When I was younger, I tried to do this kind of thing because I wanted to portray realistic emotion. Then I realized, I'm doing a school musical, no one is gonna even be able to see this kind of subtlety. It's great that film lets us explore quieter moments.
same here! when i got to college & did my first screen acting class i tried to express anger through Trying Not To Cry and heard some ppl in the back of the class whisper “omg is she really crying oh no what happened” like no besties i’m okay 😅
Florence Pugh’s micro facial expressions are truly something to behold. Face acting at its finest. She doesn’t even have to say a word and you know exactly how she’s feeling. It’s incredibly powerful.
@@p_roduct9211 Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC miniseries is phenomenal with this. You should give that a shot if you haven't already! Darcy wasn't much like MacFadyen's portrayal, imo
There's a Brazilian movie critic that once said that Florence Pugh is someone that knows herself so well, has such a strong confidence of who she is, that it allows herself to become empty and leave enough space so the character can easily take control, there's no conflict between the real Florence and her roles, you can see when shes fully transformed into another person, she gives everything and i completely agree with that
Interesting, that starts to sound like some Japanese philosophy, specifically mushino no zen, "zen thinking" where you just lose conscious thought and do without thinking, without overthinking or over analyzing. Also a bit of Miyamoto Musashi and his Void chapter, which is related. In a less weeabo sense, we call it "the zone" in English, or at least there is some overlap in the concepts.
Yeees, love Isabela Boscov. She also said that Florence lends her breath so the character can breathe through. For me it's like she gives all the necessary space for a new person to come to life, and that is such an amazing skill!!
An acting teacher I had years ago, had an exercise where you would literally walk onto the stage, sit on a bench, and do nothing. He said it was the most difficult acting exercise he knew. And he's onto something: it's much more difficult to "not perform" than it is to put on a big show.
oh yeah! I had a great acting teacher do similar things…I had this one classmate who was really into accents and silly characters, and he made that dude sit on a chair “on stage” in front of the rest of the class, and just count change in his hand. Made him look very human all of a sudden! He’d also have us “wait for the bus”/train etc. a lot. Great exercise.
@@meghannichole3806 Maybe I did a little without knowing it! Haha. It was a general acting class mostly for voice over actors, but the teacher is a stage/screen actor so I’m sure he’s got Meisner in him! :)
On a similar note, in yoga one of the hardest poses is "savasana", which is also called "corpse pose". It requires being absolutely still and relaxed, which is much harder to do than it sounds. The body is scanned for tension of any kind, which is released with intention as it is found. This includes relaxing the mind too. It's hard to be in that state of true and complete stillness.
Olivia Colman's character in Fleabag is one of my favourite examples of this kind of acting. She rarely raises her voice. She doesn't need to. Every line, every snarky comment she makes has such venom to it. Certain ways of on-screen communication can only be done in this subtle way. The evil stepmother's judgmental comments hit so much harder because of the subtlety that Colman achieves. Amazing performance
This was one of the things that made Arcane so great. The animators nailed the subtle performances of all the characters in a way i've never seen in animation before. The quiet scenes stood out just as much as the big action scenes.
Out of curiosity could you share what Arcane is to me? On netflix there seems to be various versions of it. I tried watching one and it was an insufferable kid level story witch a character that started every sentence in the 3rd person. But I keep hearing people talk about it. Are there multiple animated series called Arcane?
@@scottfitzpatrick1939just one-arcane league of legends. it's based off from the game. if I'm not mistaken the thumbnail is jinx, one of the protagonists, has blue hair and is staring somewhere off camera.
@@esthermartell5369 thank you so much I found it and it is good. I couldn't find the other ones netflix must have dropped them. I dont know if they were spinoff or just had the same title but they were horrible lol. I kept asking myself why are people talking so much about this haha. Thanks for helping me find it.
I cannot get over Florence Pugh's range. She's so believable and good portraying grief in Midsommar, but ... also amazing in her comedic scenes as Yelena Belova in Black Widow and Hawkeye. SUCHH a talent!
My favorite scene in Midsommar is when she's tripping and having a decent time, and the word "family" immediately brings her out of that bliss and into a nosedive bad trip. The acting was so incredible
Midsommar was a brilliant portrayal of what it’s like to be living with deep grief and despair and trying to continue living your life and not think about it but it’s always there waiting to bubble up and it just hits you and you can’t control it. And Pugh portrayed that perfectly.
@@potato-whiz Yeah, is incredible how Pugh made such a perfect job. Her constant effort to keep on the line is noticeable on the whole movie. One of my favorite parts is when she sees the two elders jumping from the cliff and dying. We can see the impact and terror on her face while also the feeling of interest and attraction to the ritual. Is just another example of subtle acting that will blow anyone's mind.
@@potato-whiz lmao that movie wasn't that good, characters don't make any sense especially the leading female character. Ari Aster fans don't want to hear it but it's true. Aster seems like a guy that has zero life experience. His characters have no agency and are just mere puppets in a game where they're perpetually doomed no matter what. Also the part where a grown mature women in Midsommar just loses all her moral beliefs & rationality in a course of a day because bad boyfriend lol. Also, using autism and body deformity for creepy effect is just...😐
@@ambatuBUHSURK the irony of perfectly describing what makes Midsommar a horror film while failing to understand the reasoning behind her actions seems to be completely lost on you. It's okay to say that you don't understand the depth of her character, but to say she makes no sense is simply foolish.
@@moonchild5713 Well, she doesn't have any depth. She seemed like a character with deeply held beliefs and integrity judging by her reaction from the horrific rituals and her boyfriend's abuse also the cut that didn't make it into the movie, I just can't imagine how a complete 360° flip is "deep" or meaningful in any capacity lol. It's like a completely different character. None of her actions make any real sense towards the end. Not to mention she's doomed anyway lol.
Realistically portraying "feeling an emotion while pretending not to" has always been the kind of acting that most impresses me, and is way more effective on me than outbursts of emotion, so I'm happy you made this video showing it some love!
Or rather why acting is more difficult than it seems: pretending to feel an emotion while your character is pretending not to. To pretend that youre so overcome with anger or sadness or pain that you’ve turned numb or hide it to act strong
Exactly because humans may always feel but don’t always express. Acting isn’t just expressing things sometimes we just have to sense it in their face like humans do in real life.
Outbursts can be moving when there’s enough build up. An out of context outburst is just cringy and uncomfortable (not in a way that constructive to the storytelling).
🔖Some subtle performances I'd like to add. These are some of the best face acting and eye acting that I can recall. One look at their face and you can tell everything they're feeling: Ken Watanabe - The Last Samurai Jake Gyllenhaal - Nocturnal Animals Amy Adams - Nocturnal Animals Leo DiCaprio - The Aviator Jeremy Brett - Sherlock Holmes Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting Patrick Stewart - Star Trek TNG Claire Foy - The Crown Evan Rachel Wood - Westworld Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness Colin Firth - The King's Speech Jodie Foster - Silence of the Lambs Tom Hanks - Cast Away Nicole Kidman - The Others Johnny Depp - Edward Scissorhands Song Kang-ho - Parasite Helen Hunt - As Good As It Gets Hugh Bonneville - Downton Abbey Judi Dench - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The hardest and most impressive part about micro expression is not only knowing when to do it, but being able to avoid doing it. You have to be completely comfortable and in the moment, to avoid awkwardness and to not make it seem like you're trying to do it. Body language, posture, facial expressions, we all do them subconsciously. Being able to control them and time them is incredibly difficult, let alone in front of an entire camera crew
I agree with you to an extent but I also think acting is about letting go of control. It’s believing what you are saying and doing to the point you become the character. I don’t think actors like her even consider what their expressions look like, because they are totally immersed in the scene and in their emotions
@@elliekristine4156 This. I envision it to me more like getting into a "mental zone" rather than forcefully contracting specific muscles in the face to illicit specific expressions.
It'a not about control. In fact it's the exact opposite. You have to give up control to give a detailed performance. It's not about delivering the right micro expression at the right moment. That's too conceptual. Life is not conceptual. A concept will never give you the nuance of reality. We all have a natural ebb and flow of emotions, reactions, movements, thoughts etc going through us at all times. The trick is to maintain this natural flow of living during the unnatural process of acting. Normally we are unaware of living. If we are trained to maintain awareness and relaxation while we keep this flow of organic living and live in the circumstances of the film, the performance will be full of micro/macro expressions, full of life and very nuanced.
The more I watch Midsommar, the more I think Pugh put on one of the best performances I have ever seen on film. The layers of emotion that she presents on her face is nothing short of amazing. Her ability to subtly show her trauma on her face while trying to hide it with a smile, or changing the subject felt like she wasn’t acting, but just tapping into something far deeper. Thanks for this video. You’ve articulated everything so well.
Yet many people dislike the film. I think it was a very jarring experience, because in a certain way it's a horror film without any horror trappings. We don't have darkness, ghosts, or vicious stalkers. The horror of this film is in the subtle emotions, as they build up towards the eventual breakdown, much like real life. Many viewers seem to have found this uncomfortable, but I agree with you it may be one of the best performances on film.
Even in “little women”, she had great facial acting, she showed hurt, anger, love, and even unbearable sadness. She was supposed to be a “side character” but she ended up being my favorite actor in the movie.
The first micro facial expression I noticed was from Mads Mikkelsen in his Hannibal role. The way he always seems so poker-faced but you can just feel what kind of emotion he's actually conveying was amazing for me.
Especially when hes around someone that he finds rude, and you can just see in his eyes that hes already planned how to kill them, and he barely moves his face at all
that's why fleabag is my favorite show. its a quiet look into someone's unraveling, little things in actions and looks and interactions tell a whole story. it's so real and soooo incredible.
Emma Thompson is another great master of this particular skill. I've seen Love Actually a million times, and the part where she's opening the Christmas gift from her husband just breaks my heart. The way she tries to conceal the heartbreak in front of her children, and the cut to the scene of her standing alone in the bedroom rubbing her wrist (a lot of us absentmindedly do little physical things like this when we're trying not to hysterically cry) and fluffing the blanket on the bed...it's just so real.
A lot of that is from her theater background. Emma + Shakespeare = perfection. She knows how to work with nothing but her own body and the props she’s been given and really block a scene the way you would on stage. That love actually scene smacks of theater acting ❤❤❤
Think about this next time you see something like that: it's not just the acting, it's the directing, camera work and editing. If a character is speaking to someone (e.g. husband explaining to his wife why he was late) and then the camera cuts to someone else reacting what they were saying (e.g. a teenage son) they could convey that the husband is lying just by showing the teenage son frowning slightly at the statement. A frown is not a complex action for someone to pull off but you wouldn't necessarily have noticed the frown or it's implied meaning unless the camera cut to him at that point.
