00:00The following actors were somehow able to take care of business and put some amazing performances on film while being
00:07as lackadaisical about their roles as someone can be while still having a pulse.
00:12So I am Gareth here from WhatCulture.com and here are 8 amazing performances by actors who stopped giving a
00:19damn.
00:208. Edward Norton – The Italian Job
00:24Contractual obligations don't always create on-screen magic.
00:27But in the case of Edward Norton and his behind-the-scenes battles with Paramount over his required involvement in
00:34The Italian Job,
00:35it cemented the fact that Norton is a consummate professional who's nearly impervious to giving a bad performance.
00:41Norton wanted nothing to do with the remake of The Italian Job, but since he'd signed a three-picture deal
00:47before making his on-screen debut in Primal Fear,
00:50Paramount threatened to sue him for millions of dollars if he refused to make the movie.
00:55After much back-and-forth between the actor and the studio, Norton eventually caved and agreed to participate.
01:01Though he was reportedly very business-like and amiable during filming, he actually refused to promote the movie afterwards.
01:08You can almost feel the behind-the-scenes disdain seeping out of the screen whenever Norton is present,
01:13which imbues his slimy villain with a natural sense of mischief.
01:17He doesn't ever come off as detached, though it's likely his natural charisma that simply doesn't allow that to happen.
01:23The Italian Job may rank just outside of Norton's top ten performances, but considering the circumstances,
01:29it's hard to imagine anyone else coming in and playing the character of Steve Frizzelli any better.
01:357. Jackie Chan Rush Hour
01:37Rush Hour is another installment in the odd-couple buddy-cop action movie genre,
01:43this time bringing together goofy martial arts legend Jackie Chan and even goofier comedic sidekick Chris Tucker.
01:49Now, it wasn't exactly an Oscar-worthy performance from either of them,
01:52and in fact doesn't rank anywhere near the top ten from Chan's filmography either.
01:57But it was the first time most audiences outside of Hong Kong were introduced to Chan's combination of top-notch
02:03stunt work
02:03and silly and occasionally subversive comedy.
02:06But for Chan, it was a disheartening experience.
02:09In his words,
02:10I have reasons to do each film.
02:12I have something to say.
02:14Unlike Rush Hour,
02:15there was no reason in making it.
02:17You just give me the money and I'm fine.
02:19I dislike Rush Hour the most.
02:21Chan thought the stunt work was uninspired and the fight choreography was too Americanized.
02:26And yet, anyone watching the movie without prior knowledge of the action star's previous work
02:30would be wowed by scenes where Chan effortlessly scales a 15-foot wall
02:34and drops hundreds of feet with the use of wires, of course, onto a makeshift slide.
02:39It's a reminder that even when he's just going through the motions,
02:42Jackie Chan is one of the most underrated action stars of all time.
02:476. Alan Rickman, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
02:50Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves was this close to being an unwatchable mess.
02:55Then along came a hero who happened to be playing a villain to carry the hot mess of a script
03:00on his
03:01back while completely disregarding the suggested tone of the movie.
03:05That hero was Alan Rickman.
03:07Between Kevin Costner's wavering English accent,
03:10charmless secondary characters,
03:11and bombardment of intrusive subplots,
03:14Robin Hood needed someone to hold the audience's hand
03:17and assure them it was okay to take the movie as a bit of fun.
03:21Rickman's extraordinarily hammy turn as the Sheriff of Nottingham
03:24did just that.
03:25It's as if Rickman watched Costner's bored brooding orations from the sidelines on the first day of
03:30filming and decided there and then that he'd have to single-handedly make up for the star's
03:35lifeless portrayal, or at the very least he was going to have some damn fun making an awful movie.
03:40Rickman's lines are delivered with the kind of sashaying menace that makes you forget how terrible
03:44the dialogue actually is, instead drawing you in with campy readings that put the entire cast
03:50of Batman and Robin to shame. Somehow, someway, it just works.
03:555. Orson Welles' The Transformers The Movie
03:58No, not the live-action Transformers, my friends.
04:01The original animated version from 1986, which features less robotic testicles,
04:07and astonishingly voice work from one of the greatest actor-directors of all time, Orson Welles.
04:12This Transformers flick also includes some wonderful performances from Leonard Nimoy,
04:16Robert Stack, and Judd Nelson. Even weighed against this respectable ensemble though,
04:22Welles stands out as Unicron, a man-eating superplanet. The fact that he manages to do
04:27this while not appearing to remotely care about or even understand what the role was,
04:31makes it all that more impressive. During production, Welles apparently told his biographer
04:36the following,
04:36You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. I play a planet. Some terrible
04:42robot toys from Japan that change from one thing to another. I menace somebody called something or
04:47other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy whoever it is is thwarted and I tear myself apart
04:53on the screen. Those are not the words of someone heavily invested in his role, are they?
