SCFZ

What are some actors that'll make you less interested in seeing a film if you see their names in the cast list? Mine:

Kirk Douglas - Chews the scenery so much that I'm not sure he's even aware there's other actors in the frame. The Gene Kelly of drama.

Stewart Granger - I like my swashbucklers with a certain charm and a twinkle in their eye, not pompous Steve Coogan lookalikes with a British reserve.

Interestingly, I couldn't think of many actresses, maybe Juliette Binoche whose great actress of France image I don't really buy.

Anywho, there's actors that have bugged me that I've eventually came around to so there's always a chance to win me over. I used to have an irrational dislike for James Mason, just something about his constant pained expression and voice but after watching a few more of his films I've come to like him.

Obviously, there's certain evil performers whose work I specifically avoid. Klaus Kinski is a difficult case in that he appears in a number of Italian and German genre films that I'd otherwise like to explore, but it's hard to take pleasure in his cartoon evil-ness now that I know what an actually hideous person he was.

That aside, George Brent is the #1 name that comes to mind. This is more for his persona than his acting; he was frequently cast as the most boring and boorish of 'love interests' and he has sunk many a promising film in my eyes.

I'm not much on Bette Davis. I find her a bit much, and what I take to be the oversized size of her stardom/fandom doesn't help. I'm also not much on Gary Cooper, though he could be quite attractive in the late '20s. There's some reason to believe he was sympathetic with fascism in the 1930s, but I also just don't find him a compelling screen presence. Gene Kelly is a lot of showy pep to swallow, a talented dancer/choreographer but a plaster-smile actor. Many other names could come to mind, but those are the first that spring to mind.

In general I would say that I'm not a big fan of the big classic Hollywood movie stars that were considered romantic/sexual icons and got by on that alone. It's not that I shun them as performers, I sometimes like them, but I tend to go for performers who have a little more personality, who feel less empty and more well-roundedly human. That tends to mean either that they're associated with a genre other than steamy romance or that they weren't one of the biggest stars.

Tom Hanks.
Sandra Bullock.
Sally Field.

I tend not to shun actors due to their private lives, unless they're Republicans, and even then I give a lot of slack to major artists like Robert Duvall and Mary Tyler Moore. With hacks like Eastwood, well, I would have stopped seeing his work after his public stupidity at the Republican National Convention if I hadn't already avoided his work because it sucks. Likewise with Kevin Spacey, who I loathed at first sight in GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS and nothing he did after that changed anything and I didn't have the satisfaction of avoiding his work after the utterly unsurprising revelations.

Keanu Reeves I'll watch for a giggle sometimes at his just barefaced ineptitude.

My aversion to Henry Fonda is well documented. I try to avoid him where possible. I'll sometimes check out MISTER ROBERTS and FF to Cagney's scenes.

Gene Kelly's shit-eating last-row-of-the-balcony smile and flat line readings have been a major turn off for me for decades. I just can't bear the sight of him.

And John Wayne. Ugh. He occasionally rises to more than competence, but outside of STAGECOACH and THE SEARCHERS I pretty well avoid him.

And America's Own Dowager Actress Goddess, the one the only the absolute inevitable Meryl Streep, the most over-rated artist in the history of acting. Occasional glimmers here and there (her Ethel Rosenberg in ANGELS IN AMERICA, that glorious little scene where she gets stoned in ADAPTATION), but I pretty well avoid her airless studied waxworking.

Probably Tom Hanks fits the bill most completely at the moment. I'd rather take a beating than watch him play Mr. Rogers or Disney. A splendid comic actor whose work in BOSOM BUDDIES still delights, he's gone all Mr. All-American Saint on us. I can't imagine seeing him ever again. It's time for him to shed the nobility and play Dr. Mengele.

Actors I Don't Shun But Whose Appeal Escapes Me -- well, Barbara Stanwyck leads the list here. She's fine, of course, and she's in many films I watch with pleasure, but well, okay, whatever.

hmmm, that's a difficult one.

I don't shun actors because of their private lives or political views, etc.

Instead I focus on the acting/performing.

I don't like Julia Roberts very much, but I don't shun her or films in which she appears (I love "Pretty Woman", for example).

Usually I don't find actors as interesting or significant as many other things in movies, so they don't have that much impact on me, I guess.

I don't like seeing that Radcliff guy or those other 2 or 3 kids from those shitty Harry Potter films, cause I had to watch so many of them with an ex-girlfriend. It's not their fault though, so I don't know if that counts.

Mostly I many times don't know who this or that "famous" actor is when watching movies from the 21st century, so I'm pretty indifferent to many "younger/modern" actors others might love.

Generally, an actor whose performance I find uninteresting or who might have bugged me in a movie might still be part of a masterpiece. So I'd say actors aren't that important.