I loooove when you learn things throughout the movie and suddenly the little tensions you noticed in peoples’ expressions make sense. Not sure why but thinking about that makes me think of Toni Collette. Like I can see her hearing someone say something and a little look passing over her face where you can tell she HATED that before smiling like everything’s fine. You might not know why but immediately you’re like, oh there’s HISTORY here, got it 😅
Steven Yuen continues to be a vastly underrated actor. I see him access certain roles, but he seriously does not get enough performance opportunities from what I can tell. Hollywood is sleeping on him (except for you Mister Peele, bless). Riz Ahmed is another. Every role is a piercing performance.
he is such an amazing actor, his bit on "i think you should leave" as the person who made a mudpie, didn't wash his hands and refuses to admit it is an oscar worthy, dramatic performance, opposed to a comedic take, wich makes it so much more hilarious
@@yamahrahda Ik ppl talk about Get Out all the time but Nope really drove home how great a subtle, minimalist performance can be. I love Daniel Kaluuya in that film because he clearly already had a great performance in Get Out, but in this story his character is far more reserved, far less outspoken, and just his expressions and his relation with his sister is depicted so fantastically.
i'm so glad you brought up Daniel Kaluuya because he was one of the first actors that came to mind for me lol. he's INCREDIBLE at subtle performances, obviously showcased fully in Get Out and Nope. and it's painful to see some people call his acting in those movies "boring" because they expect big emotive expressions of terror in a horror movie and they're completely missing all of the depth that he's giving us in a quieter package.
I think Daniel Kaluuya’s performance in Nope is a masterclass in subtle acting. So many people didn’t get his performance and that he wasn’t just some boring character. He’s so expressive in his eyes! And that’s honestly what denotes a genuine performance, the eyes.
Thank you. Daniel Kaluuya has become one of my favourite actors who excels in subtle, emotive, non-verbal acting. Nope, Get Out, Black Mirror, JATBM, heck even the Jonny English movie, he does his best.
Florence Pugh is so good in Midsommar it makes me feel anxious and sick feeling her despair. She conveys all the emotions you would expect from severe trauma perfectly
So glad you talked about Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal. The subdued desperation, frustration, shame, and sense of loss he portrays (often all at once) is absolutely crushing. Paired with the subtlety of Paul Raci, they performed one of the most heart-breaking scenes I have ever seen.
it makes me almost jealous as a writer, that i come up with all of these ways to let the dialogue speak for what’s going on and these actors can just..show it. perfectly and without explanation
When I was taught literary writing techniques, we were taught it was just as important what *isn't* said just as much as what is said. In a way, it's the equivalent of subtle acting in writing terms -- knowing how to refrain information, or to create a lack of what is obvious to the reader, to create a profound scene
Fleabag is a great example of what you're talking about. Not just PWB, but I think everyone in that show exhibits such subtle acting skill. The screenplay demanded it as well.
I think this is why I fell in love with Pattinson's Batman. He barely says anything, barely allows an emotion to be free, yet you can _feel_ with him anyway. His eyes were so entrancing.
I saw The Batman multiple times. Which is a marathon of a task because it's a very long film. But I feel like one of the main reasons I kept going back was because of the opening (in total, not just the technical intro). Part of why it's so good to me is the end of it, with Pattinson observing the son of the first victim of the Riddler. It's not a simple staredown in any facet. You can feel him go through many things -- the son found the body, the son is now an orphan, the son is now alone, the son is *still* alone, the son sees him too. His eyes push through all of this without even really moving or twitching or showing much. But it has everything still.
If you like subtle performances, George Mackay in 1917 is really good at it, and honestly one of my biggest reasons for recommending that movie. That, and how intimate it feels for what's supposed to be a war movie, it's the combination of the one-shot look and the over-the-shoulder POV we're given for a good chunk of the movie that really does it. The audience is stuck with this man while he's just doing his job, it's just that his job is very dangerous.
An emotional scene where the character's trying NOT to cry and failing will always get me more than a character just freely letting out their emotions. It's just such a human thing to do. One of my favorite portrayals of this is David Tenant playing Crowley in the end of Good omens season 2, when he tries to go through with a love confession even after the plan for it has completely fallen apart in the worst way possible. There's this moment when his voice breaks and he immediately makes this really irritated humming noise, like he's not not only failing to keep his composure but angry at himself for it. That is SO fucking relatable, there is literally nothing more embarrassing and rage inducing then crying in front of someone when you _really_ don't want to
david tennant is a master at his craft for this exact reason! i also thought of this scene when thinking about ‘subtle’ acting, and i think it’s also evident in michael sheen’s performance as aziraphale as well-especially after crowley leaves the bookshop and he’s trying to hold back everything that just happened to talk to the metatron. he’s utterly devastated yet composes himself. that moment where he turns around, his face settles into a pleasant expression, and he talks to metatron like nothing happened always kills me a little inside.
Florence Pughs performance in Midsommar is one of the best I've ever seen. I could really feel everything the character was feeling and it made for a powerful, uncomfortable but worthwhile experience
She was great. While she totally sells her subtle scenes, her cry in the first act felt so real and heart-wrenching. I wanted to cry just hearing it which never happens to me.
for real. even when she’s in subpar movies playing poorly written characters (ala Don’t Worry Darling) she somehow brings that character so much more life than it ever would have had if any other actor had been chosen. give her the worst script and she can do the impossible, granting those characters the depth and emotion they don’t deserve. you can’t help but fall in love with her and want to see more of her.
Daniel Kaluuya's recent performance in Nope I think fits this bill to a tee. He has zero moments of "ACTING!" in that film and yet you know exactly what he's thinking and feeling at all times. His facial acting and what he does with looks is miles ahead of a lot of actors loudest performances. I think he's a generational talent, and while he can have bigger performances that still blow everyone else out of the water (Judas & the Black Messiah), I think his quieter performances take the cake for me in terms of ability. Edit: Typed this out before you got around to mentioning Kaluuya in the video. Great minds.
I love the moment when he yells and slaps hands with his sister. It was so unexpected because he so far had such a subdued presence and it was great to see a moment of high emotion.
I came here to bring up Kaluuya's performance in Nope as well, he was nothing short of magnificent. It's a prime example of subtlety in a performance, an almost minimalist approach. He says very little and yet conveys so much.
Yeah totally, I remember all of the dialogue at the beginning with the horse was unsaid, and how he conveys his relationship with his sister, and the father's role he's trying to take over, it was really done so seemingly effortlessly.
Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. There was so much boiling under the surface of that character that was constrained by the society he lived in. An amazing, subtle performance from Ledger that should've won him his first Oscar.
YES! That movie kind of sucked (it was very much of-the-time "prestige" Oscar bait", but Heath Ledger's performance penetrated through the artifice. It was genuinely unsettling watching such a total performative of someone who's so clearly uncomfortable in their own skin.
I loved Yeun's performance in burning. We are introduced to Ben as this charismatic and handsome guy, who irl would be generally well liked. Although at first we can tell that Jong-Su disliking him is because he sees him as a romantic rival, who he believes has a much better chance with Hae-mi than him, as the movie progresses Ben starts to slowly allow Jong-Su to look behind his mask and it turns into a completely different dislike. As the movie moves forward Ben becomes a very sinister and actually kind of terrifying person in the eyes of the viewer while within the fiction he maintains the front of being "good". We can also see a sort of fascination from Ben towards Jong-Su who even though being complicit to Ben's true nature has chosen to continuously remain a silent bystander. Ben is constantly poking Jong-Su to see if he will ever do something aka Jong-Su has become his new favourite toy.
I don’t think you really got what the movie was about. It’s not a straightforward movie where John soo is the good guy and ben is the bad guy. Although there are tons of hints, there is absolutely 0 proof that Ben is a bad person. Meanwhile, the movie is also hinting that Jong soo has potential for mental illness. Also the girls that worked with Hae Mi said that it’s normal for women to run away and disappear to get away from debt. The ending is meant to be ambiguous. Jong Soo murders ben, but we will never know if Ben is truly a bad person or if Jong Soo is just a mentally unstable person
@@kevinc.cucumber3697 never said it was as simple as good guy vs bad guy. We never really find out if Hae-Mi is alive and Jong-Su believes she is dead or if she was truly murdered by Ben. What we can see, and I choose to read as reality, is how Ben is uninterested in "normal" social interaction. That can indicate a disorder such as narcissism and sociopathy. Ben uses the people around him for amusement, discarding them when he no longer has a use for them and doesn't seem to have an actual connection with anyone. Also it is a movie that opens itself to interpretation as you said so both of our interpretations are just as valid.
Just a tiny add, I wanted to point out this can be done in voice acting as well. I've revisited the Spiderverse movie a few times lately, in hype for the sequel, and something that gets me everytime is Miles' dad trying to tell him about his uncle, you can feel so much of him cracking from below the facade, it's beautiful
The voice acting in the sequel is just as stellar, too, particularly for Hailee Steinfeild as Gwen. The way which she can shift between a tough Spider-woman to a frightened teenager is spectacular, especially when those two aspects are intermingled
Nobody mentioning Jodie Comer? She's just so good with micro facial expressions and how she can say everything with her eyes too. You can see it either on Killing Eve with Villanelle or in The Last Duel with Marguerite de Carrouges. Well, I must say in every role she has done certainly nails the subtle expressions. She's so complete and versatile actress. Which it's crazy how underrated she is.
yes yes yes!! I hope he does a video about Jodie because she's soo good but still so incredibly underrated! the fact that she was barely recognised for The Last Duel still baffles, me she was miles better than a lot of the nominated performances that year imo. What's so insane about her especially, is that you can see 2 pictures of her in full costume side by side as villanelle for example but you know instantly which is in character and which is not because even without a transformation physically she changes in every other way from the way she holds her face to her posture, she's like a completely different person, like she somehow knows how to change her entire aura, but yet at the same time, seamless switches between the character and herself like its nothing, dropping and picking up the accent and the persona in a split second none of that "getting in to the role" stuff you hear of, It really is fascinating to watch when you get to see behind the scenes footage.
I couldn’t be more happy when you highlighted Florence. Her performance was so scary good. Her begrudging disgust and hurt was translated so well and it was so raw and authentic. My favorite movie and performance.
I think it should be said that Adam Driver belongs in that “subtle” group for “Marriage Story”. The nuance and subtleties of his performance in that film are what make it one of the all time greats. Not the yelling and crying scene; that’s what can be so easily misinterpreted. What’s the achievement is everything he does in the lead up to it. How he somehow made a scene as operatic as that somehow feel earned and organic for his character. Nothing in the editing room can create that. Only a masterful actor crafting a layered, authentic performance.
in hannibal too! hannibal lecter is this super stoic, mostly expressionless, restrained character yet mads manages to communicate so many subtle emotions through micro expressions, its amazing
Everything about Rhea Seahorn's performance of Kim Wexler is so emblematic of what you talk about here. I find it rly interesting the way she describes her process, about feeling all the emotions of her character physically in different parts of the body, and then actively fighting against those emotions to bring them out naturally in a roundabout way. Feels connected to what you were talking about with Rooney Mara and the involuntary neck twitch
Rheas performance is all the more impressive to me because of how restrained it is compared to the louder than life Jimmy as her companion. It would be easy to just go along with your fellow actor and chew the scenery (in a great way) but she genuinely blows me away with how much she conveys with such a minimalist speech pattern and body language
the part where another lawyer insults jimmy and she doesn't say anyhing but you can see her clench her jaw in anger is such a great moment of subtle acting
Dude. I am SO glad you talked about Steven Yeun's performance in Burning. When I first saw the title of your video, I immediately thought to myself, "Steven's performance in Burning would be a fantastic example of that," and then you opened with it as the first example! I've watched thousands of performances at this point in my life, but Yeun's portrayal of Ben is the best I've seen to date. That whole movie in general is a masterclass in subtlety. There's so much going on yet it's all so quiet and fleeting. I could analyze Burning for hours.
