I was looking at the Emmy nominations, specifically for Barry and got to thinking about Stephen Root. I think he might be my favorite character actor. He shows up in everything and absolutely steals the scenes every time. He can play the most normal people and the most outlandish characters and he knocks it out of the park every time. He’s a chameleon.
Who are your favorite character actors?
Lance Reddick (RIP) by far. That man was incredible.
Then it looks like I have no other choice… but to be a mature ass adult about this shit.
First role I saw him was as Cedric Daniels in The Wire.
God he’s so good in the Wire. I mean everyone is really. Ugh, it might be time for a rewatch.
Oh definitely. He was great in everything. One of my favorite and earliest roles I remember him in was in OZ.
I haven’t seen Oz yet (I desperately need to change that) so I feel like I kind of got into the Lance Reddick camp late. I loved him in Fringe and the John Wick films though. It was funny seeing him go from that cool, collected demeanor, to the ridiculous character he played on Eric Andre’s show.
Oh man, he was hilarious on Eric Andre. I would heavily recommend OZ. It was really one of the first of HBO’s “prestige” TV series, followed by The Sopranos. Lance is only in a season or 2, but he’s great while he’s there. There were a lot of people who came and went. People got killed off a lot on that show. One character who you think is gonna be around dies in the very first episode, haha. But it’s a who’s who of actors you see all the time now before they blew up. And I’d still argue one of JK Simmons’ best roles.
It has so many familiar faces in it, it’s a crime I haven’t watched it yet. I love JK Simmons.
Oh you’ll love it then. Just be warned, lots of hanging dong in it, lol.
Ricky Jay
Ricky Jay, gone too soon. My favorite role of his is in Heist. Way underrated movie. Mamet’s dialogue is so interesting. I loved watching Ricky’s magic too. If you haven’t seen it, check out Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants. Very entertaining.
Brian Posehn.
Gary Oldman always comes to mind.
I’m really liking Jodie Comer in Killing Eve recently.
Michael Stuhlbarg.
Saw him in MIB3 and enjoyed it, then basically forgot about him until I saw him in Your Honor and loved it. Now I’ve spotted him in quite a few other things too.
I need to start paying more attention to character actors. Michael Stuhlbarg is really the first one I’ve paid any attention to, so I’ll be taking notes from this thread and setting myself some homework 🙂
Oh this is a good one. Truly underrated
