Gary Oldman calls his acting in Harry Potter movies 'mediocre'

[hieronymus 9,679]

His portrayal wasn't any worse than most of the other actors'. The movies are clunky as hell when it comes to dialogue. Considering it was such a high caliber cast, they did the best they could with what they were given. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by hieronymus

[Head Empty 24,260]

1 hour ago, hieronymus said:

they did the best they could with what they were given. 

Not really though. I still detest that some of the most prominent actors in the series (and even one of the directors) didn't bother to get familiar with the source material.

I can't imagine getting cast for one of the biggest book adaptations of all time and then not even touching the book . The reason these characters are so beloved is right there on the page. An actor should at least have that context when deciding how to play the role.

 

[hieronymus 9,679]

12 hours ago, Head Empty said:

Not really though. I still detest that some of the most prominent actors in the series (and even one of the directors) didn't bother to get familiar with the source material.

I can't imagine getting cast for one of the biggest book adaptations of all time and then not even touching the book . The reason these characters are so beloved is right there on the page. An actor should at least have that context when deciding how to play the role.

 

But it's 2 different mediums. They're playing a character in a movie, not one in a book. The screenplays should be enough and they weren't.

[Head Empty 24,260]

1 hour ago, hieronymus said:

But it's 2 different mediums. They're playing a character in a movie, not one in a book. The screenplays should be enough and they weren't.

You're not wrong, but approaching it like that when additional input is readily available seems lazy on the actor's part. Just because it's a fictional character, doesn't mean there shouldn't be prep work involved.

[hieronymus 9,679]

27 minutes ago, Head Empty said:

You're not wrong, but approaching it like that when additional input is readily available seems lazy on the actor's part. Just because it's a fictional character, doesn't mean there shouldn't be prep work involved.

What's lazy is expecting the actors to do prep work instead of writing a better screenplay. 

[Killa 15,548]

def not one of his brilliant interpretations, at all. Not only was he not like sirius in temperament, he was actually awkward in many scenes. Ensemble scenes can be hard and if you're idea isn't very defined you can really ruin the scene. I imagine the adult cast has many less time, the director should direct the less experienced ones and there's a gigornousmous cast. But for example alastor moody was just a side character and really came to life. Same for cornelius or Mr Dursley!! or say MR Weasly

On the bottom were def Sirius and way worse, Lupin. Unbearable scenes, but i dont think so much for the acting but the writting and directing as well. But these characters didnt really work, some of they're dialogues are top cringe. It's a pitty, the character book was pretty cool when i read it. 

[Head Empty 24,260]

1 hour ago, hieronymus said:

What's lazy is expecting the actors to do prep work instead of writing a better screenplay. 

Let's strive for both 

[A Very Gaga Holida 20,549]

I have no idea what people percieve to be mediocre acting, like I can’t tell the difference between mediocre acting and Oscar-winning performance, really

I can tell when acting is really bad though

[Ziggy 10,734]

On 12/30/2023 at 8:20 AM, RAMROD said:

And he is correct. 
 

I would appreciate it more when an actor or a director would do due diligence on learning the source material before doing anything with the character they are starring as or filming a movie based on a (comic) book. 
 

Movie version Snape is still a full fledged character within all limitations of a movie bringing. 

I’ll say this: the script should do the work. You shouldn’t absolutely need to read the book to get the characterization. Could he have? Yeah but movie Sirius is also written quite differently than the book Sirius who was a little bit more immature and whose father figure role, I think, was played down a little.

movie snape is only sort of full fledged imo. We barely see an 1/8 of his cruelty imo it’s more squidward like than he is a fully mean MEAN person, which we later learn is from bitterness and just kinda being a bad person in many respects too lmao but my point is that I don’t think knowing the end necessarily made his role more filled out to us. I mean, his feelings in HBP aren’t nearly as complex as portrayed in the books and that’s down to the writing of the script.

I personally think his acting was “mediocre” bc Gary oldman is just that capable of doing more, honestly. When you get a crop of actors THAT good, the writing has to push them to get their best and challenge them. That said, I think every actor did an amazing g job.