Not the worst acting ever (but close)
This is deliciously bad. As such, this scene from some long-lost movie may provide the finest entertainment of your day. I know it amused and entertained me.
By the way, despite claims to the contrary, this does not represent the worst acting ever. That distinction belongs to some odd-looking and unremarked character actor who auditioned for me 15 years ago and who at the end of his audition proudly punctuated the end of his standing monologue by planting one foot atop the seat of a nearby chair much in the way of an imagined Admiral Wellington or Napoleon Bonaparte. After he left, my producing partner said she didn’t believe any part of this man’s monologue. I replied, “I didn’t even believe the way he put his foot on the chair.”
This video therefore represents the second-worst acting ever. Although I’m open to other nominees, if you’d care to comment. And I suppose I’d nominate a third-worst: Nicolas Cage’s performance, such as it was, in last year’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans,” in which Cage’s lieutenant is best described as a cackling hunchback. Now that was pure enjoyment!
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:10 am
Michael Macliammoir told a story in PUT MONEY THY PURSE about the making of OTHELLO when he and Orson Welles were auditioning a swedish actor for Roderigo. The actor turned up drunk, and got drunker as he went on, finishing in a passionate flourish (for RODERIGO?!?) As he left, Welles commented,
“I think we may have been in the presence of genius. However, what the part calls for is talent.”
April 22nd, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Nick Adams — Actor. Didn’t he take that name from a Hemingway character?
My nominees for worst actors would be the male and female leads of the movie R.O.T.O.R., a cheap rip-off of Terminator. I love to read end credits and in this one they listed two other actors who had to re-do all the dialogue. It may have been for technical reasons but, after watching the movie, I imagine it was simply because the performances were so lame. Wish I could get that one on DVD.
December 15th, 2010 at 8:14 am
This woman was truly dreadful. Hey, isn’t the guy in this scene the same actor that played Uncle Charlie in “Sanford and Sons” years later?
December 15th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I guess you’re making a funny. “Uncle Charlie” was the housekeeper on “My Three Sons,” and was played by William Demarest. And no, that’s not him.
December 17th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I didn’t see this till now…so sucky.