Meme because I'm bored

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Snagged from ever_neutral:

Give me a tv/movie fandom, and I'll tell you my top 3-5 favorite/best actors/actresses from it.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The West Wing

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GOD THIS ENTIRE CAST IS SPECTACULAR. Let's just assume that for all of these actors, it goes without saying that they are skilled enough to show all the complexities of their characters and have brilliant comedic timing and can manage to spout off Aaron Sorkin dialogue at rapid speeds without getting completely tongue-tied.

- Allison Janney. She has the good fortune to be playing one of Aaron Sorkin's few female characters for whom insanity isn't an adorable quirk, so there's that. I love the swagger she brings to the character ("The Jackal" was totally a thing AJ used to do on set, and so they put it in the show), and I think that's what really sells CJ as a woman able to succeed in a man's world. She's also incredible at physical comedy, which you don't see often on this show, but whenever she does it, it's gold.

- Martin Sheen. Obvious choice is obvious, but you kind of can't talk about TWW without talking about the President. I mean... yelling at God in Latin alone should get him on this list, lol. But I think what impresses me most about his acting is that he never, ever overshadows the other actors. He totally could, because he's fucking Martin Sheen and he's playing the most powerful person in the free world, but instead he raises the caliber of everyone he works with and it never ceases to be an ensemble show.

- Bradley Whitford. I love Josh, but he's totally an asshole. And it's to Whitford's credit that he manages to make Josh sympathetic in spite of that. And he's great at the miniscule changes in facial expressions that manage to convey so much emotion.

- Marlee Matlin. Coincidentally, I subjected myself to a terrible movie last night solely because Marlee Matlin was in it. Should've just watched a few eps of TWW instead, lol, but the point is, I am super impressed by her. Acting is hard enough, but when you have someone else saying your lines for you, and you have to convey everything through physicality alone, it makes it twice as hard to shape your character. At times, it's like watching an old silent movie, and other times you completely forget that she's deaf.

[seapealsh]

Smallville

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I don't watch Smallville, sorry. I could talk about James Marsters and Michael Rosenbaum, because they're the only ones I know, haha. Or you could pick another fandom if you like.

[ever_neutral]

I will hit you back Mad Men.

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Haha, well, you've made it easy, because I'd pick Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks, and Vincent Kartheiser for the same reasons you did. :)

I gotta give props to Jon Hamm, though - regardless of whether or not you like Don, he's done a phenomenal job conveying the character's downward spiral and struggle to remain relevant over the last few seasons. In fact, I'd say it's Hamm's acting that makes it so easy to both love and hate Don. He takes an incredibly loathsome character and makes him somewhat sympathetic, but at the same time, he never holds back in conveying Don's awfulness.

And now I am plagued with indecision for my 5th choice, lol. ALL OF THEM.

[ever_neutral]

:D

Heh, I don't really have feels about Jon Hamm for some reason, but you are right, he is solid.

EVERYONE IS GOOD.

[mikeda]

Doctor Who

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Hmmmm....

- Matt Smith. The thing I find most remarkable about Eleven is the way that Smith makes him seem so very, very old, even while looking so young. That's not something I really got with Nine or Ten.

- Catherine Tate. Donna has such a wild character arc, and she's capable of playing all of it: the loudmouth temp who's mainly comic relief, the wide-eyed wonder of traveling with the Doctor, the sarcasm that puts him in his place like no other companion could, the depth of compassion she has for the Ood and the other species they meet, the brilliant heroics of Doctor-Donna, the wistfulness of memory-wiped Donna who knows she's lost something but can't remember what it was.

- David Tennant. Ten may have been the Billowy Coat King of Pain guy, but... well, he's very good at it. No one does cosmic angst better.

- John Simm. Totally crazy. Totally riveting.