Brad Dourif is money in every movie he appears in

And I'm willing to bet Soderbergh paid more attention to her scenes and gave her more guidance and acting direction than he's had to do, or been willing to do, with anyone in decades.
You must be a Sasha Grey fan.
Keith Jardine is GOOD at being ambience / scenery.
My guy.

Jardine was used to perfection in Inherent Vice.
 
Well, I'll preface this by saying that I've never seen anything with either one of them (Carano or Rousey) more than one time, and I'm going by memory on the details. And I don't really make an effort to keep the nuances of Rousey and Carano performances secure in my memory.

The short answer would be that they've given about the same level of performance as far as I'm concerned, that being unacceptable and about equally so. But I think Carano has faced a higher degree of difficulty in delivering this low level. She has faced more unique challenges and burdens with her performances and hasn't sunk any lower than Rousey while doing them. I can't prove that Rousey would do worse in these situations, but I predict that she would sink to an even lower level in those situations. So if Carano gives (and has given) a D- performance in a given scene or situation, I am guessing that Rousey would probably show up and give an F performance. They've both risen to (and no higher than), in my opinion, the level of "not really hurting anything at the moment."

I guess I'll start with Carano...

She came in and got hand-held through her first movie by one of the top directors in Hollywood, who has directed Oscar worthy performances. She also had the huge benefit of delivering her scenes mostly with legitimate masters of acting, the whole way through. She wasn't trading lines with some dead fish. It was Ewan McGregor and Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton and Michael Douglas. And I'm willing to bet Soderbergh paid more attention to her scenes and gave her more guidance and acting direction than he's had to do, or been willing to do, with anyone in decades.

And the result was that her performance was way, way worse than Carrie Henn in her debut role. Way, way worse than Edward Furlong.

How do I think Rousey would have done under the same circumstances? I think she'd also crumple under the burden of carrying a movie, also probably have problems looking at the camera with that many scenes and also have been a green screen for Fassbender and McGregor to act against. I think she would have been just as bad, but also much more annoying and hard to watch for that much time.

What I've seen from Carano since is very little improvement, and also more problems when she's faced with specific demands. I remember she had a phone acting scene in that shitty movie The Heist and the phone acting was about as bad as it gets.

She was okay at being ambience or imposing scenery in Deadpool, but didn't succeed at anything beyond that. When she had to talk or react to lines, it wasn't very good. And she was OKAY at being ambience / scenery. Keith Jardine is GOOD at being ambience / scenery.

I don't think Carano really brings anything to the table acting wise. Her performances are consistently bad and take me out of the movie and out of the scene. But I guess she isn't a truly annoying presence on the screen, which is...better than nothing.

As for Rousey, she has probably barely scraped her way up to "not hurting anything for the moment" and has delivered consistently bad, bad acting on screen. But she has also never had Steven Soderbergh walking her through things. The director of Expendables 3 was Patrick Hughes. Shrug. I'd say that having Stallone around should have been a guiding factor, but not on those fucking Expendables movies. Stallone is one of the best writers and directors in the business, but he's like BJ Penn, and all three Expendables movies were unmotivated Stallone.

That said, the demands on Rousey for Expendables 3 with her lines and reactions were pretty light, going by memory, and she fell short. And nothing else I've seen is any better.

Now, if she could maintain her shitty level of normal acting through a fake phone conversation, then she would be better than Carano was in that one regard. But do I think Rousey would fuck it up even worse? Probably.

As for stuff outside of movies, there was SNL and some god awful wrestling promos on the street (where I can't really blame her for being utter dog shit as there was possibly no script or director, and her acting companions were Marina Shafir and Shayna Baszler and such). I'd give that performance literally a zero out of ten, but I guess I can ignore it, even though it was done after all of her movies and SNL etc. And there was some terrible computer service company commercial from around when she started in the UFC. I guess I'll ignore that too.

So what have I seen from both? They both range from occasional moments of "C" level, all the way down to F. Maybe C minus at best for Rousey, and only for passing moments. But I think the worst moments I've seen on film from Carano were probably a little worse than the worst I've seen from Rousey.

I think if Rousey had been in all of the situations Carano has been in, she would have delivered even worse results, but I can't really prove it. I think if she had actually remade Road House and had to carry the film as the lead character, it would have been absolutely unbearable. Even as a second lead in that Wahlberg movie, it would have been unwatchable.

