Quantifying acting

[gategrrl]

In the arts, how "good" someone's work is strongly subjective. That's why some people think the Campbell Soup Can painting by Andy Warhol is the stupidist thing since the invention of Modernism, and others think it's the pinnacle of Modern Art, very sly and witty.

With actors and acting - it's apparent when someone is REALLY bad; they can't remember their lines, they feel like wood up on the stage/screen; their character doesn't *live*. It's also possible for a competent actor to move down a level, or a bad actor to improve.

So when two actors are compared, how is it possible to figure out who is the better/worse actor?

Are opinions based on Who I like Better? I like this actor's character better than that character's actor? I like what this one has done in the past better than what that person has done in the past? Or, I simply don't the fuck like this actor, and whatever he does is going to suck to me, cuz he's an ass and I'll never like him/her? or "My fandom politics dictate that I should hate this person's acting because."

How much Objectivity plays a role in your opinions? Or does it all?

So, when you say you don't like an actor/actress, WHY don't you like that actor/actress?

Comments

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

I love this topic. :)

I think some people can't distinguish between actor and character. Imagine an actor who plays these wonderful roles in 50 movies. Then, you get a chance to meet him and find out he's a complete twit/twat/dork. You developed an opinion about the actor based on the characters only to find out you were wrong, and no one wants to be wrong.

I never liked the country singer Shania Twain. I never thought she could sing, I never thought she could write songs and she came across as one of the most conceited, self-centered individuals I've ever seen.

Then I saw her interviewed and found out about her early life. I was unconciously basing my opinions about her on the videos and songs.

I still don't think she can sing and I still don't think she can write songs and I still have the impression that she's conceited (never do anything to muss her hair or break a nail), but I have more respect for her as a "person." I never thought of her as a person with a history before, just some singer/songwriter I didn't like to listen to.

I know the difference between the onscreen personality and real person, but if the audience is never given a glimpse of the real person, all they can do is form opinions based on what they see. Some of it is conscious, some of it unconscious.

As far as comparing two actors, some will think that Bela Lugosi was the finest actor to have ever existed, others will say Sir Laurence Olivier. It's all a matter of preference on that. Now, style and technique can be compared. Experience can be as well. I think only some things can be considered objectively because too much is colored by our personal preferences.

Just to add, I think Warhol's Campbell Soup Can is just a picture of a soup can. I don't find it compelling in the least. Now, Salvadore Dali's melting clocks, those are real attention getters.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

On the whole I tend to try and avoid finding out too much personal detail about actors because it has the potential to ruin any illusion you might have about them - not that you know them any more even if you meet them twenty times either, though some might think that's not the case. Those I have met whose acting ability I rate, though, it's been a pleasant relief to discover they're apparently not jackasses.

As for judging between actors, I think range is a good way to get an idea of how good an actor is, though that doesn't stop me loathing both Tom Cruise and Leonardo diCaprio for no particular reason than that I still think both are vastly overrated. I think both have succumbed to believing their own press a little too much and they've been applauded at times for relatively mediocre performances.

Give me someone like Guy Pearce, who though he has an appalling taste in movie roles, has the ability to go from his over the top role in Priscilla through the buttoned-up Ed Exley in LA Confidential and out the other side to the confused amnesiac in Memento. Likewise I'll watch pretty much anything with either James Spader or Kevin Spacey in and know they're going to turn out a good performance regardless of the paucity of the source material.

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't want to know a lot of personal stuff either, but I do like knowing they're not jackasses. :) It makes liking a public figure a lot easier. Take Bing Crosby and Joan Crawford for instance. You might thing of them one way, and then hear about how they treated their kids and your thinking goes kerpoof!

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure there's really a way to distinguish between good and bad really, unless, as you say, they are really bad.

I know that I am attracted to a certain type of actor. I love actors who act more with their facial expressions and body language, but also use vocal inflections and timing quite well. I don't know a lot about acting, but this is what I tend to like--and not all actors do this. I also tend to like actors who can bring on the emotion in one way or another--you can look at his/her face and see what he/she is thinking and feeling--sometimes even just with the eyes.

