Auricauricle
09-02-2008, 09:30 AM
Worfster's latest post encouraged me to conjur up a list of actors who, like the movies in his thread, have taken up roles and performaces that were beyond the usual Hollywood fare....I'll start things off with a list o' my own and see how far things go....
In reverse order:
James Woods: From his early days with Videodrome and The Onionfield, to his recent television series, Shark, Woods has given viewers a taste of the truly brilliant but flawed characters, risk takers and lowlifes.
Malcom McDowell: From his performance in Caligula, a movie that emblazoned his image among the seamy elite, MM has taken up roles of the sorts of individuals we are at once drawn to only to our peril. Like human antifreeze, McDowell's characters can be charming (Catpeople) but deadly psychopathic (Blue Thunder), are deftly played and leave me wondering if the actor may truly be "a little touched".
Jeremy Irons: JI's roles have spanned from movies appealing to the mainstream (Lion King) to the avant garde (Dead Ringers). Playing roles of great archetypal impact of the gentleman killer (Die Hard) and other roles of the suave and deadly, JI's engaging smooth talk and gait seduce every one of us, who hang on to every word and gesture.
Tracy Lords: Starting her career at a way too early age, when TL enticed viewers of pornographic film with a deceptively mature body and appetite to recent movies with the established and the elite, TL has not shied away from taking on the difficult roles of the debauched and the damned. While many would see her x-rated past a career destroying handicap, TL has shown great resilience and the possibility that emergence from the shadows doesn't mean that all traces of the darkness have to be left behind.
Micky Rourke: Well known for playing slimey roles, MR has not shied away from playing men who take the seamy routes through the underbelly of society and into the bedrooms of some of Hollywood's most beautiful women. His persona never stops revolting and intriguing me. Like watching an awful trainwreck, I cannot turn or force myself away....
Harvey Keitel: HK's range in movies spans throughout nearly every conceivable genre. He has shown equal facility with playing the horrifically violent in Mean Streets and Bad Lieutenant to the impotent washed up in January Man. Keitel is not afraid of exposing himself physically or emotionally as the rare actor whose has allowed his penis to be put on display not as an device, but in performances whose vulnerability (as in The Piano)betrays Keitel's lion-hearted exterior.
In reverse order:
James Woods: From his early days with Videodrome and The Onionfield, to his recent television series, Shark, Woods has given viewers a taste of the truly brilliant but flawed characters, risk takers and lowlifes.
Malcom McDowell: From his performance in Caligula, a movie that emblazoned his image among the seamy elite, MM has taken up roles of the sorts of individuals we are at once drawn to only to our peril. Like human antifreeze, McDowell's characters can be charming (Catpeople) but deadly psychopathic (Blue Thunder), are deftly played and leave me wondering if the actor may truly be "a little touched".
Jeremy Irons: JI's roles have spanned from movies appealing to the mainstream (Lion King) to the avant garde (Dead Ringers). Playing roles of great archetypal impact of the gentleman killer (Die Hard) and other roles of the suave and deadly, JI's engaging smooth talk and gait seduce every one of us, who hang on to every word and gesture.
Tracy Lords: Starting her career at a way too early age, when TL enticed viewers of pornographic film with a deceptively mature body and appetite to recent movies with the established and the elite, TL has not shied away from taking on the difficult roles of the debauched and the damned. While many would see her x-rated past a career destroying handicap, TL has shown great resilience and the possibility that emergence from the shadows doesn't mean that all traces of the darkness have to be left behind.
Micky Rourke: Well known for playing slimey roles, MR has not shied away from playing men who take the seamy routes through the underbelly of society and into the bedrooms of some of Hollywood's most beautiful women. His persona never stops revolting and intriguing me. Like watching an awful trainwreck, I cannot turn or force myself away....
Harvey Keitel: HK's range in movies spans throughout nearly every conceivable genre. He has shown equal facility with playing the horrifically violent in Mean Streets and Bad Lieutenant to the impotent washed up in January Man. Keitel is not afraid of exposing himself physically or emotionally as the rare actor whose has allowed his penis to be put on display not as an device, but in performances whose vulnerability (as in The Piano)betrays Keitel's lion-hearted exterior.