Actors who improved over the years

Although I've never seen a horrible actor turn great, I have seen cases of a mediocre actor become good.

I guess Ben Affleck is an example. He was mediocre in the late 90s/early 00s when he was young.

But in the last 10 years or so, Ben has morphed into a good actor. Never will be a great actor, but he's at least solid now.

Other examples?

 

Some dimwit kid's going to say "Tom Cruise", at some point of this thread.

 

Best example without a doubt is Matthew McConaughey

 

Brad Pitt was very medicore in the 1990s yet turned out good (not great)

 

Yeah, he's the first one I thought of. He used to be all over the map from movie to movie. Sometimes he'd be good and sometimes it seemed like he didn't know what he was doing.

I'm not sure he's gotten any better then what he was capable of, but he's certainly gotten more consistent at not sucking and knowing what his limitations and capabilities are.

I thought he was great as Jesse James. Subdued performances had always been his weak point, but I think he really dialed in on that one.

 

Pitt is a good example.

McConaughey is not a good example. He was quality even in the 90s - see A Time To Kill as proof.

 

Tom Cruise is certainly a good example.

 

stfu he's the BEST example

 

No, he's not the best example at all.

I asked for mediocre actors who turned DECENT.

Mcconaughey is far more than a "decent" actor, he's an elite one.

A Time to Kill, Lonestar, Amistad, all 90s movies where MM was excellent.

Then in the early 00s, he was superb in Frailty.

When was he ever mediocre?

 

Failure to launch. In fact, he went through a money-grab phase of rom-coms.

 

Theres a difference between picking bad roles and lacking in acting ability.

 

Keanu Reeves. He’ll still never win an Oscar, but he’s scores better than he used to be.

 

I thought he was very mediocre in those very same films you're praising him for

 

Pitt is a great example... Seven would be a much better film if an older Pitt was playing that same role

 

Or if panchyprsss had been the victim in the first six deaths...

 

Those are all movies that were good despite McConaughey being a shitty pretty boy actor. He was actually kind of a running joke as a bad actor.

Frailty was the first sign of him progressing to being a “real actor”.

 

There’s a difference between being in good movies and being a good actor.

McConaughey and Keanu were the first two that came to mind. They were basically acting bimbos when they got famous, wandered off when there stars faded and came back as legit actors, especially McConaughey.

 

I'm probably clutching straws here and the dude is hardly any kind of a movie star, and he was in his 50's already before anybody realized he could actually act, but the last two things I've seen Ray Romano in (HBO's Vinyl and the Netflix movie "Paddleton"), he's been kind of a revelation.

 

Sally Field. Started in tv (Gidget, The Flying Nun) and all the Smokey & The bandit comedy's and she was kind of okay, but nothing special. Then she progressed to serious roles with that tv movie 'Sybil' followed by 'Norma Rae' and the improvement was plain amazing!



Notice that the movie poster for Norma Rae was very misleading, giving the impression that this was going to be a typical Sally fun, feel good comedy! LOL

 

She was excellent in that movie

 

But better in this one:

 

His best performance was probably back in the 80s when he played Ron Kovic. I wouldn’t say he really improved much over the years.

 

Burt Reynolds improved a lot from his macho man tv days and in movie comedies. Then his comeback later in his career he landed an Oscar nomination for 'Boogie Nights'.