“Bad” Acting For The Win
PrevNode LinkNextMel Brooks
Node LinkNextMel Brooks popularised exaggerated, phony, and overemotional acting in his films. My favourite film of his is Spaceballs, which is a parody of the Star Wars IV-VI trilogy. Many people who have watched both (including I) now admit that Spaceballs is better. The actors there acted badly because it was easier for them, and because the crowds liked it better. They were hacking.
(Don't mess with a Druish Princess - "He shot my hair!")
Arnold Schwarzenegger
PrevNode LinkNextOne actor who built his career around hacky, guideline-bending, acting is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was hired for reportedly as much as 50 million dollars per film, and whom audiences in the 1980s and 1990s loved, and many people held in contempt back then. Aside from his physique, Schwarzenegger was notorious for his thick Austrian accent, his one-liners, and his funny and fun and unnatural acting. People who went to see his films were usually entertained because "worse is better".
My Hacky Acting Story
PrevNode LinkNextNow for a personal story: back when I was in the 7th or the 8th grades (I am 1977-born, so it was around the time of the first Gulf War; ~1990), my classroom studied a Hebrew translation of Molière's play The Misanthrope as part of our "Literature" studies and my classmates took turns reading the lines. One day I was assigned to read the lines of the titular character, and whereas most of my peers read their lines without excitement, I was enthusiastically envigorating the role with much fake emotion. I became a hit and almost monopolised that role.
One reason I did that was that at the time, I was more oriented toward Maths and other exact sciences, and because in Israel, one's 7th/8th grade Literature grades have little effect on their scholastic aptitude. So I had little to lose.
Anyway, I recall playing the close-to-the-finish monologue where I was lamenting the disappearance of my character's treasure box. I felt I acted unnaturally, but it was still fun, and my classmates gave me an enthusiastic ovation.
My performances there are lost in the proverbial Akashic records because they were not recorded. Furthermore, for better or for worse, I was a web worker and writer, during the early days of the Web (WWW), an amateur graphics manipulator, and a professional software developer (who also has done for-fun/"amateur", open source, software development work). This has given me an edge over laymen who used Microsoft Word during the web 1.0 and the early web 2.0 periods when text, limitedly formatted HTML, and images (GIFs and JPEGs mostly) were prevalent due to technological limitations (e.g: the browser wars and Microsoft holding back Internet Explorer 6 development, and low speed Internet connections. ).
Emma Watson as a hackery actress
PrevNode LinkNextIt might seem preposterous to believe Emma Watson is the new Arnold Schwarzenegger just because they were both Hollywood's best paid actors and you would be right. Emma Watson is not the new Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But Arnold Schwarzenegger will forever be remembered as the old EMMA FUCKIN' WATSON!
( Shlomi Fish (= me)’s Emma Watson Factoids. )
It seems that Emma Watson employed a similar strategy when playing for the Harry Potter films from what I saw of her there. She was overemotional, edgy, and acted in a manner which was both easier, more fun, and was loved by the geeky audience (whether in the cinemas, or at home). In a way, she was one of the few selling points of most of the series' films, which although skillfully executed, were clearly not done by artists having fun. This apparently changed with the 7th and 8th installments, which were reportedly edgy and fun to watch.
Conclusion: People Love Hacky Acting
PrevNode LinkAll of the hacker actors I mentioned (except perhaps me, given I cannot be a judge of my own skill) could play more convincingly if and when they needed to and when given more time. But playing "naturally" in comedies and action films in non-essential cases is self-defeating.
If you think of the memorable moments of your favourite films, then if you are not in a Clinical Depression you may notice that most of them consistently featured hacky acting that the actor employed. I recall Sharon Stone's phony acting in The Quick and the Dead to be a feature. I also loved Sarah Michelle Gellar's portrayal of a phony, pose, and unlikely Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and later enjoyed her distinctively high pitching voice in the MTv Film awards parodies:
( Spiderman Parody. )
( LotR Parody. )