Best Woody Allen Impersonator

kenneth branagh was great

i can tell you one thing, kenneth branagh was the worst.

hahaha

the cooz was pretty good.

object to characterization of sean penn as woody allen impersonator in S&L tho.

voted Penn since he was in the only movie on that list I liked. probably not the way to approach this poll, but there you have it.

unethical

I'm not sure Sean Penn's role in Sweet and Lowdown was the "Woody role."

xpost, ha.

I'm not sure Sean Penn's role in Sweet and Lowdown was the "Woody role."

I think you are tight

RIGHT. right.

Haha I was about to object to th inclusion of Penn, too. I'm voting for Cusack. Ferrell was baaad (as was the rest of the movie).

Alec Baldwin, he does one on the 30 Rock season 1 extras and kills it.

from this amazing page:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/35/110371049_2bf8726127.jpg

Oh, you mean people actually in WA movies.

You forgot Michael Caine in Hannah.

No Michael Caine? (Yeah, I know Woody himself was in that film too, but it was still very much a "Woody" role.)

(x-post)

oh shit I knew I was forgetting somebody. yeah Penn is questionable, but I remember him exhibiting enough of Woody's tics for me to make the connetion. Several years since I've seen it tho.

No Michael Caine? (Yeah, I know Woody himself was in that film too, but it was still very much a "Woody" role.)

-- Tuomas, Friday, November 30, 2007 12:03 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

hey, Woody was in Anything Else and Everyone Says too

cusask is a pretty pitch-perfect woody in BoB

does "best" mean Most Convincing Impersonation of What a Bad Actor Woody Is?

well Woody's basically just a Bob Hope impersonator himself

also, i'm not convinced that Sean Penn's character is S&LD, despite having tortured-artist tendencies, is actually stand in for Woody -- I think Allen would have been incapable of carrying that role, honestly.

woody's not really an actor, he's a personality. if you're watching a woody allen movie expecting him to act, you have some fucked-up expectations.

gary glitter

Dave Thomas did the best literal Bob Hope, btw, but yeah in Love & Death esp Woody is totally doing prime Hope.

Branagh was so obviously doing Woody I wanted to shoot him.

Penn's mannerisms, voice, character were not at all Woodyesque.

Woody acts in Manhattan.

the common thread to all these roles is that otherwise great actors become overwhelmed by physical tics and mannerisms

in any case, there's no excuse for him to be acting in his own movies any more. hollywood ending was pathetic, he's lost all sense of comedic timing. WE NEED BETTER WOODY ALLENS BY PROXY.

I remember seeing a fairly recent WA interview where he vehemently denies that there's a stock "Woody Allen character" or that Branagh, etc. are doing impressions of him in his movies, I wish I could dig up that quote.

LOL at condemnation of tics and mannerisms considering ILX love of Owen Wilson, Chris Walken, etc.

xp: It sounds like that entire new Eric Lax book, in which WA sounds so deluded I will never read it

I remember seeing a fairly recent WA interview where he vehemently denies that there's a stock "Woody Allen character" or that Branagh, etc. are doing impressions of him in his movies, I wish I could dig up that quote.

this isn't really that surprising, artists are rarely the best evaluators of their own work

worse than Old Woody doing shtick in his recent movies: His new British thrillers in which he does not appear

(re Shakey: Woody thinks Match Point is one of his best!)

yeah I know. you and I don't agree about Match Point tho

Yeah, but him proclaiming that no actor has ever done a Woody Allen impersonation in one of his movies is a little different from him being RONG about what his best work is (and yeah, Match Point was really really bad).

well I wouldn't call it one of his best, but it was interesting

x-post

owen wilson or christopher walken aren't doing "mannerisms", they're just being themselves - that's really how they are - which makes them more bearable - loveable, even - because it's not contrived so utterly obviously as these

all the roles listed above, and the unfortunate tics that came with them, are very far afield from how those actors really are in real life

all that said, lol at you holding me accountable for some strawman hive-mind

Woody Allen look-alike! Omg. That seems like a sadder lot in life than most.

xp: nah, I would never do that Tracer!

I think MP fluctuated btwn amusing and terrible.

What about the little kid from Radio Days?

owen wilson or christopher walken aren't doing "mannerisms", they're just being themselves - that's really how they are

this is really debatable. a bandmate of mine (who works in the film industry) worked with Walken doing voiceovers (ironically, for the Woody Allen-starring Antz!) and said that Walken's approach was to take the script, erase all the punctuation and stage directions, memorize the text, and then do his lines in the booth with the lights out. That doesn't sound like just "being himself" to me at all.

What about the little kid from Radio Days?

isn't that fucking Seth Green? I hate him.

Also, I think Penn's perf is one of the best in an Allen film, and Cusack and Wiest were the bright spots in the massively overpraised BoB.

(also, Wiest "is" Woody occasionally, as in Radio Days -- even tho Seth G is actually playing him)

man whatever happened to her?

she got fat and joined "Law & Order"

owen wilson or christopher walken aren't doing "mannerisms", they're just being themselves - that's really how they are

oh COME ON. They're your best friends? You get coffee together? Actors ACT. All the time.

On early episodes of Seinfeld George Costanza was a pretty blatant Woody Allen caricature (and Jason Alexander did a "Woody Allen Fan Club" sketch on SNL around the same time).

shakey why not?

what i mean is, watch an interview with walken or wilson - you can see pretty quickly that they bring pretty much the same things to every character they play, and those things are part of the fabric of their everyday physical and vocal reality. branagh and penn are doing very difft stuff, and for some reason in woody allen movies they allow that difft stuff, the alien stuff, to crowd out almost everything human and interesting about them

Penn in Sweet & Lowdown >>>>>> Mystic River

Dave Thomas did the best literal Bob Hope
That reminds me, didn't Rick Moranis do Woody?

Dianne Wiest is responsible for almost half of the great performances in Woody Allen films.

Woody Allen look-alike! Omg. That seems like a sadder lot in life than most.

-- kenan, Friday, November 30, 2007 5:37 PM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Not so sadde as semes to moste
When Woddye be so aged now
That cougs must leap o'er deaths domaine
Return as childrene back againe
Like Pacmane from the other syde
So redolente and slantie-ey'd

poll brutally murdered by ILX downtime :(

tonight Cusack was on "Inside The Actor's Studio" and did a pretty good WA impression (like way more overtly and deliberately than in Bullets), some funny stories about working with him.

oh I totally missed this! sad I didn't get a chance to vote for Norton. certainly the most likeable allen-proxy.

OMG HOW CAN YOU HATE SETH GREEN HE'S LIKE AN ANGEL!!!

also, I think Allen was a good actor in the 70s and 80s! limited, but good.