Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to come up with their favorite answer to a movie-related prompt tied to a recent release. This week, with the release of The Fall Guy, we’re discussing some of our favorite fictional movie actors! Let us know your favorites @SiftPop!
Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote and directed a true Hollywood classic in All About Eve, with the iconic Bette Davis playing the famous but aging Broadway star, Margo Channing. After turning 40, Margot becomes increasingly paranoid, and fears the end of her career is nigh. A chance meeting with a superfan, Eve (Anne Baxter), is enough to lift Margo’s spirits and ego, and she quickly hires Eve to be her assistant. Davis gives an electric performance as her paranoia and irritation grows along with her suspicions of Eve’s true motives, which are to usurp every facet of Margo’s life and become a beloved actress herself. Margo becomes obsessed with proving to everyone that Eve is not the sweet and timid darling she is pretending to be. Winning Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay for 1950, All About Eve is more than worth its addition to the top tier list of Hollywood classic cinema. (Adam Ritchie)
Everyone loves an underdog and there is no greater underdog in Hollywood than Robert Bowfinger. This is a man who has no money, prospects, or notoriety and yet he has so much drive and determination when it comes to fulfilling his vision of the bringing the cinematic masterpiece, Chubby Rain,to the big screen. Bowfinger is willing to lie, cheat, steal, and convince a mentally compromised man that he’s going to be abducted by aliens. He’s a man with hardly any charisma, but just enough to put together a group of misfits to bring his production to life! Steve Martin embodies this role so perfectly in a way that only he could. Bowfinger is one of my favorite films of all time, and is vastly underseen by the general public. It is incredibly funny with a dozen great character actors including Heather Graham as the fresh-off-the-bus starlet willing to sleep her way to fame; Christine Baranski as the older actress who can no longer get work because Hollywood has aged her out; and Eddie Murphy, who plays dual roles as the super paranoid, high-profile actor, obsessed with the Laker Girls, as well as his nerdy cousin with a mouth full of braces. (Nick Ferro)
One of the more underrated movies featuring fictional actors is the 1999 movie, Galaxy Quest. The movie is about a Star Trek-like show, Galaxy Quest, where Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, and Tony Shalhoub play actors on the show. Rickman plays Alexander Dane, the show’s Spock character who was previously a Shakespearean play actor but has now grown to resent the role and the continued reminder every time he must go to the conventions. Rickman plays this role incredibly well, considering he is playing himself. How he interacts with the fans and cast is what makes this movie funnier. Rickman and Allen go head-to-head, and Rickman can hold his own and knock Allen down a peg or two. (Austen Terry)
When we first meet Mia (Emma Stone, or Emily Stone, as she has recently said she would prefer to be called) at the beginning of La La Land, she is the quintessential struggling artist trying to catch her big break as a Hollywood actress. Living with several roommates, working as a barista on a studio lot, and auditioning for disinterested casting directors, Mia is grinding through life when she meets Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz pianist also struggling to make it big. Together, the two begin to fall in love, all while their careers finally begin to bloom, pulling them not only forward but also apart. At the film’s climax, Mia finally lands a big role, her audition being a beautifully performed song about her aunt’s own acting dreams, but as she achieves stardom, she loses Sebastian, leaving her to wonder what could have been. Of course, the believability of Mia as a talented young actress relies heavily on the performance given by Stone, which is absolutely incredible and well deserving of the Oscar it earned her. There are certainly a lot of reasons to love La La Land, but to me, Mia (and Stone) are the linchpin holding everything together and awarding the film its enduring success. (Jake Hjort)
Digging again into my list of shame, I decided this week to watch the Charlie Chaplin film, Limelight, which interestingly is the only time he and Buster Keaton ever appeared in a film together. It’s particularly interesting to see, as Chaplin plays Calvero, a comedian who has long lost his popularity, while trying to help a young dancer find the joys of life as her own career seems to be faltering. It’s an interesting way to portray yourself in a way. There are films where you have someone struggling to find their footing before making the big time with the role to be their breakout, but to see someone who has already tasted fame and glory having to grapple that it’s past him is absolutely fascinating to see. While I do say there are important trigger warnings to keep in mind before watching, it’s an introspective almost of Chaplin having for himself that makes this film and the character of Calvero such a unique experience. (Joseph Davis)
Robin Williams has quite the collection of iconic roles, but his role as actor Daniel Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire belongs in the pantheon of perfect casting decisions. With the exception of perhaps Aladdin, no other role provided quite the same creative outlet for Williams to go as off the cuff as this. Williams plays a man who, after a divorce, disguises himself as a female housekeeper in order to get to spend more time with his children. Is the premise problematic when viewed through today’s eyes? 100%. However, Williams is so charismatic that it papers over a lot of that. It’s clear he’s having a blast, and that translates both through the screen and to his other cast mates. It’s a masterclass in improvisation from one of the best to ever do it. (Jake Bourgeois)
