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When an actor is offered to get acquainted with a new script, he, of course, cannot know in advance whether the film will “shoot”, because even the most promising and pre-advertised films very often fail at the box office. Neither the well-known name of the director, nor even the “star” cast can guarantee success.
And you and I know very well very good actors who regularly “get into” bad films: remember, for example, Halle Berry in “Catwoman”, Jessica Alba in “Fantastic Four”, George Clooney in “Batman and Robin”, Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum, but Nicolas Cage in a variety of films has not yet been “ridden” only by the lazy.
But there are actors in Hollywood who almost never make mistakes in choosing successful (and successful) roles. Do they have some kind of “sixth sense”, or …
Or maybe the dependence here is just the opposite: sometimes a film becomes good (even if it initially had problems: “sagging” of the script, some illogicality in the behavior of the characters, not too cool special effects, etc.) precisely because is it played by especially talented actors who, with their skill and skillful improvisation, pull it to a much higher level? How to know…
So, here are 10 actors who almost never made a mistake in choosing a future role:
10 Joseph Gordon-Levitt
This guy got his first role at the age of seven (in the TV movie “Not a Step Back”), and since then not a single film (or series) with his participation has turned out to be a failure or rejected by the audience. He is excellent at choosing scripts, preferring to shoot with talented independent directors.
To date, he has behind him, including participation in several “high-profile” projects: the role of Tom Hansen in “500 Days of Summer” by Mark Webb, Philippe Petit in “The Walk” by Robert Zemeckis, Arthur’s guide in “Inception” and detective John Blake in The Dark Knight Rises by Christopher Nolan, etc.
True, for the sake of his directorial debut (filming the film The Passion of Don Juan), Gordon-Levitt turned down the role in Django Unchained, which DiCaprio ended up playing. And this is perhaps his first mistake in his career. Though…
9. Joaquin phoenix
Another actor whose participation in the film is a real “sign of quality”. He is a four-time Golden Globe nominee (and winner), a three-time Oscar nominee, and so on.
Since 1995 (with the role in the film “To Die For” – the third in his career), Phoenix has chosen exclusively high-quality scripts.
He became world-famous for the roles of Abbé du Colmière in Philip Kaufmann’s Feather of the Marquis de Sade, Emperor Commodus in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, Lucius Hunt in The Mysterious Forest and Merrill Hess in Signs.
Night M. Shyamalan, journalist Jack Daglish in Terry George’s Hotel Rwanda, country star Johnny Cash in James Mangold’s Walk the Line, and so on.
8. Tom Hanks
But just the case when one presence in the frame twice “Oscar” (for the roles of Forrest Gump and Andrew Beckett in “Philadelphia”), four-time Golden Globe winner, seven-time Emmy Award, etc. (and in general the beloved “American Dad”) – a guarantee that the film will definitely receive recognition from the audience.
Tom Hanks, who once started his acting career with small roles on television and light comedies, very quickly managed to prove to everyone that he is a very versatile and serious actor. (After the masterpiece Forrest Gump, no one had the slightest doubt about this).
Hanks still takes some of his films a notch higher than they could be with sheer charisma.
7. Вигго Мортенсен
Of course, we all know the American actor with Danish roots Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr., first of all, as Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings. After the real triumph of this great Peter Jackson trilogy, some of Mortensen’s newfound fans were surprised to learn that he has actually been in production for many years, and most of the films in his filmography are very famous.
It’s just that at the beginning of his career, Viggo was offered mainly secondary roles (moreover, negative characters), and later he himself began to choose mainly deep and “characteristic” roles in films by independent directors (in which, by the way, his obvious acting talent was revealed especially brightly), so he was not so well known to the general public.
And after the “Lord of the Rings” came the “same” fame. And since then, Viggo Mortensen has been choosing exceptionally successful films (but still quite difficult roles).
6. Daniel Day-Lewis
There are less than 30 pictures in Day-Lewis’ full filmography (quite atypical for a real star, isn’t it?). He is rarely filmed (once every 3-5 years), and all just because he is very careful in choosing roles.
And yet, he is so far the only actor in the history of the American Film Academy, who won the Oscar for Best Actor 3 (!) times. Surely, this is due to the fact that Daniel Day-Lewis is a staunch supporter of the Stanislavsky system, and sometimes he “gives all the best” on the set that he earns serious health problems.
His main roles (which brought Day-Lewis fame as one of the best actors in the world): Christy Brown in the drama directed by Jim Sheridan “My Left Foot”, President Lincoln in the film of the same name by Steven Spielberg, Bill “The Butcher” Cutting in “Gangs of New York” Martin Scorsese, etc.
