Top 50 Male Performances of the Decade
And we’re back for round two, this time focusing on the dominating gender. Just kidding ladies! But if you missed my first list, I ranked the beauties of the big screen earlier in the week. I must say, this list was much harder to do. That probably has to do with the number of meaty roles out there for the guys to take up compared for the women. What was also harder about this list was that there weren’t as many multiple nominations to cut down on. The males just don’t have as many dominating figures as Linney, Streep, and Kidman. Sure the likes of Day-Lewis and DiCaprio are around, but they really don’t make as many films as they should. (Leo has 27 movies “In Development” listed on IMDb, by the way. That can’t be right. Can it?)
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As with the females, I am not including any 2009 roles, as I am choosing to let them settle, so don’t yell at me when you don’t see Christoph Waltz’s name on here. And I also limited each actor to only two roles for the decade. I decided not to do denote which actors had more roles that deserved mentioning with the males, as I knew I was going to limit myself before I made my list. I could’ve very easily listed another 50 performances, so I’m sure I left of a couple of your favorites. Make sure you let me know which ones I missed and discuss which of the following are your favorites.
- Andy Serkis, The Lord of the Rings (2002-2003)
- Bill Murray, Lost in Translation (2003)
- Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
- Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
- Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
- Casey Affleck, Gone Baby Gone (2007)
- Christian Bale, American Pyscho (2000)
- Colin Farrell, In Bruges (2008)
- Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood (2007)
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York (2002)
- David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
- Denzel Washington, Training Day (2001)
- Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond (2006)
- Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda (2004)
- Ed Harris, Pollock (2000)
- Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge! (2001)
- Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland (2006)
- Francois Begaudeau, The Class (2008)
- Gael Garcia Bernal, Amores Perros (2000)
- Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (2008)
- Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- Ian McKellen, The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
- Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men (2007)
- Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale (2005)
- Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2006)
- Jonny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean (2003-2006)
- Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd (2007)
- Ken Wantanabe, The Last Samurai (2003)
- Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator (2004)
- Mads Mikkelsen, After the Wedding (2006)
- Mark Ruffalo, You Can Count on Me (2000)
- Mathieu Amalric, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
- Matt Damon, The Bourne Series (2002-2007)
- Michael Fassbender, Hunger (2008)
- Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (2008)
- Paul Bettany, Dogville (2004)
- Paul Giamatti, Sideways (2004)
- Peter Sarsgaard, Shattered Glass (2003)
- Richard Jenkins, The Visitor (2008)
- Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder (2008)
- Russell Crowe, Gladiator (2000)
- Sean Penn, Mystic River (2003)
- Sean Penn, Milk (2008)
- Tadanobu Asano, Mongol (2007)
- Terrance Howard, Hustle and Flow (2005)
- Tom Cruise, The Last Samurai (2003)
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, In the Mood for Love (2001)
- Viggo Mortensen, A History of Violence (2005)
- Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises (2007)
- Will Farrell, Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
- Will Smith, Ali (2001)
16 Comments
Mathieu Amalric was so great in The Diving Bell. What a performance! Ewan McGregor is great in everything. I loved him in Moulin Rouge! but not sure if that was his best performance. Johnny Depp could have been listed about ten times
Great list!
I’m modifying the color scheme. It might be looking weird right now. Sorry Vanessa
Thanks! Yeah, there were other movies such as “Finding Neverland” that I wanted to list Depp for, but since I had to limit myself, I went with what I felt were his two best works, even if people felt his “Sweeney Todd” role was merely a mix/copy of his older roles. But then again, most of the people I hear that from are people who haven’t actually watched the movie.
When it comes to acting, I definitely don’t have a clue as to what makes a good performance, and what doesn’t. I find I’m too involved with how much I like the characters to stand back and, with no bias, determine how good it was. So thanks for this list, I’m going to start paying attention to these guys!
A good performance makes you feel that what you are watching feels real and genuinely felt and not “acted”. There is usually a few things you can look for: Genuine emotions, expressiveness, use of body, face and voice. Basically, they become the character physically and psychologically.
When you hear that an actor is wooden, it means he is not expressive enough to convey all the emotions he is supposed to convey. Those actors usually try too hard and overact because they can’t seem to convey their emotions without having to think about it.
In movies/theater, we (the audience) are only watching imaginary people in an imaginary world. Anything that an actor does or say that interrupts your suspension of disbelief and he is not doing his job.
What I also tend to look for is delivery of material which may be sub-par: Good actors manage to make mediocre dialogue genuine and cheesy lines credible when less talented performer fall flat. They gave the material their own interpretation. That’s always a good sign of good acting chop.
I echo everything that Castor says. The truly great actors make it so that you don’t that you’re watching that particular “actor” at work. Case in point why Gary Oldman is considered one of the greatest actors around. Sure he doesn’t grab many lead roles, but he changes so much from film to film, many people have given him the nickname of “The Chamillion”. Kinda cheesy, but it fits his acting style to a T.
I agree with every mention on this except Bettany(Dogville). I might be biased by my hatred for his character though.
It wouldn’t be a Lars von Trier film without people hating most of the characters.
how true. Still waiting to see Antichrist!!!
Some good calls there. I was thinking immediately of Paul Giamatti in Sideways and low and behold it’s there in the list.
…just realised Christian Bale only receives one listing. I’d suggest one or all of his performances in The Machinist, The Prestige, and Rescue Dawn. I’d also give Terrence Howard another nod…maybe for Crash or The Brave One.
Great list, though I was surprised Cruise got on for Last Samurai (i thought he was heaps better in Collateral)
It’s hard to think off the top of my head which performances might be missing, so I might be back with some of those after I let it percolate a bit, but I did want to say that I’m thrilled that Peter Sarsgaard made the cut for the criminally underseen Shattered Glass. That film alone made me a big, big fan of his.
@Dan- I loved Bale in The Machinist, as well as The Prestige(but moreso the movie than his performances), but I had to try and limit myself to the number of actors who received multiple recognitions.
@Tom- To me, Last Samurai got a bad rep because it had a “false view of the real Samurai”. But the movie was very well done in my eyes, and was Cruise’s best work of the decade, though Collateral and Minority Report are right up there with it.
@Fletch- Very true about Shattered Glass. Very few people have seen it. Wonder if Hayden Christensen has anything to do with that? Once I saw Sarsgaard and Sevigny were in it, I HAD to watch it, and it’s a good thing I did. I was already a huge fan of Sarsgaard before this movie. Please tell me you’ve seen Boys Don’t Cry, which also stars Sarsgaard and Sevigny.
Yeah, I do think people are terrified of Christensen in Glass, which is really a shame, because FOR THE ROLE, he’s awesome in it. Yes, it’s weird to type those words, but it’s true. That movie gives me hope that he can be a successful actor, but then I see every other project and it just disproves it.
Yes, seen Boys Don’t Cry, though a) I don’t remember if it was pre- or post- seeing Glass and b) Sarsgaard is good, but there’s a whole lot more going on in Boys Don’t Cry, so I guess he just didn’t stand out for me as much.
Some damn good ones here. And yes, Fletch has a good call with Shattered Glass. Some others to ponder: LOVE Wilkinson in In the Bedroom, Al pacino in Merchant of Venice, Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children, Philip Seymour in Before the Devil Knows/The savages, Kevin Bacon in Rails and Ties…nice call with Fassbinder too!
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