Stop Hatin’, Start Participatin’
Topic:
Top Ten actors that were born to play a role
(In no particular order)
10.- Hugh Jackman, Wolverine, “X-Men”. (Fun Fact: Favourite curse word is “Bullshit”, favourite word is “Panache”. Wanted to name his first son Bullshit Panache, which prompted his wife to cut off her ovaries. Gave up and adopted a girl.)
9.- Bruce Campbell, Ash J. Williams, “The Evil Dead”. (Fun Fact: Recorded a full-length commentary for the Bubba Ho-Tep DVD… In character, as Elvis.)
8.- Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. (Fun Fact: Used to be a carpenter before he became an actor, met George Lucas while building a shoe-rack for George’s wife.)
7.- Christopher Reeve, Superman/Clark Kent, “Superman”. (Fun Fact: I cried when he died.)
6.- Keanu Reeves, Neo, “The Matrix”. (Fun Fact: Says “Whoa” a lot.)
5.- Brad Pitt, Tyler Durden, “Fight Club”. (Fun Fact: Him being straight is proof that God hates fags.)
4.- John Cusack, Rob Gordon in “High Fidelity”. (Fun Fact: Has starred in more movies with Jeremy Piven than with his sister, which makes him more likely to be gay than incestous.)
3.- Ian McKellen, Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings”. (Fun Fact: Loves cock.)
2.- Bill Murray, Dr. Peter Venkman in “Ghostbusters”. (Fun Fact: While studying pre-med, he was busted for marijuana posession, after which he dropped out of college.)
1.- Samuel L. Jackson, Jules Winnfield in “Pulp Fiction”. (Fun Fact: The L. stands for “Leroy”)
I left a bunch out. I’m sure you guys can help me out.
Blind Willie wrote:
Fun fact # 5: Brilliant.
My two cents:
Tom Cruise: Cocktail. Here we have an incredibly obnoxious guy, ideal for this incredibly obnoxious movie. My only regret is that this is not a gay porn movie (cock-tail). Obnoxious gay people deserves Tom Cruise as a spoke person).
Harrison Ford as Han Solo. (To me, he’s among the top 3 coolest movie characters of all time).
Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. I don’t know if this guy was born to play this role, but whenever I think about a great acting job, this one always come to mind. There are plenty of other acting jobs that demanded a more dramatic display of its character, but whenever I see this picture, I have to focus to NOT forget that Martin Landau is not Bela Lugosi.
There, 3 for now. More to come.
Posted 14 Oct 2005 at 5:56 pm ¶
Chalito wrote:
great topic mate! Althoug Cusack as rob gordon is way off…cause I truly beleive that he’s just playing himself! (love the character though).
My top 5 in no particular order(without repeating…Reeve and Pitt are definately on my list):
5- Bruce Willis as John McLane (Yippie Kai Eay Motherfucker!)
4- Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone (obvious choise..yes, but no one can deny he was born for that).
3- Jason Statham as Turkish (cool enough to beat Bullet Tooth Tony)
2- Al Pacino as Tony Montana (honorary mention to his portray of Lt. Cnl. Frank W. Slade, my favorite movie character ever).
1- Gary Sinise as Lt. Dan Taylor (Lt. Dan rules!)
I’m sure 10 minutes from now I’ll remember someone who had to be in my list…oh well…
Posted 15 Oct 2005 at 1:19 am ¶
Chalito wrote:
ok, definately on my list: Jason Lee as Banky Edwards…told you I would remember someone else…
Posted 15 Oct 2005 at 1:28 am ¶
Chito wrote:
I agree with all.
Here are my two cents.
- Sean Connery as James Bond (pick one)
- Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite in Napoleon Dynamite
- Ewan McGregor as Renton in Trainspotting
- Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker in Spider-Man
- Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura in Ace Ventura (only the first)
- Johnny Depp as Cpt. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribean
- Kevin Spacey as “Verbal” Kint in The Usual Suspects
- Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs
- Chris Tucker as Ruby Rod in The Fifth Element
- Patrick Steward as Cpt. Jean Luc Picard in Star Treck Next Generation
- Nicolas Cage as Sailor in Wild At Heart
- Toshiro Mifune as Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai
- Ellen DeGeneres as Dory in Finding Nemo
- Morgan Freeman as Detective Lt. William Somerset in Se7en
- Jean Reno as Leon in Leon (the professional)
- Jack Nicholson as Jake “J.J.” Gittes in Chinatown
- Mickey Rourke as Marv in Sin City
I could go on an on, but I thinks that enough (for now). I don´t wanna bore you to death :Þ
Posted 15 Oct 2005 at 3:31 am ¶
Chase Ransom wrote:
I think we have gone off track. Chito looks like he is listing all the well played roles. Which is fine (and with most I agree). However, I think the idea is that “nobody else could have played that better and there is no other role that person will ever do more on the money than that one”. Am I right about what the gist is?
