**Official** Acting Discussion thread.

I agree, Homer. Personally, I think if I had some massive open gashes in my back and I rolled around in some sand, it would leave me a little stunned for a while.

 

I think that Hayden is amazing. I was so blown away by his performance in Life As A House, and I can't wait to see him really dig into it in ep3. Bad actors don't get Golden Globe and SAG nominations. And alot of times goodlooking actors have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. I mean, the boy can act! And to all of the people who think he sucked: let you play Anakin, and first lets look at your performance, then you can diss on his.

 

"An often enchanting presence, the young star [Natalie Portman] is stiff and humorless here. Christensen has to carry the emotional load. And he does a fine job: his Anakin is both a petulant, impetuous boy and a young man with an appraising stare. He suggests a mind eager for action, restless and conflicted, ready to turn?as Anakin will next time?into Darth Vader"
-Richard Corliss, TIME

OK I haven?t really gone through all the pages, but this is what I think. I don?t understand how the Time reviewer could have said that. To me, it was other way around- I thought Natalie did a better job than Hayden.
If she seemed reserved and impersonal, it fitted a former queen and senator's regal personality, and the important thing is she let loose when she had to (the meadow scene).

To be fair I thought Hayden had great facial expressions in certain scenes (e.g- the Tusken scene), and his eyes were fantastic, but I felt that his *delivery* was really really off. The way he spoke was just weird, especially:

?I?m sorry? (When padme pulls away after the kiss)

?So you do have feelings for me? (fireplace scene)

?You are in very soul, tormenting me? (fireplace scene)

?I hate them!? (End of confession scene)

I felt that some, many, of his lines just didnt come out right. I really don?t know if this was deliberate, and if this is going to happen in Ep III. I hope not?

Thoughts anyone??

 

I agree with you on Nat. She was intentionally suppouse to be stiff in some scenes. She was after all a senator and formally a queen. The novel explains she had been in political training practically her whole life. This would make one subdude little girl, and ultimately a very serious woman, who knows little about relaxing. You can tell that she is very tense, but wishes things could be different. Over all, I think she did a good job pulling all this off.

She DID have her bad scenes though...

1. The worst was probably how she interacted with the CGI Yoda! She did'nt do well with the CGI fruit either...She did okay with Jar Jar though. Maybe because she was use to working with him in TPM and had an idea what it would look like in the final film.
2. Her running after she fell out of the ship
3. "i'm a senator!" <---she sounded like Brittany Spears when she said that.

Besides those three things, she did fine IMHO!


Although, I don't think alot of people would agree with you on Hayden's acting...I know for a fact "I hate them!" is probably 50% of people's favorite line in AOTC!

Both actors had their good and bad moments ...No ones perfect, especially when you have to deal with blue screens and stuff. Hayden did a great job working with the CGI stuff if you ask me, especially since everything he has done so far has been very low budget things. I think he did much better than Natalie, and at least as good as the other actors when it came to working with the CGI.

 

?I?m sorry? (When padme pulls away after the kiss)

?So you do have feelings for me? (fireplace scene)

?You are in very soul, tormenting me? (fireplace scene)

?I hate them!? (End of confession scene)

I agree that those lines seemed a little "off" but I think the reason is that Hayden was trying to speak in a Vader-like manner during those scenes. Just imagine those lines spoken by James Earl Jones and they sound a lot better
I think Hayden and Natalie were both hit and miss in AOTC. Between them they had all the worst lines in the film. But in the end, I did believe in their characters and that should count for something.

 

I liked Hayden's 'off' delivery. It was very reminiscent of Vader, and Jake Lloyd's sometimes forced way of speaking. It's characterization. And that guy just has a prescence on screen.

Likewise, I didn't think Portman was as bad as people put her off to be, either. Come on, she's a Senator-former-Queen. Anakin's got to break the ice before she starts to emote, which is sometime admist the Tatooine crisis, in my opinion.

