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Directors and their preferred actors

Started by surreal, February 21, 2011, 12:48:46 PM

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surreal

Couldn't think of a better-worded title, but this occurred to me after a comment on the Dark Knight Rises thread about how Nolan likes re-using actors.  At the moment he seems to favour

Christian Bale
Michael Caine
Joseph Gordon Levitt
Cillian Murphy
Marion Cotillard

I was trying to think of other directors who tend to regularly re-use the same "talent pool" - I suppose Tarantino and Hitchcock immediately spring to mind.  Anyone else?

Jemble Fred

Branagh wins – anyone who has Brian Blessed and Richard Briers in their rep company holds all the cards. Shame he couldn't sneak them into Thor, really.

Harpo Speaks

Burton with Depp of course. Scorcese with De Niro, though not for a long time now - his current favourite seems to be DiCaprio.

Ignatius_S

Do the Carry On films count?

Fellini - Giulietta Masina

Tim Burton – Johnny Deep and Helena Bonham-Carter in particular, but he likes reusing supporting actors a lot.

Coen Brothers – number of actors they have used more than once e.g. Jeff Bridges, Steve Buschemi

David Lean – John Mills and Alec Guinness

Billy Wilder – Jack Lemmon

John Huston – Bogart

Mike Leigh re-uses many of his actors

Kurosawa - Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura

Alex Cox – Andrew Schofield, Christopher Ecclestone, Miguel Sandoval

lipsink

Burton needs to quit using Depp and Helena Bonham Carter so much, it's getting quite boring.

The Coens seemed to have stopped using their little pool of oddball actors (Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Jon Polito, John Turturro) just after 'The Man Who Wasn't There'.

Garam

John Cassavetes had the best repertory. Himself, Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara...

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Woody Allen - Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow. He used to empoy Tony Roberts a lot, although not much since the 1970s. He's also reused quite a few supporting actors over the years.

Jerry Lewis had a repertory company consisting of Kathleen Freeman, Del Moore and Buddy Lester.

And then, of course, there is Christopher Morris with Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap, Julia Davis, David Cann and Amelia Bulmore.

lipsink

Paul Thomas Anderson's first few films used a great pool of actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, Julianne Moore, John C Reilly, Luis Guzman, Melora Walters, William H. Macy

Another Anderson, Wes has preferred actors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Anderson#Collaborators

Isn't it better to work with people you know and trust, or does this get in the way of making a great film?

Ja'moke

David Lynch - Jack Nance, Grace Zabriskie, Laura Dern, Harry Dean Stanton, Sheryl Lee.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe over the past decade although, it seems, to diminishing returns.

Serge

Ingmar Bergman, of course, had a lot of regulars - Max Von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann, and my personal favourite, Gunnar Björnstrand amongst them. On a related note, I always liked that most early Woody Allen films have appearances by Tony Roberts.

Michael Winterbottom has used Shirley Henderson and Kieron O'Brien in quite a few films, and John Simm and Christopher Eccleston have popped up in at least two of his apiece. Talking of Eccleston, both he and David Tennant had worked with Russell T Davies[nb]I know, he's not a director.[/nb] before either played The Doctor.

Johnny Textface

#12
Really should read threads properly

Ignatius_S

Keith Carradine appears in more than one Robert Altman film (four, I think) – he also stars in three films by Alan Rudolph, who was mentored by Altman.

Herzog and Klaus Kinski.

Orson Welles re-used a number of actors from his Mercury Theatre, such as Joseph Cotten and Everett Sloane.

Lindsey Anderson – If..., O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital have certain actors re-appearing.

Michael Winner and Oliver Reed – good 'uns, too.

Geoffrey Lewis used to be in lots of films by Eastwood, who shockingly doesn't use him any more. There's a very plausible claim that Eastwood liked using actors like Lewis, who are dependable and will always put in a good performance that wouldn't detract from the star (i.e. him) – as soon as Eastwood was willing to work with big-name scene stealers, he's dropped people like Lewis, on both a professional and personal level.

Quote from: lipsink on February 21, 2011, 01:01:09 PM
Burton needs to quit using Depp and Helena Bonham Carter so much, it's getting quite boring.

The Coens seemed to have stopped using their little pool of oddball actors (Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Jon Polito, John Turturro) just after 'The Man Who Wasn't There'.
Depp effectively serves as the director's alter-ego, so I think he'll be in a few more Burton films...

You're right to say about certain actors not being in more recent Coens, however with a few things I've read this might be a mutual decision – Jon Polito, for instance, is very much in demand and there was one interview (it might have been for Charlie The Ox) where he didn't seem overly pleased with just being associated with the Coens.

Quote from: lipsink on February 21, 2011, 01:26:09 PM
Paul Thomas Anderson's first few films used a great pool of actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, Julianne Moore, John C Reilly, Luis Guzman, Melora Walters, William H. Macy
Good call – and I believe it's been a conscious decision to move away from continually using them.

