Robin Williams - His smarmy, saccharine, “golly gee, let me tell you how wonderful the universe is” shlock that he brings to nearly every role is beyond bearable. The only redemption is when he plays a creepy villian, as in “Insomnia”, where all that energy then becomes invasive in a real and insidious way – he is still aggrevating, “good” or “bad”.
Winona Rider - Her whiny, eyelash batting, clinging waif ways, her inability to master more than an outline of a character, overwhelm even the most brilliant directorial attempts to use her actress limitations as a strength - such as “Dracula” and “Age of Innocence” (both fine films). She cloys on the eyes and heart and ears to such an extent, its hard to watch her even when she is playing an emotional idiot of some sort.
Keanu Reeves - He’s a great action hero (he’s mastered the “bewildered everyman” and “all powerful badass” looks), and he can play himself well (as in, comedy), but please please dont ever let him act again.
The cast of ‘friends’, etc - American comedy has hit rock bottom and they still just love to dig. “Dodgeball”, “Meet the parents”, “Along came polly”, et cetera ad capus explodum.
Natalie Portman and Hayden ChristensenI feel for Natalie here, the script was terrible, but really, suicide was probably the more honourable option. Mostly I hate Hayden for snogging Ms. Portman, but also because he is incredibly detestable in his own right for playing a whiney little arrogant child slaying twit far too well.
"Keanu Reeves - He’s a great action hero (he’s mastered the “bewildered everyman” and “all powerful badass” looks),
I know exactly what you mean, but I think that this perception is largely a product of roles early in his career. I think he found his “niche” and he certainly carried the Matrix series – which even if you didn’t like it, you have to admit was engaging at least half of its running time. Anybody that can turn “Whoa” into an articulate expression of human pathos has to have some credit . But I know how it is, if someone aggravates you, they aggravate you, and that’s about it.
Heather Graham - talentless, absolutely talentless. Unless you call a thin body and a gigantic head talent. She played opposite Johnny Depp in “From Hell” and was exposed for her inability to do drama; she played opposite Mike Myers in “Austin Powers” Pt. 2 and was exposed for her inability to do comedy, she played opposite Matt LeBlanc in Lost in Space and was both outacted and exposed as a hack…
Owen Wilson - his nasal voice alone is worthy of the utmost contempt!
Dunamis, I think that you are right about Robin Williams playing the bad guy better… I liked him in “One Hour Photo,” in “Insomniac” and in “Death to Smoochy.” Which, by the way, Smoochy was a great movie…
Hey hey hey! Keanu is very sexy, that is good enough. OK, he’s not Jean-Marc Barr (Big Blue) who is the sexiest man alive but he will most certainly do.
No no no, i do actually love him as an action movie star, Matrix, Constantine, Johnny Mnemonic, etc are all good. But if you’ve ever seen Dracula; his straight acting is terrible (fortunately Gary Oldman is awesome), like eye bleedingly bad. Maybe he’s gotten better with experience, but i’d rather have a hydrochloric acid enema than find out.
John Travolta - he is as unconvincing at acting as Scientology is unconvincing at science and truth. He was our generation’s version of that joke Ashton Kusher: that is John Travolta was simply a pretty boy that attained the status of “cool” amid Americans that has launched a string of movies. Admittedly, I love Vincent in Pulp Fiction but I am uncertain if that was the movie script or JT… (it was the script).
Meg Ryan - “Isn’t she beautiful?” Yeah so what ??? Is there anything more? She has no range, no flexibility. Every part is a version of her previous part with a string of movies where she plays America’s Sweetheart… the hopeless romantic waiting to find the right opportunity, the chance of a lifetime… gimme a break!
Dunamis, I really liked “The Royal Tenenbaums” but I much prefer the other Wilson brother: Luke.
Julia Roberts - she can do anything from a romantic comedy film to a comedic romance film. Who the fuck decided she could act? I want to know how many Academy members she slept with to earn her the Best Actress award. Toni Collette should have been nominated as Best Actress but the bullshit Academy tossed her a supporting nomination… or how about Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry {not nominated} or even Annette Bening (yum) deserved it more Someone decided that little miss Hollywood Royalty needed to get the win… OF COURSE she would win going up against movies like. Of all the annoying actresses, she is number one on my list.
