Good morning and hope you all had a great weekend! Personally I can’t complain as it was nice and relaxing and I managed to watch some movies, one of them was the 1972 disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure. It was one that was recommended to me and I thought it was pretty good. One thing I did start wondering about while I was watching it, was that there were two actors in this movie who I immediately associated with another role they did. It was a feeling that was very hard to shake, so today’s question is:
Are there any actors that you always associate with one of their roles?
These are the actors that came to my mind:
Leslie Nielsen
It doesn’t matter which roles he plays I always see Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin, the role he played in the Naked Gun movies. Those were the first movies I saw him in and since he always made me laugh it was weird seeing him in the Poseidon Adventure as captain of a ship that’s about to sink.
Jack Albertson
Another actor who starred in The Poseidon Adventure, but since I only saw him in one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory I will always see him as Charlie Bucket’s grandfather.
Lisa Kudrow
This is an association a lot of you will probably have as well. It’s her role as Phoebe in Friends, a show which aired for so long that she became that character. If I see her in any other movie I see her as Phoebe and she seems to act the same way, which usually takes me out of the movie. I always feel like she’s out-of-place.
Are there any actors that you always associate with one of their roles? Does that make you enjoy a movie less?
Leslie Nielsen is a good pick. Hard to see him as anything but Frank Drebin.
This is often true for people who have been in sitcoms, I find. Probably because I’ve seen them so often in their respective role. Jason Alexander, for instance. There’s no escaping George Costanza. Ashton Kutcher is another one. He’ll always be Kelso to me. Which is unfortunate when he’s trying for more serious film roles. I really dug The Butterfly Effect, but Kutcher in the lead was rather distracting for me.
Yeah, actors in sitcoms really have a hard time breaking away from something they have played for years. The thing is also that they usually pick roles that are not very different from what they previously did, making it even harder.
I don’t have that issue with Kutcher but then again I never saw him in much before he did the Butterfly Effect (which was a great movie)
I have an issue with Hugo Weaving, I just want him to slip in a Mr Anderssssssson in every film he does!
It would be cool though if he did that in every movie he’s in…it would be like Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back!” 😉
Good point Scott; almost every time Elrond spoke, I expected to slip into Mr Anderssssson! I would say that Arnie is probably never going to shake The Terminator. It doesn’t help that in most of his films he plays the action hero that is obviously not going to lose. And of course he is now know as the Governator!
But in his case you expect him not to lose. Wasn’t there one movie in which he actually didn’t?
I feel the same way about Lisa Kudrow. I think she never really left the Phoebe in her, or maybe she just never pick any role that was far different. Many of TV series actors are seem to always associated by their TV series role, like Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother).
Neil Patrick Harris is Dougie Howser! 😉
I don’t think the same about Kudrow at all, not since The Opposite of Sex. Audrey Tautou, though, is a different matter…
Never saw that movie. What don’t you like abotu Tautou?
Glad you saw THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. That’s one of my favourite adventure movies, I’m always recommending it.
As for your question: I think the biggest example of an actor getting associated with one character would have to be Jeff Bridges and The Big Lebowski.
My father in law really wanted to see it again, so decided to give it a try. He mentioned a lot of movies from the seventies which I never heard of and some of them were pretty good.
That was a big role for him, so it isn’t surprising it stuck. I don’t have the issue with him, but can imagine a lot of people do.
I’m w/ you about Nielsen, he’s always gonna be the ‘Naked Gun’ guy to me. Can you believe it he actually auditioned to be Messala in Ben-Hur?
As for your question, well speaking of Ben-Hur, that’s the role I’ll always think of whenever I hear the name Charlton Heston, that and Moses. Arnie will always be Terminator to me as well.
That would be very weird to watch if he had been in Ben-Hur!
When I hear Heston’s name I always first think of Planet of the Apes.
Hi, Nostra and company:
Interesting topic!
Film:
R. Lee Ermey will always be Gunnery Sgt, Hartmann from ‘Full Metal Jacket’. Don’t for the life of me know whey he wasn’t nominated for a Best Supporting Actor.Oscar. He’d won that category from The British Society of Film Critics.
Kate Beckinsale will always be Hero from ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Not thrilled with her latest fling with leather and firepower.
Ernset Borgnine will always be ‘Marty’. Though Borgnine can handle any role given him.
Television:
Hugh Laurie will always be Bertie Wooster. The main reason I can’t watch ‘House’. Keep expecting Hugh to break into song.
Jack Webb will always be Sgt. Joe Friday from ‘Dragnet’. I enjoy ‘The Mentalist’ on CBS and its cast member, Tim Kang’s Kimball Cho and his carrying on the Sgt. Friday mystique.
Diana Rigg will always be Mrs. Emma Peel from the UK import ‘The Avengers’ in the 1960s. No matter how many stage roles or BBC/Thames shows she’s been in.
That’s an interesting list of names (and a lot of names I must admit I don’t recognise ;))
It’s sometimes so hard to change your view about an actor. It usually takes one standout performance before you might shake it.
I’m gonna go a slightly different route and lay a mark on Sean Connery – he’s almost the opposite of those actors mentioned here, in that he plays HIMSELF instead of a different character in each film he does. He’s the same dude, every time he steps up. Bond aside (and let’s face it, his Bond was a while ago) he’s not been in any other film where his character is bigger than he is to the point where you can’t see him as anyone else: perhaps the closest I’ve seen him go out on a limb was…. nope, it’s never happened.
I think there are more actors like that. I always have to think of Tom Cruise and Will Smith as being like that as well. But didn’t you think Connery was a bit different in Indiana Jones?
Oh and Michael Cera….don’t get me started on him…
Ooh, good call on Lisa Kudrow! I must agree.
I associate the following together:
Anthony Hopkins: Hannibal Lecter
Tobey Maguire: Peter Parker
Antonio Banderas: Zorro
Daniel Radcliffe: Harry Potter
Julia Roberts: Pretty Woman
James Stewart: George Bailey
Pierce Brosnan: James Bond
Anna Paquin: Rogue
Yeah, I probably would have a hard time with Tobey Maguire and Daniel Radcliffe as well not associating them with those roles.
Yes, Leslie Nielsen is Frank Drebin! Come to think of it, I associate all the Friends cast with their characters 😛
Owen Wilson – I don’t particularly associate him with one certain role but rather the comedy genre. I was very pleasantly surprised by him in Midnight in Paris for that reason. I really, really loved him in Midnight in Paris.
Yeah, he was so great in that movie!
Haha definitely Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter. Could not take him seriously in Women in Black