Yep, was gonna comment much the same myself! Yeun is so unnerving and terrifying in Burning to me - he has such tremendous screen presence that I remember thinking he seemed so much more physically imposing, so much bigger than Yoo Ah-in's character, and was shocked when I rewatched it and noticed that he's actually a little smaller. Of course, part of that also comes from Yoo's fantastic performance in making himself come across so small and powerless, but god Yeun is truly doing some top tier work throughout that film. Definitely one of my favourite performances of all time.
I love that: "Most acting, not best acting." You articulate so much I've never been able to communicate. This video was incredibly well written. Bravo. :)
For me, Moonlight is one of the best examples for this kind of subtlety in acting performances. The whole point of the movie is Chiron constantly containing his emotions and his true self.
This is the only movie I can think of where I actually watched twice and not to catch things that I had missed but because everything about it was beautiful to me. I just love how much of it is subtle. Such a freaking beautiful movie that leaves you melancholic without the drama.
Riz Ahmed is one of the greatest actors of his generation. He is so good at the big acting as well as the subtle acting, and he has this really calm and complex demeanor to him, it's not just facial expressions, but also body language. He reminds me a lot of a young Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman. He's in a whole other league compared to 99.9% of today's actors.
Tomy Dalton as Lalo Salamanca sitting in a chair listening to some talker for straight 3min not moving a muscle and just turning from zero expression into a smile is peak lowkey acting.
This exact reason is a huge part of why David Tennant's Doctor was so popular. He was his character, and everything that he felt you could see in his face. Every bit of excitement, grief, rage, awe, sarcasm, sadness, contentment showed up in expressions and transferred straight to the audience. Truly amazing acting.
I’m not sure I agree. I adore David Tennant and he’s the reason I got into Doctor Who but he’s originally a stage actor and it showed, his Doctor was definitely more on the flamboyant side. He expressed so much and so well but I wouldn’t say his acting was particularly repressed.
I agree. Yes, he's playing a larger-than-life character who's flamboyant and hyper, but the scenes that make me cry are 100% credited to his acting. The Rose scene. The scene in "Midnight" when the he's now compelled to copy the entity. When he has to leave behind Donna after wiping her memory. All of these are sad and powerful situations, but there's a reason David Tennant's face was a big part of them. It's not easy to make an entire audience feel a fictional character's eternity of pain. It's been a while since I've watched the series, so I'm sure there's tons more examples.
I'd say, DT in everything else actually. The detective show with Colman, they ARE the show, and you can see this micro things in last summer in Scotland. He doesnt get as much credit as he should
@@TheLittleFrenchy2 he was big when it needed it and quiet when it needed it. Those quite subtle moments come across even more when they contrast the big ones.
@@AmethystCobain I haven't seen him in anything else personally but my mom watched Broadchurch (I think that's the name) and said it was fantastic. He really is a great actor.
Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers was incredible…he was so subtle in his expression of grief and trauma. Watching his refrain in certain scenes with his parents absolutely broke my heart.
Saoirse Ronan is also great in doing micro expression. Her act in Hozier's music video is amazing, it was really short, she was mainly sitting in front of a mirror and didn't say anything yet you could catch what happened and what she's feeling
There's a few scenes in You where she is sensational at subtly conveying so many layers of emotion in just an expression or reaction. It's wild to watch
Steven Yeun's performance in Minari during the scene when his wife asked for a divorce had me uncontrollably sobbing because he was trying to hold his own sadness in - it was like I was feeling everything he couldn't express.
Most people learn to deal with the shit. This new era is trying to weaken this standard. To be mentally strong for me means realistic thinking, realistic views if you think like this you worry less about shit in your life. When something happens just ask can you do anything about it now? Yes or no. If yes, let's get to work. If no, well let's get to work... Whenever we can. I'm just an mortal out here living life.
Emma Thompson's character in "Love, Actually" opening her present from her husband and realising he was cheating on her, and the following two minutes, is some of the best acting committed to film.
I’m surprised no one is bringing up Homelander from The Boys. He totally nails subtle acting. You never know what he’s gonna do and his performance constantly leaves you on edge!
he looks crazy not in the joker way, but in the way that he's just completely dead eyed while smiling, y'know, a subtle expression. antony starr gives an amazing performance
Daniel Kaluuya can go either way--his role in Judas and the Black Messiah is more obviously intense, which is why he won the Oscar. He is incredible in it, but I still think Get Out is better. When he nods his head at the brother and just says, "Cool," I realized I would follow his career for life. Haven't seen Nope yet, sadly.
I call this Gandalfing, after the poignant reaction of Ian McKellan's Gandalf in response to Frodo declaring that he'll take the ring; his face paints a complex picture of relief, sadness, admiration, concern, and so much more, and I always think of that incredible wordless performance when I witness other such subtle but powerful perfomances.
Subtle performances are just overall stunning to look at. It takes a certain level of skill to be able to execute it seamlessly. Not all actors have the capacity to master the art of subtlety.
I think that's why you can tell when someone is in inexperienced/unskilled actor or actress. It's like watching a high school play where it's sort of cartoonish and cringy, or watching one of those live action disney tv shows vs breaking bad.
Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love is one of the best performances I have ever seen. He speaks a lot without saying more, and he does this through masterful, subtle acting. I highly recommend his other films as well.
He is also excellent in Lust, Caution. Actually, that film is a masterclass in subtle acting, it feels like 80% of the film is wordless subtext. There are multiple scenes where the dialogue is a bunch of banal small talk but there is an additional layer to the scene that is all in glances and body language.
Daniel Kaluuya is immediately who came to mind when I saw the topic of this video. Him and Pugh are amazing at this. When he is trying to hold on emotionally while remembering his mother in Get Out tears me up every time.
His performance in Judas and the black messiah was also amazing. Probably the best accent performance(I don't know what it's called) I've ever heard. I also think that that same character could have been done very over the top by a different actor.
He melts into every character. The bit in Get Out where he has that paralyzing breakdown with the mom is still one of the best scenes in a film ever imo.
He’s fantastic. It’s so remarkable in Nope : he doesn’t have much dialogue, and yet he manages to pull focus with this very strong inner intensity. OJ in that movie felt like an old-school taciturn cowboy archetype, I loved it.
@@brianaguilar8283 There are no wrong opinions. Whether that person has watched 1,000 films or just the one, if they like the scene, they like the scene.
I feel the same way about musical performances, such as singing. Whenever you see a “best singing” compilation, it’s all people belting at the top of their longs, doing over the top riffs, and whistle notes. All of these take talent, yes, but there’s so much complexity and emotion that people can put into singing. When a voice sounds like it could fall apart at any moment but it never does, when just the tone of a voice tells a story without needing the lyrics, singing is so much more than belting, riffs, and whistle tones.
First thing I thought of was the end scene of La La Land, where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling make eye contact at the very end from across the room. Their expressions are so subtle, but speak volumes of love, loss, regret, acceptance, and “best wishes” all rolled into one. Brilliant.
Florence's performance in Midsommar is so raw and real. It's the subtle ways in which she reacts without uttering a word and how the people around her either don't acknowledge or notice it. We all know exactly what she's feeling and what she's thinking in those moments though. The performance is brilliant.
Its also works to establish the uncomfortable contrasts in the film, her individualism vs her bfriend and his friends lack of self-awareness, and the cult's collective feeling
Matthew and Marilla from Anne with an e have such phenomenal subtle acting. Matthew for example is such a quiet character but the actor shows you exactly what he feels
I know Breaking Bad has been analyzed to death, but the subtle performances from each actor is really mesmerizing. Especially Walt, of course. He had outbursts, but also small moments too.
I am so so happy you brought up Florence Pugh in Midsommar! Something about her performance in that movie that really gets to me is the way you can see that extreme "tug" at the corners of her mouth anytime she's faced with the trauma, the involuntary jerking down of the cheek muscles that happens when your whole body wants to sob but you force yourself not to. That moment where your throat is so swollen it's painful and yet you still resist crying even though it's visually clear you're definitely *not okay*. It's the sort of emotional expression that is felt but not often shown visually and in such a visceral way. Ironically it's what makes that movie difficult for me to get through sometimes vs. the bigger scenes. Dani's internal and total collapse while trying to maintain a brittle veneer of normalcy is - unfortunately - all too familiar and it's in those moments I think her performance shines.
Daniel Kaluuya’s performance in the Get Out the hypnotizing scene is one of my all time favorite performances, even prolly my all time favorite. He doesn’t need to talk or move his eyebrows yet it’s sooo moving, how can you not cry watching it?
I recently rewatched 'Knives Out' and found myself really rediscovering how much I enjoyed LaKeith Lee Stanfield's performance as one of the accessory detectives. He knows how to play this sort of quiet, intense intelligence that is intriguing in even the shortest of scenes, and I feel like it embodies a lot of what this video discussed.
I second LaKeith Stanfield! He was my favorite part of Atlanta and this video immediately made me think of the Teddy Perkins episode. He's so under-appreciated!
That Florence Pugh moment really blew my mind and actually made me formally aware of how my own subtle reactions can reveal what I’m feeling and I started noticing it in other people too. The best way to not give something like that away is try and genuinely think of something happy.
Rhea Seehorn's performance as Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul is a great example of this. She always manages to make her silence and stillness speak VOLUMES.
It truly bums me out that so many people see “good” acting as something heavily emotional and super performative. As someone who loves writing/directing, seeing actors place themselves in a role to the point where minor actions speaks volumes is so fucking underrated. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are some of my favourite shows purely because of pacing but the performances the actors bring to their roles is unparalleled. You can tell so much about what a character is thinking based on subtle looks and small face actions and, while I think the writing in those shows are great, the actors are what brings those characters to life. Nerdwriter’s video on Anthony Hopkins’ performance in Westworld is why I love acting. The rhythm of line delivery, the way actors can say so much by doing so little; hell, the way actors can tell the audience one thing and tell the _characters_ another is so fucking rad. It’s such an impressive art that has SO MUCH subtlety. I’d also recommend Drew Gooden’s video on good acting; it’s a little more silly but also a fun watch.
When I'm watching a film and see incredible and subtle acting it makes me think of that nerdwriter video. Watching that video made me feel like I understood what good acting was for the first time.
Yes, Jodi Foster is one of my favorite actresses. I honestly can't think of any scene where she has an over-the-top emotional outburst. When I think of her acting, I picture calm, collected, compelling, commanding, etc. There were so many scenes in Silence Of The Land where it would have been appropriate for her to act hysterical and emotional. But it fit her character, Clarice Starling, better to be more calm and collected. As a result, the subtle and controlled acting presented is more believable. Those who become detectives have seen really disturbing things and therefore develop a tough exterior. It takes a lot to raise their eyebrows. She conveyed her desensitized subdued reactions in a realistic manner. A good detective would stay collected and cool in a tense situation. She pulled that off so well.
I don’t think that’s the point what makes those scenes so good to people is because there are still subtle performances and personalities in the big emotional scenes still. It’s a combo of emotions and subtlety.