 

Ewan - 9
Natalie - 3
Hayden - 6
Christopher Lee - 8
Samuel L. Jackson - 7
Ian McDiarmid - 9
Frank Oz - 10

Best actor by far was Ewan, but then he had a great role. He owns this role now, Alec who?

Next was Ian McDiarmid, also great actor and a great role.

Samuel L Jackson, he was good. Didn't have much meat to the role.

Christopher Lee, what can you say a classic.

The Questionable performances were Hayden and Natalie.

Hayden was very good in some scenes, though his strange speaking style was irritating. It seemed like he had a speech impediment at times. I felt he over played the leering. He seemed too much like a impudent teenager. I felt like George saw him in the movie Life as a House and said play it like that. Which to me was not appropriate, he's a jedi not a high-school student from San Berndino.

Natalie was a great disappointment. She looked like she was half asleep in most scenes. And then the scene where she has supposedly just woken up and walks out on the balcony to find Anakin there is laughable. A middle school drama student could have done better. She had her moments though, I liked her acting in the meadow, the love confession and I guess thats it. I credit this to her being very young and George being a hands off type of director. Actors draw from their life experiences and must be very intuitive and insightful, I dont think she is a natural actress in this respect and requires a mentoring director to pull a good performance from her. Hopefully she'll read the reviews and try harder next time.

 

I think McDiarmid, Lee, Ewan, and Natalie were great. Mostly the older actors did better. Hayden was good, but could have been better, but not a whole lot.
Anyway, I feel we should cut some slack for anyone acting in a Star Wars movie. In a myth like Star Wars, how are people supposed to act? It's in a different place at a different time, the actor must use his/her imagination. They have big shoes to fill.

 

I love listening to people's voices in movies...I really pay attention to their voice and alot of times just close my eyes and listen to the rhythem that they talk in and the tone of their voice. Thats one reason why I like Star Wars. It seems like their lines almost have a certain oddity to them that makes them very interesting to listen to.

Actually...The speech in Star Wars is sort of calming for me to listen to. It lets me forget about our planet earth for awhile and be transported to this other galaxy were everyone speaks differently then us.

 

Someone said that Hayden's acting as Anakin was too similar to his acting in Life as a House. I watched Life as a House about a week after I saw AOTC for the second time and I was AMAZED at how he was able to take these two characters who had personalities that were almost exactly the same...and make them two distinctly different characters.

 

Ewan - 6-7 (slightly better than his laconic TPM performance)
Natalie - FLUNK
Hayden - 6 (Pretty good, though in the first 20 minutes he gave me a bad feeling in my tummy. He redeemed himself with the confession scene.)
Christopher Lee - 7-8 (Good job ol' sport. People need to look at him as an example of how to have fun and relish the dialogue and role given to you. Yeah, I'm talking to you Natalie.)
Samuel L. Jackson - 5 (Aside from a few obligatory "badass" lines, Mace has always been a dull character in my book. Sorry...And he runs like a girl.)
Ian McDiarmid - 7-8 (Good, and if anything, slightly underused in AOTC.)
Frank Oz - I feel I can't rate it fairly as so many were involved in Yoda's creation in AOTC. Voice inconsistencies aside, it was a good, solid performance once again.

 

Ian McDiarmid was amazing as always.

I might have a bit biased opinion about the man since he's excellent in everything he does, but still - That was the best choice George ever made when he gave Mr McDiarmid the role of the Emperor.

And so, in AOTC, only one who's actually having a ball is HIM. He's having his bit of fun, and does it with grace.

OK, Ewan was good as well - but he's sometimes trying too hard.
Frank Oz's voice is a gem and Chris Lee, well - bit too much 'Hi I'm Christopher Lee' sort of performance (whatever that means - you decide.)

So Ian McDiarmid is the MAN

 

IMO, Hayden did a great job, at first I was iffy about his performance. after seeing it the last 2 times, it was much better. After knowing that the way he talked was (I guess) supposed to be in a Vader-like mannerism makes some of his lines much better.