Quote from: confettiinmyhair on February 21, 2011, 02:54:15 PM
Another Anderson, Wes has preferred actors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Anderson#Collaborators

Isn't it better to work with people you know and trust, or does this get in the way of making a great film?
I think it all depends. With Mike Leigh, because he re-uses so many actors like Lesley Manville, it's almost like a theatre company – and I think the same could be said for PT Anderson. With Mike Leigh, there's a lot of improvisation so when you have a core cast who can work well together in that way, then that can yield great results.

Quote from: Ja'moke on February 21, 2011, 03:13:08 PM
David Lynch - Jack Nance, Grace Zabriskie, Laura Dern, Harry Dean Stanton, Sheryl Lee.
I would also include Kyle McLachlan, who some see as Lynch's onscreen alter-ego.

gmoney

Quote from: Ignatius_S on February 21, 2011, 06:02:25 PM
Keith Carradine appears in more than one Robert Altman film (four, I think) – he also stars in three films by Alan Rudolph, who was mentored by Altman.

Shelly Duvall also appears in a few Altman films, as does David Arkin.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Christopher Guest has his regular cast members, including Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey and Fred Willard. Given the improvised nature of his films, I guess you could say they are co-writers as much as actors.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: gmoney on February 21, 2011, 06:16:28 PM
Shelly Duvall also appears in a few Altman films, as does David Arkin.
Absolutely - and Duvall, I think is a fantastic example.

I had a quick look to see how many films it was that they did, but I got distracted when I found this - http://thehighhat.com/Potlatch/007/actors_nugent.html

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on February 21, 2011, 06:28:20 PM
Christopher Guest has his regular cast members, including Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey and Fred Willard. Given the improvised nature of his films, I guess you could say they are co-writers as much as actors.
Personally, I wouldn't say they were co-writers - they're given a story, characters, lines, scenes etc., so have a lot to work with to come up with the dialogue.

lipsink

Quote from: Ignatius_S on February 21, 2011, 06:02:25 PM
You're right to say about certain actors not being in more recent Coens, however with a few things I've read this might be a mutual decision – Jon Polito, for instance, is very much in demand and there was one interview (it might have been for Charlie The Ox) where he didn't seem overly pleased with just being associated with the Coens.

They have started using a new pool of actors in their last few films that seem very Coen-esque: Stephen Root, Richard Jenkins and J. K. Simmons (also a favourite of Jason Reitman's).

The Duck Man

Quote from: Serge on February 21, 2011, 04:03:31 PMMichael Winterbottom has used Shirley Henderson and Kieron O'Brien in quite a few films
And Coogan, of course.

Wikipedia has a list of Coen Brothers collaborators.

SavageHedgehog

Most if not all of Joe Dante's films have Dick Miller in them, and since Explorers I think Robert Picardo has been in pretty much all of them too. I think most of Robert Rodgriguez's movies have Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin in them (and about six feature Antonio Banderas, but three of them are reprisals!). Oliver Stone doesn't necessarily have a pool of frequent collaborators, but he does tend to use actors multiple times, I think Johnny C. McGinley is the actor who has appeared in the most.

Serge

Bruce Campbell appears in most of Sam Raimi's films.

non capisco

Quote from: lipsink on February 21, 2011, 01:01:09 PM
Burton needs to quit using Depp and Helena Bonham Carter so much, it's getting quite boring.

The Coens seemed to have stopped using their little pool of oddball actors (Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Jon Polito, John Turturro) just after 'The Man Who Wasn't There'.

Funnily enough, there is a small role in True Grit for an actor called Paul Rae who looks and sounds remarkably like Goodman. I really did think it was him until a glance over imdb proved otherwise.

non capisco

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on February 21, 2011, 03:18:41 PM
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe over the past decade although, it seems, to diminishing returns.

His brother seemingly can't make a film without Denzel Washington these days. Usually featuring a train in some capacity.

phantom_power

Quote from: gmoney on February 21, 2011, 06:16:28 PM
Shelly Duvall also appears in a few Altman films, as does David Arkin.

see also elliot gould


jutl

Clint Howard appears in 68% of Ron Howard films.

Quote from: Jemble Fred on February 21, 2011, 12:50:59 PM
Branagh wins – anyone who has Brian Blessed and Richard Briers in their rep company holds all the cards. Shame he couldn't sneak them into Thor, really.
Shame he couldn't have sneaked them into 'Sleuth'. Then filmed them instead of filming 'Sleuth'.

greencalx

Is there a film "by" Jean-Pierre Jeunet that doesn't have Dominique Pinon in it?

lipsink

Quote from: Ignatius_S on February 21, 2011, 06:02:25 PM
Depp effectively serves as the director's alter-ego, so I think he'll be in a few more Burton films...

I do like the way Paul Whitehouse seems to be becoming a Burton regular though. Would be great if Mark Heap and Kevin Eldon got a few more cameos too!

phantom_power

Quote from: greencalx on February 22, 2011, 08:49:35 PM
Is there a film "by" Jean-Pierre Jeunet that doesn't have Dominique Pinon in it?

ron perlman is in a few as well. he is also in a few del toro films

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Anything Judd Apatow has a hand in draws from the same pool of actors, usually including half the cast of Freaks and Geeks.