I have to side with Willie on Harrison Ford. He is great at being Indiana Jones, but unfortunately to me it always feels like I am watching Han Solo play some other dude. Enough said.
So here goes my list (including the ones I agree with from your lists):
1. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
2. Harrison Ford as Han Solo
3. Christopher Reeve as Superman: He’s dead?
4. Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield
5. Tom Cruise would have to be either Risky Business or Color of Money. I go for Risky Business
6. Bruce Willis as John McLane
7. Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite
8. Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura
9. Owen Wilson in every movie he plays the “buddy” in (in other words every one of his movies).
10. Sam Waterson as Jack McCoy (Law & Order) (TV doesnt count?)
11. Sylverster Stallone as Rocky Balboa
12. Jerry Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld (in a show about nothing)
13. Same thing to be said about Kramer
14. and about George Costanza
15. Mike Myers as Dr. Evil/Austin Powers (as Wayne Campbell a very close second worth mentioning)
16. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs
17. Shatner as …well what we all now refer to Shatner (you could replace Nimoy)
18. Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer as (respectively) David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls in This is Spinal Tap
19. Uma Thurman as The Bride in the Kill Bill Vl 1 & 2
20. which brings us to the dude (Devid Carradine) that wasnt born to play the part - HE WAS Kung Fu
21. Richard Dreyfuss as the dude that goes nutty and ends up getting invited about the alien ship in Close Encouters of the Third Kind
22. Some might say Angelina Jollie as Lara Croft (where else could I put her?)
23. Matthew Lillard as Emmanuel Goldstein AKA Cereal Killer in Hackers
24. Denzel Washington is perhaps the best of not one of the best actors in the 21 century thus far, and his role as Creasy in Man on Fire was insane. I doubt anybody else could have done it, and I dont know that he could surpass it.
and finally (for now cuz I DO HAVE A LIFE you know)
25. Christopher Walken as music producer Bruce Dickinson in the SNL skit about Blue Oyster Cult and “Cowbell”. (any doubts go to http://www.ojaiwan.net/audio/cowbell.wmv and witness the genius).
F it.
Posted 16 Oct 2005 at 11:49 pm ¶
Chase Ransom wrote:
Oops, dude your info cookied into my puter so that last comment (and you might want to back reference the latest I’ve done) show your name.
I have since corrected the problem.
F it again
Posted 16 Oct 2005 at 11:50 pm ¶
Chito wrote:
Ok, I might have gone a little bit off track with my list, so I´ll just name one more, someone who was just right, couldn´t-have-pick-anyone-better to play that part, and that was: Jeff Bridgess as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski in the Big Lebowski. I cannot see anybody else playing that part. Also, The Dude is one of the best characters in movie history.
Posted 17 Oct 2005 at 5:28 am ¶
alvarete wrote:
I was actually coming to comment on chito’s list. Yes, what I meant was “Nobody else could’ve played that role”. Which, in my mind, obliterates his list. Perhaps with this in mind, a re-write is appropriate. :)
I actually thought about adding Uma Thurman and David Carradine to the list, but I was thinking more along the lines of “classic characters”. I’m sure a couple years down the line we will re-discover Kill Bill as the masterpiece that it is. Same with Spinal Tap. Those guys are pure genius, even today when they do the odd TV appearance or “world Tour”. (Loose use of quotations there.)
Finally, yes, The Dude (or “El Nota” as it’s known in Spain) is one of the best characters known to man. God bless the Cohen Brothers.
If I had to think about mainstream leftovers, the list would probably look as follows:
Arnold Schwarznegger in Terminator. Ironically, He Will Not Be Back.
Michael Dougles in Wall Street. From then on, whenever a movie script called for a Millionaire Bastard his name was always at the top of the casting call.
