Any movie or film you watch is made up of different types of actors. This weeks blog will showcase three different types of actors. In the film Shrek, Michael Myers is the voice of Shrek, Cameron Diaz is the voice of Princess Fiona, and John Lithgow is the voice of Lord Farquaar.
Michael Myers portrayal of Shrek could define him as a personality actor. Which for him worked in this film since a personality actor is defined as, “An actor whose own personality tends to define all the characters he portrays, so that the actor’s name alone lets audiences know what their screen character will be like,” (Goodykoontz and Jacobs, 2011). Myers is a comedian, who brought his own talent and insight to the movie including changing Shrek’s accent to make him sound Scottish, (Legends Revealed, 2013). He is a personality actor in this film because when you hear that he is playing in a movie or T.V. show you think that it will be funny. And Shrek was no let down.
Cameron Diaz, I believe portrays a wild card actor in this film. Diaz could be portrayed as a wild card, because she is an actor that is hard to classify into one certain type of since her range of acting is so great, (Goodykoontz and Jacobs, 2011). Her portrayal of Princess Fiona is that of a kick but Princess that knows what she wants; at least she thinks she does. Diaz first portrays a princess that is giddy that she is being rescued, until she finds out who did the rescuing. She turns from a typical princess into a Kung Fu master when Robin Hood and his merry men try to “rescue” her from Shrek. She plays a self-assertive yet hidden princess that longs to be herself once and for all.
John Lithgow could be considered a character actor in his portrayal as Lord Farquaar. His character is this film is not that long but is memorable since it is the reason that Shrek lost his swamp and had to rescue Princess Fiona. Lithgow’s part in this film is not long but without it the story could not go on. A character actor is an, “actor who specialize in playing a wide variety of characters, most often supporting or minor roles rather than leading roles,” (Goodykoontz and Jacobs, 2011). Lithgow voiced Lord Farquaar and made him sound like a genuinely self-absorbed and conceded person.
I wanted to concentrate on Cameron Diaz for this portion of my blog. I think that she could not only be a wild card but also a star in other movies. Her range of acting has put her in a spot that people what to know her every move and intimate details of her life. She has played a night singer in her first movie The Mask, bride-to-be opposite Julia Roberts in the comedy My Best Friend’s Wedding, a dowdy pet-shop worker and puppeteer’s wife in a dark comedy Being John Malkovich, new owner of a professional football team in Any Given Sunday, one third of a female detective agent trio in Charlie’s Angels, and a mother of three in family drama My Sister’s Keeper,(Diaz, 2014).
Cameron Diaz. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:38, Aug 24, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/cameron-diaz-9273866.
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From watching to seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.
Legends Revealed, (2013), Did Mike Myers Record Almost All of Shrek Before Deciding to Re-Record His Lines With a Scottish Accent?, Retrieved from:http://legendsrevealed.com/entertainment/2013/05/22/did-mike-myers-record-almost-all-of-shrek-before-deciding-to-re-record-his-lines-with-a-scottish-accent/
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