Who are the least talented actors who are successful?

[WokeKarenHereAskMeAboutStuff]

In your opinion.

I’ll start.

The Rock
Gal Gadot
Mark Whalberg
Channing Tatum

Aidan Turner - his eyebrows do all the heavy lifting, the rest of him is just dramatic ballast. He does choose the kind of glowering and shirtless roles where it kinda works though.

Daniel Radcliffe. Cute as a child actor, totally wooden as an adult. Keanu Reeves might not be a brilliant actor, but he is so watchable and nice.

I agree

LEAVE KEANU ALONE!!!

Some posts are mental though.

One poster mentioned Emma Thompson. That kind of mental. Remember watching her star opposite Daniel Day-Lewis In the Name of the Father and thinking she's the greatest female actress of her generation. She had already won a best actress Oscar at this stage, and the same year of holding her own against Day-Lewis (the greatest male actor of the modern era) she also shone opposite Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day.

David Tennant
Eddie Redmayne
Benedict Cumberbatch

I love Eddie redmayne and anna Maxwell Martin. I’ve always thought Emma Thompson was ok as well. I’m not keen on her sort of films or characters but I’ve never sat there thinking she’s a bad actress.

and Eddie redmayne is great in Day of the Jackal.

I think for some actors they become so well known it is hard to see them as anyone else. I would put meryl Streep in that category

the best actors are probably the ones whose name you can’t remember when you see them!

Helen Baxendale as Emily was really poor. But also, while we are on the subject... I never understood why R&R called their kid Emma. If you have a loathed ex called Emily, WHY would you call your kid something so similar?

But then again, I am not a Friends aficionado so maybe there was a reason?

Someone up thread mentioned Rupert Everett. I adore him because he is also a very funny, generous and ascerbic writer and raconteur, so I don't care if he is the same in everything.

Likewise, Emma Thompson, Olivia Coleman, Bill Nighy and Hugh Grant. Some actors can just be the same and they are very watchable.

Mark Rylance however, is the same in everything and very unwatchable. I saw his Othello at the Globe which is just like his Cromwell on TV which is just like everything else he mutters and mumbles his way through. (Maybe he is my Tom Hanks - loved by everyone except me!)

Ryan Gosling is someone I can't decide on - the main 2 films I'm thinking of are the second Bladerunner & Barbie. He came across as wooden in both, but then did he do that on purpose, because in the first he's essentially playing a robot and the 2nd a doll, so wooden = good. And then there's La La Land, but he's playing a romantic role in that and I find him completely unattractive, so can't work out whether it's me or the roles or what, but I just find him a bit shit and wooden.

Emma Watson definitely shit, sounds like she might have finally realised if she's moved into other things. Daniel Radcliffe also awful in HP.

Oops Benedict Cumberbatch ( I'm in bed with a fever hence even more dopey than normal) 😂😂😂

Some posts are mental though

Yeah - I mean Robert De Niro?! It’s subjective of course but I struggle to understand how anyone who’s seen him in, say, Taxi Driver and Jackie Brown and not see two wonderfully skilled performances.

Likewise Diane Keaton - Annie Hall and Marvin’s Room.

Or Tom Hanks - Punchline and Road to Perdition.

Or Meryl Streep - Postcards from the Edge and Silkwood.

His second name is Cucumberpatch. People are always getting it wrong. Like that TV chef with a cottage who used to eat roadkill - That's Hugh Furry Knitting Wool.

Slimy Pierce

?

Also, I've never worked out why they cast someone white for Hermione, I always had Hermione as being black or mixed race in my head from reading the books. It was the description of her hair I think "bushy brown hair", "lots of frizz".

Some posters are apportioning talent based on whether they like the individual, rather than their acting facility.

@ChessorBuckaroo I agree, Emma Thompson is hugely talented and I also found her name, amongst many others here, bizarre.

However what credentials do these opinions hold? None really for the majority of posters are probably merely spectators who may have acted in the nativity play at primary!!

This!

James McAvoy and Ewan McGregor.

Cannot stand either of them and switch off immediately with anything they are in.
They both seem to think inane grinning will get them through every role.

And neither can do anything but their own accent.
Went to see the recent remake of "Speak no Evil" with James McAvoy (dragged along) and felt like walking out. Awful actor and accent all over the place.
Urgh.

(BTW I am a Scot too so it's not a Scottish thing!)

I think it also depends how old you are and when you first saw the actor - I think pp is right that some amazing actors have dialled in performances since recognition and if you never saw their early work you will think they are rubbish!

action hero actors need to be liked - so I like the rock and find his films gentle fun. But I really find Ryan Reynolds creeps struggle to watch him in things. As long as they have enough people who like them they will continue to churn out light entertainment and there’s a place for that

@HagathaChristi

A kind of salt of the earth, bit hard but down the pub bloke😀

Oh and he did bang out some tunes

You must be trolling.

You’re surely aware of the controversy surrounding casting a black Hermione Granger in a play, and the all the discussion of the fact that the character is canonically white.

Hermione is categorically white. She’s described as having brown hair. She’s described as having a white face in the Prisoner of Azkaban, and at another point as her cheeks going red with embarrassment.

All non-white characters in the Harry Potter books are explicitly described as such. JKR’s own illustrations depict the character as white.

I can only conclude you are stirring.

Hmmmm, actually, I'm going to revise my proffered opinion. I said Tom Cruise because something about him is like nails down a blackboard to me, and I've never forgiven him for having the temerity to even think he could play Reacher, or for remaking War of the Worlds, lol. But 4th of July is a good shout.

Also, my opinion is worth sweet fanny adams, and there are some clearly very learned people on here about the topic, with an amazing depth and breadth of knowledge! It's been an education.

And all been exposed as fake news...

Spat my coffee out Hugh Furry Knitting Wool 😂😂😂