Best Actor of the 21st Century

I think Gosling and Mann should do a prequel to Heat. Gosling would play De Niro and Fassbender would play Pacino.

hahaha

Hardy. Was a lot more stunned by his performance in BRONSON than by Gosling in DRIVE…though I think that’s almost inevitable since it’s styled and utilized within that picture to stand out as something more conspicuously stunning than Gosling’s character was even ever conceived to be.

Bai Ling in CRANK 2 for a close second.

Angry Asian man talkin’ there.

@ Vanselow aka Wanderer, seriously, have at least a modicum of a sense of boundaries. My own ethnicity neither detracts nor adds to the fundamental merit of my argument, which is that this discussion is painfully provincial in scope. Taking a potshot at someone’s ethnicity is pretty 20th century and should be reserved for people with the mentality of a third grader.

Honestly, name some of these GREAT non-Anglophone actors and actresses.

Really? I hope you’re joking. Just for shits and giggles, I’ll give you a list of 20 non-Anglophone actors and actresses off the top of my head who I think are better than Ryan Gosling.

Juliette Binoche
Isabelle Huppert
Maggie Cheung
Zhao Tao
Moon So-ri
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Anna Outinen
Jeon Do-yeon
Shu Qi
Tran nu yên-khê
Aïssa Maïga
Beatrice Dalle

Denis Levant
Toney Leung
Song Kang-ho
Isaach de Bankole
Mathieu Amalric
Choi Min-sik
Tadanobu Asanou
Lee Kang-sheng
Sol Kyung-gu
Gael Garcia Bernal
Edgar Ramirez
Takeshi Kaneshiro

Okay, so I ended up making a list of 24 since I didn’t want to leave anyone that came to mind at this moment.

The fact is that in my mind, very few Anglophone performers stand out these days. So don’t expect a big list of non-Anglophone actors and actresses from people who (shock, horror) watch mainly Anglophone films because (heaven forbid!) we live in a world where English is one of the dominant languages, Hollywood markets their films more widely than any other film institution, and…oh. I can’t help but notice that you posted in English, Blue.

So what if I’m posting in English? What’s the point? Of course English is the de facto global lingua franca, and I have no problems with that. But unless somehow Anglophones happen to be inherently superior actors, a thread discussing the best actors of the 21st century is by definition painfully provincial if it fails to mention a single non-Anglophone actor. It’s fine if some people want to watch mainly Anglophone films. Whatever pleases them. But at a site that supposedly discusses good cinema regardless of what language a film happens to be in, people shouldn’t limit the discussion solely to Anglophone cinema.

And whether or not Hollywood markets more of its films than any other film institution also misses the point. We aren’t talking about commercial success or popularity here. We are talking about an actor’s merit. The whole point of a discussion like this is to IGNORE the commercialism and redirect the focus on merit.

Note that despite the fact that Australia makes Anglophone films, nobody has mentioned any Australian actors and actresses, but you don’t see me crying bigotry.

Again it’s not about bigotry but provincialism. And besides, Australia is only a middling nation in terms of population. It has only about 20 million people and ranks 50th in population. Considering that there are some 7 billion people in the world, it isn’t an atrocity that no actor from a nation of 20 million—less than 1/3 of 1% of the world’s population—doesn’t get a mention. However, of the 7 billion people in the world, only some 330 million are primary English speakers. That’s 5% at best. So the 95% of the world that doesn’t speak English as the primary language isn’t represented. See the difference?

And the number of films made in English might account for more than 5% of the films made around the globe, but it is still a small minority of all the films made globally. So while people like you think that we should be sheep and just accept the tidal wave of commercially successful but artistically bankrupt crap that Hollywood produces, I’m advocating that we look beyond the commercial fare for what matters artistically, regardless of language or commercial viability.

See, I’m actually grateful that I came to acquire a good command of the English language because it affords me more opportunities as an individual. But instead of just taking my privileged status as an Anglophone for granted, I want to make sure that works of art from the other 95% of the world get their proper due as well. I understand that while English happens to be the lingua franca of the world, it doesn’t mean that somehow Anglophones produce better art.

I might want to add Andrew Garfield to the list of contenders now that I’m thinking about it…he was a standout in The Social Network, Never Let Me Go and Red Riding 1974. Too early to tell, of course, but with Spider-Man next summer he is poised for a major breakout.

…and if we are including actresses as well….Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain have to be considered….they have been ubiquitous of late and most of their film work is high quality.

I suppose this thread wasn’t really started to offer alternatives to Gosling and Levitt though…was it?

I think Emma Stone needs to take a break. I feel like ever since Superbad I’ve seen her way too much. She is charming and very charismatic (Easy A was surprisingly very enjoyable) but I don’t think she’s on the same level as some of the actors mentioned here. Jessica Chastain on the other hand, she’s a gift from God.

Ever since Boy A, I’ve been a big fan of Andrew Garfield and have enjoyed seeing his career develop. I’m a little cautious to see him do Spider Man – not because I don’t think he’d be good (I think he’ll be great) but because I hope it doesn’t derail his career. Hopefully it will do for his career what Bond did for Daniel Craig (that is to say, propel him to do stronger work and give him great opportunities as an actor) and not what Spidy did to Toby Maguire’s career. I think Garfield is a gifted actor who can show real vulnerability. But only time will tell if that translates to great roles and great performances.

Ricardo Darín

@ Santino:

I hear ya about Spidey potentially derailing Garfield. Batman didn’t derail Bale…..I’m hoping Garfield follows that pattern. I haven’t seen Boy A but want to….I hear good things about it.

Emma Stone made Easy A a notch about the mediocre film it was. I thinks she raises the bar in everything she’s in. Loved her in Zombieland too!!!!

Check out Boy A. I think it’s Garfield’s best performance and a great showcase of his talent in carrying a film.

Gosling is mind-numbingly boring to watch in my opinion. I would say either Daniel Day Lewis, DiCaprio, or Brad Pitt.

I believe Dimitris has some recommendations:

10 favorite actors / actresses (5 from each sex) regardless of age, ethnicity and “experience”. 10 supreme acting talents which bring me joy and enchant me every time they grace the big screen, even when I forgive the occasional cinematic…decency they play into (assuming they’ve picked their roles, heh)

Male:

Tadanobu Asano
Javier Bardem
Jamel Debbouze
John Hawkes
Vangelis Mourikis

Female:

Jeon Do-yeon
Sally Hawkins
Mirjana Karanović
Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Gao Yuanyuan

Honorary mentions to Michael Fassbender and Ulrich Thomsen from men and Sandra Hüller and Saadet Aksoy from women.

That goes to the usual suspects who masturbate between American and British supremacy instead of looking the bigger picture which is: BE OPEN-MINDED!

By the way, those were samples above, I have many more favorites and still a-plenty to watch

I’ll co-sign Blue with Tadanobu Asano.

Gael García Bernal has a pretty astounding track record from what I’ve seen of him. Given the volume of films he’s been in I’m sure there are many clunkers though.

georg friedrich!!!! he’s been a joy in every film i’ve seen him in. more more more.
dragoş bucur
ricardo trêpa
grégoire colin

and the bond villains mathieu amalric (actor that most makes me laugh) and mads mikkelsen (actor that most makes me fall over)…

Yeah, Amalric was terrible as a Bond villain – the problem was as much the material he was given and maybe playing a part in a second language – but he’s otherwise one hell of an actor.