Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Child Actors Venturing Out of Typecasting [Suggested by Brittani]
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Today's theme is a suggestion from Brittani. This is another challenging week. I think it's because some of the big child actors of yesteryear don't really have an acting career anymore or those actors who weren't popular as child actors but did make a name as adults weren't really typecasted when they were children. Anyway here are three that I managed to come up with.
P.S. The preliminary 2020 Thursday Movie Picks schedule is up. If you want to suggest a theme please submit it by next Thursday.
Natalie Portman - Where the Heart Is (2000)
In Where the Heart Is, Portman plays an uneducated pregnant teen a departure from her previous roles which were mostly smart precocious teens (Léon: The Professional, Beautiful Girls and Star Wars).
Emma Watson - The Bling Ring (2013)
Known mostly for Hermione in the Harry Potter movies, she really went the complete opposite of smart and bookish with The Bling Ring playing a spoiled bratty teenage burglar.
Evan Rachel Wood - Whatever Works (2009) & Barefoot (2014)
Today's theme is a suggestion from Brittani. This is another challenging week. I think it's because some of the big child actors of yesteryear don't really have an acting career anymore or those actors who weren't popular as child actors but did make a name as adults weren't really typecasted when they were children. Anyway here are three that I managed to come up with.
P.S. The preliminary 2020 Thursday Movie Picks schedule is up. If you want to suggest a theme please submit it by next Thursday.
Natalie Portman - Where the Heart Is (2000)
In Where the Heart Is, Portman plays an uneducated pregnant teen a departure from her previous roles which were mostly smart precocious teens (Léon: The Professional, Beautiful Girls and Star Wars).
Emma Watson - The Bling Ring (2013)
Known mostly for Hermione in the Harry Potter movies, she really went the complete opposite of smart and bookish with The Bling Ring playing a spoiled bratty teenage burglar.
Evan Rachel Wood - Whatever Works (2009) & Barefoot (2014)
In her tween and teen years Wood's roles were mostly of troubled and rebellious teens (Once and Again, Thirteen, Pretty Persuasion, Down in the Valley and Running with Scissors). Her adult roles are more varied and with Whatever Works and Barefoot her characters are very naive and sweet; the opposite of her teen roles.
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I like the direction you went with Evan Rachel Wood. Most kids start out having wholesome roles, then go for something grittier and she did the opposite.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. Perhaps it was her role in the TV series Once and Again that started it all, opening the doors for grittier roles for her.
DeleteNatalie Portman is quite a varied talent able to play a wide range. Where the Heart Is didn't do too much for me but she was fine in it. Speaking of type busting Sally Field really played a role opposite to her usual sunny Earth mother parts.
ReplyDeleteEvan Rachel Wood does fine work at times but I've never been particularly blown away by anything she's done.
I haven't seen The Bling Ring and Watson has never made much of an impression on me.
I had a little trouble deciding exactly how to approach the theme so I stuck with performers (as it turned out all actresses) who successfully attempted something different while still in their teens. And as happened all three were nominated for Supporting Actress Oscars (none won) for either their typecasting role or the one that broke the mold.
Bonita Granville: The Nancy Drew Mysteries series
Rising to fame at 12 (and netting an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress) in 1936’s These Three as a cancerous, vicious child whose lies destroys three lives simply because she can’t have her own way for the next several years Bonita was reliably cast as odious little bitches making adult lives miserable until her studio took a chance and cast her as mischievous, scrappy Nancy Drew in a series of low budget films. The series was very successful enabling her to expand her persona and bounced back and forth between good girls and bad until her retirement from acting in 1950.
Jodie Foster: Taxi Driver
From the age of six (though she had been a child model since the age of two) the incredibly prolific Jodie was one of the top child stars of the late 60’s and early 70’s mostly through her television work including her own series-Paper Moon-as the plucky tomboyish girl next door. But that changed with her Oscar nominated performance as the child prostitute Iris in Taxi Driver. It’s a haunting worn down profoundly sad piece of work.
Natalie Wood: Rebel Without a Cause
Gaining fame at age nine (though in her own estimation not really achieving stardom rather being in her words “a utility actress” slotted into whatever role fit her image) as the pragmatic, prematurely wise Susie who comes to believe in Santa Claus in 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street Natalie played variations on that character for the next eight years. Then in 1955 Nicholas Ray cast her as Judy, the vulnerable and lost teen skirting juvenile delinquency resulting in an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and changing the direction of her career.
Haven't seen your first pick but have seen your other two picks. However I haven't seen any of Foster's and Wood's films that they did before that.
DeleteI was so confused about the theme and I still am. :D
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad.
DeleteSome good picks because one forgets that Natalie Portman was a child actress and. Good one in The Professional. Emma Watson is a very good actress but I haven’t seen this film. I have not seen enough of the other films the others were in
ReplyDeletePortman was great, especially in Leon and Beautiful Girls. Oh you should see The Bling Ring, just to see what a complete brat her character is.
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