Roles in which the Actor Disappears

nezobiwan

New member
Thought about this in the "Ford's Voice" thread...

There are rare instances where an actor ceases to be an actor for me and becomes their character... Indiana Jones was always in this category for me. It's to the point where I don't really connect Indiana Jones and Han Solo as being the same person. Harrison doesn't totally disappear into all of his roles, and there will always be a little bit of Indy in everything he does... but in the trilogy Harrison IS Indy. Harrison ceases to exist.

There are other examples of this "actor vanishing" for me:

Tom Cruise as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire
Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho

There are more as well... anyone else experience the same thing? Or am I more than a little nutty? :confused:
 

Agent Z

Active member
The late Roy Scheider's everyman persona always endears me to and makes me see him as Chief Brody. :hat:
 

Eric Solo

Member
I think you meant roles inTO which the actor disppears. The Prestige and the Illusionist have "disappearing " roles. lol
 

Agent Z

Active member
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nezobiwan

New member
Eric Solo said:
I think you meant roles inTO which the actor disppears. The Prestige and the Illusionist have "disappearing " roles. lol
Haha! Right! I guess the mods could fix that if it makes things a bit clearer...

Speaking of the star of Illusionist....

Edward Norton's first role as Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear is a good example of this, I think. I don't think, as I'm watching it, "This is Edward Norton." He's just so totally and completely a different person in that movie that I forget that it's him!
 

nezobiwan

New member
Turtle said:
Pretty much anything with Gary Oldman. Whatever role he's in, he's completely that character.
I see where you're going with this... Dracula is a good example.

But in Air Force One, despite the accent, I'm still conscious of him being him. Plus I always get him and John Malkovich confused. Maybe because they're both pretty quirky.
 

Agent Z

Active member
Turtle said:
Pretty much anything with Gary Oldman. Whatever role he's in, he's completely that character.


Ahh yes, the chameleon side of acting, which very few possess.

See KOTCS's very own Cate Blanchett as well...from Queen Elizabeth, to a young apathetic Bob Dylan, to a southern fortune teller, to a psychic Russian agent femme fatale...and on and on...she is a master of blending into each and every role. (y)
 

Agent Z

Active member
Christopher Reeve is another one for me, but I grew up during the Superman era, so his performance hit me at a young impressionable age.

No matter what else Christopher Reeve was in, it was like watching Superman playing another character. He will always be Superman to me.
 

agentsands77

New member
At this point, it's just a guess, but it's really hard to see Heath Ledger in those bits we've seen of his Joker. Largely because it's just so different from anything he's ever done.

But as far as established roles... yeah, Gary Oldman is a really great example. He's quite the chameleon (even in his role as Mason Verger in HANNIBAL, he wasn't even originally credited for as a nod to his ability to vanish into the part).

There are some roles where Johnny Depp manages it.
 

Lonsome Indy

New member
Alan Rickman to me is a good example.

Hans Gruber to Col. Christopher Brandon to Severus Snape.

Something the Lord Made, is in my mind his best performance.
 
When I watched the original Indiana Jones trilogy, I always felt Harrison Ford was Indy. I was completely unaware of the acting. It was only until the latest installment that I felt that Ford was playing Indiana Jones, and wasn't really the character.
 

Turtle

New member
nezobiwan said:
I see where you're going with this... Dracula is a good example.

But in Air Force One, despite the accent, I'm still conscious of him being him. Plus I always get him and John Malkovich confused. Maybe because they're both pretty quirky.

Air Force One I haven't seen. It's around here somewhere. I have an disgraceful number of DVD's I haven't seen.

But in Dracula, Sid & Nancy, Hannibal, the guy just vanishes.

Heck, he was part of the Batman & Harry Potter franchises at the same time, and he inhabits both of those characters completely.
 

jonesissparrow

New member
nezobiwan said:
Thought about this in the "Ford's Voice" thread...

There are rare instances where an actor ceases to be an actor for me and becomes their character... Indiana Jones was always in this category for me. It's to the point where I don't really connect Indiana Jones and Han Solo as being the same person. Harrison doesn't totally disappear into all of his roles, and there will always be a little bit of Indy in everything he does... but in the trilogy Harrison IS Indy. Harrison ceases to exist.