 

I think that the acting in AOTC was better than in TPM and all of the other movies. Ewan McGregor was awesome, as well as Natalie Portman. Both of them had more room or fredom in their roles. Obi-wan is no longer a padawan and is a master. Padme is not the queen so she can be more relaxed. I think Christopher Lee is the perfect Bad Guy, Dooku, Saruman, Dracula.

 

This is from the latest edition of the HOMING BEACON...it talks about how Hayden prepared to play ANAKIN.

"He has a great capacity to have a brooding dark side," says Writer / Director George Lucas, describing Hayden Christensen. "He's very good with anger, and those kind of qualities, which are not only important for this film, but are even more important for the next film. I was casting for the arc of this character, not just how he was able to play it in this one. The boyish qualities start to drift away in the next film."

When landing the role of Anakin, Christensen's research materials were the four previous films of the Star Wars series. "There's only so much you can draw from a man behind a mask," said Christensen. "But I wanted to bring some of the monotone aspect of the way he delivered his lines to my character, to a lesser degree, just so you can see where he was going. Also, there were certain times when I'd move my hands the way he would to indicate certain physical sensibilities that were to come."

To further school himself in the way of the galaxy, Christensen watched Episode I every weekend during shooting. "It was more to get used to the way people talk in the Star Wars universe," he explains. "It's not the way normal people speak, so the delivery and the speech patterns are something that I was trying to have constantly imposed on my own psyche so I could be comfortable with it."

Christensen also carefully eyed Jake Lloyd's performance as the boy Anakin, looking for ways to bridge a character pure in heart to one destined for darkness. The scene in which Anakin confesses his first irrevocable step to the dark side merged both characteristics. "In the telling of it, for me, it was a chance for me to justify Anakin's younger more immature sensibilities," says Christensen. "The fact that he can do this horrific act, but in the retelling of it, he would break down the same way a child would ... that was something we were consciously aware of when we were filming it."

As far as Anakin's ultimate fate, Hayden doesn't have any insights other than what is commonly known about the rise of Vader. "I can really only extrapolate on what's been said in the latter part of the saga," he says. "I murder all the Jedi and there has to be some falling out between Obi-Wan and I that leads to a fight scene. Aside from that, the only thing that I ever nag at George is whether or not I'm going to get to wear Darth Vader's outfit. And he gives me a 'wink wink, nudge nudge.'"

 

"I have no doubt in Nats acting ability just see Leon and you will know what I mean. But unfourtunatly I have to agree that her performance in SW is lacking somewhat."

It it lacking feelings!

Natalie is beautiful but she is too collected and too monotonous.

Everybody has to remember that all Star Wars saga is a story of one man - Anakin Skywalker and all other persons are characters around him. Every scene has something to do with Anakin's life or affects it some way. Maybe that's why GL did not want to show us that scene of Padmé's family (which would have given a deepening perspective to Natalie's acting too).

 

Up

 

uppers

 

I must say...I think Hayden is a poor actor for this role. He was stiff in role and not very emotional except in the cofession scene. He was so unbelieve at the beginning, but was more so at the end. Natalie is good, and Sam Jackson couldn't be better. C. Lee was cunning in the role of Dooku, but I think Ewan McGregor's preformance blows everyone out of the water (or me) The beard is undisposable, and he's just like a younger Sir Alec. His voice, I think, could use a bit less of the accent, but I love it just the same. All in all, I think they could have found someone better to play Anakin, but he was trying to do Vader's monotone, so maybe that's why he sounded so bored. All in all, minus Hayden, it was a solid cast and it made a great movie.

 

I must say...I think Hayden is a poor actor for this role. He was stiff in role and not very emotional except in the cofession scene.

