Rate AHS: Hotel's actors performance/acting

[Bradley 55,281]

...in Hotel of course, I wouldn't say Gaga is a better actor than Matt Bomer or Evan Peters, but if you judge their performance solely in Hotel without regarding their entire filmography, I believe you're gonna come up with an interesting list.

Lady Gaga

Matt Bomer

Wes Bentley

Sarah Paulson

Chloe Sevigny

Evan Peters

Kathy Bates

Cheyenne Jackson

Finn Wittrock

Mare Winningham

Denis O'Hare

Angela Bassett

[Mister Gaga 21,893]

1. Denis O'Hare

2. Evan Peters

3. Sarah Paulson

4. Kathy Bates

5. Lady Gaga

6. The rest 

[Bradley 55,281]

1. Denis O'Hare

2. Lady Gaga (yes, I think she was more impressive than Sarah and Kathy who got Emmy noms, stone me)

3. Finn Wittrock (he's fcking underrated in Hotel , if any male actor has brought life to the AHS series it's Finn and Denis, not Matt or Evan imo)

4. Kathy Bates

5. Sarah Paulson

 

6. Evan Peters

7. Wes Bentley

8. Angela Bassett

9. Matt Bomer

10. Mare Winningham/Chloe Sevigny/Cheyenne Jackson

[Justin Drew Bieber 25,317]

1. Evan Peters

2. Kathy Bates

3. Denis O'Hare 

4. Mare Winningham 

5. Lady Gaga 

6. Angela Bassett 

7. Sarah Paulson 

8. Finn Wittrock 

9. Cheyenne Jackson 

10. Wes Bently 

11. Matt Bomer 

12. Chloe Sevigny  (bad actress )

 

[Sizzily 14,543]

1. Evan Peters

2. Kathy Bates

3. Sarah Paulson

4. Mare Winningham

5. Denis O'Hare 

6. Lady Gaga

7. Matt Bomer

8. Finn Wittrock

9. Angela Basset

10. Wes Bently 

11. Chloe Sevigny

12. Cheyenne Jackson 

Praying Chloe and Cheyenne don't return for another season ever.  

[ALGAYDO 26,841]

Just considering Hote:

Denis, Evan, Mare and Sarah were the best. 

Cheyenne, Angela and Chloe were the worst. 

Everyone else was somewhere in-between 

[Bebe 16,562]

Evan Peters
Sarah Paulson
Denis O'Hare
Kathy Bates
Finn Wittrock
Mare Winningham
Matt Bomer
Angela Bassett
Lady Gaga
Chloe Sevigny
Wes Bentley
Cheyenne Jackson


A lot of this list has to do with the writing of the character too. 

Evan Peters was probably given the most interesting character to play with - very different to what he had already done on the show with an accent and stature to match. It was a more challenging role and Evan Peters really rose to that challenge and seemed to enjoy being able to figure out and play with Mr. March. Kathy Bates on the other hand would usually probably be higher on the list (although she is still up there) but her character this season was a little more inconspicuous. Finn of course had the advantage of being able to play two characters

The Countess was a very one dimensional character, especially at first. Gaga played her well, but The Countess wasn't one to show much emotion - she always tried to remain composed and nothing really fazed her. That sort of changed during the course of the show, but you could sort of see that she was a character written so that basically anyone could be coached into playing her (which is understandable considering she was a main character but they didn't know how capable Gaga was as an actor). She was a very emotionless, almost wooden, character from the writing alone. Gaga did very well in later episodes when she was given more room to move and show different sides to The Countess, but it unfortunately came more towards the end of the series.

Special props to Mare Winningham though, who played a rather minor character but still managed to really inject some personality and life into her.

[Bradley 55,281]

20 minutes ago, Bebe said:

The Countess was a very one dimensional character, especially at first. Gaga played her well, but The Countess wasn't one to show much emotion - she always tried to remain composed and nothing really fazed her. That sort of changed during the course of the show, but you could sort of see that she was a character written so that basically anyone could be coached into playing her (which is understandable considering she was a main character but they didn't know how capable Gaga was as an actor). She was a very emotionless, almost wooden, character from the writing alone. Gaga did very well in later episodes when she was given more room to move and show different sides to The Countess, but it unfortunately came more towards the end of the series.

I tend to disagree and am surprised by how you placed Matt Bomer, Mare Winningham and Angela Bassett above Gaga. I believe the former three have a richer filmography, but their performance in Hotel were not as skilful as Gaga's imo.

I agree that Mare and Evan have been assigned characters with a more distinct personality, but for some reason I'm not impressed by their performance. Denis O'Hare, on the other hand, utilised his very unique character and did a great job. Here's what I believe, even if you are given a character with a subtler personality like Iris and Elizabeth Johnson, and yet are able to portray them outstandingly, you've done a great job. Kathy Bates and Gaga seemed to have achieved that imo, which is why I placed Gaga and Bates above Sarah who's basically a psychopath.