Jackie Chan in any Jackie Chan role. The man is made out of rubber, punches bounce off him, he shoots fireballs from his eyes and lightning bolts from his arse. It might be the other way around, but I skipped Martial Art God Scatology 101.
Gary Oldman as Stansfield in Léon. Please, bring him everyone. Yes, everyone.
Zach Braff as Dr. James Dorian. Plus, he named his Garden State character Andrew Largeman, depriving a porn actor somewhere of a stage name.
Posted 17 Oct 2005 at 12:13 pm ¶
Chase Ransom wrote:
I was also going to add Mike Douglas as Gordon Gecko, just that my list was getting too long. Also add there:
- Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley
- Steve Buscemi as every/any il-adapted, psycho, creepy individual
- Chris Farley as Tommy Boy
- Jon Stewart as the ultra liberal fake news journalist and controversial political pundit (Al Franken and Dennis Miller both tried unsuccesfully)
F it
Posted 17 Oct 2005 at 1:59 pm ¶
Blind Willie wrote:
How about James Earl Jones as Darth Vader’s voice. Does he get credit for that?
Robert De Niro as Louis Cypher in Angel’s Heart. (Hands down, greatest devil/voodoo stuff movie of all time. Arguably, greatest devil personification of all time).
Al Pacino as Roy Cohn in Angels In America (Hey, it’s not TV, it’s HBO!…Pacino redeems himself after a series of bad performances. I though James Wood was good portraying Roy Cohn, but this guy showed me the difference between good and great).
It’s easy to step off the track. I’ve erased a lot of actors because even though they gave a wonderful performance, it just wasn’t in a “born to do this” kind of way.
Posted 17 Oct 2005 at 3:47 pm ¶
Schiz Cum Snake wrote:
I would add:
- Doug Bradley as Pinhead (ominous judge from hell, one of my few favorites)
- Ian Mc Diarmid as Darth Sidious (nuff’ said)
- Jack Nicholson as either Daryl Van Horne, Jack Torrance or… (he was born to play any role where he can capitalize his lunatic face)
- Heather Matarazzo as Dawn Wiener (R.I.P)
- Gorgeous George as himself (well, this fat piece of lard is not an actual movie actor, but you have to give him points for mastering the art of being a giant douchebag).
Posted 17 Oct 2005 at 6:22 pm ¶
alvarete wrote:
I wanted to have George Clooney in there somewhere. Oceans 11, maybe? I also loved his Oh Brother, Where Are Thou character…
Decisions…
Posted 18 Oct 2005 at 5:02 pm ¶
Blind Willie wrote:
I think you might have stepped a bit over the line a with that last comment. Don’t get me wrong, I dig the guy, but Danny Ocean’s character might have been played by a handfull of other actors. I’d personally take Steve Mc Queen over Clooney for that part.
It seems we’ve been avoiding the James Bond topic in purpose. It maybe because there is no contest, but just to put it in print, and because I do want to know WHO in his right mind will deny the title to the pride of Edinburgh, Sir Sean Connery. I grew watching Roger Moore and I thought he was great, but then again I was less than 12 and I didn’t knew any better. Sean Connery isn’t only the deffinitive Bond, but the premier secret agent ever.
Posted 18 Oct 2005 at 7:05 pm ¶
Chase Ransom wrote:
I had also given Clooney a bunch of thought, and I cant seem to place him in anything. We will just have to assume he hasnt found that role just yet.
How about Brandon Lee in The Crow? Wasnt born for it? He died in it. Cant get much more foretelling than that.
F it.
Posted 18 Oct 2005 at 11:27 pm ¶
alvarete wrote:
George Clooney would’ve been a perfect Mr. Fantastic, but then again, considering the quality of the end product, he can thank god he didn’t have anything to do with that turd. At one poiunt, it had Peyton Reed (Bring It On) and George Clooney attached, but then it turned to ass. Oh well..
Brandon Lee is solid as The Crow, and since he won’t be doing any more acting, it’s a good choice. Then again, I have a soft spot for “Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children”.
Is that gasoline I smell?
Posted 19 Oct 2005 at 4:09 pm ¶
Chase Ransom wrote:
I feel like a little worm on a big fucking hook?
Heeere funboy…….
