Favorite Actors |
In two tiers:
1) in some kind of order: those I would watch in ANYTHING, though how much does the order matter, really? Understand I love these people much too much.
2) alphabetically: I would watch a movie just ’cause they’re in it, sure, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see EVERYTHING they ever did. If the distinction makes sense.
See below for further ruminating.
- KATHARINE HEPBURN
- ISABELLE HUPPERT
- GENA ROWLANDS
- IRENE DUNNE
- EMMA THOMPSON
- MIRANDA RICHARDSON
- CARY GRANT
- CARMEN MAURA
- HELEN MIRREN
- DIANE KEATON
- GARY OLDMAN
- JUDI DENCH
- GRETA GARBO
- BETTE DAVIS
- MERYL STREEP
- BARBARA STANWYCK
- CATHERINE DENEUVE
________________________________________________________
JOAN ALLEN
LAUREN BACALL
ANNE BANCROFT
ALAN BATES
HUMPHREY BOGART
RICHARD BURTON
STOCKARD CHANNING
MAURICE CHEVALIER
PATRICIA CLARKSON
CHRIS COOPER
JOAN CRAWFORD
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS
JACQUES DUTRONC
CLINT EASTWOOD
MIRIAM HOPKINS
ANJELICA HUSTON
ALLISON JANNEY
CLORIS LEACHMAN
MYRNA LOY
SHIRLEY MACLAINE
FREDRIC MARCH
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI
ROBERT MONTGOMERY
JEANNE MOREAU
PAUL NEWMAN
BILL NIGHY
DAVID NIVEN
MARISA PAREDES
WILLIAM POWELL
CLAUDE RAINS
VANESSA REDGRAVE
ALAN RICKMAN
PETER SELLERS
ALISON STEADMAN
MAGGIE SMITH
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
INGRID THULIN
LILY TOMLIN
JEAN-LOUIS TRINTIGNANT
JULIE WALTERS
JEFFREY WRIGHT
Actor love is something quite apart from everything else I love about film. Separate, and in some ways well above all else; in others, completely subordinated.
Actor love is about identification. It’s nothing shocking, then, that the vast majority of my “top tier” favorites are women; four of the top five are redheads; the majority of all picks are Anglo-American. Sometimes I take a look at my list and think my god, this is rather racist, and sexist. But really… it’s just a reflection of who I am. These are, for the most part, people whose lives and work I relate to strongly. I like FILMS from all countries, eras, genres &c, but I like ACTORS who are terribly like me. There might still be something wrong in that (narcissist, much?) but at least that’s where it’s coming from.
[I appreciate, am deeply moved, by experiences and people other than myself, but I CONNECT to people like myself. I'm sure this is wrong-ish, but what can I say? ONLY CONNECT. That's right.]
And actor love is about spectacle, the joy of watching. There are so many capable and truly excellent actors out there, but the dozens represented above give me a special thrill. Besides those I identify with, some are attractive to me, some crack me up, some just bowl me over with the sheer force of their talent. But above all they thrill me in a way that seems to confer ownership: they are MINE. I feel like I recognize something in them that not every viewer does. Every smile, every furrowed eyebrow, every tilt of the head gets to me. Even in their bad films, there is joy in watching. They have special qualities… I’d like to isolate them one by one. And perhaps I will.
Separate, and in some ways well above all else; in others, completely subordinated.
What did I mean by this? As I say, I rarely rate up or down on the basis of acting. I suppose I “suspect” my great love of actors and will not allow it to “taint” my feelings about any film. And so: in honesty, actors might be the most personally thrilling thing about films to me, but in judging films they matter least. There are cases when a particular star’s iconography makes or breaks a film, and bad acting — or acting out of character with a film — always harms. But my love for these people exists in a kind of bubble, for me alone. It doesn’t generally have to do with my feelings about the film as a larger entity.
This post said nothing really, but I’m passing time till I can choke down this drink and probably above all I’m self-conscious about the % of old white ladies. 
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