10 actors completely incapable of giving a bad performance
Even the best actors have off days. Marlon Brando had The Island of Dr Moreau, Naomi Watts had Diana, Adam Sandler had…actually, never mind. The point is, nobody bats a thousand in the thespian world.
However, while they may not always give a great performance, these ten famous faces always produce something that is at least passable. Even if the script they are working with is certified garbage, there is at least a hint of something better captured through their words and actions.
The sign of a true great is being able to do one’s best even when everyone else is falling flat. These performers have all given their A-game across multiple movies, genres, and even decades, always providing their fans a reason to turn up and buy a ticket.
Oscar winners, hilarious comedians, even voice actors—these stars never fail to show up when the chips are down.
10 infallible actors on the big screen:
Anthony Hopkins
In his prime, nobody would have questioned Sir Anthony Hopkins being included on this list. With standout performances in The Elephant Man, The Remains of the Day, The Silence of the Lambs, and more, this classically trained performer captured every aspect of human emotion like few others.
As he got older, however, Hopkins began to phone in some of his performances. Here’s the thing, though: he was still great. In recent outings like One Life, Freud’s Last Session, and even Zack Snyder’s stomach-turning Rebel Moon movies, he is easily the highlight. Even when he’s only functioning at about 60%, ‘Tony’ still acts circles around everyone else.
Florence Pugh
The rise of Florence Pugh from exciting new talent to established star to world-conquering force of nature has been as rapid as it has been heartfelt. The British actor has proven herself capable of just about everything, as evidenced by the wide variety of roles she has taken on and smashed.
A wrestler in Fighting with My Family, a woman battling cancer in We Live in Time, an antihero in Thunderbolts*, an intergalactic princess in Dune: Part Two—no matter who she’s playing, Pugh always embodies them to perfection. Considering she’s only in her 30s, it’s scary how much better she will get.
Willem Dafoe
To paraphrase Anakin Skywalker from Attack of the Clones, Willem Dafoe gets everywhere. There’s a strong chance that he’ll just turn up halfway through a movie you had no idea he was in and, even more impressively, he’ll be the best thing about it.
The gravelly-voiced star has the uncanny ability to be both utterly hilarious and deathly frightening, sometimes within the same scene. He is just as comfortable in a major blockbuster, namely Spider-Man or Finding Nemo, as he is in a bizarre arthouse joint, see Antichrist or Wild at Heart. It’s no wonder he’s become something of a good luck charm for so many iconic filmmakers.
Sally Hawkins
To most people, Sally Hawkins is the warm-hearted, comforting face of Mrs Brown in the Paddington movies, and while she is excellent in it, being the perfect candidate for this sort of inviting, family-friendly role, that’s only half the story.
Outside of ‘Paddington’ and similar performances in Wonka, Hawkins has proven herself capable of pretty much anything. She blew everyone away with her wordless turn in The Shape of Water and is currently turning heads in the A24 horror hit Bring Her Back. From kindly mother to terrifying villain, she really can do it all.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
When news broke in 2014 that Philip Seymour Hoffman had passed away, the outpouring of grief and love that it was met with showed just how great he was. The troubled star was a true titan of Hollywood; the man behind some of the greatest performances of the 21st century and, let’s face it, all time.
Through his partnership with Paul Thomas Anderson, Hoffman delivered several knockout turns. His portrayal of a sinister cult leader in The Master is still talked about in hushed tones, and with The Big Lebowski, Capote, Doubt, and The Hunger Games franchise, the great performances kept on coming. He was truly an icon and taken far too soon.
Carey Mulligan
The mark of a truly great actor is the ability to elevate a good movie to a great one. Exhibit A: Carey Mulligan in Maestro. This biopic of Leonard Bernstein (played by director Bradley Cooper) would have been fine without her, but Mulligan’s work as Felicia Montealegre, Bernstein’s wife, transports it to the next level.
This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. Mulligan always brings her A-game, be it Promising Young Woman, The Ballad of Wallis Island or Inside Llewyn Davis. You can try to find a weak link in her CV, but you won’t be able to.
Frank Oz
This one is a bit left-field, but just go with it. Frank Oz is not a face you’ll recognise, but you’ll definitely know his voice. A talented puppeteer, Oz lent his pipes to Master Yoda in the original Star Wars trilogy. He was also a key component during the early days of The Muppets, voicing and operating classic characters like Animal, Fozzie Bear, and Miss Piggy.
They may not be to everyone’s taste, but you can’t deny that Oz doesn’t always give a perfect performance. He is responsible for many iconic lines, catchphrases, and moments, none of which would have worked in the hands of a lesser actor, making him a true unsung hero.
Michelle Pfeiffer
Most people don’t even know there was a sequel to Grease, but if they do, it’s because it stars Michelle Pfeiffer. While it gets a lot of undue flak, Grease 2 is nonetheless full of problems, but Pfeiffer is not one of them. She is fantastic as the fierce Stephane Zinone, and this set the stage for the amazing career she would go on to have.
From drama with Scarface to comedy with The Fabulous Baker Boys, and whatever falls in between, Pfeiffer drags everyone else up around her. Whether she’s cracking a whip as Catwoman or Married to the Mob, if you see her face on your screen, you know you’re in for a good time.
Denzel Washington
Some people are ‘actors’, while some are ‘movie stars’. Denzel Washington is both. He can deliver a knockout emotional performance in one movie and then light up a cinema screen with a high-octane action sequence in the next. He repeatedly comes up in conversations about the greatest actors of all time, and with good reason.
He’s so good that, for most of his career, directors have been afraid to cast him as a villain. That changed with Gladiator II, in which he played the theatrically menacing Macrinus. Even though he rarely plays the baddie, he crushed this role and was easily the best part of an otherwise mediocre film.
Julia-Louis Dreyfuss
To some people, Julia-Louis Dreyfuss will always be Elaine from Seinfeld. This would have been enough to make her comedy royalty, but then she followed this up with Veep, Armando Iannucci’s satirical swipe at US politics before it started satirising itself. If you want to write her off as ‘just a comedian’, though, you’d better think again.
Dreyfuss is just as brilliant in dramatic roles. Her partnership with James Gandolfini in Enough Said resonates even more since his death, and her performance as a grief-stricken mother in Tuesday is nothing short of exceptional. Funny? Yes. Just funny? Absolutely not.