So most actors I don't like I probably don't know who they are.

..............................

but here's a list (temporary, work in progress)

I tend to not like to see on the screen (and might cringe when I read their name):

Julia Roberts
Daniel Brühl
Matthias Schweighöfer
Juliette Binoche
Sandra Bullock
Meryl Streep
Will Smith
Harrison Ford
James Stewart
Scarlett Johansson
Angelina Jolie
Adam Sandler
Jennifer Lawrence
Anne Hathaway
Seth Rogen
Leonardo DiCaprio
etc.
etc.


Ah, yes, now I remembered a terrible one!

I TOTALLY CAN'T STAND TILDA SWINTON ON THE SCREEN!! (she has still appeared in some of my favorite films, though )

i tend to dislike actors who don't have dynamic range - actors who just yell everything, whose charisma derives from the fact they dominate everyone else in volume alone. i haven't seen roseanne barr in years, but she'd probably belong in that category. someone like keanu reeves, on the other hand, might lack range, but is at least capable of a kind of vacant pensiveness. i haven't seen little buddha but i can imagine this exchange on set

bertolucci: in this scene you're meditating, so i want you to empty your mind, think about nothing
reeves: already doing it, sir

i also have little interest in anyone who consistently personifies a kind of aggressive and violent masculinity in a humourless or unironic way. i don't see many films with characters like that in the first place, so i might reevaluate the actors i think about in that way if i saw more of them, but someone like steven seagal holds no interest for me. someone like dwayne johnson, who i've barely seen in anything, probably doesn't fit though because i gather he doesn't take himself seriously.

other actors i don't like, probably not controversial choices:
william bendix
vin diesel

actors i don't like, probably controversial choices:
nicolas cage
laurel+hardy
viola davis
vincent price

^ I'm with you on Vincent Price, don't see the appeal though I might have watched the wrong films. The idea of him seems stronger than his actual presence, which is rather dour, tired and not nearly camp enough.

John Wayne, as discussed in the recent thread. Ward Bond, while we're at it. Meryl Streep does nothing for me, she seems very mechanical. Later day Al Pacino can get on my nerves a bit. I don't let actors' personal lives or politics interfere with my enjoyment of their work, typically, though I used to really like Spacey and haven't seen a film with him in quite some time, so not sure how that would go.

The biggest sacrilege is probably that I never got anything out of Katherine Hepburn as a performer, though I owe her another go. I love Nic Cage, Juliette Binoche, and like Tom Hanks and ScarJo a lot, but no choices in this thread have shocked me as much as James Stewart so far.

Oh, and I can't stand Paul Dano for some reason.

First and foremost - Mia Goth.

I also don't like - Peter Sellers, Charlton Heston, John Wayne, Louis de Funès, Jan-Michael Vincent, Gaspard Ulliel, Nancy Allen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Rob Schneider, Sondra Locke, Jennifer Lawrence, Terrence Howard, Rosamund Pike, Julia Stiles, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Wincott, David Spade, William Baldwin, Liv Tyler, Daryl Hannah, Jessica Biel, Ryan Phillippe, Crispin Glover, Lili Taylor, David Caruso, Maggie Gyllenhaal.

harold lloyd

yeah i avoid harold lloyd and sellers, they're creepy

agree abt gene kelly too but he did make some good pictures

good and sick of juliette binoche and marion cotillard but that might just be me

heston and wayne i used to detest but i've come around for the most part but won't watch anything w/o a decent director lol

kirk douglas always annoyed me too but with the right director nsm

ruby keeler i never understood til i found out she was married to jolson

Wow, you guys really hate a lot of people. Me, Burt Lancaster's teethy grin bugs the crap out of me, but not enough to avoid his movies really and I'm not all that keen on Michael Madsen and his seeming attempt to channel Robert De Niro doing a bad imitation of Mickey Rourke trying to act like Robert Mitchum, but that's probably just my imagination and I try to ignore it. Oh, and I don't get how June Allyson had a career, but that doesn't keep me from watching her movies, I almost get a weird kinda pleasure in watching trying to figure out how she kept getting those roles and Joe Swanberg looks awfully punchable in stills, but I've never had much interest in seeing his movies regardless of him being in them or not, so I don't know if he counts.

Am I the only Bette Davis fan here? Disappointing.

I don't have a ready list of performers I don't like, but a few names keep popping into mind. Agree about Gene Kelly, Adam Sandler, and any number of tough-guy actors. James Cagney rubs me the wrong way... I can't forget his unbearable schtick in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He's not without talent though, and his sister Jeanne is quite a good actress.

Katherine Hepburn annoys me the same way Meryl Streep annoys many people.