A moment like this that immediately comes to mind is in Sense and Sensibility. There’s a moment when Emma Thompson’s character finds out the man she loves is engaged. In that moment, it feels incredibly authentic because she begins to show emotion, like shock, and immediately works to bury this and remain with a placid look on her face. It gets me every time.
Emma is a beast when it comes to emotional acting. When she finds out her husband bought the necklace for someone else, and she breaks down in Love Actually 😭
I think it's worth noting that most people don't get the big "punch the wall" moment in their life (as you alluded to) so a lot of people get a cathartic reaction from seeing actors experience and release those massive outpourings of emotion. I think that's a big part of why people connect to those moments, and why they will rewatch movies with them, or clips of them, or compilations of them.
@@lindseypalmer5969 as the "punch the wall" is between quotation marks. I think he just says that most people don't get a lot of cathartic experiences in their lifes, where they can just let all the emotion get out of their body, and that's why some of us feel really good seeing the "massive outpouring of emotion" in movies. It's cathartic because it does something we can't.
As someone who’s been acting for over half my life now, there’s two things I’ve learned that have really stuck with me. It’s different for every person, but these were my personal discoveries. 1. The type of immersion you describe here is so crucial, yet so hard to achieve - and it’s not something that can happen consciously. It can take months to begin to develop a character’s voice, posture, general behavior, memories, etc. Eventually, it becomes second nature, but you have to work for it. Sometimes that can mean method acting, sometimes it can mean buying a raw chicken breast, putting it in your shower, turning the water on, turning the lights off, and then entering your apartment and stabbing it through the curtain. (That’s not something _I_ have done, but I know someone who has.) But anyway, once you get to the point where you genuinely feel everything the character does, you can achieve both those subtle expressions and also the breakdowns and outbursts. They should come from the same place. 2. Anyone can mimic someone else’s performance, and anyone can just put on a mask and play the role. But if you’ve been cast as a role, it’s because there’s something that only _you_ can bring to the character. You can visualize it by imagining that there are hundreds of dials, each for a different trait that you have. Becoming a character means adjusting those dials, finding the things you need within you, not conjuring out of thin air. Intensify the extroversion a little, amplify the neuroticism, tone down the cynicism, play up the nerdiness. Don’t try to make yourself into the character, make the character into you.
I’ll say to everyone watching this video: if you like Daniel Kaluuya and Steven Yeun then I highly recommend watching Nope. Both of them play fantastic roles with a lot of subtly. Some of my absolute favorite bits of acting!
Daniel Kaluuya in Nope was really good at playing a subtle character. I’ve seen many say his character was boring and he didn’t do enough but I feel like it was the right choice for the character he was playing. OJ gave me a good impression of an older sibling who struggles with anxiety and the pressures of family responsibilities and continuing his fathers legacy. That’s just my thoughts, though.
Dude when he said subtle character and Kaluuya I immediately thought of Nope. Ppl shit on the film cuz it doesnt explain everything and the character is quiet, introverted, which audiences clearly seem to reject. I’ve heard ppl suggest he might be on the spectrum, cuz a lot of ppl who are find him quite relatable. It might be so, but I just love the subtlety with which he portrays a character who’s not necessarily shy or weak in the cliche Hollywood sense. He’s confident in his own skills and business, but not the social small-talk skills like his sis, which is a more typical performance. Anyways, that movie solidified for me that he’s a wonderful actor. Those eyes of his, you can read so much from that subtlety
It's empathy... that's what allows an actor to make those micro expressions. They are personally empathizing with the character's emotions. Not everyone is capable of empathy. But, what is happening is the actor opening up their own heart and letting themselves feel as if it was their personal situation. It can be very psychologically taxing because they are taking on the trauma of their character... the expressions are real because their emotions are real. It's deeper than sympathy.
Everyone was blown away by Paddy Considine's performance in the recent House of the Dragon (and it is an incredible performance) but what really blew me away was Olivia Cooke's Alicent. Her microexpressions and little nervous tics made her performance so compelling to watch.
Speaking of HotD, I also think Matt Smith did incredible job at subtly portraying Daemon's internal emotions. You can kind of see his mind constantly racing but never revealing his true intentions. I believe he gave the character a lot of depth with his portrayal.
For someone who grew up watching Asian tv & movies, Subtle Performance is in fact one of the greatest acting an actor will be credited on. Given how most Asian production are really heavy on emotions. That is why when I transitioned to watching Western production at a later age, I always find it so different; louder body language, more flamboyant, bigger set, etc. Steven Yuen always give me such comfort. Best of both worlds.
To Adam Driver's credit, he did a lot of subtle acting in Marriage Story. The scene where he asks Alan Alda's character whether he's paying to hear his joke is really good. We all remember the explosive scene but there was fantastic subtlety by Adam AND Scarlett leading up to it.
@@alexlindstrom9971 tbf he wasn't criticising the entire performance, he was just criticising the notion that that scene is what good acting is, and that scene in particular went viral on social media for its acting
@@alexlindstrom9971 You missed the point buddy - Driver's scene was an example of GOOD expressive acting. He never said he didn't also act subtly in the same film. I love his scene with the social worker observing dinner with his son. That was subtle acting on top of completely wild and ridiculous instances going on simultaneously.
@@junainahrahman4156 right?! theyre so raw in portraying the highs and lows of a relationship between two people while subsequently showing us their relations to the world around them! comfort movies fr xD
This is why I love 'No Country For Old Men'. It's full of these performances. It's impossible not to become immersed in the story due to the amazing acting, writing, and direction. Incredible film.
Oscar Isaac is sooo good too, he puts so much effort and emotion into everything he's in, he makes even the mediocre movies seem like art when he's in the scene
In ‘Ex Machina,’ there were these little pauses where Nathan/Oscar Isaac would be looking at Caleb after he’s said something. Like he’s wondering if he’s wasting his time, or trying to hold back some expression of frustration. It’s something that a casual viewer might overlook, but when put to good use, a moment’s silence can speak volumes.
Florence has this downturned expression she displays in so many different moments to convey different expressions, of disappointment, sadness, grief, its so immaculate.
Hugh Laurie as Dr. House is my favorite example of this subtle acting. His ability to portray such a complex character is phenomenal. Dr. House's cynical personality almost being an act itself to hide very vulnerable emotions and being able to portray these emotions so clearly. Whether it's physical pain or emotional pain from letting his cynical, sarcastic persona get in the way of truly connecting with another person.
I don't know why the algorithm took me here but I really enjoyed this content. Acting is one of my biggest interests and I'm so glad you highlighted something I've always relished in. This subtle performance that you describe is what I call the moment when and where the actor disappears and the character becomes alive. There is the method acting which I feel is more calculated and the performance satisfies the eyes and brains of the viewers but there is also this natural involuntary acting which speaks to the heart. It may appear clumsy, diluted or subtle like the examples here, but it delivers a huge story and feeling and shapes the role into a real-life human that I am watching.
An example I love is Cate Blanchett in the final shot of "Carol". She seems to go through 3-4 different expressions while somehow barely moving her face. I've rewatched it so many times.
I thought of the final shot of Carol too, but specially Rooney Mara, Cate gives an intense stare but Rooney just stands there but you can notice her emotions shifting by just looking at her face
The last 10 seconds of Before Sunset right after Ethan Hawk says 'I know' will always be my favourite example of subtle acting. He portrays such an array of emotions and thoughts within such a short span of time, not to mention the subtle body language of touching his wedding ring, knowing and thinking about everything he is sacrificing after saying that line. Great video topic!
Omg YES! One of my most favorite films ever. That ending still gets me after all these years, esp with that Nina Simone song playing in the background. Stupendous.
Sounds a lot like the last 15 or so seconds of The Graduate, with Dustin Hoffman & Kathrine Ross silently sitting in the back of the bus, still giddy with the excitement of the grand, romantic “escape” they just pulled off, and we start to see a strange look come into their eyes, their smiles slowly grow more forced, their loving glances at each other more awkward & fleeting, as they start to consider the bridges they just burned and without a single word spoken, you can see them both start to secretly wonder if they might have just made a huge mistake.
@@briangonigal3974 Always loved that scene!! When I first watched it as a kid I didn't understand it at all, but it still stood out as a special moment to me. Then I rewatched it as an adult and everything just made sense :) Beautiful stuff
Have you seen rogue one that line "all my life has been a lie" the little tremble on his voice it's just amazing, with so little he just show how broken the character is
I think this is really needed in animated movies as well. I love the subtlety in the father's sadness in Tangled before they fly the 17th lantern, there's so much in the look he and the mother share. Thinking that the lanterns are useless. Having to be king and queen when all they want to be doing is joining the search for their lost daughter. Wondering whether she's even still alive.
Anthony Hopkins is a prime example of subtle acting. His portrayal of Hannibal Lector is so errie because of his robotic like gestures, his ominous glare, and his calm yet intelligent manner of speaking. He never had any emotional outbursts or tried to make a creepy face. They made it a point in the film to relay to the viewer that even while he attacked a nurse, his heart rate stayed low. He simply fumed with tension just by standing and staring a certain way.
A true test is when he's able to bring gravitas to a role in a movie like Freejack, an otherwise silly, over-the-top actioner, but when he shows up, the movie's energy simply changes and belongs to him.
@@zachr5779 You've probably seen this Nerdwriter video in which every second of Hopkins' expressions in this scene is analyzed (if not, watch it!): th-cam.com/video/4kSGkGKwp9U/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=Nerdwriter1
Claire Foye in the Crown is sooooo internal!!! I literally perform her scenes at home by myself because she is EPIC when it comes to conveying so much with so little. She is a master of subtly and nuanced expression. The Crown Season 2 Episode 10. Claire and Matt Smith act their asses off!! Respectfully. Their chemistry and timing is unmatched and played a huge part in the shows success.
Meh. She utilized this tense shoulder breathing expression several times every single episode that became very annoying. It was less micro expressions and more like zero expressions, and panicked breathing. Maybe she was overly Botoxed.
@@bodyofhope It was the expert use of her eyes for me. She conveyed The Royal Stoicism that Queen Elizabeth is known for but she made Elizabeth more relatable and human thorough the use of her eyes. Also, The tense shoulder thing is a quality Queen Elizabeth has in her demeanor it's apart of her regality. Claire was conveying that too.
Tony Leung is a master of conveying subtle emotions. From Internal Affairs to Lust, Caution, he's just amazing at subtle expressions- a glance too long, a sigh too deep, a laugh cut short. He's just so good at it.
In the Mood for Love in general is basically the perfect example of why subtle performances can be so effective to me, like just the level of emotion that Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung communicate with very subtle expressions and gestures is just mind-blowing
The subtle performance of Thomas Flight is amazing. Without raising his voice he teaches us that you can be an excellent video essayist/TH-camr that is compelling to watch.
That Riz Ahmed scene is incredible. He's so good it hurts. But if I had to choose one actor who exemplifies everything Thomas is talking about here? Rhea. Freaking. Seahorn. Her turn in Better Call Saul has left me speechless and in tears on multiple occasions, often with just a bat of an eye and intake of breath. It's frustrating that the lack of big emotional outbursts by her character has meant she's gotten overlooked.
I simply LOVE catching those subtle moments. They can be so much more intense and meaningful than big expressive performances. You catch them and then just take a deep breath taking in the great subtle bit that is just so satisfying!
