Sunday, November 12, 2006

Actors Stuck In Ruts

In the 1980s people used to joke that Meryl Streep would eventually learn every accent in the world, thus coming to represent all foreign peoples to American moviegoers. Which actors today are working one groove repeatedly? And are they dulling their creative blades by doing so?
  • Julianne Moore loves playing mommy to dead / imaginary / missing / abandoned children. (Boogie Nights, World Traveller, The Hours, The Forgotten, Freedomland, The Children of Men)
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar is remaking J Horror films (The Return, The Grudge)
  • Jodie Foster keeps finding thrills in confined spaces (Panic Room, Flight Plan, Inside Man)
  • Nicole Kidman has an affinity for doomed creative-types (Moulin Rouge!, The Hours, Fur) and she's also bad bad news for the men in her (onscreen) life. Ever noticed how many dead or doomed husbands/lovers she's piling up in that filmography? (My Life, To Die For, The Others, Dogville, Cold Mountain, Birth, etcetera.)

Can you think of any other actors beating a peculiar and particular dead horse? Bitch about it in the comments.