Best performances by non-professional actors

[ska invita]

For me, if I think of the best acting I have ever seen, it most often seems to be by non-professional actors. There's something about "famous" actors that makes it harder to believe the characters and suspend your disbelief - but also non-professionals, at their best, give a better, more natural, qualty of performance.

Please post the best non-professional performances you can think of.

Three that spring to mind for me:

The all real-monk cast in Francessco, God's Jester:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042477/

Ivan Dobronravov and Vladimir Garin the two kids in Russian cross-over film The Return. Ivan tragically died after the making of the film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376968/

Valdamir was particularly brilliant as a kid who's both pissed off with, and looks up to his macho dad:

Martin Compston who carries Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen - he's gone on to do tv and uk films, but at the time was completely untrained.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313670/

 

[Balbi]

edit.

 

[editor]

Frank Sinatra: Man with the Golden Arm

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

None of the cast of City of God were actors before were they?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

What do you mean Balbi? She started her film career in the thirties and the Ladykillers came out in the mid-fifties

 

[Balbi]

I'll retract that then MM. I was misinformed.

 

[butchersapron]

The old lady in the original Ladykillers

Except for the 40 year acting career prior to that.

edit: balls, far far too late.

 

[Superdupastupor]

the cast of "Elephant" by Gus Van Sant was an untrained cast. The plot is all over the place so there aren't really any central characters that need to carry the film.

thanks for the reminder about the Return- fantastic shall need to find it on DVD

 

[ska invita]

the cast of "Elephant" by Gus Van Sant was an untrained cast. The plot is all over the place so there aren't really any central characters that need to carry the film.

thanks for the reminder about the Return- fantastic shall need to find it on DVD

Elephant is a good call - and much of the (limited ) dialogue was improvised by the cast, I seem to remember.

I loved Elephant - and Gus van sant's Last Days too - the acting was definitely low key, and I think it needed to be. If there was any star involved it would have ruined the film.

in looking up pics for the Return I noticed that the director Andrei Zvyagintsev had a new film out in 2007: Izgnanie (2007) aka The Banishment http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488905/ . No DVD release out on that one in the UK.

 

[ska invita]

Frank Sinatra: Man with the Golden Arm

I saw this last year - Frank really does come across like a 40's heroin addict! I liked him a lot more after seeing this. The guy who wrote the book (Nelson Algren), Man with the Golden Arm, also wrote a brilliant underbelly of the US book A Walk on the WIld Side - the title later made more famous by the song. Ahead of his time.

 

[ska invita]

None of the cast of City of God were actors before were they?

From IMDB

All of the amateur actors were recruited from favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro, and a couple of them - eg. Buscapé/Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) - actually lived in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) itself.

Another good one is Dr Haing S Ngor in the Killing Fields, who out acts the entire cast of professionals, including Sam Waterston, John Malkovich and Julian Sands. For once justice was served and he got an oscar for it.

Supposedly though, he had lived through pretty much a similiar experience in Cambodia, so he did have personal experience to draw from. But when I watched this just recently after it got given away with a paper,it wasn't just the war drama bits that he was good at acting in. Even tiny gestures and subtle smiles and looks were done to perfection.

Tragically he got murdered in his house years later, with people supsecting it was for his life long work against the Khmer Rouge.

 

[Final]

I particularly enjoyed the scene where he had to pretend he'd been shot.

 

[madzone]

I thought a lot of the 80's films were done by non-professional actors - Ricky whatsisface and Rita Sue and Bob Too sort of stuff - or maybe they were just shit.

Heavens, I'm erudite tonight

 

[stavros]

I know before he did The Sopranos, Steven Van Zandt hadn't acted before, but what a performance even if he's not the lead.

"Jus' when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

 

[scifisam]

None of the cast of City of God were actors before were they?

Bloody Hell! They should win, then. Superb.

A controversial choice: when Jamie Bell starred in Billy Elliot he wasn't an actor, but he also wasn't a drama-school brat either, and he was brilliant.

