The “fucking breathtaking” actor who became Joel Edgerton’s biggest influence
Joel Edgerton might not have reached “fucking breathtaking” heights as an actor himself just yet, but his career is one of those slow burns that could well ignite into something great.
From the small role as Anakin’s uncle in the Star Wars prequels, he’s gone on to star in the likes of Zero Dark Thirty, The Great Gatsby and The Green Knight, and just this year, he appeared in The Plague, which premiered in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ selection of the Cannes Film Festival, receiving an 11-minute standing ovation (when do they not), and was touted as the “the hottest American film of the year” by Charli XCX (weird turn of phrase for a film about a teenage water polo club, but I digress).
He’s an actor who’s been working steadily, quite often quietly in the background, but touts a filmography that’s diverse and interesting, just the way he likes it. “I think a real actor ego in me likes to think that people can look back and see a lot of diversity in choice but also of characters,” he told The Independent.
For him, it’s not about putting on a ton of prosthetics or going full method actor and losing a lot of weight, but it’s about playing a diverse array of characters that will allow him to change energetically, more than physically, and it was Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s career that inspired this endeavour.
“Philip Seymour Hoffman did that for me,” he explained, noting, “Look at the difference to his character in Boogie Nights to the difference to his character in Punch Drunk Love”, pointing to the late actor’s chameleon quality of being distinct and recognisable but able to shapeshift without barely changing his attire.
While in Boogie Nights he was “the most awkward, anxious, sweet, desperately in love character”, in Punch-Drunk Love he was “the most self-righteous, arrogant, malevolent, dangerous person”, but his image didn’t really change all that much. In both, his hair is its usual bright strawberry-blonde, he’s a little soft around the edges, he has those pale blue eyes, and his voice is pretty much the same.
However, his energy, character, tone, force, mood, charisma are totally different, which is why, despite his death over a decade ago and his relatively short career, he’s considered one of the best actors to ever grace our screens, and it is this manoeuvring of energy that sets him apart. Even in a role as small as Lebowski’s assistant Brandt in The Big Lebowski or as Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr Ripley, Hoffman somehow manages to steal the show and then some.
“Sadly, they’re compiled because he’s gone, but if you look at a highlight reel of him, it’s fucking breathtaking,” Edgerton pointed out about Hoffman’s career, which saw him be lucky or decisive enough to really only play interesting parts in good (quite often exceptional) films. But even when thinking of his turn as Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games, in the odd blockbuster, he managed to bring his signature energy and sheen to the performance.
And these are the career moves and characteristics that Edgerton, like many other actors, is hoping to emulate, and while it doesn’t seem like he’s fully found the right leading material to make him shine as bright just yet, he brings a certain gravitas to every role he takes on, leaving a distinct impression even in his smaller roles. Here’s hoping he can let loose soon in a starring role and steel his place as one of the greats, much like his hero.