5. Benicio Del Toro
This Puerto Rican-born actor has a typical (and memorable) “bad boy” appearance. At the beginning of his career, he mainly played villains (as well as their henchmen and bodyguards), drug lords and other completely “frostbitten” characters. But, since Benicio Del Toro did all this very convincingly, gradually they began to invite him to dramatic projects.
The most “star” in Del Toro’s career was the role of Dr. Gonzo in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Terry Gilliam, Frankie “Four Fingers” in “The Big Jackpot” by Guy Ritchie, Javier Rodriguez in “Traffic” by Steven Soderbergh (by the way, – “Oscar” for Best Supporting Actor”), Jack Jordan in the drama “21 Grams” by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, etc.
4. Kevin Spacey
Now in the life and career of Kevin Spacey, everything is very difficult because of a series of allegations of sexual harassment that thundered not so long ago against a number of Hollywood actors and directors, including this talented artist. Despite the fact that he finally frankly admitted that he did not even think of molesting any woman, since he is gay, this, alas, did not help him very much.
Meanwhile, Spacey is twice an Oscar winner, the owner of the Golden Globe and several other prestigious film awards. He, too, is always picky about his scripts (and loves to play weird or ambiguous characters).
The most famous films with the participation of Kevin Spacey: “Seven” by David Fincher (where he played the role of John Doe), “American Beauty” by Sam Mendes (the role of Lester Burnham), “Planet Ka-Pax” by Ian Softley (alien Prot, aka Robert Porter), “Horrible Bosses” by Seth Gordon (“nut” Dave Harkin), etc.
3. Leonardo DiCaprio
Who really has a role, a masterpiece! Not only is Leonardo DiCaprio very good at choosing scripts, he also skillfully “finishes” each of his characters in the process of filming, makes him more realistic and “alive”, constantly improvising, arguing with directors to the point of hoarseness and literally dissolving in his next role. .
Well, now that Leo, without any questions, is a star of the first magnitude, having a rather big fortune, he can afford to produce exactly those films in which he himself wants to star.
In fact, DiCaprio no longer needs to prove anything to anyone – everyone already knows perfectly well that he can play anyone and anything (the evidence is his 4 Oscar nominations and finally, on the fifth attempt, he received a golden statuette for the role of Hugh Glass in The Revenant, as well as three Golden Globes and 8 more nominations for this award, etc., etc.).
Just in case, the main films of DiCaprio: “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”, “Titanic”, “Gangs of New York”, “The Wolf of Wall Street”, “The Aviator”, “The Departed”, “The Great Gatsby”, ” Beginning”, etc.
2. Tim Roth
Briton Timothy Simon Smith (this is the real name of Tim Roth) was really lucky – once he was noticed and taken on the role of Mr. Orange in the film “Reservoir Dogs” by now cult director Quentin Tarantino. It was from this that his real – Hollywood – career began.
No, in fact, Tim Roth had very successful roles before that (otherwise he would not have been able to attract the attention of Tarantino), for example, Vincent van Gogh in the film Vincent and Theo by Robert Altman, Giddenstern in the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern dead” by Tom Stoppard, etc.
Since then, Tim Roth has taken part in more than 60 projects, most of which were very favorably received by the audience (including two more Tarantino films: Pulp Fiction and 4 Rooms). The most notable of them were “Trapped”, “Little Odessa”, “Deceive Me”, “Kill the King”, “Princess of Monaco”, “The Hateful Eight”, etc.
1. Christoph Waltz
And another “godson” of Quentin Tarantino is the Austrian Christoph Waltz who appeared in Hollywood as if from nowhere. In fact, in his homeland (Austria), Waltz has been filming since the 1970s (mainly in detective series).
But he was in no hurry to go to Hollywood, not without reason assuming that here he, an actor with a German accent, would be given exclusively the role of Nazis.
And yet, apparently, Waltz could not resist the famous Tarantino, agreeing to the role of SS Standartenführer Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. And bingo! – for this superbly played character (really, a rare, but very charming bastard), Waltz immediately received an Oscar, a Golden Globe and several other prestigious awards!
And it began: “Django Unchained” by the same Tarantino (the role of Dr. King Schulz), “Water for Elephants” (the circus owner is a scoundrel August Rosenbluth), “Big Eyes” (Walter Keane), “In Short” (Dusan Mirkovic), etc. Christoph Waltz is organic in any role, because he is really very talented. And films with his participation are excellent “go to the viewer.”