It's just my opinion but I think Gaga did the Countess justice. Yes she was sort of monotonous at the beginning of the season, but that looked more deliberate than poorly executed imo. She embellished the Countess with very melancholy vibes without making her boring. She wasn't as impressive as Jessica Lange, but she deserved higher recognition (imo). 

[kabirartfling 9,063]

I personally was not impressed by any of their work in hotel, that being said i think AHS over the years became very overrated, i mean i did not enjoy jessica lange in freakshow at all even tho she got alot of praise

[Bebe 16,562]

38 minutes ago, Bradley Cooper said:

I tend to disagree and am surprised by how you placed Matt Bomer, Mare Winningham and Angela Bassett above Gaga. I believe the former three have a richer filmography, but their performance in Hotel were not as skilful as Gaga's imo.

I agree that Mare and Evan have been assigned characters with a more distinct personality, but for some reason I'm not impressed by their performance. Denis O'Hare, on the other hand, utilised his very unique character and did a great job. Here's what I believe, even if you are given a character with a subtler personality like Iris and Elizabeth Johnson, and yet are able to portray them outstandingly, you've done a great job. Kathy Bates and Gaga seemed to have achieved that imo, which is why I placed Gaga and Bates above Sarah who's basically a psychopath.

It's just my opinion but I think Gaga did the Countess justice. Yes she was sort of monotonous at the beginning of the series, but that looked more deliberate than poorly executed imo. She embellished the Countess with very melancholy vibes without making her boring imo. She wasn't as impressive as Jessica Lange, but she deserved higher recognition (imo). 

I agree that Gaga's portrayal of The Countess was deliberate, and she played it well, but I just don't think the writing gave her much of a chance to really push herself as an actor. Everything from giving a tour of the hotel, to having a blood soaked orgy, to murdering in cold blood was treated with the same monotone, emotionless tone. That's not the fault of Gaga, who worked well with what she got, but there wasn't much for her to work with. Her position is less a reflection of her ability and more a reflection of the relative simplicity of her character.

Evan had to nail a particular accent, he had to really embody Mr. March's peculiar mannerisms. He was given emotion to play with and he soaked it up, when he killed you could see the sparkle in his eyes and he managed to toe the line between playing an out-of-control psycho killer overcome with bloodlust and playing a cool, dignified but uptight and snobby esteemed gentleman. If he had crossed too far into one of those territories he would have come across as either clichéd and over the top or clichéd and boring. It would have been great if Gaga could have played The Countess in a similar fashion, if we got to see her really savour the kill in the same way that Mr. March did. Instead Gaga was given a character that was stone faced about everything. A character who considered the act of slicing somebodies throat as mundane as the act of brushing your teeth.

Matt Bomer seemed more human and I think that the audience needs that sort of human element in order to relate to the character. The Countess, mostly due to writing, lacked that for the majority of the season. Mare Winningham played a minor character but managed to steal almost every scene she was in. She was a simple character but her motivations and emotions were apparent in every single subtle facial movement. She took a minor character and injected her with a very unique yet relatable personality, at times I cared more about her than Mr. March or The Countess who were the major characters she was around.

The other actors, imo, had more multi-faceted characters. They had more unique characteristics, accents, motivations and mannerisms that they had to consider. The Countess wasn't as challenging of a role - she was the unshakable, ever-composed lady of the hotel with the constant pokerface. While I appreciate the subtle greatly, it's more challenging to play a more indepth character with the same sort of subtlety. Take a character like Sally for example, it is a lot easier to over do it with that sort of character. They are so deranged and manic that it takes a skilled actor to be able to pull the character off in a way that doesn't seem exaggerated and overblown. I think Sarah Paulson was able to play that character and use subtle facial expressions and gestures to make her character believable.

Gaga, for the most part, wasn't given that same opportunity with The Countess. She played a pretty straight character, she didn't have much room to move and therefore didn't encounter as much risk. It's easier to play a one-dimensional character with a constant pokerface than a character facing emotional turmoil and changing motivations. That changed for her during the end of the season, with her turmoil over Valentino and such, but for the majority of the season she seemed caged in while her peers were given more character development and a greater chance to show their versatility and ability.

I love what Gaga did with what she was given and I'd love to see her tackle more challenging roles, but this particular role just seemed too one-dimensional and underdeveloped for me to really appreciate.

[Evan Peters 10,335]

you seriously think GAGA was the best actor in hotel?  girl......................

1. Denis O'Hare
2. Evan Peters
3. Mare Winningham
4. Sarah Paulson
5. Kathy Bates
6. Finn Wittrock
7. Angela Bassett
8. Matt Bomer
9. Gaga
10. Cheyenne Jackson
11. Wes Bentley (idk what happened this season, he was relatively fine in freakshow)
12. Chloe Sevigny 

Excuse the incoming commentary  if you don't want to waste your time reading it then don't. 

