Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Petr Navovy | Social Media | March 15, 2023
Ah the humble (or not humble, as the case may be, either way's good!) character actor. Where would we be without them? Plenty has been written about the way the film and TV industry seems to have skewed ever more toward populating its stories with impossibly attractive people, emphasizing smooth and model-adjacent aesthetics over everything else. I've lost count of the amount of 'we have to go back' tweets featuring the great actors of previous decades that I've seen by now, but the message is clear: We're starved of performers whose faces and bodies look more akin to the human species, in all its glory, rather than some lab-grown specimen with all its edges sanded off. The great character actors of today and yesterday provide a balm against this trend, and Twitter celebrated it the other day by responding (with an unfortunate yet unsurprising bias towards a certain type of actor) to a prompt that asked people to consider the character actors that elevate everything they're in:
Who's everyone's favorite "when this guy shows up you know the movie is gonna be good" side character actor
— Kingly (@l_kingly) March 11, 2023
PSH? I mean he mostly plays side characters and always steals the show pic.twitter.com/XWFl9vwis3
— Connie (@ConchiclatorS) March 11, 2023
— Blane Erwin (@BlaneErwin) March 11, 2023
— CA (@ColinArtinger) March 11, 2023
Stephen Root
— Ethan Dragon (@ethandragonVA) March 11, 2023
probably Harry Dean Stanton pic.twitter.com/7t42qRsCB9
— 🎬Jake "Fix Your Hearts or Die" Brannan🎬 (@JakeBrannan5499) March 11, 2023
Kathryn Hahn. pic.twitter.com/E8LCe7c4ke
— steve (@spsnomad) March 12, 2023
Die Hard, Bill & Ted, Big Trouble In Little China, Escape From LA, Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop 3, They Live...so many more.
— This is great I love it here (@WaitArentUDead) March 11, 2023
Al Leong pic.twitter.com/gTUi9WFCPR
Colman Domingo for me! Ma Rainey, Euphoria, Zola and Beale Street is a hell of a filmography! Can't wait to see what he brings to Rustin this year pic.twitter.com/DS15jrWpQN
— Archie (@agowerz04) March 11, 2023
— Julie (@julacious) March 11, 2023
Scoot pic.twitter.com/ASZodh4wvf
— Derek (@AspectRaSheOh) March 11, 2023
John Carroll Lynch pic.twitter.com/c0jDYIwF2T
— Scotty C! 🇨🇦ðŸðŸŽ™ (@scooterradio) March 11, 2023
— Katrina Elsi (@katrina_elsi) March 12, 2023
— Dire Prism - Treacherous Journeys on Steam 🇩🇰 🌻 (@journeys_ARPG) March 12, 2023
Cliff Curtis pic.twitter.com/4SltEVyCT4
— Jago (@Jagodesu) March 11, 2023
— WVU1867 (@eer1867) March 11, 2023
Laurie Metcalfe pic.twitter.com/yzm2oAVZHf
— Cinloou 🇨🇦 (@cinloou7) March 12, 2023
Much missed. pic.twitter.com/TFb21iJF6U
— Ted Moondust (@TedMoondust) March 11, 2023
Peter Stormare and James Ransone.
— Old Joel 🥳 (@UncleDrewStan) March 11, 2023
You know no matter how good the movie is when they show up they're gonna be the best part. pic.twitter.com/yNK6Fa468k
Honestly, both of these guys. pic.twitter.com/Rt704L7O3E
— Hare (@HareDurer) March 11, 2023
— Girthy Halleck (@Seedalicious) March 12, 2023
William Fichtner. pic.twitter.com/gazii87G0U
— a sunday friend (@oldmacheathbabe) March 11, 2023
WALTON. SANDERS. GOGGINS. JR. pic.twitter.com/ZRLeqKGHea
— chef cook (@JacksonKCook) March 11, 2023
Luis Guzmán. pic.twitter.com/9W8ojDnTMc
— My Name is My Name (@rfpcrawford) March 11, 2023
no question pic.twitter.com/WQE8mcAvPO
— Simon Girthy (@daggerandpen) March 11, 2023
Elias Koteas pic.twitter.com/E3HZCoo0An
— JEHawks (@jehawks) March 11, 2023
— Lumpy (@LumpyTheCook) March 12, 2023
Shea Wigham has made a career out of this in TV and movies pic.twitter.com/oegLTLX2mH
— Ty in Louisville (@TyInLouisville) March 11, 2023
Christine Baranski, Jean Smart, Alan Arkin pic.twitter.com/DHzhUogb0e
— Ike A. Nuksey (@ANuksey) March 11, 2023
Wes Studi pic.twitter.com/nRRnP15O3C
— Garrett Oleen (@gaoleen1) March 11, 2023
— Steve Crobie (@crobicon) March 11, 2023
— Austin (@Austin_H2O) March 11, 2023
If John Hawkes is in it I know it's gonna be a good film pic.twitter.com/5rywQ0HG0j
— Boutros hates you (@ThrottleMerlin) March 11, 2023
Easy pic.twitter.com/5FZo5VFyxt
— Alex Marshall (@amarshtheboy) March 11, 2023
In terms of getting the most laughs out of me with the fewest words or time spent onscreen: pic.twitter.com/Yb3OFjupx6
— Chris Miller (@hchrismiller) March 11, 2023
Jared Harris pic.twitter.com/QQPNZJV6Pe
— EvilBoris (@EvilBoris) March 11, 2023
A few of my favorite Irish actors for this questions. Aidan Gillen, Brendan Gleeson, Jack Reynor and Ciaran Hinds pic.twitter.com/osvar5orC6
— Niallelio Hassettino (@NiallNiallha) March 12, 2023
— Jarrod Murray (@theofficialword) March 11, 2023
Steve Zahn. pic.twitter.com/TN9z0PPRNi
— Prof. Katie Hinde (@Mammals_Suck) March 12, 2023
ANYTHING from the 70s set in New York -- Joe Spinell leveled up your experience. pic.twitter.com/asK0Hkwxfx
— Anayat (@AnayatF) March 11, 2023
Oliver Platt. And Sam Rockwell for as long as you could consider him a "side character actor" for.
— ReeVoltRecords (@ReeVoltRecords) March 11, 2023
— Trevor Tillman (@trev_tillman) March 11, 2023
Richard Brake and David Dastmalchian are faces i always get excited to see pic.twitter.com/cTMZ24P0jl
— Paul Muad'Dib (@trygraptor) March 11, 2023
Kindheads assemble pic.twitter.com/HLrFkdDWtd
— cottage cheesy (@garbo_marx) March 11, 2023
Philip Baker Hall pic.twitter.com/i2xdpwqDRd
— Neil Norman (@NJStreitberger) March 12, 2023
The second he pops in any movie, automatically the movie gets better pic.twitter.com/4oNBUNCYyD
— Tony Gilroy's Final Draft (@madovercinema) March 11, 2023
— tostada and fugue (@nimrodserling) March 11, 2023
Jon Polito pic.twitter.com/zePoVsAR23
— big tub of Desitin (@freecialis2) March 11, 2023
Are the replies all boys 'cause you said "guy" or, you know, sexism? Anyway: Thelma Ritter
— ms mandel reads yr entrails (@bklynharuspex) March 11, 2023
— Plz Help Out of Box Thx (@plz_box_thx) March 12, 2023
— Heikki Peuralahti (@HPeuralahti) March 11, 2023