I don't know how many times you saw AotC, KrystalBlaze, but when some friends of mine made a similar comment after seeing it the first time (and I sorta felt the same way after my first showing as well) I told them to watch AotC again but this time watch Hayden in every scene and not Natalie and Ewan. Which is very hard I know as Natalie and Ewan draw the eyes to them (particularly Ewan )

Hayden puts some nice, subtle touches into his acting. When he first sees Padme in her apartment, Anakin's eyes never leave her, even when Captain Typho is speaking. His focused-attention is only broken when Obi-Wan corrects him. He smiles with delight (she's noticed me!) when Padme says, "My Jedi protector will have to prove how good he is," to Dorme. He bites his lower lip with awkward uncertainty at the end of Anakin's conversation with Padme on the refugee ship. This same awkwardness shows up in the First Kiss scene, particularly after Padme has broken off the kiss. Watch Hayden in the Chase on Coruscant scenes. Particularly two scenes. When Obi-Wan says, "I don't mind flying but what you're doing is suicide," Anakin grins and opens his mouth part way through that line as if he expected Obi-Wan to say something like that and he has a rejoinder all ready. Also when Obi-Wan is saying, "You've lost him. That was some shortcut, Anakin. He went completely the other way. Once again you've proved..." Anakin's focus during these lines isn't on Obi-Wan but on the traffic below, as if he senses the approach of Zam's speeder.

And I thought Hayden did a particularly good job during the Picnic in the Meadow scene, especially his smile of delight when he gets Padme to reveal her first boyfriend and his instant jealousy when she talks about that boyfriend's dreamy eyes.

 

y'know, natalie was golden globe nominated too...

 

"y'know, natalie was golden globe nominated too..."

Errhmm....yeah..

 

In my humble opinion Ewan McGregor gave the best performace with Frank Oz, Samuel Jackson, Hayden Christensen, Christopher Lee, and Anthony Daniels coming in a close second.

All of the actors and actresses were great.

 

I have seen AOTC several times now. First time when I saw it I couldn't believe my old Auntie eyes - what a piece of boyish beauty was playing Anakin's role. Wow! After several times watching I have realised that Hayden can act and GL could not have found better Anakin. Hayden IS Anakin.

During TPM I thought Natalie is wooden and monotonous but believed that it was a part of her role as pompous queen Amidala. I was disappointed to see that she could not avoid to be as monotonous also in AOTJ. She is beautiful but has no talent to express feelings with her voice or face.

Ewan was good but his problem is that his role as a Jedi Master is lofty and noble without strong feelings - feelings that Anakin had.

Ian was super as Palpy/Chancellor. His way to express the line: " A thought of losing you is... unbearable." Just super!

Samuel Jackson played Samuel Jackson, unfortunately.

 

Well, I have to say this topic is the one i care most...

I already raised this argument in two other threads concerning the quality of the Prequel. I have to renew my comments about acting...
probably I'm going to disappoint the many fans who did appreciate the actors in this Prequel, but, something was missing if u compare with OT...
I've never felt involved in any of the situations in this Prequel expect for the connected elements with OT. All the actors are cold, and they seem to be distant from what they're doing, not involved at all. and maybe, like someone said, not even too much happy to appear in a SW movie...
I don't know why, perhaps is a director's fail, or maybe the massive use of CGI that just putted the characters at a second level of attention..don't know...
all I can say is that even with such new technologies and enormous amount of efforts to make this new SWT, I cannot give them credit emotionally like the OT...

-Sorry but, Anakin wasn't convincing. I couldn't feel his anger for one second at all.

-Padme was cold at all. I couldn't feel her suffering for the whole situation.

-Obi-Wan was sometimes trying to come out but probably forced into the role of Jedi-Master. (nothing compared to Sir Alec Kenobi Guinness, which was able to transmit so much strong emotions even only by changing a nuance of his expressions, of eyes, face, and whole body...)

-About Concelor Palpatine..well, he's the only actor who plaied that role in whole saga...maybe the only one really wearing his role.

-Yoda?? hehe, unexpected paradox, he's more convincing then human being!

-Samuel Jakson? Well, i agree with you AUNTIE_JEDI when you wrote "Samuel Jackson played Samuel Jackson, unfortunately."

These are my comments. I hope noone will be mad with me for my honest thoughts..
Thank you for your attention.