The Countess

Honestly the whole "The countess was supposed to be stone faced and lack emotion" excuse is getting pretty old now. While I don't think Gaga was the worst actor on the show (I can't really say any of them were terrible), there was still a lack of depth within her acting as a whole. I believe that she did her best at creating the Countess, but the countess grew mundane after a while. Like, everything she did was predictable. Fall in love, turn them, heartbreak, marry for money, steal the money, fall in love, etc, etc. You could argue that her character was just obsessive and clingy and needed to be in control, but there was no variation to it. I'm not going to sit here and say Gaga can't act or that she didn't do a good job on her first real role, but to say she was the best is beyond delusional. 

Tristan/Valentino

i liked Tristan in the beginning but his development went absolutely nowhere. I'm assuming it's because Finn had to go and film as Valentino (a character who's development also went nowhere imo). I thought Finn did way better in Freakshow then he did in Hotel. Maybe it's because he's good at playing the ****ed up characters. 

Alex Lowe and John Lowe

So much potential....wasted...in John. You know, I kept on questioning why john was so insufferably boring. Is it because the writing just isn't there? Is it because the character is meant to be as boring as ****ing possible? But then he had scenes with March...and then he had scenes where he killed people. And then i realized. It was ****ing Alex. The fun sucking wife who's obsession with her creepy ass son was borderline incestuous. Seriously, the only noteworthy thing she did was drag that bitch for not getting her kid the measles vaccine. Also, justice for Scarlett since she disappeared for 90% of the season because her parents were ****ing idiots. 

Chloe was good in Asylum so I have no idea what happened here. At times it seemed like she herself was getting bored with what Alex was complaining about. 

Liz Taylor

i was so surprised Denis didn't get an emmy nom for this role because it was one of his best performances on the show. He always has a knack for making his characters appear so human (does that make sense?  ) for however long (or short—shutout to Spaulding) the character's appearance is in the episode or season. I really did feel for Liz. Plus, Denis worked those platforms. #hedidTHAT

March

also shocked that there was no emmy nom for evan, but he is always paid dust by the emmys. i know his category is the most competitive but come on. Anyways. March was hands down his best character on the show. Evan has talked about how every season he always puts in more effort than the last and it showed this season. I fear for season 6 because I have a feeling Ryan is going to give him some boring ass character and I ain't down for that tbh! 

The accent, the attitude, the personality—everything about March was so well done. I do wish they had showed more about his father (they showed scars on his back and never talked or mentioned them again) since it's obvious that he was the main reason for march's distaste for religion. 

consider me biased but March being an out there character really has nothing to do with Evan's performance. Characters like march can't be played by everyone. It takes a real dedication and talent to pull off a truly evil character without making a mockery of them. He managed to balance the dark humor, the killings and torture, the obsession with the Countess all without overloading the viewer or turning March into a caricature of a stereotypical man from the 20's. Agree to disagree i suppose. 

And to wrap up....Sally and Iris

Full offense, but i seriously don't know why either performance got nominated. I didn't think the characters were bad nor do I believe sarah and kathy did poorly, I just don't see anything noteworthy about them. At least Wes wasn't nominated since he was put in for a possible male lead role nom  

1 hour ago, Sizzily said:

11. Chloe Sevigny

12. Cheyenne Jackson 

Praying Chloe and Cheyenne don't return for another season ever.  

to be fair to chloe, she was pretty good on Asylum. I really liked Shelley. The lowe's were just so boring  Like John was only interesting when he was killing people and ****. 

[Bradley 55,281]

35 minutes ago, Evan Peters said:

you seriously think GAGA was the best actor in hotel?  girl......................

 

Haven't read the entire thing but my list was not the OP, it was the third post. 

I did place her as second best and do not agree with your Countess comments at all though. Your comments are oversimplifying things. Can we not always presume that because I'm a Gaga fan speaking on a Gaga forum, I am automatically biased? Gaga was supposed to replace Jessica and whilst producing that list, I endevoured as far as I could to disregard the fact that Gaga is my favorite singer. If she remained monotonous throughout the entire season, I would've placed her at 7 or 8, it was the transition in and after Flicker that prompted me to place her at 2.

Btw, obviously Dandy had better character development, he was a main cast in Freak Show, he's not even credited as a main actor in Hotel. But yes Dandy was more amazing than Tristan. On the other hand, Rudolph >>> Mr. March. (no offence considering you're Evan's fan)

[Quran 179]

gaga being better than sarah. ahh

no wonder people dont take this fanbase seriously

[The Surrealist 27,470]

1. Evan Peters (amazing accent, costume, consistent acting)

2. Mare Winningham (powerful acting, cunning delivery of lines)

3. Lady Gaga (very good performance especially for her first role in television and more so on a Ryan Murphy Show where you get the script after each episode.

4. Denis O'Hare (fantastic acting, good method acting, good level of details)

5. Sarah Paulson (worst role yet, but stil managed to get the best out of it, her transition to Dean Howard was a little bit whacky at times, but ok, considering she was basically playing three roles)

Everyone else was equally bad but especially Wes Bentley, Matt Bomer and Kathy Bates, which were a lot better in previous seasons.

[Daredevil 2,133]

Matt Bomer has so much potential. He was amazing in The Normal Heart.  I can't believe what he did for that role. 

Evan Peters is amazing too