Rami Malek gripped me with the micro expressions in Mr Robot, I wasnt a fan of Bohemian Rhapsody, but his performance in Robot is criminally underrated. Nicole Beharie is another actor who is masterful with subtlety
Interesting since Brian May, the lead guitarist of Queen, was quite impressed with Rami Malek's performance as Freddie Mercury in capturing what FM was like.
I got ta say Jonathan Banks playing Mike Ehrmantraut in BCS is my all-time favorite for his subtle performance. He's just so mysterious and profound. The way he achieves that not by yelling or crying earned him so many close-ups throughout the series.
In Manchester by the Sea, Casey Affleck plays a depressed/grief-stricken character with such realism and sublety. There is only one scene in the entire movie where he cries.
I came here to say this!! When he talked about Darjeeling in the video, I got flashbacks of the hospital scene at the beginning of Manchester. And that crying scene. So good.
Interesting. This video definitely made me think of his performance in The Assassination of Jesse James where he was fantastic as a more meek, almost background character even in spite of being one of the main characters. He's an incredible talent. Too bad it doesn't run in the family, haha.
I just commented about this before I scrolled two lines and saw yours lol >Won best actor, but there aren't many huge emotional moments, just feels like dead resignation, smothered guilt, loss of a will to really live but not trying to actively die for the most part. I'm glad he got the recognition for it.
My all time favourite for subtle expression is Claire Foy, especially the series The Crown. Her face muscle twitch, the subtle way her eyebrow moves, the way she moved her lips, eyes, hands. I kept rewatching the series just to see her micro expression.
Agreed! Also why I love a lot of English dramas as well (Downton Abbey & The Crown, mostly) because English culture has SO much unsaid, and it lends to a lot of very subtle acting.
Timothée Chalamet is insane with this exact aspect of acting. He completely embodies every scene he's in. Him and Florence together in Little Women? Stunning. So many of the scenes in The Truman Show and when Steve Carell's character had to tell the boy he is color blind and can't be a pilot in Little Miss Sunshine are examples of this too. These movies don't just entertain you, they immerse you.
Paul Dano's performance in Little Miss Sunshine is one of my favorites. He's fantastic always but the way I felt I KNEW this character despite him not speaking for most of the film is outstanding.
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"It's sad to watch people cry, but it's far sadder to watch people try not to cry."
Biggest lesson I've learned as an actor
Omg that’s so true
Who is that a quote from?
Margot Robbie - I, Tonya - Mirror scene :P
@@andrewkiefte376 Pretty much any good acting teacher :) it's one of the essential principles.
@@andrewkiefte376 my dramaturg lmao
When I was younger, I tried to do this kind of thing because I wanted to portray realistic emotion. Then I realized, I'm doing a school musical, no one is gonna even be able to see this kind of subtlety. It's great that film lets us explore quieter moments.
Stage acting is so different from film acting.
@Justin Cain That last sentence is wonderful
that film lets us explore quieter moments
I enjoyed your comment :)
Yep. Know your medium!
did you try/are you gonna try acting some days?
same here! when i got to college & did my first screen acting class i tried to express anger through Trying Not To Cry and heard some ppl in the back of the class whisper “omg is she really crying oh no what happened” like no besties i’m okay 😅
Florence Pugh’s micro facial expressions are truly something to behold. Face acting at its finest. She doesn’t even have to say a word and you know exactly how she’s feeling. It’s incredibly powerful.
meh not quite as powerful and amazing like adam driver or olivia colman
@@iknowexactlywhoyouare8701 watch midsommar
@@hockeyfan1799 watch anything with FP
Little women too!
@@saranyaa7712 please, the 1994 version was way better
this is why i love the quiet romantic moments of period dramas. The very subtle facial expressions during a proclamation of love is just everything
Pride and Prejudice. Matthew McFadden, rain scene. 😢
@@p_roduct9211 Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC miniseries is phenomenal with this. You should give that a shot if you haven't already! Darcy wasn't much like MacFadyen's portrayal, imo
@@pastelsumimasen colin firth was great at subtle acting in Girl With A pearl Earring as well!
@@Jamey_ETHZurich_TUe_Rulez what is bro chatterin about
Barry Lyndon :)
There's a Brazilian movie critic that once said that Florence Pugh is someone that knows herself so well, has such a strong confidence of who she is, that it allows herself to become empty and leave enough space so the character can easily take control, there's no conflict between the real Florence and her roles, you can see when shes fully transformed into another person, she gives everything and i completely agree with that
Isabela Boscov, love her!
Interesting, that starts to sound like some Japanese philosophy, specifically mushino no zen, "zen thinking" where you just lose conscious thought and do without thinking, without overthinking or over analyzing. Also a bit of Miyamoto Musashi and his Void chapter, which is related. In a less weeabo sense, we call it "the zone" in English, or at least there is some overlap in the concepts.
@@Lowlandlord this was Interesting to read :o
Isabela boscov, she's a big fan of florence
Yeees, love Isabela Boscov. She also said that Florence lends her breath so the character can breathe through. For me it's like she gives all the necessary space for a new person to come to life, and that is such an amazing skill!!
An acting teacher I had years ago, had an exercise where you would literally walk onto the stage, sit on a bench, and do nothing. He said it was the most difficult acting exercise he knew. And he's onto something: it's much more difficult to "not perform" than it is to put on a big show.
oh yeah! I had a great acting teacher do similar things…I had this one classmate who was really into accents and silly characters, and he made that dude sit on a chair “on stage” in front of the rest of the class, and just count change in his hand. Made him look very human all of a sudden! He’d also have us “wait for the bus”/train etc. a lot. Great exercise.
@@juliachandler2909 do you study the meisner technique by chance? because it sounds like “the activity” part of it!
@@meghannichole3806 Maybe I did a little without knowing it! Haha. It was a general acting class mostly for voice over actors, but the teacher is a stage/screen actor so I’m sure he’s got Meisner in him! :)
On a similar note, in yoga one of the hardest poses is "savasana", which is also called "corpse pose". It requires being absolutely still and relaxed, which is much harder to do than it sounds. The body is scanned for tension of any kind, which is released with intention as it is found. This includes relaxing the mind too. It's hard to be in that state of true and complete stillness.
I think you out your finger on why it's often so easy to spot fake vox pops... The actors are 'doing normal' rather than being empty
Olivia Colman's character in Fleabag is one of my favourite examples of this kind of acting. She rarely raises her voice. She doesn't need to. Every line, every snarky comment she makes has such venom to it. Certain ways of on-screen communication can only be done in this subtle way. The evil stepmother's judgmental comments hit so much harder because of the subtlety that Colman achieves. Amazing performance
Colman is brilliant at this
yess love this take on her ❤️
See her in The Lost Daughter or The Father.
But also Claire in fleabag
Maybe the answer is fleabag
Agree
This was one of the things that made Arcane so great. The animators nailed the subtle performances of all the characters in a way i've never seen in animation before. The quiet scenes stood out just as much as the big action scenes.
Not a single scene us wasted in arcane. Truly exceptional work 🙌🏿
Out of curiosity could you share what Arcane is to me? On netflix there seems to be various versions of it. I tried watching one and it was an insufferable kid level story witch a character that started every sentence in the 3rd person. But I keep hearing people talk about it. Are there multiple animated series called Arcane?
@@scottfitzpatrick1939just one-arcane league of legends. it's based off from the game. if I'm not mistaken the thumbnail is jinx, one of the protagonists, has blue hair and is staring somewhere off camera.
@@esthermartell5369 thank you so much I found it and it is good. I couldn't find the other ones netflix must have dropped them. I dont know if they were spinoff or just had the same title but they were horrible lol. I kept asking myself why are people talking so much about this haha. Thanks for helping me find it.
@@scottfitzpatrick1939 algorithm abuse, yep
I cannot get over Florence Pugh's range. She's so believable and good portraying grief in Midsommar, but ... also amazing in her comedic scenes as Yelena Belova in Black Widow and Hawkeye. SUCHH a talent!
She was also really good in this movie called Malevolent, which gets way too much hate in my opinion. I recommend it if you haven't seen it.
She stole the whole movie in Black Widow lol
@@potato-whiz Personally I thought both the parents were great too.
She's insane in The Wonder.
I just saw that she got the part for Princess Irulan Corrino in Dune! Woohoo!!!
My favorite scene in Midsommar is when she's tripping and having a decent time, and the word "family" immediately brings her out of that bliss and into a nosedive bad trip. The acting was so incredible
Midsommar was a brilliant portrayal of what it’s like to be living with deep grief and despair and trying to continue living your life and not think about it but it’s always there waiting to bubble up and it just hits you and you can’t control it. And Pugh portrayed that perfectly.
@@potato-whiz Yeah, is incredible how Pugh made such a perfect job. Her constant effort to keep on the line is noticeable on the whole movie.
One of my favorite parts is when she sees the two elders jumping from the cliff and dying. We can see the impact and terror on her face while also the feeling of interest and attraction to the ritual. Is just another example of subtle acting that will blow anyone's mind.
@@potato-whiz lmao that movie wasn't that good, characters don't make any sense especially the leading female character. Ari Aster fans don't want to hear it but it's true. Aster seems like a guy that has zero life experience. His characters have no agency and are just mere puppets in a game where they're perpetually doomed no matter what. Also the part where a grown mature women in Midsommar just loses all her moral beliefs & rationality in a course of a day because bad boyfriend lol. Also, using autism and body deformity for creepy effect is just...😐
@@ambatuBUHSURK the irony of perfectly describing what makes Midsommar a horror film while failing to understand the reasoning behind her actions seems to be completely lost on you. It's okay to say that you don't understand the depth of her character, but to say she makes no sense is simply foolish.
@@moonchild5713 Well, she doesn't have any depth. She seemed like a character with deeply held beliefs and integrity judging by her reaction from the horrific rituals and her boyfriend's abuse also the cut that didn't make it into the movie, I just can't imagine how a complete 360° flip is "deep" or meaningful in any capacity lol. It's like a completely different character. None of her actions make any real sense towards the end. Not to mention she's doomed anyway lol.
Realistically portraying "feeling an emotion while pretending not to" has always been the kind of acting that most impresses me, and is way more effective on me than outbursts of emotion, so I'm happy you made this video showing it some love!
Or rather why acting is more difficult than it seems: pretending to feel an emotion while your character is pretending not to. To pretend that youre so overcome with anger or sadness or pain that you’ve turned numb or hide it to act strong
Sarah Snook in the closing shot of the s3 finale of succession
Exactly because humans may always feel but don’t always express. Acting isn’t just expressing things sometimes we just have to sense it in their face like humans do in real life.
Outbursts can be moving when there’s enough build up. An out of context outburst is just cringy and uncomfortable (not in a way that constructive to the storytelling).
🔖Some subtle performances I'd like to add. These are some of the best face acting and eye acting that I can recall. One look at their face and you can tell everything they're feeling:
Ken Watanabe - The Last Samurai
Jake Gyllenhaal - Nocturnal Animals
Amy Adams - Nocturnal Animals
Leo DiCaprio - The Aviator
Jeremy Brett - Sherlock Holmes
Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting
Patrick Stewart - Star Trek TNG
Claire Foy - The Crown
Evan Rachel Wood - Westworld
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
Colin Firth - The King's Speech
Jodie Foster - Silence of the Lambs
Tom Hanks - Cast Away
Nicole Kidman - The Others
Johnny Depp - Edward Scissorhands
Song Kang-ho - Parasite
Helen Hunt - As Good As It Gets
Hugh Bonneville - Downton Abbey
Judi Dench - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Florence Pugh is absolutely among the greats with her performances so far in her career. Such a talented person.
