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[shadowkat]

Not to spam but I forget to add this in last post...was thinking about it the other day during a discussion about a Buffy actor/character who I took an instant dislike to.

The funny thing about tv series and films...is often an actor or actress can destroy the story and character. If any other actor or actress played that character - I'd be a fan.
This happened on Buffy in S7 - I took an instant dislike to DB Woodside, who is by the way an admittedly beautiful man, but his personality and mannerisms repulsed me. I realized it when I listened to his commentary and saw him in other things. If J August Young or the actor who played Trick or Taylor Diggs or Will Smith or anyone else played that role - I'd have loved him. It was DB Woodside who turned me off. Same deal with the Deschanels - Zooey and Emily - can't watch either. Doesn't matter what they are in. I turn the channel when they pop up in commercials. It's why I couldn't watch Bones or The New Girl - I couldn't stand something about them.

The opposite can also be the case...actors who will make you watch just about anything to see them perform. I have followed Anthony Stewart Head, Rutgher Hauer, Sandra Bullock,
Merly Streep, Hugh Jackman, Kevin Spacy, Dominic West, Laurence Fishborn, Samuel L. Jackson, Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh, Ralph Fiennes, and James Marsters into some weird films and tv series. Although I think I'm over Marsters, Spacey, Fishborn and Bullock - one too many bad movies.

Which brings me to actors I used to adore...and now, not so much. Mel Gibson...there's Mel before Braveheart, and oh dear, Mel after Braveheart. (I call this the actor turns director, directs himself, and unfortunately wins an oscar for his big ego piece syndrom...happened to Kevin Costner too.) Harrison Ford...who just has not aged all that well. Tom Cruise is right now in that foggy place between...but I was always somewhat ambivalent. I love him in some flicks, ambivalent about him in others. Kate Hudson, Reese Witherspoon, and Jennifer Anniston all grate on my nerves...while once upon a time I enjoyed them.

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Sometimes actors keep getting roles we don't like so we build up a serious dislike for them that can change when the roles they get change. For me Martin Sheen, Charles Bronson, and Lee Van Cleef fell into that category. There are actors like Nicholas Cage, who seem to be perfectly good character actors that are miscast as lead actors, who rub a lot of people the wrong way. I'd put Anthony Hopkins into that category for myself. It's hard to say why we sometimes don't like an actor right off the bat. Kevin Spacey was one of those for me. It's easier to say why many people don't like Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, et al, who've taken real talent and worked hard in directions many of us really were never going to like. ;o)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think there are several categories...

1) you just can't abide the actor, you don't know why...has zip to do with the role

2) It's just the role...which was the case for Michael Douglas, actually. I liked him a lot until Fatal Attraction, then he just seemed to play that role over and over again. Also Nicolas Cage...loved him in Leaving Las Vegas and Wild at Heart, but he just doesn't work as a leading man in action films.

3) Actors who were great but now have been over-exposed or in one too many bad or over-the-top roles - Anthony Hopkins and Kevin Spacey and Jack Nickalson. Great character actors, but die from over-exposure in leading man roles. Also in the case of Spacey...there's a glibness that they seem to carry from role to role.

4) Actors you used to love, but have either been badly type-cast or seem to be on-trick pony's...James Marsters comes to mind (I cringe now when I watch him...seriously why was he only good in Whedon's series?) and so does Sarah Michelle Gellar - who also was only good in Whedon's series. Is it just bad luck?

5) Actors who ...have not dealt with fame well and whose off-stage antics overshadow their roles