Best acting performances ever...

[LeoTheLion678]

I'll start. Hoping for inspiration as I'm running out of Saturday night choices!

Charlize Theron - Monster. Her acting and appearance were both absolutely mind blowing

Leonardo Di Caprio - What's Eating Gilbert Grape. How he didn't win every award under the sun makes me wonder who he fell out with in Hollywood!

Tom Hanks - Captain Phillips. Especially the end scene where he's gone into shock. But then he's my favourite actor in the solar system...

Elizabeth Debicky - The Crown. She was more like Diana... than Diana!

Who are your additions?

Damian Lewis as Henry VIII in Wolf Hall. So mercurial. A brilliant series.
I thought Elizabeth Debecki was awful, just a caricature, not like the real woman at all. The Crown really messed up the portrayal of Diana.

Gary Oldman was brilliant as Churchill in Darkest Hour.

Edward Norton - Primal Fear. Also best debut (in my opinion)!

Gilbert Grape was fantastic! He peaked in his teens,
For me, Philip Seymour Hoffman I’m Happiness or Synecdoche, New York. Not the most known films, but because of that reason - quite obscure roles and movies that no many could’ve gotten away with, but he was beyond anyone in my opinion.

YEARS ago. Libby in neighbours, after Carl and Susan split, and susans Catholic priest (?) boyfriend emerged from the bedroom at breakfast.

Heath Ledger - The Joker
Tom Hanks - Forest Gump
Kathy Bates - in everything she’s ever been in
Jodie Foster - The Accused
Samantha Morton - Alpha in Walking Dead

An odd one, but I thought the acting between Kristin Scott Thomas and Scarlett Johansson in The Horse Whisperer was fabulous. It wasn’t a big hit with critics but I thought it captured the complexity of a mother daughter relationship beautifully.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote
Ralph Fiennes - Schindler's List
Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Samantha Morton - Sweet and Lowdown

Oh my god - Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List was extraordinary. So chilling.

Stephen Graham - The Virtues

I know, but Emma Thompson crying in Love Actually. So understated and believable.

And Gary Oldman in Slow Horses.

I miss that era of soaps :(

Totally agree! About Diana actor

yes love Damien Lewis in wolf hall - one of my fave series

Have you seen PSH in “before the devil
know your dead”

amazing film!

I just watched To Walk Invisible, Sally Wainwright’s film about the Brontës, and the lad who played Branwell in that blew me away. He managed to make him totally infuriating, when all the while your heart was breaking for him. Adam Nagaitis, he was called. I’ve not seen him in anything else.

Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. Johnny Depp gave a great performance as well, but Landau was magnificent and absolutely deserved his Oscar.

Mark Rylance in Wolf Hall
Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley
Meryl Streep in August, Osage County (and most other things)
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Strong (yes really)
Leo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street (yes really)
Joe Pesci in The Irish man

Soooo many!!

I loved Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall. You could see the character’s brain ticking like a Swiss watch, while his hand was permanently on his knife. Genius.

That whole series was fantastic
Absolutely compelling

A very old one but Hilda Ogden holding her husband's glasses and breaking her heart when he died has stayed with me for decades.

I’m so glad for the wolf hall appreciation

can’t get my friends to watch

they just get the atmosphere so right - apparently all filmed with candle light for authenticity

F Murray Abraham as Salieri in Amadeus.
Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate.
Maggie Smith in The Lady in the Van.

Kristin Griffith and Tom Holland in Devil All the Time. They were so good even though I hate the film. Everyone in it was good.

Totally agree. Amazing performance

Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane...when she serves up a dead rat to her sister