I tend to be more bored or just less enamored with actors who *don't* bring a lot of emotion to what they do. One of the things I like less about Stargate in recent years is that lack of emotion--they don't (as they say in the Degrassi commercials) go there. Personally, I loved episodes (from Stargate) like Need and Fire & Water and Legacy and wish that both F&W & Legacy had more satisfying emotional conclusions.

OTOH, one thing I've actually learned from voting in that GateWorld episode tournament is that a lot of people (a lot) are turned off by that sort of thing. They think it's cringe-worthy. Maybe they don't like emotion themselves and so they just don't like to watch others go through the emotions. I don't really know. It's interesting though, and I think there's room for all tastes.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I should add that there are some actors that, through no fault of their own, just turn me off. Jenna Elfman is one. I should have liked that show she was on (which I can't remember now). The premise of it was good; I liked all the other actors on the show. But there was something about her... I just could not stand to watch her or listen to her. I have no clue if she's a good actress or not. I watched many episodes of that show and even found it funny, but I just couldn't stand to watch her. I would never watch anything she was in if I could avoid it. For all I know she's the loveliest person in real life and I wish her well, but I just don't like her acting--or maybe her persona. I don't know. There are few actresses about which I feel this strongly for no apparent reason that I can figure out, though.

I also don't like Julie Bowen as an actress. A lot of it is based on one small role she had, but I just don't like her voice or her mannerisms. Maybe I'm being unfair, but it's her work I don't like. I know nothing about her as a person. She's actually not that bad on Boston Legal, but so far I don't like the character. I'm not sure if we're meant to like her, though. James Spader, OTOH, can take a role that might be a disaster for someone else (i.e. the character much disliked) and plays it with such humanity and vulnerability that I can't help but love the character. William Shatner I love as a person, but have always disliked as an actor, but he, too, has surprised me on Boston Legal, showing he has the acting chops (at least now!) to do a similar thing to what Spader is doing--make a sort of unappealing character appealing.

On Stargate, I don't like the character of Sam, but I don't think that means Amanda Tapping is not a good actress. I actually loved her work in the early years of the show and even sometime now, I still think she's good, but my feelings about the character are such that I want to roll my eyes--not at the acting, but just...the character. I (most obviously) don't know Amanda Tapping personally, either, but from everything I've ever heard about her or read about her and from interviews (which, admittedly, you can't always tell much), she seems like a truly lovely person.

When I say I don't like an actor or actress, it's usually their acting style I don't like. I think Tom Cruise is an idiot--and I don't really like him (as in think he's cute/whatever), but I've seen him in some roles and just totally forget it's Tom Cruise. I know his acting might not appeal to all and I've not seen most of his movies, but the ones I've seen...I never think "Oh that's Tom Cruise, the jerk." I lose myself in the movie. He does have a certain presence on film and...that "thing" that I think I like..the emotion, vulnerability, or whatever...that I like, I guess, too. (He's definitely not my favorite actor, but he's just someone I don't like that much that I think is both a good actor and also someone who just has that "thing." hehe)

There are some actors whose work I absolutely love, and I'd literally watch them in anything. It's not necessarily anything to do with what they look like, but...just that style of acting thing I was talking about. It's something I want to see, whatever the role. And sometimes the actor of my choice doesn't deliver, but usually, if I find an actor appealing in that special way, I see it in them regardless and I'll watch even the crappiest movies just to see it. (Try watching Specimen LOL That's a horrible movie, but my favorite role for Mark-Paul Gosselaar.)

There are also sometimes actors who I like in one role, but in other roles, I don't like them. So there was something about that acting experience or the direction or the writing that brought something out in them that I liked, but it doesn't carry over to other roles. Who knows? hehe

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I admit I like knowing the personal stuff about the actors. I don't think I know them, but it's like...knowing about Shakespeare's life and what was going on in the world. hehe Okay, not the same thing. I like knowing as much about the actors as they are willing to share, though. OTOH, if I don't like them that much, I probably wouldn't *not* watch their movies or TV shows, but I probably also wouldn't bother to read their interviews either.

Take Bing Crosby and Joan Crawford for instance. You might thing of them one way, and then hear about how they treated their kids and your thinking goes kerpoof!

I never liked Joan Crawford as an actress, really. It doesn't bother me too much to find out that an actor is human and makes mistakes or is a jerk or whatever. To me it's all a part of enjoying their performance, in a way. I know many people don't feel that way, but I do. :-)