butchna
Sit down and tell me all about it...way over there
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It's pretty spot on. Think of all of his most famous/praised roles. He's either a side character or part of an ensemble sharing the screen time with other stars. He's obviously a great actor but he's not a leading man in the way that someone like DiCaprio is.
how many American, and even Brit actors who areI've always been a little hesitant to voice this opinion, because I know he is so well-loved. I love him too. But I believe that Tom Hanks skill as an actor is wildly overrated. I finally feel emboldened to start this thread because they had this debate on the Rewatchables pod:
‘Catch Me If You Can’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey
They discuss it at about the 1:04:00 mark.
Flat out, I do not trust him with accents at all. I love Hanks in Big, and Saving Private Ryan, etc. when he's playing middle America. Castaway is an amazing performance. Hanks is an elite actor, but the range just isn't there to put him in the GOAT convo for me, and I think most people have him in that convo, if not the GOAT.
I can't think of an accent he's done that I can confidently say is good. Forrest Gump was questionable. The Terminal was questionable. Catch Me If You Can was an homage to Dragnet, which was not good acting. Charlie Wilson's War = bad. Pinnochio = he's nominated for the Razzy. Mr. Rogers = bad.
how many American, and even Brit actors who are
best of the best have great range?
Pacino? Deniro? Denzell? Hanks?
Hanks is just as good behind scenes as in front
Pitt is a great character actor, but he's actually not a great leading man. He's got all-time great leading man looks, but he's just an average performer. He is the Billy Beane of actors. Everybody wants him to be a leading man when they see him, but he's not that good at it. This is why he was so obsessed with Moneyball and getting that movie made.
Replace Pitt with DiCaprio and you have a pretty solid list.
I love Tom Hanks but he has started to become a caricatures of himself. I don’t see Hanks in a trailer and automatically want to see it but at the same time his presence lends some authority to the movie. Total body of work definitely elevated him to a conversation of elite actors.
By the way… I was really concerned what this debate was going to be about
Replace both and add Kevin Spacey. Spacey may be nuts but he can play nice guy, evil guy, crazy guy and each is amazing. Brad nor Leo have ever been villians. Neither has Hank.