So...my best guess is that Carano is the slightly better actor. I mean, I can't really make an apples to apples comparison based on what I've seen. But if I had to bet on who would do better with any given role, I suppose I'd pick Carano.

Good stuff. Thanks.

A few points in response:

1. We've talked a bit about this before, but I'd give Carano a solid C in the acting department in Haywire. Not a great performance, but good enough to where I wasn't distracted by it, and if I had never heard of her I don't know that I'd have questioned it. Maybe I'd have thought she didn't seem to be on the level of the rest of the cast, but I don't think I would've regarded the performance as bad.

2. From what I have seen, Rousey does not seem to quite be on Carano's level, but I'm mostly basing that on Carano's high point in Haywire. But even with Soderbergh's help I tend to feel like Rousey would not have been able to match Carano's performance in that film.

3. It's interesting that, despite Carano's lopsided loss to Cyborg, she was able to go on to have a relatively successful and long-lasting career as an actress. I mean, she's been appearing in films for over a decade now. But Rousey's loss to Holm seemed to completely derail her opportunities. Is this because of Rousey's antics outside of the cage or does it have more to do with her perceived acting talent?

4. You bring up Jardine. He's definitely one of the more successful MMA-guys-turned actors. If you look him up you'll see that he's been in a LOT of shit. But it's always bit parts. If he's lucky he'll get a couple of lines. I wonder how well he would do it he was a main character. Maybe not a lead, but at least someone with more screen time than he usually gets. As it stands, Couture's roles are higher profile than Jardine's but Jardine seems to have more talent for acting from what I've seen.
 
Good stuff. Thanks.

A few points in response:

1. We've talked a bit about this before, but I'd give Carano a solid C in the acting department in Haywire. Not a great performance, but good enough to where I wasn't distracted by it, and if I had never heard of her I don't know that I'd have questioned it. Maybe I'd have thought she didn't seem to be on the level of the rest of the cast, but I don't think I would've regarded the performance as bad.

I think it would have probably stood out to me. She uses that stupid lip biting the she does (famous gif here) as a crutch and did it in that movie. And it looked to me like things might have been set up to work around camera glancing.

2. From what I have seen, Rousey does not seem to quite be on Carano's level, but I'm mostly basing that on Carano's high point in Haywire. But even with Soderbergh's help I tend to feel like Rousey would not have been able to match Carano's performance in that film.

I think Rousey would have done worse as well, but perhaps only by being a grating screen presence rather than actually performing the scenes worse. But my guess is she probably would have acted worse as well.

3. It's interesting that, despite Carano's lopsided loss to Cyborg, she was able to go on to have a relatively successful and long-lasting career as an actress. I mean, she's been appearing in films for over a decade now. But Rousey's loss to Holm seemed to completely derail her opportunities. Is this because of Rousey's antics outside of the cage or does it have more to do with her perceived acting talent?

I think it's generally widely understood that she can't act for shit. She had a unique flash in the pan kind of fame that seemed like it would get her Rihanna type roles while she was still on top, but the loss to Holm led to a perfect storm of collapse, fleeing from the sport, hiding behind pillows, marrying Browne, walking around with dog crap in her back yard. Whatever Mike Tyson thing she had is long gone and she's a tough sell when she can't act, can't win a fight, won't fight at all and gains weight and marries Travis Browne. I wish her well. But stupid shit like saying publicly that she should be cast as Wonder Woman didn't do her any favors.

4. You bring up Jardine. He's definitely one of the more successful MMA-guys-turned actors. If you look him up you'll see that he's been in a LOT of shit. But it's always bit parts. If he's lucky he'll get a couple of lines. I wonder how well he would do it he was a main character. Maybe not a lead, but at least someone with more screen time than he usually gets. As it stands, Couture's roles are higher profile than Jardine's but Jardine seems to have more talent for acting from what I've seen.

Jardine is way more talented than Couture. Couture can't even do anything nonverbal, other than fight scenes. I don't know if Jardine can play out a legit scene like Bautista, but he can handle a couple lines without dragging things down.
 
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Was one of my favorite characters in Deadwood which is saying a lot since there are so many good ones on that show.
 