 

[spanglechick]

the kid in kes?

 

[ska invita]

A controversial choice: when Jamie Bell starred in Billy Elliot he wasn't an actor, but he also wasn't a drama-school brat either, and he was brilliant.

Amazing story to Jamie Bell I never knew before:

Jamie Bell was born in 1986 in Billingham, England, UK, coming from a family of dancers including his grandmother, mother, aunt, and sister. It was at his sister's dance practices that he would stand outside the door and imitate the movements of the dancers inside. At age six, he was encouraged to step inside the door and, thus, his dance career began. His own story parallels that of Billy Elliot (2000) in that Jamie kept his dancing a secret from his friends at school. His mother had him when she was 16 and, unfortunately, he never knew his father.

When he met Stephen Daldry, director of Billy Elliot (2000), Jamie adopted him as his father. Once the word about his dancing got out, he was harassed, but this only made him more determined to prove that dancing wasn't just for girls. He has proven a lot by landing the title role of Billy Elliot (2000), winning the role in an audition that included more than 2,000 boys from the northeast of England. His ensuing performance certainly justified the selection since he has not only won the hearts of moviegoers all over the world, he has also been nominated for and won a number of awards, including a Best Newcomer Award and then a Best Male Performance at the BAFTA awards.

I think he counts - he'd done a tiny bit of stage acting before, but for that story he deserves to count!

 

[AverageJoe]

That kid from This Is England?

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Nolan's debut, Following, has pretty good performances from people i think were his mates.

 

[Geri]

Two of my favourite films are The Story of the Weeping Camel and The Cave of the Yellow Dog, both directed by Byambasuren Davaa. None of the people in them are professional actors as far as I'm aware.

 

[albionism]

City of God for sure....One of the best films ever...

 

[albionism]

And also...A Time For Drunken Horses.......Stunning

 

[jayeola]

None of the cast of City of God were actors before were they?

beat me to it!

 

[ska invita]

Two of my favourite films are The Story of the Weeping Camel and The Cave of the Yellow Dog, both directed by Byambasuren Davaa. None of the people in them are professional actors as far as I'm aware.

Thanks for this - I remember when "Camel" came out, but I got put off by all the great reviews (it happens like that sometimes)... will definitely check these out.

These two reminded me of Winterbottom's "In This World" - an incredible film about two Afghan kids hiking their way to England. The DVD is worth getting to see the making of - basically shot with no crew on a tiny camera - makes you wonder if its a film or a documentary. Despite a couple of flaws, for me this is the best British film of the last 10 years (probably!).

Jamal Udin Torabi and Enayatullah.

Nolan's debut, Following, has pretty good performances from people i think were his mates.

Hadn't heard of this - looks really good. The policeman was played by Chris Nolan's uncle John Nolan, whose had a long acting career

 

[ska invita]

And also...A Time For Drunken Horses.......Stunning

Deserves a picture!

That kid from This Is England?

Thomas Turgoose: Turgoose is from Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire. He attended Wintringham School of the same town whilst filming This Is England and The Innocence Project.

 

[Louloubelle]

some great suggestions so far

I'd like to add

almost all of the cast of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner http://www.atanarjuat.com/ (I think that 1 or 2 had acted before)

Magnificent film, incredible performances from non-professional Inuit actors

Also El Perro, wonderful Argentinian film, a genuinely heartwarming film about a man and his dawg, with an amazing performance from Juan Villegas as the man character Coco. the dog was a good actor too

 

[gilroy]

Shane Warne in Neighbours

 

[albionism]

Sam, from I Am Legend

 

[subversplat]

City of God has gone already, so I'll offer:

And all the rest of the Baltimotonians who gave a top performance.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Hadn't heard of this - looks really good. The policeman was played by Chris Nolan's uncle John Nolan, whose had a long acting career

Yes it's a great twisty turny thriller, almost mametesque.