Stephen King’s favourite performances in Stephen King movies: “Just a fantastic job”
Adapting beloved books into movies is tricky territory. Fans will always nit-pick about whether the plot is faithful to the novel, whether the world looks like they imagined it, and whether the actors are a good fit for the characters they are portraying. A good book conjures all the images you need to feel as if you’re in the world of the story, so it’s no wonder readers often find the cinematic version to be dissonant with the one they imagined.
It must be even harder for the authors of those novels. What would Tolkien have thought of Peter Jackson’s version of The Lord of the Rings? What would Shakespeare have thought of She’s the Man? For the authors who are alive to see their work adapted to the screen more than once, there is even more opportunity to be appalled or, every once in a while, pleasantly surprised.
Stephen King has had more film adaptations of his work than any living author, and his feelings about these movies vary considerably. He famously despises Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, feeling, not surprisingly, that the auteur took considerable liberties with the source material. But he is also liberal with his praise when he thinks that a filmmaker or actor has done his work justice. Speaking to Vulture in 2017, the writer revealed which actors he felt had best brought his writing to life.
“Carla [Gugino] in Gerald’s Game is a good case in point,” he said. “She understood that character and, frankly, she played the shit out of it. Once she decided that she wanted to do it, she just went right to the wall with it. Just a fantastic job.”
Aside from Gugino, there were several others who made the list. “River Phoenix in Stand by Me was amazing,” he said. “Kathy Bates in Misery did a terrific job, and you know, Tom Jane in 1922 really did it. He really got that stiff-necked, ‘I’ll do anything to keep my land’ character. He’s terrific.”
Gerald’s Game is almost tailor-made for a tour de force performance. It follows a couple who travel to a remote cabin for a romantic getaway. The husband handcuffs his wife to the bed before they have sex, only to die of a heart attack on top of her, leaving her alone and unable to move. The set-up is simple, but stretched out over nearly an hour and 45 minutes, Gugino’s performance has to go to the extremes of emotion.
Phoenix only made a handful of movies before his untimely death at 23, but his second film, Stand By Me, showcases his raw talent as well as any of his later performances. Playing the leader of a group of young boys, he is mature beyond his years and manages to hint at the difficulties he endures at home without talking about them out loud.
Kathy Bates won an Oscar for playing the deranged fan of a novelist in 1990’s Misery, while Thomas Jane’s performance in the Netflix adaptation of 1922 is equally sinister – though in a much more understated way – as a man plotting to murder his wife.
On the other side of the coin, King was clear about the actor who he felt had not managed to capture the character on which his performance was based. “I’ve said this before,” the author said, “But Jack Nicholson in The Shining, not so much.”
