Nov 29 2008
Actors praise the 2008 performances of their peers in Variety
Variety is running a piece in which A-list actors like Kevin Spacey, Natalie Portman, Blythe Danner and James Franco pick their must-see performances of 2008. It’d be catty fun to read them tearing apart their fellow-actors’ work, but no, this is a classy affair. Spacey praises Jeff Goldblum’s portrayal of a Holocaust survivor in Adam Resurrected, while Blythe Danner describes Richard Jenkins’ performance in The Visitor as “mesmerizing.”
Harvard grad Natalie Portman turned in a passionate piece about Sean Penn in Milk. She scores extra points for tying in current events, concluding, “Sean Penn so inhabits Harvey Milk that I left the theater feeling the need to march against our frighteningly similar Prop. 8 to honor this man I now know.”
James Franco, who’s in his first semester of a writing MFA in Columbia, took a more casual approach to the assignment. His first line, “Heath in “‘The Dark Knight’” was great,” doesn’t exactly pull you in. But hey, a student’s gotta prioritize. Check out the essays here.