There are other examples of this "actor vanishing" for me:

Tom Cruise as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire
Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho

There are more as well... anyone else experience the same thing? Or am I more than a little nutty? :confused:

I have to agree that Han and Indy are very distinct from one another that I can't typecast none of them because Harrison gave them a different style.

agentsands77:
"At this point, it's just a guess, but it's really hard to see Heath Ledger in those bits we've seen of his Joker. Largely because it's just so different from anything he's ever done."

I also agree to that as well because when I saw him in the trailers I thought, "MY GOSH! THAT IS NOT HEATH LEDGER!" He became the Joker, basically!

I have a long list of actors immersing their character roles to a point they ARE the characters:

David Thewlis as Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Vincent Price as Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective

Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Jack Sparrow

Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate in The Great Race - A Really underrated performance from a great actor!

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp-
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Roger Livesy as Clive Candy; I was emotionally invested in this character and I thought watching it when he became an older version of Clive he became a character all by himself.
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Anton Walbrook as Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff; Clive's German friend which I also totally invested in and believed in especially in the scene where he gives his sorrowful tale of how nazism destroyed his life and happy family to a point I was in tears.

Mary Poppins- Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Dawes, Sr. ; He really fooled me for the longest time and I thought it was another actor but it was Dick Van Dyke in great makeup and great acting as the old bank manager.

Ed Wood - Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi; He WAS Lugosi. Period.

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Jacques Tati as Mr. Hulot in Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle

Charlie Chaplin's Tramp

The Marx Brothers in their films

Anytime Eddie Murphy put makeup in his comedies.

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Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite, enuff said!

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant; I always thought he was American!
Kathleen Turner as Jessica Rabbit.

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There will be Blood - Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview; You could not tell the two Daniels apart. Daniel Plainview is a hard, driven monster of a oil man who shouts out, "I drink Your Milkshake", he basically became his own by the end and the Daniel Day Lewis I see in interviews is shy and soft spoken and is modest of his incredible acting.

OlIVER!:
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Ron Moody as Fagin

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Oliver Reed as Bill Sikes scared me so bad as a child and still to this day I have nightmares of him, He WAS SO scary!

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen:
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John Neville as Baron Munchausen

Scarface (1932)
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Paul Muni as Tony Camonte, he was so REAL like a mixture of Al Capone and Frankenstein.

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nezobiwan

New member
jonesissparrow said:
Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Jack Sparrow [...]

Ed Wood - Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi; He WAS Lugosi. Period. [...]

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Total agreement with Jack Sparrow and Bela Lugosi especially. (You give many other great examples. Too many to respond to!)

... unfortunately I have to disagree with Depp as Wonka and Connery as Henry Sr.
 

jonesissparrow

New member
Hawkeye said:
Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes

Oh yes, I forgot about them, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.

I also forgot some other people:

Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, one of my favorites in the series:
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Singin' in the Rain
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Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont, now that was the ultimate blonde airhead right there!

Alec Guiness, marvelous actor! It is shame most people recognize him solely as Ben Kenobi, because he had so many great roles here are some I think he made his characters become real:

Kind and Hearts and Coronets
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Oliver Twist
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The Ladykillers
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This was my favorite Alec Guiness role because he was both flat out funny and downright creepy at the same time!

Lawrence of Arabia
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Honorable Mentions

Dr. Suess How the Grinch Stole Christmas
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Ralph Finnes as Voldemort
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Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine
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Arsenic and Old Lace
Raymond Massey as Johnathan Brewster
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Andy Hardy series
Lewis Stone as Judge Hardy:
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He was so believable as the old time conservative valued father of Mickey Rooney's Andy Hardy that you thought he was real. In a scene in The Hardy Ride High(1939) that felt very believable was when he must decide should he have an inheirtance through dishonesty and his gestures of temptation of doing it in which ultimately refused shows the man was human despite him spinning out wisdom to his son all the time.
 
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