Swimming pools! Movie stars!

[gwyn]

sdwolfpup was doing this meme the other day and I asked her to hit me with ten actors/actresses for the challenge to name their favorite films. What a collection!



Actors:
1. Jeff Bridges
I'm actually sitting here with Cutter's Way, the film adaptation of Newton Thornburg's book Cutter and Bone, on, and I'm reminded of how much I admired him in this. I actually don't know anyone who's seen this or read the book, but I love both of them. If I had to pick a true favorite though, it might be Starman. There's a reason he was nominated for an Oscar for that one.
2. Lloyd Bridges
Most of my favorites of Beau and Jeff's dad are actually on TV, but one of the movies I loved with him acting opposite Jeff was Tucker. You could see the admiration and love between them in every scene they had.
3. John Cusack
Hands down, Say Anything... which is pretty much one of my favorite movies period. He was tired of playing teens by that point, but I'm eternally grateful to him for giving it one more shot.
4. Heath Ledger
I'm tempted to say Brokeback Mountain for a lot of reasons, but I think I have to go with The Dark Knight here just because he embodied everything I am so obsessed with about the Joker. He's horrible for no real reason that we can discern and he loves being horrible, and that's the heart of what makes Joker so effing creepy.
5. Sean Penn
I always want to like Sean more than I do. He can frequently be so actorly it's irritating. But I loved him in Milk. He seemed so loose, happy, and alive.
6. Robert Downey, Jr.
Another actor I have lots of trouble with. I'm really glad he's turned around, but sometimes he gets a little irritating. Which is why I love him in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang so much -- it was before he became a megastar, and it's a performance I think only he could have given.
7. Orlando Bloom
Wow, has Legolas turned out to be a disappointment from when I first saw him! I'd have to go with Kingdom of Heaven here, just by default.
8. Tom Cruise
Oh god. I HATE TOM CRUISE SO MUCH. I hate him with the white-hot fury of a thousand burning suns. But even I have to admit he's been great in a couple things, not least of which was The Firm.
9. Daniel Craig
Ah, now this is more like it. I looooooove Daniel Craig. If you've read my Daniel film review post, you know how much. I've gone to great lengths to see as many of his movies as I possibly can. I'm tempted to say Road to Perdition because that's when I first went, wait a minute, who's that guy again? But I have to really pick Layer Cake. After I saw that I became kind of obsessed with him. So many people were surprised by him in Casino Royale, but I sure wasn't.
10. Clive Owen
Along with Daniel, one of my favorites right now. Or, well, ever. Outside of The Bourne Identity, Clive's best movies have not come out of the American film business. His best roles have always been from UK movies or TV -- with one really large exception, Children of Men. Everything that makes Clive great is in there, with maybe the exception of light comedy (which he's also actually great at). It's a great movie, but if you ask me, it wouldn't be half so great with any other actor.

Actresses:
1. Julie Andrews
OMG I love her so much! Um. I'm going to admit right here: I've never seen the Sound of Music. I can't make myself watch it. But this would be easy anyway: Victor/Victoria. She's amazing, through and through, and I don't know anyone else who could do it.
2. Angela Bassett
I worship Angela. I would be so gay for her, in a NY minute. And a lot of it is because Mace, the character she played in Strange Days. Mace is my idol. When she says to Lenny, "Memories are meant to fade. They were made that way for a reason," my heart breaks every time.
3. Joan Cusack
How awesome is Joan? She makes every movie she's in just a little more fun. And I'd have to pick one of the movies she did with her bro, in fact, the same movie as for her bro: Say Anything...
4. Sigourney Weaver
She can do so much, and she's always so good, but she'll always, always, be Ellen Ripley to me, and I loved her most in Aliens. "I can handle myself." No kidding.
5. Geena Davis
A League of Their Own, easily. Her rapport with Tom Hanks, especially, was amazing.
6. Scarlett Johanssen
I worry about her a lot, getting overplayed and overhyped. I loved her so much in Lost in Translation, I don't want her to lose that.
7. Judy Garland
Oh, Judy, Judy, Judy. Wow, what to pick? SO many iconic movies. I'm tempted to pick The Clock, because it's so romantic, but in the end, Wizard of Oz is my other favorite movie (besides The Terminator -- what?), so it has to be Dorothy Gale.
8. Deborah Kerr
Probably most people would go with her big romantic pics, but I'm going with The Life and Death of Col. Blimp. It was a three-fer role, and she was completely amazing as all three characters.
9. Gwyneth Paltrow
Ah, the female Tom Cruise. I hate her. Not as much as I hate Nicole Kidman, but I hate her. Still, I didn't hate her in the role that won her the Oscar she shouldn't have won -- Shakespeare in Love. Her sense of longing for something better really captured me.
10. Natalie Portman
Ah, I still love her best as Matilda in The Professional. But I also loved her as Evey in V for Vendetta -- she managed to make me forget I was watching it on dying laptops when my power was out for three days, and I was freezing near to death in my living room.

If you want to do it, comment and I'll leave you ten of each. Warning, I can be tricky.