She is very pretty though… and has a lovely, dreamy smile.
she can do anything from a romantic comedy film to a comedic romance film…She is very pretty though… and has a lovely, dreamy smile.
Never one to enjoy when posters of the OP try to steer the thread - -, let the thread go where it wants, but I suppose that I imagined that this thread would somehow become a list of actors who one can’t stand seeing on the screen, and would probably avoid seeing a movie they were cast in solely for that reason, and why. Thirst, this was an awfully complimentary post for the Most Aggravating Actress category. Don’t you think that if one can convey an mesmerizing persona consistently on the screen, that is acting - in the old Hollywood star tradition - though perhaps not in the one-must-completely-metamorphize-oneself recent aesthetic?
Dunamis
p.s. I kinda liked her in “Closer”, did you see it?
LMAO… sorry Dunamis. I forgot to include a smilie after that statement.
It should have read: She is very pretty though… and has a lovely, dreamy smile.
In any case, I never avoid movies because of annoying/terrible actors. In fact, I probably watch, on average, nearly a third of the movies in wide theatrical release during their theatrical run and then rent the other two-thirds some time later. I intersperse it with various foreign films and indies. Basically, movies are an obsession of mine (mainly because I have a lot of time). Basically, I will watch movies that I know are going to be terrible because I can then make fun of them… for example, I have recently watched these films:
The Fog, Prime, Just Like Heaven, The Transporter 2, A History of Violence, Elizabethtown
-Thirst
P.S. Yeah, she wasn’t terrible in Closer… but the other actors outperformed her. More than anything, I liked the character in Closer… she was a depressive, “fucked up slag.” Who wouldn’t like her?
Edit: I often say that Action Actors can’t be judged by the same standards as “real actors.” So you have a point that a mesmerizing persona is acting… still though, was Vivien Leigh acting in that sense or did she make that role hers?
“In any case, I never avoid movies because of annoying/terrible actors.”
I can see why you interpret the subject differently then. There are plenty of unquestionably bad actors that I don’t find annoying or aggrevating - Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Gardner are good examples - and there are plenty of excellent actors that do aggravate me – for instance Meryl Streep’s constant transformations, and Pacino and De Niro’s comic book excellence both have started to grate on me – De Niro especially. I have no problem watching really bad movies either. Its just that some movie actors’ personas are indigestable, for reasons that seem to extend beyond the issue of talent. Of course this may be a view that others do not share.
Dunamis, in that case, I choose Heather Graham. She really spoils a movie for me… I probably would avoid a movie with her even if a favorite actor of mine was in it. She truly inspires within me such disdain and nearly genuine hatred one would think I knew her personally…
Steven Seagal - If you can even call him an actor. And he is aggrivating because the rental shop down in the street has it’s own Steven Seagal section, just walking past those “Iron face” Covers is scary. I think Keenu Reeves must be a Steven Seagal “one expression” mark or something.
But it makes for good parody, so there is of course a good side to it.
Steven Seagal - If you can even call him an actor.
This makes me laugh. To watch his hairline receed towards that ponytail, the pounds pile on, and the slow-motion photography take over in his Aikido “demonstrations” has been a special treat.
Katie Holmes - I used to fancy her because during my adolescence I had a thing for a friend of mine who wasn’t unlike the character of Joey in Dawson’s Creek. I only watched the show (which was regurgitatingly emotive and anally scripted) because it gave me an easy ice-breaker in conversations with this girl. Consequently (as a sort of pitiful by-product of my adoration for the girl) I developed an affection for Katie Holmes.
But she’s an authentically abysmal actor. Her smile is perpetually lop-sided, an expression that gets all the more peverse and unsettling the older she gets, and her eyes look like two elves are having a race with two miniature bicycle pumps to see who can pop their eye first…
Add to that her genuinely comical choice of husband and inability to avoid taking roles that are wafer-thin reprisals of her character in Dawson’s Creek and you’ve got the recipe for one sick puppy. And you know what the management consultants tell you. Shoot the puppy.
. But I know how it is, if someone aggravates you, they aggravate you, and that’s about it.