Highly agree. Midsommar in particular, her performance absolutely floored me.
She’s extraordinary in Lady Macbeth
She is my favorite. Her talent is out of this world.
her parents live rlly close to me lmao, she seems lovely but god her dad is annoying
As Rowan Atkinson says, she has a face like playdough.
The hardest and most impressive part about micro expression is not only knowing when to do it, but being able to avoid doing it. You have to be completely comfortable and in the moment, to avoid awkwardness and to not make it seem like you're trying to do it. Body language, posture, facial expressions, we all do them subconsciously. Being able to control them and time them is incredibly difficult, let alone in front of an entire camera crew
I agree with you to an extent but I also think acting is about letting go of control. It’s believing what you are saying and doing to the point you become the character. I don’t think actors like her even consider what their expressions look like, because they are totally immersed in the scene and in their emotions
very well said
@@elliekristine4156 This. I envision it to me more like getting into a "mental zone" rather than forcefully contracting specific muscles in the face to illicit specific expressions.
I think you'd be surprised at how much acting we do subconsciously and how good the average person is (without accounting for range of roles).
It'a not about control. In fact it's the exact opposite. You have to give up control to give a detailed performance. It's not about delivering the right micro expression at the right moment. That's too conceptual. Life is not conceptual. A concept will never give you the nuance of reality. We all have a natural ebb and flow of emotions, reactions, movements, thoughts etc going through us at all times. The trick is to maintain this natural flow of living during the unnatural process of acting. Normally we are unaware of living. If we are trained to maintain awareness and relaxation while we keep this flow of organic living and live in the circumstances of the film, the performance will be full of micro/macro expressions, full of life and very nuanced.
The more I watch Midsommar, the more I think Pugh put on one of the best performances I have ever seen on film. The layers of emotion that she presents on her face is nothing short of amazing. Her ability to subtly show her trauma on her face while trying to hide it with a smile, or changing the subject felt like she wasn’t acting, but just tapping into something far deeper. Thanks for this video. You’ve articulated everything so well.
Yet many people dislike the film. I think it was a very jarring experience, because in a certain way it's a horror film without any horror trappings. We don't have darkness, ghosts, or vicious stalkers. The horror of this film is in the subtle emotions, as they build up towards the eventual breakdown, much like real life. Many viewers seem to have found this uncomfortable, but I agree with you it may be one of the best performances on film.
I agree. She's phenomenal.
Florence is my queen
Even in “little women”, she had great facial acting, she showed hurt, anger, love, and even unbearable sadness. She was supposed to be a “side character” but she ended up being my favorite actor in the movie.
I love that movie
The first micro facial expression I noticed was from Mads Mikkelsen in his Hannibal role. The way he always seems so poker-faced but you can just feel what kind of emotion he's actually conveying was amazing for me.
Especially when hes around someone that he finds rude, and you can just see in his eyes that hes already planned how to kill them, and he barely moves his face at all
I was just thinking “hmm Mads in Hannibal” and the next comment I saw was yours! I can’t wait to watch him win an Oscar one day. Incredible actor.
Omg I was about to comment but you said it perfectly!
He is incredible in Drunk. The scene at the restaurant when he looks at his friends and starts crying quietly is just so realistic yet so raw.
@@josephinepapin8858 I've actually been wanting to watch Drunk, is it good?
that's why fleabag is my favorite show. its a quiet look into someone's unraveling, little things in actions and looks and interactions tell a whole story. it's so real and soooo incredible.
That show broke my heart
Agreed, its fantastic
Fleabag is just the best show ever made…I’m so glad it exists
Emma Thompson is another great master of this particular skill. I've seen Love Actually a million times, and the part where she's opening the Christmas gift from her husband just breaks my heart. The way she tries to conceal the heartbreak in front of her children, and the cut to the scene of her standing alone in the bedroom rubbing her wrist (a lot of us absentmindedly do little physical things like this when we're trying not to hysterically cry) and fluffing the blanket on the bed...it's just so real.
A lot of that is from her theater background. Emma + Shakespeare = perfection. She knows how to work with nothing but her own body and the props she’s been given and really block a scene the way you would on stage. That love actually scene smacks of theater acting ❤❤❤
A great example of her wonderful acting is in King Lear as well. Stellar cast all around as well.
I believe Kit Harrington said that his favorite piece of acting is that scene
i was a teen when i saw love actually and the scene of her in the bedroom just trying not to lose her shit blew me away
oh my goodness, she is so wonderful in that movie. my favorite and least favorite part.
i love it when big plot twists are foreshadowed not just by logic and reasonings but by those tiny little 'huh' feelings of very subtle acting
Think about this next time you see something like that: it's not just the acting, it's the directing, camera work and editing. If a character is speaking to someone (e.g. husband explaining to his wife why he was late) and then the camera cuts to someone else reacting what they were saying (e.g. a teenage son) they could convey that the husband is lying just by showing the teenage son frowning slightly at the statement. A frown is not a complex action for someone to pull off but you wouldn't necessarily have noticed the frown or it's implied meaning unless the camera cut to him at that point.
I loooove when you learn things throughout the movie and suddenly the little tensions you noticed in peoples’ expressions make sense. Not sure why but thinking about that makes me think of Toni Collette. Like I can see her hearing someone say something and a little look passing over her face where you can tell she HATED that before smiling like everything’s fine. You might not know why but immediately you’re like, oh there’s HISTORY here, got it 😅
Steven Yuen continues to be a vastly underrated actor. I see him access certain roles, but he seriously does not get enough performance opportunities from what I can tell. Hollywood is sleeping on him (except for you Mister Peele, bless). Riz Ahmed is another. Every role is a piercing performance.
peele grasping on to steven and daniel as he should😭😭
All hail Peele
I think Steven Yeun is much much better... ;)
he is such an amazing actor, his bit on "i think you should leave" as the person who made a mudpie, didn't wash his hands and refuses to admit it is an oscar worthy, dramatic performance, opposed to a comedic take, wich makes it so much more hilarious
@@yamahrahda Ik ppl talk about Get Out all the time but Nope really drove home how great a subtle, minimalist performance can be. I love Daniel Kaluuya in that film because he clearly already had a great performance in Get Out, but in this story his character is far more reserved, far less outspoken, and just his expressions and his relation with his sister is depicted so fantastically.
i'm so glad you brought up Daniel Kaluuya because he was one of the first actors that came to mind for me lol. he's INCREDIBLE at subtle performances, obviously showcased fully in Get Out and Nope. and it's painful to see some people call his acting in those movies "boring" because they expect big emotive expressions of terror in a horror movie and they're completely missing all of the depth that he's giving us in a quieter package.
Daniel Kaluuya is a master.
I think Daniel Kaluuya’s performance in Nope is a masterclass in subtle acting. So many people didn’t get his performance and that he wasn’t just some boring character. He’s so expressive in his eyes! And that’s honestly what denotes a genuine performance, the eyes.
Yeah, he's a cowboy. He's stoic and strong. I thought Nope was such a perfect movie
Thank you. Daniel Kaluuya has become one of my favourite actors who excels in subtle, emotive, non-verbal acting. Nope, Get Out, Black Mirror, JATBM, heck even the Jonny English movie, he does his best.
The eyes Chico, they never lie!
@@ziggystatdust6008 Watch his episode on Black Mirror as well. He will blow you away
yes!!
Florence Pugh is so good in Midsommar it makes me feel anxious and sick feeling her despair. She conveys all the emotions you would expect from severe trauma perfectly
So glad you talked about Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal. The subdued desperation, frustration, shame, and sense of loss he portrays (often all at once) is absolutely crushing. Paired with the subtlety of Paul Raci, they performed one of the most heart-breaking scenes I have ever seen.
Great point!
Riz Ahmed is so good. One of the saddest scenes I've seen is his goodbye to his wife in Four Lions.
I first saw him in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and he was powerful in his characteristic understated style.
riz ahmed is amazing
Why am I crying 🥲
I like watching those actors who act “behind their eyes”.
There is stuff going on in their minds. You can see it in their eyes.
it makes me almost jealous as a writer, that i come up with all of these ways to let the dialogue speak for what’s going on and these actors can just..show it. perfectly and without explanation
I love writing these moments more than dialogues ngl 😅
@@GreySeashell-j3mi like writing moments of internal pain while seemingly normal dialogue is going on
When I was taught literary writing techniques, we were taught it was just as important what *isn't* said just as much as what is said. In a way, it's the equivalent of subtle acting in writing terms -- knowing how to refrain information, or to create a lack of what is obvious to the reader, to create a profound scene
Fleabag is a great example of what you're talking about. Not just PWB, but I think everyone in that show exhibits such subtle acting skill. The screenplay demanded it as well.
fleabag is the epitome of subtle emotion
olivia coleman was amazing at thus in the series
@Herstory yeah
Brilliant! All of them!
YES! I immediately thought of Fleabag when he gave these other examples of subtle performance.
I think this is why I fell in love with Pattinson's Batman. He barely says anything, barely allows an emotion to be free, yet you can _feel_ with him anyway. His eyes were so entrancing.
YES exactly he does so much acting with his eyes and it’s insane
I saw The Batman multiple times. Which is a marathon of a task because it's a very long film. But I feel like one of the main reasons I kept going back was because of the opening (in total, not just the technical intro). Part of why it's so good to me is the end of it, with Pattinson observing the son of the first victim of the Riddler. It's not a simple staredown in any facet. You can feel him go through many things -- the son found the body, the son is now an orphan, the son is now alone, the son is *still* alone, the son sees him too. His eyes push through all of this without even really moving or twitching or showing much. But it has everything still.
If you like subtle performances, George Mackay in 1917 is really good at it, and honestly one of my biggest reasons for recommending that movie. That, and how intimate it feels for what's supposed to be a war movie, it's the combination of the one-shot look and the over-the-shoulder POV we're given for a good chunk of the movie that really does it. The audience is stuck with this man while he's just doing his job, it's just that his job is very dangerous.
You could feel the stress he was portraying in Good Time as well
@@tenoch5589 so what, enough to make a point
An emotional scene where the character's trying NOT to cry and failing will always get me more than a character just freely letting out their emotions. It's just such a human thing to do. One of my favorite portrayals of this is David Tenant playing Crowley in the end of Good omens season 2, when he tries to go through with a love confession even after the plan for it has completely fallen apart in the worst way possible. There's this moment when his voice breaks and he immediately makes this really irritated humming noise, like he's not not only failing to keep his composure but angry at himself for it. That is SO fucking relatable, there is literally nothing more embarrassing and rage inducing then crying in front of someone when you _really_ don't want to
david tennant is a master at his craft for this exact reason! i also thought of this scene when thinking about ‘subtle’ acting, and i think it’s also evident in michael sheen’s performance as aziraphale as well-especially after crowley leaves the bookshop and he’s trying to hold back everything that just happened to talk to the metatron. he’s utterly devastated yet composes himself. that moment where he turns around, his face settles into a pleasant expression, and he talks to metatron like nothing happened always kills me a little inside.
