Overacting aka big ol' hams

[JaDanketies]

Bryan Cranston could be accused of overacting in Malcolm in the Middle yet I think he does it wonderfully. Perhaps the character of Hal warrants some overacting.

Nobody would accuse him of being a ham nowadays obv, they don't get much more esteemed. Truly an esteemed ham.  (that's what I call hamburgers)

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I've been watching a lot of Malcolm in the Middle lately. It's testament to how good Cranston is that he's basically doing the same thing as Hal and Walter (blustering and shouting in his pants) but it never once spoiled Breaking Bad.

Daniel Day Lewis ever since he became the planet's foremost scenery chewer - I've mentioned before he even manages to overact using a pickaxe in There Will Be Blood, in a performance which makes Bill The Butcher look positively low key.

Ah, it's good agreeing with you. I know he's meant to be a sociopath, with no humanity beneath the surface, but Daniel Plainview comes across more like an alien that has observed human behaviour (and accents) from orbit.

And back to disagreeing, probably...

[Jared Leto] is very shit in Blade Runner 2049 as well.

Well, to be fair, that's just not a good film. Ryan Gosling is the opposite side of the coin - except for one shout, he does nothing throughout the film. It's not an amazingly subtle performance, he just isn't doing anything.

[NoSleep]

Another vote for Steven Berkoff; unwatchable.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

"... but they were too busy shaking their heads and tutting the word 'Berkoff'."

[samadriel]

Lord of War was another perfect match for Nic Cage, although I'm not a fan (of him, i like the movie).

[El Unicornio, mang]

Well, to be fair, that's just not a good film. Ryan Gosling is the opposite side of the coin - except for one shout, he does nothing throughout the film. It's not an amazingly subtle performance, he just isn't doing anything.

I like the films I've seen him in, but his "acting" does seem to be the least amount of work I've ever seen an actor do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqs7857hksM&ab_channel=FunnyOrDie

[jobotic]

I'd rather watch my own death than a Hugh Grant/Richard Curtis film but he is wonderful in Paddington 2.

Not that it's relevant as he's meant to be playing a hammy thesp.

[Icehaven]

Definitely another vote for Anthony Hopkins. The only thing I've ever been able to stand him in in Silence of the Lambs as he's supposed to be a melodramatic psychopath so it just about works, but in everything else he's appalling, with Meet Joe Black being the nadir.

I can never quite work out what's going on with John Malkovich either. He's another one that way overdoes the intensity and 'I am an act-or' stuff, but he's also played a few similarly pretentious pompous characters who have the piss roundly taken out of them so he seems at least to have some humility and self awareness.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I can never quite work out what's going on with John Malkovich either. He's another one that way overdoes the intensity and 'I am an act-or' stuff, but he's also played a few similarly pretentious pompous characters who have the piss roundly taken out of them so he seems at least to have some humility and self awareness.

He was great in that jewel thief movie.

[Gulftastic]

I'll always love Malkovich for his turn in 'Rounders'. Gloriously OTT.

[Famous Mortimer]

Despite what a classic it's considered, I'm not sure I ever want to watch Sunset Boulevard, solely because of this:


The pictures didn't get small, dear - they got good.

Isn't that kind of the point?

[lipsink]

What was with Crispin Glover's overacting in 'River's Edge'? Was it deliberately insane? It's like performance art. And he's a good actor too, isn't he?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

She's meant to be an over-actor, of the old school, that's the point. And I don't think it robs her of any pathos. See also Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? ('Their acting is grotesque!' 'God, someone should have told them.')

Isn't that kind of the point?

Almost certainly correct, but that facial expression is just too annoying.

[magval]

Brian Cox as Jack Langrishe in series 3 of Deadwood is the best sendup of ac-tors I've ever seen, especially because it's not a comedy performance like the floppily-doppily lads in Blackadder Goes Third.

Timothy Dalton's a good one in Hot Fuzz. There's a great thing pointed out on the commentary, where it's revealed that he accidentally looks into the lens for a split second and when they noticed this they added the sound of a cash register in the backgound because it suited the scenery chewing of the performance.

[Icehaven]

I've been listening to some old Adam and Joe podcasts recently and they had great fun with this Pierce Brosnan moment:
https://youtu.be/vIjppgnkknE

[Noodle Lizard]

Dieter Laser in The Human Centipede 3: https://youtu.be/uYYKZ-qCiv4

My favourite bit starts at 1:52

EDIT: Just learned whilst checking the spelling of his name that he died earlier this year! "Chewing the scenery" may well have been a contributing factor at that age.

[BlodwynPig]

Despite what a classic it's considered, I'm not sure I ever want to watch Sunset Boulevard, solely because of this:


The pictures didn't get small, dear - they got good.

missing out. overacting or not, her performance is for the ages

[kalowski]

Despite what a classic it's considered, I'm not sure I ever want to watch Sunset Boulevard, solely because of this:


The pictures didn't get small, dear - they got good.

Isn't that the point?
Edit: Ha! Looks like we're all saying the same thing.

[dissolute ocelot]

Elizabeth Moss absurdly hams it up to a brilliant extent in Her Smell, but that's a totally justified performance as she's playing a Courtney Love-style singer. I guess it's like the great Nicolas Cage performances, from Moonstruck to Mandy, in which his performance matches the film - in Moonstruck, Cher is meek and sensible and not expecting love (!), and Cage is the wild passionate man who reawakens her instincts, so if he doesn't turn it up to at least a million per cent, why bother? See also another Herzog collaborator, Klaus Kinski: nobody complains that he takes it a bit far.

[Gulftastic]

Paul Nicholas school bully song in 'Tommy' is a great bit of hammery.

[Replies From View]

Jim Carrey, innit.  I'll give him his initial trio of Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber, because he was fresh and the films had their merits, but after that it's just pointless.  Even Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind is almost unbearable to watch simply because it has his face right there within it.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest.

[C_Larence]

I like the films I've seen him in, but his "acting" does seem to be the least amount of work I've ever seen an actor do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqs7857hksM&ab_channel=FunnyOrDie

He puts in a great physical performance in The Nice Guys, I'll forgive him anything for this scene alone
https://youtu.be/LPuY2U04mS4

[El Unicornio, mang]

Yeah that's a good one. Maybe it's just the scripts he gets for a lot of his serious roles which are quite monotone?

[lazarou]

Sam Neill is delicious ham.
Can make or break a film depending on whether or not he's right for the role and the tone of the film.

A truly great horror ham. In The Mouth of Madness and Event Horizon wouldn't be half the films they are without him.

[zomgmouse]

A truly great horror ham.

My vote for greatest horror ham is of course Vincent Price. Delicious, delicious ham.

[Brundle-Fly]

My vote for greatest horror ham is of course Vincent Price. Delicious, delicious ham.

Dwight Frye Love 'im.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmKgx2-cEk8

[Butchers Blind]

Richard E Grant.  Withnail was alright but most everything else I've seen him in, it's too much.

[greenman]

A truly great horror ham. In The Mouth of Madness and Event Horizon wouldn't be half the films they are without him.

Possesion is arguably the hammiest film ever made, I do wonder what exactly his career was like before that.

[George White]

Despite what a classic it's considered, I'm not sure I ever want to watch Sunset Boulevard, solely because of this:


The pictures didn't get small, dear - they got good.

Wilder's Fedora is far better.