In Your Opinion Which Actors Are True Chameleons?

He was also in Star Trek - The Next Generation in the two-part story "Unification" (which featured Leonard Nimoy as Spock) as a Klingon captain and he was completely believable in the role. In Mission Log, a podcast that does an episode-by-episode/movie-by-movie review of each episode/movie of Star Trek, they mentioned that Stephen Root is able to do both drama and comedy and be completely believable in both.

 

Peter Sellers

Not only does he tend to disappear into his roles, but even when he is playing multiple roles in the same movie (Dr. Strangelove Or How I Stopped Worrying And Love The Bomb and The Mouse That Roared) he is able to make each character distinctive.

Trivia: In Dr. Strangelove Or How I Stopped Worrying And Love The Bomb he was originally going to play a fourth role, Kong the aircraft commander who was played by Slim Pickens in the movie, but he had to pass because he couldn't move around in the cockpit.

 

Really? Tom Hanks is always Tom Hanks in nearly every film he is in - a likeable, down to earth guy we root for. That may be partly down to the roles he picks but most of his films are interchangeable. He does have better range than he demonstrates (something like Road to Perdition) but he rarely picks films outside he comfort zone.

And DDL is DDL in every film - this completely over the top over acting 'monster'.

Anyway, now that I have rubbished your two I better come up with my own.

Jake Gyllenhall - can pretty much do anything

Gary Oldman - the most underated actor of his generation. Can play a psycho skinhead in Meantime, Sid Vicious, Lee Harvey Oswald, Winston Churchill, Dracula, Beethoven, barely recognisable in Hannibal as Verger, and pivotal roles in the Batman and Harry Potter films.

 

Ok, I’m certainly not going to argue with a GORT!

 

Cate Blanchett has done good work where she emerses herself into her roles. Tilda Swinton is another.

 

Frances McDormand

 

Most recently the blind art gallery owner in "Get Out"!

 

No Wonder Gotham is such a mess-Sid Vicious is Commissioner

 

Little-known fact: they're actually the same person!

 

Another favorite is Michael Sheen. One memorable evening at the movies, I saw him in two different films in one night as David Frost in Frost/Nixon, and as the king of the werewolves in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. He was brilliant as Art Honeyman, a writer with cerebral palsy in the little seen film The Music Within.

 

I ‘ll respectfully have to disagree as far as Hanks and specially DDL go. A chameleon isn’t necessarily based on looks or nobody would be a winner. When watching a performance if an actor can “draw you in” to the point that you see and accept them as being the character they’re portraying its a successful job.

A couple of projects recently for Hanks that I admire were “Bridge Of Spies” and “Sully”.

In one of my favs “Atlantic City, USA” Burt Lancaster drew me right into his “Lou” character who from my perspective was totally believable.

Then again take Ed O’Neill. IMHO he did a really great “Joe Friday” on the TV s Dragnet but alas every time I see him (you can guess) good old “Al Bundy” pops up. Pity, if I do say so myself.

 

gary oldman

 

No, that's just being a good actor. A chameleon is someone who can play a wide range of roles and make you believe them.

Hanks is unquestionably a talented actor, but he's shown little ability to do anything other than the "Tom Hanks Character".

Not a chameleon...

 

He's not one of those names that people look for when choosing a movie, but he always makes every film he's in better.

 

Yeah, I know some nitpicker was gonna call me on that. Congratulations, Caller 72 - you win the Supertramp tickets!

I thought about writing some qualifier about how "Get Out" was the most recent well-known movie in which Root appeared, but I decided to take my chances!

 

I don’t agree. I think he’s done some fine, nuanced work that is not ‘over the top’. For instance, “Lincoln”. A role that required subtlety.

A few of his more forceful performances have one him academy awards for best actor (Daniel Plainview in “There Will Be Blood for example). He must be doing something right.

 

I know my opinion is the minority, as many people see him as even the best actor ever, and he has won three Oscars, but I just don't get it myself. He is a method actor of the extreme type and for me personally I find the people he plays to be quite unrealistic and always feel I am watching DDL act, I'm not watching the character I'm watching DDL acting the character. Which really ruins the film for me. Gary Oldman for me is far better as he just plays the role in a much more natural way, like it's someone you could imagine meeting, where as DDL's unnatural style makes the role almost a caricature. I don't think it helps that he only picks these tortured troubled soles to play. It kind of gives me a headache watching one of his films.

I guess we all have actors we don't like. I'm not a big fan of Meryl Streep and I think almost every film Tom Cruise has made would have been improved with someone else cast in his role.

 

Best role was playing the legend Brian Clough but I think you have to be British and over 50 to appreciate how well he did that.

 

Four films - Magic, Elephant Man, Silence of the Lambs and Shadowlands - I think prove he can turn his hand to anything when he wants to. But I agree, taken the easy option to many times and plays the same type of figure. But I kind of think he has earned the right to just cash those easy paychecks.

 

Early days still but my favourite female actress working today is Rooney Mara. I fell in love with her in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo where she became Lisbeth Salander so completely and she was wonderful in Carol (both times nominated for the Oscar). I think she can do pretty much anything.

 

Kevin Spacey played a good Gene Hackman in Superman Returns. He also sang a great Mind Games at a Lennon tribute.

 

I saw and loved the The Damned United, even though I've never watched a match or seen any footage of the real Brian Clough. I'll have to take your word on how well he captured the real person. As a Midwesterner, I was astonished at how well he did my accent in Masters of Sex.

I searched it out for Timothy Spall, who is another great chameleon, though most only know him from the Harry Potter films.

 

It's not an actor's fault that casting directors immediately think of them for a particular role.

His role as Dr. Treves in The Elephant Man was wonderful. I'm getting choked up remembering him asking his wife "Am I a good man? Or a bad man?"