Come back and thank me after you've watched "Manchester By The Sea". Casey is simply fabulous.
Florence Pughs performance in Midsommar is one of the best I've ever seen. I could really feel everything the character was feeling and it made for a powerful, uncomfortable but worthwhile experience
She was great. While she totally sells her subtle scenes, her cry in the first act felt so real and heart-wrenching. I wanted to cry just hearing it which never happens to me.
Nah. Not really
@@cellokid5104 yes really
Too bad piece of shit movie I didn't really notice.
for real. even when she’s in subpar movies playing poorly written characters (ala Don’t Worry Darling) she somehow brings that character so much more life than it ever would have had if any other actor had been chosen. give her the worst script and she can do the impossible, granting those characters the depth and emotion they don’t deserve. you can’t help but fall in love with her and want to see more of her.
Daniel Kaluuya's recent performance in Nope I think fits this bill to a tee. He has zero moments of "ACTING!" in that film and yet you know exactly what he's thinking and feeling at all times. His facial acting and what he does with looks is miles ahead of a lot of actors loudest performances. I think he's a generational talent, and while he can have bigger performances that still blow everyone else out of the water (Judas & the Black Messiah), I think his quieter performances take the cake for me in terms of ability.
Edit: Typed this out before you got around to mentioning Kaluuya in the video. Great minds.
I love the moment when he yells and slaps hands with his sister. It was so unexpected because he so far had such a subdued presence and it was great to see a moment of high emotion.
I came here to bring up Kaluuya's performance in Nope as well, he was nothing short of magnificent. It's a prime example of subtlety in a performance, an almost minimalist approach. He says very little and yet conveys so much.
Yes! I loved his role in NOPE and I think he did a great job elevating the “quiet cowboy” trope ❤
Yeah totally, I remember all of the dialogue at the beginning with the horse was unsaid, and how he conveys his relationship with his sister, and the father's role he's trying to take over, it was really done so seemingly effortlessly.
I’m so glad we’re all in agreement with what an amazing actor Daniel is
Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. There was so much boiling under the surface of that character that was constrained by the society he lived in. An amazing, subtle performance from Ledger that should've won him his first Oscar.
yesss he always seemed mysterious and reserved
YES! That movie kind of sucked (it was very much of-the-time "prestige" Oscar bait", but Heath Ledger's performance penetrated through the artifice. It was genuinely unsettling watching such a total performative of someone who's so clearly uncomfortable in their own skin.
Good call
@@petertromp8786 I see what you did there
This is 100% true! Ledger’s performance is so multi-layered in his silence and repression. It’s one of the greatest performances of all time.
I loved Yeun's performance in burning. We are introduced to Ben as this charismatic and handsome guy, who irl would be generally well liked. Although at first we can tell that Jong-Su disliking him is because he sees him as a romantic rival, who he believes has a much better chance with Hae-mi than him, as the movie progresses Ben starts to slowly allow Jong-Su to look behind his mask and it turns into a completely different dislike. As the movie moves forward Ben becomes a very sinister and actually kind of terrifying person in the eyes of the viewer while within the fiction he maintains the front of being "good". We can also see a sort of fascination from Ben towards Jong-Su who even though being complicit to Ben's true nature has chosen to continuously remain a silent bystander. Ben is constantly poking Jong-Su to see if he will ever do something aka Jong-Su has become his new favourite toy.
Perfect reading!
I don’t think you really got what the movie was about. It’s not a straightforward movie where John soo is the good guy and ben is the bad guy. Although there are tons of hints, there is absolutely 0 proof that Ben is a bad person. Meanwhile, the movie is also hinting that Jong soo has potential for mental illness. Also the girls that worked with Hae Mi said that it’s normal for women to run away and disappear to get away from debt. The ending is meant to be ambiguous. Jong Soo murders ben, but we will never know if Ben is truly a bad person or if Jong Soo is just a mentally unstable person
@@kevinc.cucumber3697 never said it was as simple as good guy vs bad guy. We never really find out if Hae-Mi is alive and Jong-Su believes she is dead or if she was truly murdered by Ben. What we can see, and I choose to read as reality, is how Ben is uninterested in "normal" social interaction. That can indicate a disorder such as narcissism and sociopathy. Ben uses the people around him for amusement, discarding them when he no longer has a use for them and doesn't seem to have an actual connection with anyone. Also it is a movie that opens itself to interpretation as you said so both of our interpretations are just as valid.
This movie is unforgettable. Yeun's best performance to date imo.
Just a tiny add, I wanted to point out this can be done in voice acting as well. I've revisited the Spiderverse movie a few times lately, in hype for the sequel, and something that gets me everytime is Miles' dad trying to tell him about his uncle, you can feel so much of him cracking from below the facade, it's beautiful
The voice acting in the sequel is just as stellar, too, particularly for Hailee Steinfeild as Gwen. The way which she can shift between a tough Spider-woman to a frightened teenager is spectacular, especially when those two aspects are intermingled
Absolutely, and I love that scene. great comment
The Justice league and Justice League Unlimited animated shows do this so well, it feels like real people talking especially Batman’s va
You revisited the spider verse, great
“Beautiful” lmao what?
Nobody mentioning Jodie Comer? She's just so good with micro facial expressions and how she can say everything with her eyes too. You can see it either on Killing Eve with Villanelle or in The Last Duel with Marguerite de Carrouges. Well, I must say in every role she has done certainly nails the subtle expressions. She's so complete and versatile actress. Which it's crazy how underrated she is.
Omg yes I was looking for the comment about Jodie Comer!!!
@@elsam8695 Glad to know I’m not alone in this one!!
Haha I was thinking this too
yes yes yes!! I hope he does a video about Jodie because she's soo good but still so incredibly underrated! the fact that she was barely recognised for The Last Duel still baffles, me she was miles better than a lot of the nominated performances that year imo.
What's so insane about her especially, is that you can see 2 pictures of her in full costume side by side as villanelle for example but you know instantly which is in character and which is not because even without a transformation physically she changes in every other way from the way she holds her face to her posture, she's like a completely different person, like she somehow knows how to change her entire aura, but yet at the same time, seamless switches between the character and herself like its nothing, dropping and picking up the accent and the persona in a split second none of that "getting in to the role" stuff you hear of,
It really is fascinating to watch when you get to see behind the scenes footage.
@@jodiecomercompilations1699 Indeed, yeah, it would be great an analysis of her. She has to be studied lol
I couldn’t be more happy when you highlighted Florence. Her performance was so scary good. Her begrudging disgust and hurt was translated so well and it was so raw and authentic. My favorite movie and performance.
I think it should be said that Adam Driver belongs in that “subtle” group for “Marriage Story”. The nuance and subtleties of his performance in that film are what make it one of the all time greats. Not the yelling and crying scene; that’s what can be so easily misinterpreted. What’s the achievement is everything he does in the lead up to it. How he somehow made a scene as operatic as that somehow feel earned and organic for his character. Nothing in the editing room can create that. Only a masterful actor crafting a layered, authentic performance.
Thanks for writing this. I was going to say something similar until I saw someone else already did
Very true!
The scene where they serve him the divorce papers.
Thank you
It’s why I love the movie Paterson. The whole thing is focused on his ability to act minimally and subtly.
I love Mads Mikkelsen because his acting is so subtle and he uses a lot of micro expressions.
Especially in The Hunt.
in hannibal too! hannibal lecter is this super stoic, mostly expressionless, restrained character yet mads manages to communicate so many subtle emotions through micro expressions, its amazing
*Mikkelsen
I love him too!
Proven by all the women in this comment section
The movie Another Round reflects Mikkelsen's subtle acting skills very well
Everything about Rhea Seahorn's performance of Kim Wexler is so emblematic of what you talk about here. I find it rly interesting the way she describes her process, about feeling all the emotions of her character physically in different parts of the body, and then actively fighting against those emotions to bring them out naturally in a roundabout way. Feels connected to what you were talking about with Rooney Mara and the involuntary neck twitch
Totally agree. Incredible performance.
Rheas performance is all the more impressive to me because of how restrained it is compared to the louder than life Jimmy as her companion. It would be easy to just go along with your fellow actor and chew the scenery (in a great way) but she genuinely blows me away with how much she conveys with such a minimalist speech pattern and body language
Absolutely agree! I talk about her performance a little bit in my latest video on "Visual Storytelling" in BCS.
Yeah, she was great!
the part where another lawyer insults jimmy and she doesn't say anyhing but you can see her clench her jaw in anger is such a great moment of subtle acting
Dude. I am SO glad you talked about Steven Yeun's performance in Burning. When I first saw the title of your video, I immediately thought to myself, "Steven's performance in Burning would be a fantastic example of that," and then you opened with it as the first example! I've watched thousands of performances at this point in my life, but Yeun's portrayal of Ben is the best I've seen to date. That whole movie in general is a masterclass in subtlety. There's so much going on yet it's all so quiet and fleeting. I could analyze Burning for hours.
Yep, was gonna comment much the same myself! Yeun is so unnerving and terrifying in Burning to me - he has such tremendous screen presence that I remember thinking he seemed so much more physically imposing, so much bigger than Yoo Ah-in's character, and was shocked when I rewatched it and noticed that he's actually a little smaller. Of course, part of that also comes from Yoo's fantastic performance in making himself come across so small and powerless, but god Yeun is truly doing some top tier work throughout that film. Definitely one of my favourite performances of all time.
I started it but now I gotta watch. I loved him in the glass door scene in Walking Dead
I'm adding this movie to my playlist. Never heard of it until now.
I love that: "Most acting, not best acting." You articulate so much I've never been able to communicate. This video was incredibly well written. Bravo. :)
Agreed!
For me, Moonlight is one of the best examples for this kind of subtlety in acting performances. The whole point of the movie is Chiron constantly containing his emotions and his true self.
My favorite film. So MANY amazing performances in one film.
Absolutely!
Yup, Ashton and Trevante’s facial expressions display enough and I’m so glad that movie won an Oscar
Oops should have looked before posting lol said the same thing. Such a beautiful heart wrenching movie that’s so deeply relatable.
This is the only movie I can think of where I actually watched twice and not to catch things that I had missed but because everything about it was beautiful to me. I just love how much of it is subtle. Such a freaking beautiful movie that leaves you melancholic without the drama.
Riz Ahmed is one of the greatest actors of his generation. He is so good at the big acting as well as the subtle acting, and he has this really calm and complex demeanor to him, it's not just facial expressions, but also body language. He reminds me a lot of a young Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman. He's in a whole other league compared to 99.9% of today's actors.
More people should watch The Night Of for his work! Totally agree.
He's in this small movie encounter, which probably won't get much notice but his performance is great and he makes what should be a bad movie great.
can still remember Bohdi's face as he reflects on the grenade thrown into the ship he named Rogue One
He's excellent in Nightcrawler
Tomy Dalton as Lalo Salamanca sitting in a chair listening to some talker for straight 3min not moving a muscle and just turning from zero expression into a smile is peak lowkey acting.
