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?

Eriq La Salle in Coming to America is my most favourite arsehole ever 😁.

Giancarlo Esposito - Gus Fring in Breaking Bad
Brendan Gleeson - The Banshees of Inisherin
Gary Oldman - Slow Horses
Mark Rylance - Wolf Hall
Peter Dinklage - Game of Thrones

I was talking with friends today about that amazing acting. You could tell just by his face which character he was. "Patricia"

I agree with both of these.

Linda Basset (Phyllis) after Charlotte Ritchie (Barbara) died in Call the Midwife

Gary Oldman in The Darkest Hour

Eve Myles in keeping faith and pretty much anything she’s done.

Elizabeth Moss in The handmaid’s tale, also Madeleine Brewer, Samira Willey, Bradley Whitford and Ann Dowd. The whole cast are insanely talented.

Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in the best ever adaptation of Pride and Prejudice

Pretty much all the leads in OITNB
Audrey Hepburn in Charade or anything really
Heath Ledger i 10 things I hate about you is pretty phenomenal
And I'm going to go with Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca.

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos. Was good in other films but his portrayal of Tony was perfection.
Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser in the Outlander series. Seen him in a few other things and he’s ok but like JG above, he is outstanding as Jamie.
Paul Walter Hauser as Larry Hall in Black Bird (Apple TV+). Creepiest character portrayal I’ve ever seen on either the small or large screen.

Just as a change from Gary Oldman in Slow Horses, Jonathan Pryce. His portrayal of a man slipping painfully into dementia is horribly real. I have never seen my DH cry over any film or TV before - but the final episode of series 4 left him (and me) in tears.

Alec Guinness as Smiley.

Richard Burton as O'Brien.

And lastly Simon Russell Beale on stage. Utterly mesmerising.

Alison Janney in the West Wing. Alison Janney in The Diplomat. In fact Alison Janney in everything she's ever been in.

Colin Morgan in everything he’s in.
Ben Wishaw
Ralph Fiennes

Michael Sheen in just about anything, but I’ll go for The Damned United as my favourite. He’s just an astonishing actor, disappears right into the character.

I was going to say the same. He was astonishing.
I will add Siobhan Finneran and Sarah Lancashire in the cafe scene in Happy Valley.

Carrie Coon in an old HBO show called The Leftovers. There is a scene where she is talking about her children and it just blew me away. She was brilliant.

Also Florence Pugh in Lady MacBeth, she is incredible in that.

Angela Bassett in the Tina Turner biopic.
Al Pacino - Scent of a woman
Jack Nicholson - As good as it gets. Although I love the whole cast in that film.
Ditto, One flew over the Cuckoos nest.
Another for Charlize Theron in Monster.

I thought of this immediately. He's excellent in everything, but he was awesome in that.

Beautiful boy - had forgotten what a fantastic film that is

Keisha Castle Hughes in the school performance scene in The Whale Rider - I've never seen an actor be so convincingly emotional, let alone a child.

A very recent one - Matthew Rhys in The Beast in me - fabulous as a psychopath.

This thread is giving me good ideas of things to watch when I recover from an op next week 🙂

I liked....
Robert de Niro in The Intern
Anthony Hopkins in The Father
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, also in Kramer vs Kramer
I'll watch Tom Hanks in anything (loved The Green Mile especially)
ditto Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson in Wit. A little known but absolutely devastating film.

I agree with the Sarah Lancashire and Siobhan Finneran performances in Happy Valley. So many perfect moments of acting, script and direction in that series.

And ALL in This is England, though Vicky McLure stands out, her dignity in such unconscionable circumstances is unforgettable.

This is one of my all time favourite films and nobody has ever heard of it! It's the only film that makes me cry.

"No, he's very much alive!"

Elisabeth Moss in The Handmaid's Tale. Pretty much everyone in that, but especially Elisabeth Moss.