Man on Fire is a film directed by Tony Scott. The film cast is fairly impressive and allows us to see different acting types such as the impersonator, interpreter, personality, wild card, or character acting types. Though many actors have capability of maneuvering within several categories of acting types, many fit well within a single category through a span of their films.
Denzel Washington – plays the bodyguard character in the film named Creasy (IMDB, 2014), who is willing to sacrifice himself for innocence. In my opinion, Denzel falls within the personality acting type as well as within the character acting type. His ability to become the character is outstanding. He is believable in whatever role he plays to include the bodyguard character in this film. At the end of the film, after he has run a grueling gauntlet, he gives his life in order to save the innocent child played by Dakota Fanning. In Film: From Watching to Seeing, character actors are those actors that are able to fit invisibly into a wide variety of disparate characters, adapting to the needs of each script and director they work with” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2011). This is an almost perfect summation of Denzel’s acting style with one exception, his strong personality. It is this personality that shines through in each of his characters which also allows him to be classified as a personality acting type as well.
Dakota Fanning – plays the role of the innocent child in this movie whom the character Creasy is protecting (IMDB, 2014). Classifying Fanning’s acting type is a little harder as she was so often typecast as an innocent girl. Knowing this, I would say Fanning falls within the character acting type. She has been cast in other ways now that she has grown older, so overall she does well to become the character the directors are looking for. As she plays more roles, it will be interesting to see if she will be so easily classified though. I would wager that if she picks up more roles, she will become more of a wild card type of actor than anything.
Christopher Walken – with out a doubt and hands down is a personality actor. He doesn’t really have to change any of his mannerisms or way of talking and is almost as himself in all of his characters. This might be attributed to his unique style of talk. Many might understand this just by watching a Saturday Night Live skit with him complaining to a band for the need of “more cow-bell.”
Focus on Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken has been in many movies that I’ve seen some of which include: Click, The Stepford Wives, Man on Fire, and The Prophecy. As a personality type of actor I believe it would be hard for Christopher to be classified as any other acting type. It’s his strong characteristics in real life that transcend through in his roles. Could you imagine Christopher Walken speaking in any other manner than he actually does? Take for instance this clip from Click:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp4gJCeN0k8
Now compare his speaking and mannerisms from that movie to this clip from Man on Fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_hLvWmytTo
and this clip from The Stepford Wives:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkfaRh__E6U
It’s almost as if the characters that he portrays become him, which allows him to comfortably be classified within the personality acting type.
For actors who fall within the personality acting type, it doesn’t seem to limit their capabilities of performance any. It seems as if their personalities might be considered universal and fit within any of the roles they play. In this way, they bring themselves to the role, and the character becomes them.
References
Full Cast & Crew. (n.d.). IMDb. Retrieved July 31, 2014, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328107/fullcredits/
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From watching to seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
jcschultz 