F it I love that movie
Posted 19 Oct 2005 at 6:13 pm ¶
alvarete wrote:
Almost forgot Ron Perlman as Hellboy. And a Partridge in A Pear Tree!
Posted 19 Oct 2005 at 9:55 pm ¶
Penny Dreadful wrote:
I don’t know if i could say he was born to play the role but i really really can’t imagine his character with another face: Mickey Rourke as Marv in Sin City.
Posted 19 Oct 2005 at 10:50 pm ¶
Chito wrote:
I got someone else wich I know some people agree with me: Michela Pare as Cody in Streets Of Fire. I fucking love that movie and that´s been the best character he´s ever played. Too bad he crashed and burned after that. Also Diane Lane has never looked better.
Posted 20 Oct 2005 at 12:08 am ¶
Chase Ransom wrote:
Chito you are a God. That has to be my all time favorite since I was a kid and yes she is haught!
F it.
Posted 20 Oct 2005 at 1:16 pm ¶
Blind Willie wrote:
Great call. For the record, after that movie two things happened: 1) the inevitable: Swept off my feet by the un-frickin-believable beauty of Diane Lane.
2) I stopped trying to imitate Han Solo. I swear I never forgave my father for not giving me a switch blade for Christmas.
How ’bout that Willem Dafoe? Isn’t he the quintessential bad guy? He’s good here, but his character in “To Live And Die in L.A.” (great movie by the way), was superb.
Posted 20 Oct 2005 at 3:40 pm ¶
edipa wrote:
I´ve been thinking all day about these, I agreed in the most of the names, but maybe we have to point put a difference between rolls that are made specifically for some actors, like Kill Bill, I don´t know but I suspect that Tarantino wrote all those characters thingking in the actors to play them. Because for me they´re all perfect for the job, I loved Daryl Hanna, was the best surprise I think she´s underated …. and Jeff Bridges in the Big Lebowski.
I preffer Clooney as a director I really like confessions of a dangerous mind, and that brings another great actor born for a roll, San Rockwell, he was playing someone that use to exist so that make him elegiable , I guess.
Posted 20 Oct 2005 at 6:56 pm ¶
Chito wrote:
I have a conflict of interest when it come to the quintessential bad guy between Willem Defoe and Gary Oldman. Those two have played more bad guys than anyone I can remember. Maybe we should made a stand off between Boby Peru (Defoe in Wild at Heart) and Stansfield (Oldman in The Professional) and see who would be the last man standing.
Posted 20 Oct 2005 at 7:48 pm ¶
Chase Ransom wrote:
I am still entranced by the memories of Streets of Fire. Ah yes, the soundtrack. I shall watch it for old times sake.
“They always hire bums like me for jobs like this”
F it.
Posted 20 Oct 2005 at 11:03 pm ¶
alvarete wrote:
Come on, the quintessential Bad Guy ™ is Cruella De Ville. The woman kills puppies, for fuck’s sake! To make a coat. If there’s a hell, Cruella’s picks you up at the door and shows you around. Because she belongs there. That said, I’m sure the Best Villain discussion will pop up on the front page at some other place in time…
Posted 21 Oct 2005 at 10:02 am ¶
Chase Ransom wrote:
Speaking of villains and roles born to play - I know it might sound like a low blow for an actor of this caliber, but:
Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor: When he asks Otis “Do you know why the number 200 is so descriptive of both you and me? Its both your weight and my IQ”. HE IS BRILLIANT!
F it
Posted 22 Oct 2005 at 8:44 pm ¶
Schiz Cum Snake wrote:
Hugo Weaving, he is almost perfect as Agent Smith. And that girl that played Gogo Yubari in KB was amazing.
Posted 24 Oct 2005 at 7:50 am ¶
alvarete wrote:
Agreed on Hugo Weaving. Is anyone else excited about V for Vendetta? I saw the trailer last night, and it looks not awful. That’s saying a lot for a movie that got disowned by the original graphic novel’s writer, Alan Moore. And this is the same man that was involved with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!
Posted 24 Oct 2005 at 8:41 am ¶
Hiscariotte wrote:
I always thought Malcolm McDowell was born to play Alex in A clockwork orange; he’s great too in Caligula, but I can’t imagine anyone else as Alex.
Posted 02 Nov 2005 at 12:24 am ¶