Identify three actors from your film and classify each according to the types of actors listed in your text.
Explain your reasons for classifying the actors as you do. Use specific references to the film and pay special attention to how these decisions impacted characterization. Also, consider the impact of any realistic or stylized portrayals within the film.
There are many different types of actors and sometimes depending on the amount of films they’ve taken part in could place them in one or more of these categories. The film Battleship has some characters that fall into this group, but there are three that I will be discussing; they are Taylor Kitsch who plays Lieutenant Alex Hopper, Brooklyn Decker who plays Sam Shane, and Liam Neeson who plays Admiral Shane.
Taylor Kitsch
Brooklyn Decker
Brooklyn Decker to me would be placed in the category as a personality actress. I would place her in this category because of the films that I have seen her play in. In one movie she played in with Adam Sandler, Just Go With It, it seems as if she could have really been playing as herself. A personality actor is an actor whose own personality tends to define all the characters he or she portrays, so that the actor’s name alone lets the audience know what the screen character will be like (Goodykoontz, 2014). In this film like the others she plays a single female who is being wooed by the gentlemen characters in the movies. It’s like she brings the romance or appeal to the movies she’s involved in.
Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson would be placed in the category of a personality actor. I think that Liam Neeson takes each character he plays and owns it. In the movie Battleship he takes the character of an Admiral and made it his own, but you could see him being an Admiral in the Navy. He is such an aggressive actor when it comes to the character he plays in the movie Taken, Taken 2 and Taken 3. In the movie Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans when he plays Zeus, he really gets into character to portray how a Greek God was seen and how they appeared to the people throughout history. The majority of the films that I have seen him in was action packed and he was very passionate when it came to playing those different types of characters.
Focus on one of the actors you’ve discussed. Based on other films the actor has been in, would this actor always be placed in the same category? If so, what does this say about the category or actor? If not, what can you infer about the flexibility of these categories? Provide evidence (references from other films, including film clips and stills) to support your argument.
I think that many of Liam Neeson’s characters personality and agenda is the same even though they are very different characters. Each one of his characters end up protecting someone. In Taken it is his family, in Clash of the Titans it is protecting his son Perseus, and even in Battleship he was protecting his daughter and the Earth. So I would say that Liam Neeson is an actor who plays the same type of character. His characters are serious throughout the majority of the film that he plays in.
References
Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C. (2014). Film: From Watching to Seeing. Retrieved on March 18, 2015 from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/sec8.2
Battleship Movie Poster. Retrieved from http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/battleship/
Taylor Kitsch Photo. Retrieved from http://pixshark.com/taylor-kitsch-battleship.htm
Brooklyn Decker Photo. Retrieved from http://www.aceshowbiz.com/still/00005877/battleship-still05.html
Liam Neeson Photo. Retrieved from http://wadebearden.com/15-reasons-liam-neeson-best-ever-seriously-hes-greatest/
Liam Neeson: Taken 2 Photo. Retrieved from http://moviecultists.com/2012/10/10/taken-3-wants-your-money-will-liam-neeson-be-in-on-it/
Liam Neeson: Clash of the Titans Photo. Retrieved from http://onemovieourviews.com/2010/04/02/movie-review-clash-of-the-titans/
lwilliams816 