Great actors with great range; Famous actors with no range

great range:

Christian Bale (The Machinist to Batman)

Eric Bana (Troy/Hulk to Chopper)

Judi Dench (everything)

nae range:

Orlando Bland

Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie

Keira Knightley

Honourable mention to Sean Connery. Anyone who can pay characters from just about every country on the face of the planet with exactly the same accent (Hunt for Red October anyone?) is taking range to a new level.

Dave Kuehls remembers when Katy Williams and Drew Alexander begged Dave to lie about John Lockhart´s involvement with the CIA. That was 13 years ago. Dave did, and he betrayed the best friend he ever had in this life. John, can you forgive me? John, remember when I drove you to court that day? Akron was putting you on trial because you refused to go to your therapist anymore (they just wanted to control you), and everyone in Akron turned their back on you. Everyone.

Everyone but me....

What have they done to us?

What have they done to us?

Whatt have they done to us?

I didn't have time to read all the posts but I actually think Brad pitt has very good range

fight club, twelve monkeys, snatch, legends of the fall, the guy takes on a lot of roles and does them well

Squid wrote:

Worst: Keanu Reeves (can it get worse)

Yes it can...Ben Affleck!

actually i have to strongly disagree here... stronglythe guy played jeff lebowski, the utterly creepy psychopath in the vanishing, and the president in the contenderi thought he did awesome in each of these roles and you can't pick 3 more different rolesi would put him in my top 5 of the most versatile actors

Squid wrote:

Worst: ... Jeff Bridges...

"Leonardo Dicaprio - from Titantic, Howard Hughs, to The Departed - he's got range and he's good."

Remember Dicaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Depp was in there too.

Bernoulz wrote:

You beat me to it on Will Smith having no range, which he doesn't. Come on! He was more like a bulked up Fresh Prince of Bel Air in Ali than an actual embodiment of Ali.

Clive Owen is very good too, but I'm not sure I agree with him having great range. Seems to me he always plays the same brooding strong type.

Most famous actors do not have great range. People pay to see so-and-so being themselves, essentially, but with a twist. Some that I think do have range that I haven't seen mentioned are:

Ian McKlellan (sp?) - that guy can pull off just about anything.

Robin Williams - whatever he does, from funny to evil, it works.

Forrest Whitaker - gotta give him props for some of the diverse roles he's done, especially "The Last King of Scotland."

I disagree about Will. When he isn't fighting Aliens, he has done a lot of great things. Ali was excellent. Go see Pursuit of Happyness if you haven't, also an amazing movie.

There are other ones that are also great. Enemy of the State. Bad Boys. Six Degrees of Separation. They are all excellent roles that he shines in, but they are not the traditional "white actor" Oscar Winners.

Other great actors with range:

- Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon (loved the cast of Crash--and Sandra Bullock, what a good suprise!)

- Mark Ruffalo, without a doubt

- Kate Winslet

- Jim Carrey

Great actor, but limited range: Clint Eastwood.

As for Harrison Ford, while he has been the president in every movie for a while, I can't say anything bad about him.

I loved Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness, but I would like for him to play the role of a true villain, à la Joaquin Phoenix--that would be interesting.

Wow you are so wrong. Leo's not a great actor. His accent in the Departed was awful and his accent in Gangs of NY was equally atrocious. Also, he can not play a tough-guy like he was supposed to be in both of those movies. He's about as intimidating as a mouse.

You want to talk about talented actors with range you should start with Edward Norton. Check out American History X then Primal Fear. He was also awesome in Rounders.

Leo had a riveting perfomance in The Departed and his Howard Hughes was tremendous.

The kid has range and you definitely forget that you're watching "Leonardo Dicaprio" during the movie.

A good test as to whether an actor is effectively portraying a different character is the percentage of people afterwards who still refer to the character by the actors names versus the character's name.

Renee Zellweger hasn't been mentioned. She is a great actress with great range.

Forest Whitaker was the bomb in "Species", as well... but I guess that goes without saying.

Man, you guys are starting to worry me.

Why don't you all just agree on Barbara, Liza and Judy Garland?

What's happening to this board?

Don Cheadle.....check

Ed Norton.......check

Joaquin Phoenix...check

Cate Blanchett...check

Leo DiCrappio....nope, sorry, he always plays his own wimpy, lame self.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Lawrence Fishburne yet. He commands the screen in any movie he is in, whether as Morpheus or as Furious Styles. Don Cheadle is a very good choice. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is quite good, as is Ian McKellan, Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslett, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Robert DuVall, Meryl Streep and Hellen Mirren and Judy Dench- the skill that each of these actors has to so totally immerse themselves in their character that you forget that they are stars. As opposed to, say, Tom Cruise, who no matter what movie he is in you cannot forget you are watching Tom Cruise. Even though she is getting overexposed I also think Scarlett Johanssen is a good actor. I might also include Johnny Depp here since he rarely, outside of Pirates, picks easy movies.

I do not find Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston or any of that ilk particularly watchable, and think they are overrated as actors, though I might consider Pitt a step above the others.

nicholas cage is not only always the same actor - he also sucks as that one person

al pacino is good but he always acts teh same

To some extent, don't you think that an actor's versatility (or lack thereof) is determined by the types of roles they are offered? Some actors might have a better range than one would think, but they rarely have the chance to prove it. I'm not an expert but I would think that until someone reaches genuine "movie star" status, they have little choice about the kinds of projects they take on. Any insight?

Good range:

Jim Carey (as has been said before)

Viggo Mortensen

Steve Carrell (a retard, a cocky anchor and an incompetant boss)

Damon Wayans (really, he's done a lot of different stuff)

No range:

William Hurt

Julia Roberts

Richard Gere

William H. Macy

Humphrey Bogart

Vince Vaughn

Weird, but apparently my post about Adam Sandler got removed. Not sure why.

Adam Sandler belongs in the cateogory of great actors with great range. Only in his case, he's only shown his great range (range other than what he normally provides) in one movie -- Punch Drunk Love. Excellent movie with an excellent performance by Sandler. Phillip Seymor Hoffman is all in that movie and does a good job with his character too.

Sandler is good enough to win an Oscar someday. I bet he does.