POX: Most Chameleonic Actors

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Lon Chaney? Peter Sellers? Gary Oldman? Which actors have most blown yr mind with their transformations from role to role?

Also, preferably give some examples or explanation for why...

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 18 July 2005 02:16 (twenty years ago)

POX = Pick Only Ten

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 18 July 2005 02:16 (twenty years ago)

Paul Muni
Sean Penn

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 18 July 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

Woody Allen...just kidding. Gary Oldman for sure. Penn in Carlito's Way and Fast Times, yes, but generally I'd say he's pretty consistent--sometimes, like in last year's Nixon film, he adds a moustache, but he's still basically Sean Penn. Olivier, Welles, and Peter Sellers from the past. (Look at Olivier in Marathon Man and then The Boys from Brazil a couple of years later. He made a much better Nazi than Nazi-hunter.) I think Benicio del Toro's been pretty unpredictable the past few years. I'm not a Johnny Depp fan, but he'd probably be the first person a lot of people would name. What about actresses? I'm drawing a blank.

― Phil Dellio (j.j. hunsecker), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

I have to say, I wouldn't ordinarily think of him as chameleonic, but I watched Smoke and From Dusk to Dawn within a week of each other once, and boy was I impressed with Harvey Keitel.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 21 July 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

Probably Oldman if we're talking stars, though I'm sure there are countless character actors who disappear so well we never remember them from role to role.

James

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Friday, 22 July 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

re Oldman and late Olivier ... so unbearably hammy, I don't think you can be chameleonic when your perf is so LOOK AT MEEEE! I quit on Gary O about a decade ago, concluding he'd not as yet made a good film in America.

Galactically disagree on Sean Penn sameness. Mystic River vs Sweet & Lowdown? At Close Range vs The Falcon and The Snowman?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 22 July 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

Sir Alec Guiness:

Obi-Wan
Hitler
General Zhivago
Prince Feisal
Fagin
the entirety of "Kind Hearts and Coronets"
etc.

― pasty y paunchy (pasty y paunchy), Saturday, 24 September 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

In 1992, Russell Crowe played a very intimidating, very tattooed skinhead in romper stomper. In 1994, he played a clean-cut, engaging young gay man in The Sum of Us.

In 1999, Russell Crowe played a chubby, neurotic, silver-haired white collar businessman in The Insider. The following year, he played a gladiator. In 2003, he played a saucy ship captain. I mean, say what you want about the guy's ego or his actual acting ability, but the guy can melt into a lot of different character and body types.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 05:22 (twenty years ago)

Daniel Day Lewis :

The effete guy he plays in Room With A View
The gay punk in My Beautiful Launderette
The snobbish, outraged officer in the Bounty
Christy Brown in My Left Foot
The Doctor in The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Hawkeye in Last Of The Mohicans
Archer in The Age of Innocence
Gerry Conlon in In the Name Of The Father
Butcher Bill in Gangs of New York

― David N (David N.), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

i agree on Crowe here. his acting might not be the best but hes really able to play different characters convincingly good. i find it rather weird though, that imdb lists less than 30 films that hes supposed to has acted in. i always thought he was way more 'present'.

― aeh (aeh), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

Philip Seymour Hoffman

― Jack L., Wednesday, 5 October 2005 15:59 (twenty years ago)

On Hoffman, oh please. He can be good (Magnolia, Owning Mahowny) but almost always as a schlub (Ripley turn as effete brahmin was OK tho). Armond White suggested he play Roger Ebert next.

Crowe "melted into" The Insider the way he would have playing the guy at 16 in a high school play.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)

When I think of Hoffman I think of "Love Liza" and "Happiness"... which is why I prefer not to think of him (good actor though).

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Philip Seymour Hoffman's an excellent choice. The range from Twister to Boogie Nights to Ripley to Lebowski to Punch-Drunk Love to Almost Famous is wide, and I'm sure Capote will only widen it some more.

― Phil Dellio (j.j. hunsecker), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

Any votes for De Niro? Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear?

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 6 October 2005 00:42 (twenty years ago)

Playing a live-action cartoon character makes you chameleonic?

― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 6 October 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

The range from Twister to Boogie Nights to Ripley to Lebowski to Punch-Drunk Love to Almost Famous is wide

The range between my being mildly annoyed to me wanting to throw things at the screen.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 6 October 2005 02:40 (twenty years ago)

Anthony Wong
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

― gear (gear), Thursday, 6 October 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

Last chameleonic deNiro move, I think, was Rupert Pupkin.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 6 October 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

I think all the big method guys are great (De Niro, Pacino, Brando, etc.) but not necessarily "chameleonic". Each seems to have his underlying schtick (De Niro's percolating rage, Pacino's in-your-face intensity) which they adapt for each of their films. Obviously, there are exceptions, which I'm sure you'll point out (Dustin Hoffman immediately comes to mind).

Anyway, some more suggestions: Kate Winslet, Johnny Depp.

― Jack L., Thursday, 6 October 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

I guess Dave Sheridan is pretty chameleonic.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 7 October 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

Not appreciated as such cuz he became a superstar: Peter Sellers. Watch "I'm All Right, Jack" with his being age 33 when it was made in mind.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 31 October 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

Morbius, did you see Hoffman in True West? I'd have thought that that would be a good indication of his (and Reilly's) range.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 31 October 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

Nahhh... I see very little on/near Broadway (plus I felt the '80s TV version with Sinise & Malkovich was enough for me).

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 31 October 2005 17:41 (twenty years ago)

i just read an interview w\ some rather unknown actor, forgot the name. anyway, he said that he thinks deniro looks all the same, no matter what kind of role he plays and that he doesnt get why people think he is so 'chameleonic'
i partly agree with that, although it might be due to his over-presence. guess one just gets over-familiar then.

― aeh (aeh), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

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