What actor did you think sucked, but actually turned out good

[Benji]

Specifically this is brought up by my other half watching True Blood for a binge. Remembering how bad Tara was, I thought Rutina Wesley was just a particularly bad actress (not that the show was award winning theatre, but she particularly a sticking point).

I saw her years later in Hannibal and she blew me away. Ever since I see her in other bits and love her.

[TheGrandAvatar]

Tara Reid later years springs to mind. Tara Reid now is somehow used in roles to what can her strengths. Although soft spot for American Pie 🥧 Tara Reid still. 

Starlight actress. Erin Moriarty in Jessica Jones to The Boys. She blew me away with how much she improved. 

[Dang117]

Aaron Paul when he first started as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad, I wasn't sold but by the end of it what a performers easily one of the standouts alongside obviously Bryan Cranston.

 

[K]

5 hours ago, TheGrandAvatar said:

Tara Reid later years springs to mind. Tara Reid now is somehow used in roles to what can her strengths. Although soft spot for American Pie 🥧 Tara Reid still. 

[TheGrandAvatar]

'A Magical Good Time' 

[LL!]

Is that Dean Cain?

[Benjamin]

Dean Cain is a giant asshole. 

[Benji]

12 hours ago, Benjamin said:

Dean Cain is a giant asshole. 

That's not true at all. Assholes have several uses. Dean Cain has none.

[Hobo]

Never really gave much thought to Jim Belushi as an actor.

Then he was in Twin Peaks: The Return and he was just the best.

 

[Gazz]

19 hours ago, K said:

I can't believe @METALMAN never told us that he'd had his life turned into a movie.

[VerbalPuke]

John Bernthal. Initially found him a bit cheese as Shane but he eventually grew on me as the show wore on.

He was probably the best Punisher ever, thought he was excellent in that role.

This is tough because I can't think of many actors I initially disliked and then changed my opinion. Bernthal is even a stretch. 

[Szumi]

On 29/06/2022 at 13:03, TheGrandAvatar said:

Tara Reid later years springs to mind. Tara Reid now is somehow used in roles to what can her strengths. Although soft spot for American Pie 🥧 Tara Reid still. 

Starlight actress. Erin Moriarty in Jessica Jones to The Boys. She blew me away with how much she improved. 

I love her in The Boys, but I never thought she was bad or anything in Jessica Jones. I really liked her character there and they she did well demonstrating just how erratic and fucked up she was from Kilgrave

[TheGrandAvatar]

3 hours ago, Szumi - A Polack said:

I love her in The Boys, but I never thought she was bad or anything in Jessica Jones. I really liked her character there and they she did well demonstrating just how erratic and fucked up she was from Kilgrave

Oh. Was not saying she sucked  in Jessica Jones. Was more saying after her erratic performance I did not think she could top it. Yet. She blew it out the park and universe in The Boys. She is going to go far in roles with her skills. 

 

6 hours ago, VerbalPuke said:

John Bernthal. Initially found him a bit cheese as Shane but he eventually grew on me as the show wore on.

He was probably the best Punisher ever, thought he was excellent in that role.

This is tough because I can't think of many actors I initially disliked and then changed my opinion. Bernthal is even a stretch. 

Bingo. All of that. Lord how he is a credit now. He has an aura when on screen now in most roles to make you get behind the character. He plays more shades of grey better than the bad guy or good guy roles. 

[DFF]

Robert Pattinson. In Twilight, pretty darn poor. However, he's shown in a number of roles now that he's pretty great (Tenet, The Batman). 

[GhostMachine]

2 minutes ago, DFF said:

Robert Pattinson. In Twilight, pretty darn poor. However, he's shown in a number of roles now that he's pretty great (Tenet, The Batman). 

Completely and totally agree with this!

For me, a big one: Leonardo DiCaprio. First saw him on Growing Pains, and thought it was laughable that he moved on to films. Gangs of New York changed my mind. (I still hate Titanic, and he was somewhat wooden in The Man In The Iron Mask)

[DFF]

Just now, GhostMachine said:

Completely and totally agree with this!

For me, a big one: Leonardo DiCaprio. First saw him on Growing Pains, and thought it was laughable that he moved on to films. Gangs of New York changed my mind. (I still hate Titanic, and he was somewhat wooden in The Man In The Iron Mask)

Somewhat agree with Leo, though I think I've rated him for a fair while now. I think Catch Me If You Can (just before he did Gangs...) is where my opinion started to change. The Departed, Shutted Island and Inception in the space of about 4 years solidified him as being 'fucking great' haha. 

[arwrestling]

On 29/06/2022 at 12:54, Benji said:

Specifically this is brought up by my other half watching True Blood for a binge. Remembering how bad Tara was, I thought Rutina Wesley was just a particularly bad actress (not that the show was award winning theatre, but she particularly a sticking point).

I saw her years later in Hannibal and she blew me away. Ever since I see her in other bits and love her.

Interesting... Rutina was always a highlight on True Blood for me. 

In terms of actors I used to dislike that I've grown to appreciate I have to put Kristin Stewart on that list... I don't particularly think she's one of the greats or anything yet but... her recent work compared to her early adult years is night and day. I really enjoyed her work in Spencer (obviously), and same with Underwater. Charlie's Angels wasn't a great flick by any stretch but I didn't find her as wooden in there as she usually is. 

 

Also Andrew Garfield... he is genuinely becoming one of the greats, where I found him to be rather dull or one note early on. But his work on Tick Tick Boom, and Tammy Faye, Under the Banner of Heaven... hell, even his MCU Spiderman appearance was a far cry from his previous turn at it. I worked with him recently and seeing him off screen and interacting with him as Andrew and then watching him work really gave me a new appreciation as to how good he really is.

[gunnar hendershow]

Honestly Aaron Paul is a really good shout. And I think as he slid into the role (and they decided to keep his character alive) it made all the difference. He was definitely supposed to be the somewhat hokey former student who gets Walt into the drug game, and then he was kept alive as a character and almost as soon as we hit season 2 he grew into the role so much.

But that's not an actor, that's one role. And I tend to struggle saying an actor is bad in as much as I think their role was bad. Like I know what Jean-Claude Van Damme can do and I wouldn't expect to see him in a 220 minute epic about a family of farmers in the aftermath of the Prague Spring.

[Benji]

1 hour ago, arwrestling said:

Interesting... Rutina was always a highlight on True Blood for me.

It may well have been that the character was just that annoying by a certain point that it painted my opinion on her as an actress to be honest.

 

[GhostMachine]

4 hours ago, DFF said:

Somewhat agree with Leo, though I think I've rated him for a fair while now. I think Catch Me If You Can (just before he did Gangs...) is where my opinion started to change. The Departed, Shutted Island and Inception in the space of about 4 years solidified him as being 'fucking great' haha. 

I thought Catch Me If You Can was after Gangs? At any rate, both of those were great performances. 

(And if you liked Catch Me If You Can, I definitely recommend The Imposter, with Tony Curtis. Catch Me is sort of but not quite a remake of it.)