Bette Davis still remains my absolute favorite of all time and my acting idol, but I do love the work of a lot of other actors / actresses as well:
Actresses: (and a standout role)
Shirley MacLaine (The Children's Hour)
Katharine Hepburn (The Philadelphia Story)
Jennifer Jones (The Song of Bernadette)
Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Cate Blanchett (The Aviator)
Elizabeth Taylor (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Actors: (and a standout role)
Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront)
Crispin Glover (Willard)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Love Liza)
William H. Macy (Fargo)
Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
James Stewart (Harvey)
From all of these, I've spent a lot of time observing the way that they, well, act. In a lot of ways, it's been just as educational as 14 years of theatre training has been, because I'm actually able to watch the greats at their craft and learn from them. I never try to emulate, but I do observe them and try to figure out exactly what their thought process was going into a given role, little nuances of their performance, and things of that nature. The performances of these 12 folks (13 counting Bette Davis who is my absolute hero) are perfect representations of the things I love about acting.
|