A lot of people don't understand what is meant by the I'M ACTING meme. Here is a perfect example from a scene in the movie/play Fences. See if you can spot the difference.
James Earl Jones
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Denzel Washington
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I'M ACTING
Brandon Myers
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Justin Nelson
Why are they laughing during the scene lol
Noah Ross
That’s some good shit from James Earl Jones. Denzel is one of those actors that are too big to the point where I can’t take them seriously in dramatic performances like this, he just doesn’t come off as natural here
Leo Green
I'm supposed to think the darth vader one is better right?
Adrian Rivera
>that second video
it's like I'm watching Sanford and Son
Jacob Cook
Jones killed that scene and living up to it would be very daunting
Charles Kelly
And yet Denzel thought he could. So much so he made the fucking movie.
Lucas Rivera
Should I watch the Denzel's Fences movie? It sounds funny.
Benjamin Morgan
Is Denzel even a good actor? Like why do people love him so much? I just watched Malcolm X for the first time and really I was mostly just impressed with Spike Lee's directing style. Denzel didn't blow me away all that much. He's a bit of an over-actor if anything.
Levi Edwards
he was at one point. Somewhere after Fallen
Xavier Young
haha because hes an angry black man lol
Jose Evans
It's because you have to be a Thespian to succeed in theater. Being a successful movie actor will not necessarily translate there.
We can always compare:
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Evan Turner
I like him in the film where he holds a hospital hostage to his son an organ transplant and Training Day.
Isaac Jones
He is extremely situational. A good role can be coaxed out of him, but it's hard, and often he's just playing the same guy over and over again. He's not playing himself. I haven't watched all of his major films to figure out which one started the pattern, but if you watch Crimson Tide I believe this is where his "default" came from. He develops the same on-screen cadence and emotes the same way here as he does in John Q and Man on Fire. I am not willing to put Training Day into this because he acts with a lot more swagger, arrogance, and bravado there. You see the John Q and Man on Fire stuff come up again with Inside Man and then once more with American Gangster. He departs from this with The Book of Eli (weirdly enough) and Flight, but then came right back to it with Equalizer.
Nathaniel Reyes
really is
Isaiah Diaz
Why is there such a massive tone difference between these versions? The Denzel version is much faster paced and has drastically reduced the impact of the scene, the son character is devoid of emotion, the father character is now delivering his lines like a cliche sitcom parent instead of a father trying to imprint a genuine lesson onto his son. Even the audience was laughing in that version, was this intentional?
Samuel Garcia
It’s because of his voice, that’s why it seems like he has the same demeanor in all his films
Brody Howard
>Even the audience was laughing in that version, was this intentional?
because they're not really engrossed in the scene. jones' performance has much more gravitas.
Jonathan Jenkins
OP doesnt understand the meme. Both are good performances.
The meme is about overacting.
Cooper Ramirez
It's called John Q
Jacob Gomez
> I'M ACTING meme
I think it's less that and Denzel Washington just maintains the same emotional level. You can tell he's just going through lines he's memorized. Obviously James Earl Jones does the same, but I think it's just cadence of his voice that lends it a more natural vibe. Or you're just taken in by no-nonsense gruffness to not notice anything else.
James Richardson
>Two different kind of actors give two different kind of takes on the same play and characters
Whoa man, I never knew plays had to be performed exactly the same, even when a new theatrical company does it.
Aiden Morris
After this long in the business he's obviously giving less and less of a shit with each passing Equalizer sequel, but yes, Denzel can bring down the house at times. However, that's an engaged and motivated Denzel. A bored Denzel is a mush mouthed showboat who mistakes arrogance for depth.
Think of it this way: there's a joke between Matt Damon and Ben Afflect in the first Jay and Silent Bob where they explain you do one movie for the studio and then one for you. Except it wasn't a joke, and for a long time was how a good deal of higher call value actors operated.
Take Rock Hudson for example. He goes from a King Arthur/1001 Nights hybrid of shit to one of the best technicolor westerns ever made, Gun Fury. Some years later he goes from the thing that Mel Brooks used as the inspiration for Maddie Kahn's role in Blazing Saddles to All that Heaven Allows, one of the best Douglas Sirk films ever. From literal trash romance novel adaptations to films that defined genres.
John Cassavetes was the same way. Even his frequent collaborator and wife Gena Rowlands said he couldn't make two good films in a row.
I think Denzel's output in the 90s really explains it best, even if sometimes films got swapped around for him compared to release order.
Nigger Nigger Tier: The Pelican Brief, Virtuosity, Devil In A Blue Dress, The Preacher's Wife, The Hurricane
3/5 A Man Tier: Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Courage Under Fire, Fallen, The Siege, The Bone Cripple
Isaac Moore
>young Courtney B Vance
Huh wow
Jackson Lee
It’s pretty clear Denzel’s doing it more comical on purpose, where as JEJ is doing it as a hard drama because it was a very new play and thus inclined to do it as it was written. Doing a broadway revival over twenty years later, yeah, it’s fair to give it a new spin.
Carter Rivera
Jonathan Robinson
James Earl Jones's performance comes off as a man who is pulling from personal experience. He's drawing from either his father or his own experiences as a father (or both) and thus there's real emotion to his performance. Denzel Washington doesn't seem to be able to personally connect with his character. I'd guess he doesn't have the personal experience. The way he delivers the lines are comedic, hence why the audience laughs when he delivers them (a stark contrast of Jones's performance, where the audience is largely silent throughout, like a child being scolded). He can't believe the lines he's saying, they're just a joke to him, hence the delivery.
Austin Morris
I've noticed more and more over the years that audiences im in seem to be eager to laugh at any given opportunity even if the scene in the play or movie or whatever is totally inappropriate.
Zachary Perez
He's one of the few Americans in Much Ado About Nothing who plays his part well.
Jose Evans
>there are people that still think he didn’t love his son
It’s like people can’t read between the lines
Jordan Taylor
Hiding your love under a thousand layers of cynicism and resentment won't make him love you back or even appreciate your "sacrifice". Might as well not have kids.
Jose Morris
if your child is not an idiot they'll understand it which is better than being constantly told
Evan Powell
Denzel's version feels more like a comedy, and it's not just because of the inappropriate audience laughter.