No matter where you stand on the movie itself, it’s due to Mulholland Drive that Naomi Watts has a career. And when this movie starts, you don’t understand why, because she is simply playing this bubbly girl from Deep River, Ontario, and now she is in this… dream place! But then the audition scene happens and you see the switch. Afterwards, the second half of the film happens, and she transforms yet again. I absolutely adore Mulholland Drive, and it’s due to many things, like its incredibly unique vibe, the direction, and the music. But I would be lying if I didn’t credit Watts and her character, Betty Elms, as one of the main reasons. When the movie finishes, you will be confused; you might even be angry. But if you are like me, you will be in awe of both Laura Harring and Watts’ performances. The fact Watts is not an Oscar winner yet is puzzling to me. (Luke Burian)
While he’s still struggling to figure out what he wants to be his tenth and “final” film, Quentin Tarantino made one that could easily have functioned as a sendoff in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays Rick Dalton, or, as he dubs himself early on in the film, a has-been. Rick is the former star of Bounty Law and some high-profile Hollywood pictures, but once he starts being relegated to playing the heavy for the new young stars to beat up on, he has an existential crisis. This is one of DiCaprio’s best performances, as he plays the vessel through which Tarantino communicates his love for the Hollywood of the late 1960s. While Rick pointing at himself on TV has become a meme, that doesn’t take away from the pathos that DiCaprio brings to the character, as well as the comedy in my favorite scene: Rick trashing his trailer at the peak of his meltdown. (Robert Bouffard)
With a career trajectory going from abused stunt man to silent film star to pioneer of moving pictures and musicals, it’s impossible not to love Don Lockwood in Singin’ in the Rain. Gene Kelly imbues so much charm and just the right amount of snark – which is a lot – into the performance. Through his steadfast friendship with Cosmo Brown, his all-time meet-cute romance with Kathy Selden and his in-public courtship and in-private disdain for Lina Lamont, you enthusiastically root for him every step of the way. He possesses impeccable physical comedy, envious dancing ability, a beautiful singing voice and infectious charm. And yes, those attributes describe both Lockwood and Kelly. I could watch Lockwood musical performances around the clock and never grow tired of them. In lieu of that, I’ll go rewatch the performance of the Singin’ in the Rain title track a couple dozen times and before you know it, as the song says, “I’ve a smile on my face.” (Jason Mack)
If you mixed Daniel Day-Lewis and Russell Crowe to create the ultimate actor, what would you get? Robert Downey Jr.’s Kirk Lazarus. Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, a wild sendup of the film industry, gave us one of the most entertaining and wild characters in comedy. Method actor to a problematic level, Lazarus pigmented his skin to become a Black man. You heard that right. This Aussie actor will not drop character until after the DVD commentary. He is unhinged and so self-serious that he is downright hilarious. Tropic Thunder takes shots at all things and people imaginable as it navigates such a wild story of filmmaking. Downey is downright hilarious as he navigates the absurd caricature that he created. The rest of the cast, with Stiller, Jack Black, and so many others, is stacked to the gills. The only character more wild than Lazarus is Les Grossman, which finds Tom Cruise in a role unlike anything else he has ever done. You would be hard-pressed to find a more committed fictional actor than Lazarus. (Shane Conto)
Actress Hannah Gill shines in the role of lifetime — presumably contracted for an actual lifetime — as Meryl Burbank, wife of the titular star in The Truman Show. Laura Linney breathes life into the artificial character, and hers is an important role in the theater that is Truman Burbank’s world. Unlike her husband, Hannah as Meryl is well aware of the falsehood in which she has agreed to perform, and unlike some of the extras on the show, at nearly every waking moment she must be completely entrenched in the façade that is Truman’s fictional hometown of Seahaven Island, down to the most intimate detail. For Hannah, pretending to love Truman and acting as his wife works for her career, the opportunity for exposure to hundreds of millions of viewers across the globe far outweighing her complicity in robbing Truman of his free will, privacy, and ability to seek true love. As the actress explains in a candid interview in the movie, “This is my life. The Truman Show is my life.” And it’s a life she acts fiercely to protect — in between blatantly advertising products directly to the camera — but everyone has a breaking point. What ultimately leads to her character being written off the show is her on screen husband’s own discovery of his indoctrinated reality, his increasingly erratic behavior, and Hannah’s own fear for her life, causing her to break character in a final defiant act of desperation asking, “How can anyone expect me to carry on under these conditions? It’s unprofessional!” (Jonathan Fedee)
The residents of Blaine, Missouri are putting on a community theater production to celebrate Blaine’s 150th anniversary. Whether it be bi-costal (“if you consider the Mississippi River one of the coasts”) travel agents Ron and Sheila Albertson, Dairy Queen employee, Libby Mae Brown, or the town’s tone-deaf dentist, Dr. Allan Pearl, no expense was spared when it came to assembling Red, White, and Blaine’s all-star cast. Of course, a local community theater troupe is only as good as its leader, and you can’t do much better than New York theater director Corky St. Clair (Christopher Guest) to guide them through the storm. First stop, Blaine. Next stop, Broadway. From his early days, “Right out of the Navy, fresh off a destroyer with a dance belt and a tube of chapstick,” Corky has been and always will be a self-made man. A sassy but steady hand for his cast and crew, Corky even goes so far as to step into a primary role when one of his actors quits the show. Waiting for Guffman is one of the funniest movies ever made, and Guest delivers an all-time great comedic performance in a role that could easily have been offensive if his portrayal weren’t so otherwise heartfelt and endearing. In the spirit of the good people of Blaine, Missouri, I leave you with the following immortal words from the great Corky St. Clair: “Everybody dance!” (Foster Harlfinger)