This week we learned about the different types of actors which are impersonators, interpreters, personality, wild card, and character. I believe that, unless an actor sticks with only one role throughout their life, they will fall within several of these categories. Some actors might be classified as a certain type based on some of their better-known roles such as Jim Carrey and his roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Liar Liar where his personality so obviously shines through.
Other actors are a little harder to classify. Take, for instance, Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, and Orlando Bloom from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The film created much hype and resulted in three more movies getting released with another one due in 2017. It consists of mostly stylized acting which is also pointed out by Bill Goodykoontz and Christopher Jacobs (2014) who write about how the “stylized, over-the-top performances” (p. 5.4) enhance the unique personalities of the pirates. Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom play more realistic roles within the film as smitten lovers.
When it comes to actor types, I would classify Keira Knightley as a character actor. Although she plays the love interest in many films, her roles vary from historical to futuristic to sci-fi to action. In The Pirates of the Caribbean she plays the strong-minded Elizabeth Swann who gets captured by pirates. Her character acts out, speaks her mind, and is quite adept at defending herself something that is uncharacteristic of a woman from this time period but Keira plays the role very well. Orlando Bloom I would classify as a wild card. He has had a very successful acting career playing leading roles in quite a few famous films. From Legolas in The Lord of the Rings to Will Turner in The Pirates of the Caribbean and many roles in between Orlando Bloom has shown much skill in playing whatever role is required of him.
Finally, we have Johnny Depp who is definitely a wild card based on the large variety of roles he has played. He ranges from naturalistic acting in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape to more stylized acting in Ed Wood. He has acted in many of Tim Burton’s films, which means he has portrayed some unique characters and did so very well as is reflected in IMDB’s video of his top ten films, which lists a few of these films. From a demon barber to the Mad Hatter, Johnny Depp shows his versatility as an actor. This goes to show how flexible the categories of actors can be. Most actors will play a variety of roles within their lifetime, and although there might be some similarities among the roles or an actor might get well known for several very similar roles they played, chances are they have gone through phases of jumping from one type to the next.
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Internet Movie Database. (2015). Johnny Depp. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000136/
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