPANSIVE MOMENTS IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Ninety per cent of great acting is GREAT CASTING, of seeing the potential of an actor in a role. Sometimes we recognise great acting because it seems free, uncensored, lacking in vanity. When we see Tom Hanks in PHILADELPHIA (1993) dying of AIDS, shorn of his hair and looking emaciated, we acclaim it as great acting. But he should not just look the part – and Hanks was not a completely convincing screen homosexual (he did not look that comfortable in his skin). To truly nail it, he should deliver a great speech or signature moment. ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.’ I don’t know anything about Peter Finch’s performance in NETWORK (1976) but I can remember that line; Paddy Chayefsky (the screenwriter) gifted him the Oscar.
Great screen acting gives the appearance of THE UNDEFENDED SELF, when you have pretty much reached the end of your tether and don’t mind how you look or sound, you just want to EXPRESS YOURSELF, Gosh darn it. (Cue song by Prince, guitar shingle.)
The title of this piece is ‘great acting by movie stars’ because I want to draw attention to a particular type of performance, when a star redefines themselves by the way they look. Charlize Theron put on weight and became a serial killer. ‘Thank you, Oscar’ for MONSTER. Halle Berry got dowdy, vulnerable and naked for MONSTER’S BALL. ‘Thank you, Oscar once more’. Billy Crystal and John Goodman got one-eyed and hairy for MONSTERS INC – wait a minute, they’re animated. No Oscar for them! (I’m waiting for MONSTER’S BALL UNIVERSITY, the sequel with Billy Bob Thornton.)
The apparent lack of vanity, the casting against type – these are important. If you look the part, FORGET IT! Think of Gabourey Sidibe in PRECIOUS. Great performance, ticks ALL THE BOXES, but AWARD VOTERS were not surprised. (‘What else can she do?’) Actually, emotional truth is not a prerequisite to awards. Colin Firth gave a much better performance in A SINGLE MAN than THE KING’S SPEECH, but the latter had clips you can show your mother, so let’s acclaim him for that.
Movie stars first of all have to define themselves as an ideal. We have to get them. Wise cracking charmer with a smirk and an Uzi, that’s Bruce Willis. Lovable lunk with a speech impediment, the ability to take a punch and make a patriotic, usually nonsensical speech, that’s Sylvester Stallone. Mad at the edges, let’s-insult-the-Hebrews – that’s Mel Gibson (off-screen persona only). We know what we’re going to get. Then comes THE ACTING. They do their stuff, but in a context where they can’t be the hero. They’ve got to die! They’ve got to go OFF THE EDGE. They have to strip away one ideal and reveal another – dignity in death! Dignity in poverty! Always dignity! You don’t get awards for being a true loser.
But you need the right part. Dustin Hoffman gave a terrifically immersive performance in HERO, also known as ACCIDENTAL HERO, his follow up to RAIN MAN. Who remembers it? The guy he played was unsympathetic. You didn’t care about his emotional journey. The film on which Columbia Pictures had invested so much TANKED. Hoffman backed away from the Schlepp zone thereafter. He lost the desire to do GREAT ACTING. He was a nice guy, a little needy, but he COASTED. Hoffman’s story was one of an actor who settled for being a movie star in OUTBREAK, SPHERE, MEET THE FOCKERS, all that c—p!
Rationing oneself is also important. Do I want to see another Robert De Niro film since he started turning out three a year? HECK, NO! Yet, he can surprise you. His last great performance may have been in AWAKENINGS (maybe MEN OF HONOUR), but every once in a while he can pull out a supporting actor turn in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.
The best actor who NEVER got an award is Samuel L. Jackson. You think that RAISING and lowering and RAISING your voice is easy? You try it. I would, but there are certain accents that one cannot do without an apology for two hundred years of oppression. And I thought my Imperial legacy was the leftover soap in my bathroom. The thing with Jackson is that we have to see him go more extreme. He’s played a Don King type (THE GREAT WHITE HYPE). What else CAN HE DO?
Robert Redford illustrates a certain type of great screen acting. Stick him in a suit, he’s noble, kind of boring. Put him on a horse – suddenly he can do stuff. Redford in his Westerns is more alive than being sung to by Barbra Streisand. (OK, that was just over the credits of THE WAY WE WERE, but you know what I mean.) You feel Redford on a horse doesn’t have to apologise for myself. ‘I’m a cowboy. Sue me!’ In a suit, as THE CANDIDATE, he gets hit.
So Ben Affleck in a beard – is that great acting? How can you compare it to Denzel Washington snorting coke and kissing Kelly Reilly, doing his DRUNK-ASS-ACT? Affleck has no SIGNATURE MOMENTS, no GREAT SPEECHES. Getting out of bed alone is no great transcendent piece of acting. He is mostly being rewarded for surviving GIGLI - so did Al Pacino and Jennifer Lopez. Pity Martin Brest. Washington has played fast, loose and out of control before. In practice, it is that Express Acting Delivery Service, DDL – Daniel Day Lewis –who nails the declamatory acting, funny accent and long speechifying (‘you will procure me those votes’) for the year 2012 in LINCOLN. What about Jamie Foxx? Isn’t LINCOLN supposed to have a point?
