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00:00The following actors were somehow able to take care of business and put some amazing performances on film while being as lackadaisical about their roles as someone can be while still having a pulse.
00:12So I am Gareth here from WhatCulture.com and here are 8 amazing performances by actors who stopped giving a damn.
00:208. Edward Norton – The Italian Job
00:23Contractual obligations don't always create on-screen magic.
00:27But in the case of Edward Norton and his behind-the-scenes battles with Paramount over his required involvement in The Italian Job,
00:35it cemented the fact that Norton is a consummate professional who's nearly impervious to giving a bad performance.
00:41Norton wanted nothing to do with the remake of The Italian Job, but since he'd signed a three-picture deal before making his on-screen debut in Primal Fear,
00:50Paramount threatened to sue him for millions of dollars if he refused to make the movie.
00:55After much back-and-forth between the actor and the studio, Norton eventually caved and agreed to participate.
01:01Though he was reportedly very business-like and amiable during filming, he actually refused to promote the movie afterwards.
01:08You can almost feel the behind-the-scenes disdain seeping out of the screen whenever Norton is present,
01:13which imbues his slimy villain with a natural sense of mischief.
01:17He doesn't ever come off as detached, though it's likely his natural charisma that simply doesn't allow that to happen.
01:23The Italian Job may rank just outside of Norton's top ten performances, but considering the circumstances,
01:29it's hard to imagine anyone else coming in and playing the character of Steve Frazzelli any better.
01:357. Jackie Chan Rush Hour
01:37Rush Hour is another installment in the odd-couple buddy-cop action movie genre,
01:43this time bringing together goofy martial arts legend Jackie Chan and even goofier comedic sidekick Chris Tucker.
01:49Now, it wasn't exactly an Oscar-worthy performance from either of them, and in fact doesn't rank anywhere near the top ten from Chan's filmography either.
01:57But it was the first time most audiences outside of Hong Kong were introduced to Chan's combination of top-notch stunt work
02:03and silly and occasionally subversive comedy.
02:06But for Chan, it was a disheartening experience.
02:08In his words,
02:10I have reasons to do each film.
02:12I have something to say.
02:14Unlike Rush Hour, there was no reason in making it.
02:17You just give me the money and I'm fine.
02:19I dislike Rush Hour the most.
02:21Chan thought the stunt work was uninspired and the fight choreography was too Americanized.
02:26And yet, anyone watching the movie without prior knowledge of the action star's previous work
02:30would be wowed by scenes where Chan effortlessly scales a 15-foot wall
02:34and drops hundreds of feet with the use of wires, of course, onto a makeshift slide.
02:39It's a reminder that even when he's just going through the motions,
02:42Jackie Chan is one of the most underrated action stars of all time.
02:476. Alan Rickman, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
02:50Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves was this close to being an unwatchable mess.
02:55Then along came a hero who happened to be playing a villain to carry the hot mess of a script on his back
03:01while completely disregarding the suggested tone of the movie.
03:05That hero was Alan Rickman.
03:07Between Kevin Costner's wavering English accent,
03:10charmless secondary characters,
03:12and bombardment of intrusive subplots,
03:14Robin Hood needed someone to hold the audience's hand
03:17and assure them it was okay to take the movie as a bit of fun.
03:21Rickman's extraordinarily hammy turn as the Sheriff of Nottingham
03:24did just that.
03:25It's as if Rickman watched Costner's bored, brooding orations from the sidelines on the first day of
03:30filming and decided there and then that he'd have to single-handedly make up for the star's
03:35lifeless portrayal, or at the very least he was going to have some damn fun making an awful movie.
03:40Rickman's lines are delivered with the kind of sashaying menace that makes you forget how terrible
03:45the dialogue actually is, instead drawing you in with campy readings that put the entire cast of
03:50Batman and Robin to shame. Somehow, someway, it just works.
03:555. Orson Welles' The Transformers The Movie
03:58No, not the live-action Transformers, my friends.
04:01The original animated version from 1986, which features less robotic testicles,
04:06and astonishingly voice work from one of the greatest actor-directors of all time, Orson Welles.
04:12This Transformers flick also includes some wonderful performances from Leonard Nimoy,
04:16Robert Stack, and Judd Nelson. Even weighed against this respectable ensemble, though,
04:22Welles stands out as Unicron, a man-eating superplanet. The fact that he manages to do this
04:27while not appearing to remotely care about or even understand what the role was makes it all that
04:32more impressive. During production, Welles apparently told his biographer the following,
04:37You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. I play a planet. Some terrible
04:42robot toys from Japan that changed from one thing to another. I menaced somebody called
04:46something or other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy whoever it is is thwarted,
04:51and I tear myself apart on the screen. Those are not the words of someone heavily invested in his
04:56role, are they?