I think it's generally widely understood that she can't act for shit. She had a unique flash in the pan kind of fame that seemed like it would get her Rihanna type roles while she was still on top, but the loss to Holm led to a perfect storm of collapse, fleeing from the sport, hiding behind pillows, marrying Browne, walking around with dog crap in her back yard. Whatever Mike Tyson thing she had is long gone and she's a tough sell when she can't act, can't win a fight, won't fight at all and gains weight and marries Travis Browne. I wish her well. But stupid shit like saying publicly that she should be cast as Wonder Woman didn't do her any favors.

I have to wonder, if Rousey acted like Carano outside the cage would she still be on track to star in that Roadhouse remake?

Also, I never heard her say she should be Wonder Woman but that's funny to think about.

Jardine is way more talented than Couture. Couture can't even do anything nonverbal, other than fight scenes. I don't know if Jardine can play out a legit scene like Bautista, but he can handle a couple lines without dragging things down.

Funny thing about Couture is that he keeps getting cast. He actually has several credits now.

I'd like to see Jardine get a little more screen time. I mean, I look him up on IMDB and I see that he's in a lot of shit that I didn't even realize he was in. Like, he's apparently in several episodes of Godless on Netflix. I've been fucking watching that show and I haven't even noticed him!

Another MMA guy who I've seen popping up in stuff recently is Michael Bisping. He seems like he might have some promise. Mostly he's just played himself in the stuff I've seen, but he's natural on camera. I'm sure all his time on TV has helped with that.
 
Was he the guy who played Dr. Zhivago?
 
Huh? I thought she was trained personally by Lee Strasberg.
No that was Fee Rasberg the bootleg Lee Strasberg

Ronda first got a fake boxing coach and then a fake acting coach, all you have to tell her is she is Oscar worthy and your hired.
 
I like his daughter, too.

Fiona Dourif.

The familial resemblance, coupled with her being hot, is kinda freaky

fiona-dourif-cult-of-chucky-movie-premiere-in-london-uk-08-24-2017-9.jpg



She was ace in the 2 last Chucky movies - Curse and Cult

fiona-dourif-.jpg



She should've been Harley Quinn, not that glorified clothes horse Margot Robbie

Dirk+Gently+Holistic+Detective+Agency+Premiere+WTdt-fnQ8Nax.jpg
 
Character actors are the key to great movies. Michael Biehn, Douriff, Rooker, David Morse....then to more famous ones like Dafoe, Rockwell, Giamatti, Hoffman...
 
Douriff was the lone bright spot in Rob Zombies Halloween 2, he nailed the scene of finding his daughter.

Also Jardine is good in his random roles, lately he's been in Shameless.
 
Dourif is the man. Like him so much that one of my bands made a montage of Dourif clips to play our songs to. Our newest EP is called Dourif.
 
Jardine is way more talented than Couture. Couture can't even do anything nonverbal, other than fight scenes. I don't know if Jardine can play out a legit scene like Bautista, but he can handle a couple lines without dragging things down.

Holy fucking shit, dude. HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

I just realized who Jardine is in Godless. He has a big scene with with several lines with one of the main characters and I'll be damned if he didn't just seem like a regular actor. He did really well. The guy, like, IS an actor now.

I tried to find the scene online but it's not on YouTube.
 
Holy fucking shit, dude. HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

I just realized who Jardine is in Godless. He has a big scene with with several lines with one of the main characters and I'll be damned if he didn't just seem like a regular actor. He did really well. The guy, like, IS an actor now.

I tried to find the scene online but it's not on YouTube.

Good for him. He's taking his job seriously and respecting it, not getting on Twitter and saying he should be cast as Thanos because he's so tough and awesome.
 
Dourif is the man. Like him so much that one of my bands made a montage of Dourif clips to play our songs to. Our newest EP is called Dourif.

My band is called Michael Berryman.
 
Good for him. He's taking his job seriously and respecting it, not getting on Twitter and saying he should be cast as Thanos because he's so tough and awesome.

If I hadn't read that Jardine was in the show I wouldn't even have recognized him or thought twice about the performance. But there's this one scene where it's just him and one of the main characters in a saloon and it's actually a pretty tense scene and at one point I looked at him and was like, "Wait . . . Is THAT Jardine?"

Sure enough it is. You're right. He's way more talented than Randy Couture.


Jardine_KnifeMan.jpg
 
He's money, okay, I agree. But does he even know it?
 
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