The one and only actor Kurt Russell called the greatest in Hollywood: “Absolutely the best”
It’s common knowledge that Kurt Russell believes Marlon Brando is the single greatest actor in cinema history, but seeing as he’s been dead since 2004, somebody had to step up and seize the mantle of being the finest living thespian in the Escape from New York and The Thing star’s eyes.
As fate would have it, he wasn’t searching for long. Just three months after Brando passed away, Russell spent his first day on set with the pretender to the iconic and two-time Academy Award-winning legend’s throne. Almost two decades later, and his stance still hadn’t shifted on their acting prowess.
He did once call Meryl Streep the closest thing the industry had to its latest Brando, but it’s not her. She’s definitely in the all-time bracket, but the king of the cult classic’s prime candidate for the most talented performer in the entire business comes from much further out of left field than any of the usual suspects.
When you let your mind wander to the greatest living actors, names like Streep, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Anthony Hopkins frequently come up. As far as Russell was concerned, though, his scene partner in a formulaic horse flick is the cream of the crop.
Once he caught wind of his Death Proof and The Hateful Eight director, Quentin Tarantino, auditioning a cavalcade of young stars for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, he gave one of them the most ringing endorsement imaginable. “Quentin, Dakota Fanning is the best actress in Hollywood,” he told him. “She is absolutely the best actress in Hollywood. She is the best.”
Fanning was only ten years old when she collaborated with Russell on 2005’s Dreamer, but he was sufficiently blown away. To be fair, she was hardly a newcomer by then, having already worked on Washington’s Man on Fire, De Niro’s Hide and Seek, Sean Penn’s I Am Sam, and Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds.
When Tarantino put her through her paces as Manson Family member Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, and she impressed him by teaching herself not to blink at any point during the audition, he couldn’t help but agree. “Kurt is right,” he marvelled. “She’s the best actress in Hollywood. She is obviously doing this. She has trained her eyes not to blink.”
Is Dakota Fanning the best actor in Hollywood? In a word, no. Is she a good actor? Of course she is. Is she one of her generation’s best? Absolutely, and despite barely being in her 30s, she’s got almost 25 years of experience to prove it. Then again, Russell has probably forgotten more about Tinseltown than most people will ever learn in a career that dates back to the early 1960s, so he’s more qualified to comment.
Her Once Upon a Time in Hollywood director concurred, too, so maybe it’s not that far-fetched after all. Fanning’s name wouldn’t be on the tip of anyone’s tongue were the conversation to turn to cinema’s greatest living actor, but if two talents of Tarantino and Russell’s calibre, status, and reputation think she is, then perhaps there’s more than a nugget of truth to it.
