I don't blame actors so much as I do producers and directors. Part of it is if they're shelling out millions to put a Will Smith on the poster they don't want
"Six Degrees of Separation" Will Smith, they want MIB/Independence Day Will Smith. Then you have guys like Pacino/Deniro/Walken that play themselves so much you'd be disappointed if they didn't.
When I saw Will Smith in "Six Degrees of Separation" I'd only known him as TV's "the Fresh Prince" and it shocked the s##t out of me. I'm not an expert, but it seemed like an impressive performance (again, to me). At least showed some range. But then you had "Independence Day" and that was the guy they wanted. Same as Ryan Reynolds, he can pull it off so well why not have him do what works I suppose (even if he's capable of more). Again, blame that on bottom-line thinkers and not so much on the actors.
When assessing an actor you have to look at their ENTIRE body of work. I think that's getting a little bit lost in the discussion.
With the exception of "character actors" most of the bigger names get cast because they can play a certain kind of character. And after a while, they get type cast to play that sort of character. It takes conscious effort from actors to avoid this stuff (Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio have been very keen and vocal about avoiding this stuff).
Will Smith has shown to be quite a good actor from his work in Six Degress of Separation to Ali to Pursuit of Happyness and even crap like Seven Pounds. Guys like DeNiro and Pacino are known for their more boisterous characters but skim over their entire careers and you'll notice they've played a rather large variety of characters.
Bronson and Eastwood.
Bud Spencer and Terence Hill.
Bea Arthur pretty much played the same kind of character in all her comedic roles.
But she was so great and hilarious in all of them that you didn't care. But Dorothy on Golden Girls was my favorite.
First name that came to mind was Sylvester Stallone. He won Best Actor, Best screenplay and Best picture Oscars for Rocky and then dropped into standard action movies, never again rising to that level. Now, he's had tons of successful movies and characters but I'm just saying he never again achieved anything of that level.
Power with Girl is better.
Bronson used to have more range I think but he kind of got stuck in the vigilante roles after a while.
As for Clint, yeah he usually plays stoic western characters or somewhat grumpy old men, and still a pretty good director. Sure, his politics (sometimes which show up in his films) might not be for everyone but he's been relatively reserved about it compared to some others....
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