04:584. Alec Guinness Star Wars
05:00It's always a hard pill to swallow when one of the most essential actors from one of the most
05:05revered movie franchises in movie history says that he abhors said franchise. Unfortunately,
05:11that seems to be the case with the late Alec Guinness, who played mystical mentor and all-round
05:16badass Obi-Wan Kenobi. The experience of working with George Lucas is one he was happy to be done
05:22with once he wrapped on Return of the Jedi. Guinness reportedly despised the dialogue,
05:27and expressed while on set that old Georgie didn't have a firm enough grasp on the characters he was
05:32writing for. As he put it, apart from the money, I regret having embarked on the films.
05:37I like them well enough, but it's not an acting job. The dialogue, which is lamentable,
05:42keeps being changed and only slightly improved. And I find myself old and out of touch with the
05:47young. A letter Guinness wrote to a friend during production reinforced his dismissal of the
05:52material. As he wrote,
05:53New rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper. None of it makes my character
05:59clear or even bearable. Despite his contempt of the material, Guinness provided a performance that
06:04Star Wars fans hold close to their hearts to this day, and even non-Star Wars fans can admire.
06:10And he still managed to walk away with an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor,
06:14after utterly detesting every word that tumbled out of his wise old space wizard mouth.
06:19What a legend!
06:20Number 3, Marlon Brando's Superman
06:22As Marlon Brando approached the end of his career, the genius method actor who diligently crafted
06:28legendary performances in The Wild One and On the Waterfront started to, well, get a touch lazy,
06:34let's say. For instance, rather than coming to the set of The Godfather with his lines memorised,
06:39he requested the use of cue cards, which had to be carefully placed around set,
06:43sometimes on the chests of other actors in the scene, so as not to be seen in the finished shot.
06:48But at least in that case, Brando seemed to be invested in his character and the film itself.
06:53The same can't be said for his portrayal of Jor-El in the original Superman movie.
06:57According to his co-star Terrence Stamp, who plays General Zod, when Brando first arrived on set,
07:02he asked him if the script was any good. Stamp, bewildered, asked Brando if he'd read it yet,
07:08to which he replied, no, I was worried it might be poop.
07:11This anecdote proves two things. Number 1, Marlon Brando, one of the greatest dramatic
07:15actors of all time, casually used the word poop in conversation. And number 2, he didn't even
07:20have to read through the script to deliver the second best performance in Superman,
07:24just behind Gene Hackman's definitive portrayal of Lex Luthor.
07:28Number 2, Robert Shaw, Jaws. By his own admission, Robert Shaw didn't take his profession too
07:34seriously. According to one story, Robert Shaw actually drank himself into a blackout while
07:39he was filming the famous SS Indianapolis monologue in the classic that was Jaws. He'd convinced Steven
07:46Spielberg that he should be a bit tipsy for the scene, since his character had been hitting the
07:50bottle. And unsurprisingly, not much work got done that day. When he wasn't drinking,
07:55Shaw was humiliating his co-star Richard Dreyfuss. He'd spray him with a fire hose,
08:00or convince him to jump off frighteningly tall things for a few hundred bucks.
08:04A couple of years after he finished Jaws, Shaw was asked about his penchant for boozing,
08:08to which he responded, can you imagine being a movie star and having to take it seriously without
08:12a drink? And indeed, it seems like this loosey-goosey approach Shaw took in bringing
08:17fisherman-slash-shark-bait Quint to life, probably helped make the best version of this character.
08:22Number 1, Marlon Brando Apocalypse Now
08:25Apparently, this entire list could have been culled together using nothing but examples from
08:30the back half of Marlon Brando's filmography. By now, the on-set animosity between Brando and
08:35Francis Ford Coppola is one of Hollywood's worst-kept secrets. The tension was so thick
08:40between actor and director, that an entire documentary was made about their behind-the-scenes antics.
08:45Playing the integral role of Colonel Kurtz, a lean and savage Green Beret, Brando showed up on set
08:51monstrously overweight, and wholly unprepared. As was his MO around this time in his career,
08:56he didn't bother to read the source material, couldn't memorize his lines,
09:00and supposedly halted filming on numerous occasions to discuss the script.
09:04In spite of all this, Coppola and Brando found a way to churn out a legendary performance.
09:09The process became simple, dress Brando in black, shoot him in shadowy lighting,
09:13and just let one of the world's greatest actors improvise until there was enough material to use.
09:18Easy as that, really. Essentially, Marlon's role was fleshed out on the fly,
09:23with the camera pointed at him until he didn't want to monologue anymore.
09:26That is a special kind of laziness right there.
09:29And that's our list. Know of any other amazing performances by actors who stopped giving a damn?
09:34Well, let us know all about them in the comments section right down below,
09:37and don't forget to like, share, and click on that subscribe button while you're down there.
09:40Also, if you like this sort of stuff, then why not go and check out the rest of our channel,
09:44and click on some more awesome WhatCulture videos.
09:47I have been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, cheers for watching today,
09:50and hopefully we'll see you again very, very soon. Bye-bye!
09:53Bye-bye!