Screen Presence

[Feinberg]

Who's got it? Not necessarily tied to talent but that certain something that separates an actor from the rest of the pack.
I'll start with ...

[kingrat]

Great idea for a thread. Who do you look at in a scene? Who can carry a film? John Wayne certainly can. I am not the world's biggest fan of Tom Cruise, but he has screen presence and can carry a film. His ability to alternate commercial films with more artistically ambitious projects has created an exemplary career.

By contrast, consider that fine actor John Savage, so good in a supporting role in The Deer Hunter. He then starred in The Onion Field, a very fine film, and in The Amateur, not seen much but a good thriller. Unfortunately, these two films showed that he isn't a star actor, that he doesn't have the charisma or presence to carry a film. You could express this idea in several ways: that he's more comfortable as part of an ensemble; that he doesn't have the desire or need to take center stage and make the story about him; that neither he nor his creative mentors could help find the look or the best way to use his facial features; that he couldn't develop a persona that carried over from picture to picture.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Marilyn Monroe in Niagara knew how to make an entrance.

[Feinberg]

[ziggy6708a]

[ziggy6708a]

[Arsan444]

Clint Eastwood

[Arsan444]

Audrey Hepburn

[Feinberg]

[Feinberg]

John Gielgud spoke of his experience working with James Mason on Julius Caesar (1953). While they were shooting Gielgud was wondering what Mason was up to as he didn't appear to be 'acting' at all. Then when he saw the film he was somewhat aghast that Mason was blowing him off the screen.

[Dargo]

How about the following two from Hollywood's more recent past. Neither of whom I would consider as being "handsome" in the classical sense, but who still seem to dominate almost every scene that they're in by use of this thing called "Screen Presence".

First, a two-time Oscar winner and an actor who I've always been impressed by his abilities to be chameleon-like in the roles he took on...


And secondly, he with the voice so distinctive that comic impressions of it and of him are presently done as much as any ever were of any of the big Hollywood stars that came before him...

[I Love Melvin]

A good test is whether they can keep you watching even in iffy material and someone who always does that for me is Jane Russell. Underwater! is coming up in June and it's fairly standard Howard Hughes adventure stuff, but he always made sure she was well-showcased and she looks great and gives us full-on Jane.

[HoldenIsHere]

[Feinberg]

[Feinberg]