I loathe Clint Eastwood's politics and his movies, but it doesn't bother me to watch him act for Leone, although Lee van Cleef is even better.

Marion Cotillard is all right herself, but I dislike the vast majority of movies she's in, so she's not much of a good luck charm.

I'll probably post again when I think of more.

Umbugbene wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 6:29 pm Am I the only Bette Davis fan here?

you are not! i think only one person has mentioned not caring much for davis so far, so it's possible most people are fans. i like bette davis quite a lot personally

I like Marion Cotillard a great deal.

greg x wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 5:30 pm Wow, you guys really hate a lot of people. Me, Burt Lancaster's teethy grin bugs the crap out of me

I don't mind watching films with those actors I mentioned above if I like the director or I am interested in a story.

As for Burt Lancaster, he is one of my favorite actors. Favorite performances - The Swimmer, The Killers, Seven Days in May.

flip wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 6:35 pm

Umbugbene wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 6:29 pm Am I the only Bette Davis fan here?

you are not! i think only one person has mentioned not caring much for davis so far, so it's possible most people are fans. i like bette davis quite a lot personally

Well that's good to know. I drew my conclusion from earlier discussions too, where I was surprised how many people were lukewarm toward her.

love bette ♥ a pioneer

Umbugbene wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 6:29 pm Am I the only Bette Davis fan here? Disappointing.

????
Don't know what you're talking about.
Maybe you posted in the wrong thread?

And I thought *I* hated movies! Y'all are even angrier than I!

There are probably others, but mostly I just can't handle watching Vincent Cassel for more than 0.01 seconds at a time. That face...

wba wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:28 pmDaniel Brühl

So good in Rush! What do you dislike him in/from?

Holymanm wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:53 pm And I thought *I* hated movies! Y'all are even angrier than I!

There are probably others, but mostly I just can't handle watching Vincent Cassel for more than 0.01 seconds at a time. That face...

Oh god, I watched Eastern Promises recently and his performance in that is one of the worst I've seen in a long time, can't believe it got critical praise. I'm planning to re-watch La Haine soon, though, hopefully I won't have the same effect there.

Clint Eastwood
Leonardo Di Caprio
Daniel Radcliffe

jean reno i also don't like

i find it more interesting to talk about things i like than things i don't tho

MrCarmady wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:12 pm

Holymanm wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:53 pm And I thought *I* hated movies! Y'all are even angrier than I!

There are probably others, but mostly I just can't handle watching Vincent Cassel for more than 0.01 seconds at a time. That face...

Oh god, I watched Eastern Promises recently and his performance in that is one of the worst I've seen in a long time, can't believe it got critical praise. I'm planning to re-watch La Haine soon, though, hopefully I won't have the same effect there.

I remember quite liking that movie (EP), but there was some forgotten, nagging thing to it that always bothered me... and now I realise I was just repressing the memory of him starring in it

I remember liking EASTERN PROMISES well enough, but was only nagged by the feeling that I didn't understand why it was there.

Holymanm wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 10:48 pm I remember quite liking that movie (EP), but there was some forgotten, nagging thing to it that always bothered me... and now I realise I was just repressing the memory of him starring in it

he didn't star in it, viggo was the star

Co-star! Supporting star. Plays the/a villain! But yeah maybe shouldn't say he stars in it...

Holymanm wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:54 pm

wba wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:28 pmDaniel Brühl

So good in Rush! What do you dislike him in/from?

Cause he's a terrible actor?

Edit: Yeah, I forgot to add Leonardo DiCaprio. So many...

I forgot to mention the once-ubiquitous Tyrell Corporation Blandly Handsome Anglo-Leading Man Model 4277 (commonly known as "Michael Fassbender") and the once-ubiquitous Tyrell Corporation Blandly Handsome Anglo-Leading Man Model 2981 (commonly known as "Tom Hiddleston"). I've heard it rumored that the Hiddleston Model was created from bits left in the scrap heap when the Fassbender Model was finalized.

Oh yeah, and that little Tom Hardy guy. A promising little bundle of joy has pursued the Serious Actor thing to diminishing returns -- I won't forgive or forget what he did in THE REVENANT.

Speaking of THE REVENANT (please, let's don't) leads me to DiCaprio as mentioned above. It's not that I shun him so much as that I'm just indifferent to him. A more than capable actor at his best, but I can't imagine heading out to see what DiCaprio's up to now. I've only seen his work in the last twenty odd years because he's in Scorsese films.

I've started to shun Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp, largely because it's been a long time since they did any work I was interested in seeing. A pity, as I'll always cherish a lot of their best stuff.

Tom Hardy is a great shout. Just remembered one of my main ones - Bradley Cooper! He's in two of the worst films I've ever seen, American Sniper and Aloha, and I just can't stand his face.