04:584. Alec Guinness Star Wars
05:00It's always a hard pill to swallow when one of the most essential actors from one of the most revered
05:06movie franchises in movie history says that he abhors said franchise. Unfortunately, that seems to
05:12be the case with the late Alec Guinness, who played mystical mentor and all-round badass Obi-Wan Kenobi.
05:18The experience of working with George Lucas is one he was happy to be done with once he wrapped
05:23on Return of the Jedi. Guinness reportedly despised the dialogue and expressed while on set that old
05:28Georgie didn't have a firm enough grasp on the characters he was writing for. As he put it,
05:33apart from the money I regret having embarked on the films. I like them well enough, but it's not
05:39an acting job. The dialogue, which is lamentable, keeps being changed and only slightly improved,
05:44and I find myself old and out of touch with the young. A letter Guinness wrote to a friend during
05:49production reinforced his dismissal of the material. As he wrote,
05:53New rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper. None of it makes my character
05:59clear or even bearable. Despite his contempt of the material, Guinness provided a performance that
06:04Star Wars fans hold close to their hearts to this day, and even non-Star Wars fans can admire.
06:10And he still managed to walk away with an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor,
06:14after utterly detesting every word that tumbled out of his wise old space wizard mouth.
06:19What a legend!
06:20Number 3, Marlon Brando's Superman
06:23As Marlon Brando approached the end of his career, the genius method actor who diligently
06:28crafted legendary performances in The Wild One and On the Waterfront started to, well,
06:33get a touch lazy, let's say. For instance, rather than coming to the set of The Godfather with his
06:38lines memorized, he requested the use of cue cards, which had to be carefully placed around set,
06:43sometimes on the chests of other actors in the scene, so as not to be seen in the finished shot.
06:48But at least in that case, Brando seemed to be invested in his character and the film itself.
06:53The same can't be said for his portrayal of Jor-El in the original Superman movie.
06:57According to his co-star Terrence Stamp, who plays General Zod, when Brando first arrived on set,
07:02he asked him if the script was any good. Stamp, bewildered, asked Brando if he'd read it yet,
07:08to which he replied, no, I was worried it might be poop.
07:11This anecdote proves two things. Number 1, Marlon Brando, one of the greatest dramatic actors of
07:15all time casually used the word poop in conversation. And number 2, he didn't even have to read through
07:21the script to deliver the second best performance in Superman, just behind Gene Hackman's definitive
07:26portrayal of Lex Luthor. Number 2, Robert Shaw, Jaws. By his own admission, Robert Shaw didn't take
07:34his profession too seriously. According to one story, Robert Shaw actually drank himself into a blackout
07:39while he was filming the famous SS Indianapolis monologue in the classic that was Jaws. He'd convinced
07:45Steven Spielberg that he should be a bit tipsy for the scene, since his character had been hitting
07:50the bottle. And unsurprisingly, not much work got done that day. When he wasn't drinking,
07:55Shaw was humiliating his co-star Richard Dreyfuss. He'd spray him with a fire hose,
07:59or convince him to jump off frighteningly tall things for a few hundred bucks.
08:04A couple of years after he finished Jaws, Shaw was asked about his penchant for boozing,
08:08to which he responded, can you imagine being a movie star and having to take it seriously without
08:12a drink? And indeed, it seems like this loosey-goosey approach, Shaw took him bringing
08:17fisherman-slash-sharkbait Quint to life, probably helped make the best version of this character.
08:22Number 1, Marlon Brando Apocalypse Now
08:25Apparently, this entire list could have been culled together using nothing but examples from
08:30the back half of Marlon Brando's filmography. By now, the on-set animosity between Brando and
08:35Francis Ford Coppola is one of Hollywood's worst-kept secrets. The tension was so thick between actor
08:41and director that an entire documentary was made about their behind-the-scenes antics.
08:45Playing the integral role of Colonel Kurtz, a lean and savage Green Beret, Brando showed up on set
08:51monstrously overweight and wholly unprepared. As was his MO around this time in his career,
08:56he didn't bother to read the source material, couldn't memorize his lines, and supposedly halted
09:01filming on numerous occasions to discuss the script. In spite of all this, Coppola and Brando found a way
09:07to churn out a legendary performance. The process became simple. Dress Brando in black,
09:12shoot him in shadowy lighting, and just let one of the world's greatest actors improvise until there
09:17was enough material to use. Easy as that, really. Essentially, Marlon's role was fleshed out on the
09:22fly, with the camera pointed at him until he didn't want to monologue anymore. That is a special kind of
09:28laziness right there. And that's our list. No of any other amazing performances by actors who stopped
09:33giving a damn? Well, let us know all about them in the comments section right down below, and don't
09:37forget to like, share, and click on that subscribe button while you're down there. Also, if you like
09:41this sort of stuff, then why not go and check out the rest of our channel and click on some
09:45more
09:45awesome WhatCulture videos? I have been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, cheers for watching today,
09:50and hopefully we'll see you again very, very soon. Bye-bye!
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