This exact reason is a huge part of why David Tennant's Doctor was so popular. He was his character, and everything that he felt you could see in his face. Every bit of excitement, grief, rage, awe, sarcasm, sadness, contentment showed up in expressions and transferred straight to the audience. Truly amazing acting.
I’m not sure I agree. I adore David Tennant and he’s the reason I got into Doctor Who but he’s originally a stage actor and it showed, his Doctor was definitely more on the flamboyant side. He expressed so much and so well but I wouldn’t say his acting was particularly repressed.
I agree. Yes, he's playing a larger-than-life character who's flamboyant and hyper, but the scenes that make me cry are 100% credited to his acting. The Rose scene. The scene in "Midnight" when the he's now compelled to copy the entity. When he has to leave behind Donna after wiping her memory. All of these are sad and powerful situations, but there's a reason David Tennant's face was a big part of them. It's not easy to make an entire audience feel a fictional character's eternity of pain. It's been a while since I've watched the series, so I'm sure there's tons more examples.
I'd say, DT in everything else actually. The detective show with Colman, they ARE the show, and you can see this micro things in last summer in Scotland. He doesnt get as much credit as he should
@@TheLittleFrenchy2 he was big when it needed it and quiet when it needed it. Those quite subtle moments come across even more when they contrast the big ones.
@@AmethystCobain I haven't seen him in anything else personally but my mom watched Broadchurch (I think that's the name) and said it was fantastic. He really is a great actor.
Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers was incredible…he was so subtle in his expression of grief and trauma. Watching his refrain in certain scenes with his parents absolutely broke my heart.
Saoirse Ronan is also great in doing micro expression. Her act in Hozier's music video is amazing, it was really short, she was mainly sitting in front of a mirror and didn't say anything yet you could catch what happened and what she's feeling
Agreed! It remains one of the most powerful on-screen performances I have ever seen.
Lady Bird is a prime example of her acting prowess.
Little women has been on my list for awhile now
Agreed!! was thinking of her this whole time!
Victoria Pedretti is pretty phenomenal with the subtle hard hitting emotions in her performances. especially in the haunting of hill house
Yes yes yes yes yes and yesss
Victoria is phenomenal!
no the voice acting sounded very fake
@@edithputhy4948 ya mama
There's a few scenes in You where she is sensational at subtly conveying so many layers of emotion in just an expression or reaction. It's wild to watch
Steven Yeun's performance in Minari during the scene when his wife asked for a divorce had me uncontrollably sobbing because he was trying to hold his own sadness in - it was like I was feeling everything he couldn't express.
Yes he has very expressive eyes.
Yes! I thought about that scene as well when his name came up
And in fact you rarely see people in real life having a melt down. Most people keep their real feelings hidden
Most people learn to deal with the shit. This new era is trying to weaken this standard.
To be mentally strong for me means realistic thinking, realistic views if you think like this you worry less about shit in your life.
When something happens just ask can you do anything about it now?
Yes or no.
If yes, let's get to work.
If no, well let's get to work... Whenever we can.
I'm just an mortal out here living life.
Emma Thompson's character in "Love, Actually" opening her present from her husband and realising he was cheating on her, and the following two minutes, is some of the best acting committed to film.
This scene solidified Emma Thompson as one of my favorite actors. Absolutely heartbreaking to watch every single time.
I’m surprised no one is bringing up Homelander from The Boys. He totally nails subtle acting. You never know what he’s gonna do and his performance constantly leaves you on edge!
You are soooo correct. And not just at how subtle he is, but how fragile the subtlety is
he looks crazy not in the joker way, but in the way that he's just completely dead eyed while smiling, y'know, a subtle expression. antony starr gives an amazing performance
This. He was phenomenal. Just with his expressions you feel the atmosphere and how tense it is.
Terrifying performance. He nailed it
Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor soldier spy. Completely different from his early villainous works which were deliciously over the top.
Daniel Kaluuya is so damned good at this kind of performance. Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah, Nope, man's a legend.
Absolutely agree.
I think about Daniel’s performance in Nope at least once a dayyy… so subtle & quiet but so much reverence and power
@@brittanybelo1361 All he does is change is eyes slightly and it somehow perfectly conveys his emotions. straight up GOAT
Daniel Kaluuya can go either way--his role in Judas and the Black Messiah is more obviously intense, which is why he won the Oscar. He is incredible in it, but I still think Get Out is better. When he nods his head at the brother and just says, "Cool," I realized I would follow his career for life. Haven't seen Nope yet, sadly.
Watch him in Widows too
I call this Gandalfing, after the poignant reaction of Ian McKellan's Gandalf in response to Frodo declaring that he'll take the ring; his face paints a complex picture of relief, sadness, admiration, concern, and so much more, and I always think of that incredible wordless performance when I witness other such subtle but powerful perfomances.
I love this way of putting it 🥲
When I read the neologism "Gandalfing" in your comment I immediately knew what moment you were referring to. 🩵
Subtle performances are just overall stunning to look at. It takes a certain level of skill to be able to execute it seamlessly. Not all actors have the capacity to master the art of subtlety.
Looking sus but you're right.
I love this comment because it’s so true
I think that's why you can tell when someone is in inexperienced/unskilled actor or actress. It's like watching a high school play where it's sort of cartoonish and cringy, or watching one of those live action disney tv shows vs breaking bad.
Nicolas Cage is the best for this :)
Oh my god you are everywhere!! Definitely a bot lol
Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love is one of the best performances I have ever seen. He speaks a lot without saying more, and he does this through masterful, subtle acting. I highly recommend his other films as well.
His incredible acting elevated Shang-Chi so much! You make me want to go back and rewatch some of his Chinese films.
Two words: "Happy Together"
This is the correct answer
Yes! He is known for acting with his eyes, such an amazing actor
He is also excellent in Lust, Caution. Actually, that film is a masterclass in subtle acting, it feels like 80% of the film is wordless subtext. There are multiple scenes where the dialogue is a bunch of banal small talk but there is an additional layer to the scene that is all in glances and body language.
Daniel Kaluuya is immediately who came to mind when I saw the topic of this video. Him and Pugh are amazing at this. When he is trying to hold on emotionally while remembering his mother in Get Out tears me up every time.
His performance in Judas and the black messiah was also amazing. Probably the best accent performance(I don't know what it's called) I've ever heard. I also think that that same character could have been done very over the top by a different actor.
He melts into every character. The bit in Get Out where he has that paralyzing breakdown with the mom is still one of the best scenes in a film ever imo.
@@dazem8 watch more films
He’s fantastic. It’s so remarkable in Nope : he doesn’t have much dialogue, and yet he manages to pull focus with this very strong inner intensity. OJ in that movie felt like an old-school taciturn cowboy archetype, I loved it.
@@brianaguilar8283 There are no wrong opinions. Whether that person has watched 1,000 films or just the one, if they like the scene, they like the scene.
I feel the same way about musical performances, such as singing. Whenever you see a “best singing” compilation, it’s all people belting at the top of their longs, doing over the top riffs, and whistle notes. All of these take talent, yes, but there’s so much complexity and emotion that people can put into singing. When a voice sounds like it could fall apart at any moment but it never does, when just the tone of a voice tells a story without needing the lyrics, singing is so much more than belting, riffs, and whistle tones.
First thing I thought of was the end scene of La La Land, where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling make eye contact at the very end from across the room. Their expressions are so subtle, but speak volumes of love, loss, regret, acceptance, and “best wishes” all rolled into one. Brilliant.
Florence's performance in Midsommar is so raw and real. It's the subtle ways in which she reacts without uttering a word and how the people around her either don't acknowledge or notice it. We all know exactly what she's feeling and what she's thinking in those moments though. The performance is brilliant.
Its also works to establish the uncomfortable contrasts in the film, her individualism vs her bfriend and his friends lack of self-awareness, and the cult's collective feeling
Matthew and Marilla from Anne with an e have such phenomenal subtle acting. Matthew for example is such a quiet character but the actor shows you exactly what he feels
Gosh I miss that show. So beautiful.
@@junainahrahman4156 It's one of my favourites, a rare, wholesome gem among the ultra dark, intense and hypersexualised shows out there.
@@MissElisabelle agreed! I wish I could watch it for the first time again
YES
Man this show is something special it makes my heart ache
That's why i love Tony Leung.. His expressions are high level.. So subtle, but we felt it. His silent still can make me cry
I know Breaking Bad has been analyzed to death, but the subtle performances from each actor is really mesmerizing. Especially Walt, of course. He had outbursts, but also small moments too.
I actually was scrolling to see if someone commented about breaking bad and I'm so glad you did.
@@veronicaevans2246 Scowling is the wrong word.
@@damienx0x Oh my bad lol. Thanks for telling me, I'll fix it.
The pizza frisbee belongs in the acting manual
And speaking of which - RHEA SEAHORN's Kim Wexler in BCSaul is an amazing and unsung example of what he talks about in this video.
I am so so happy you brought up Florence Pugh in Midsommar! Something about her performance in that movie that really gets to me is the way you can see that extreme "tug" at the corners of her mouth anytime she's faced with the trauma, the involuntary jerking down of the cheek muscles that happens when your whole body wants to sob but you force yourself not to. That moment where your throat is so swollen it's painful and yet you still resist crying even though it's visually clear you're definitely *not okay*. It's the sort of emotional expression that is felt but not often shown visually and in such a visceral way. Ironically it's what makes that movie difficult for me to get through sometimes vs. the bigger scenes. Dani's internal and total collapse while trying to maintain a brittle veneer of normalcy is - unfortunately - all too familiar and it's in those moments I think her performance shines.
meh. hereditary was a way better horror movie by the director
@@iknowexactlywhoyouare8701 her acting in the movie was still beyond impressive, even if the movie itself was not as solid as Hereditary
@@recoveringintrovert717 minus the beyond
there's no actor more subtle than Mads Mikkelsen, the guy can convey 300 emotions with just a single eye twitch
Poker Scenes in Casino Royale 🥴💀
The hunt😍
So true! All of his performances are amazing!!
See the difference when he played Gridenwald. I love Depp and still preferred Mikkelsen.
Even in Death Stranding you could see it.
Daniel Kaluuya’s performance in the Get Out the hypnotizing scene is one of my all time favorite performances, even prolly my all time favorite. He doesn’t need to talk or move his eyebrows yet it’s sooo moving, how can you not cry watching it?
I recently rewatched 'Knives Out' and found myself really rediscovering how much I enjoyed LaKeith Lee Stanfield's performance as one of the accessory detectives. He knows how to play this sort of quiet, intense intelligence that is intriguing in even the shortest of scenes, and I feel like it embodies a lot of what this video discussed.
He's SO good.
He honestly brings so much life to a lot of things I've seen him in.
He's my favorite part of Atlanta, I think.
I second LaKeith Stanfield! He was my favorite part of Atlanta and this video immediately made me think of the Teddy Perkins episode. He's so under-appreciated!
He also does this type of performance well in sorry to bother you. Amazing underrated movie.
I watched Midsommar and was entranced with how good Florence Pugh's performance was. That film has so many long shots and she nails it every time
That Florence Pugh moment really blew my mind and actually made me formally aware of how my own subtle reactions can reveal what I’m feeling and I started noticing it in other people too. The best way to not give something like that away is try and genuinely think of something happy.
Rhea Seehorn's performance as Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul is a great example of this. She always manages to make her silence and stillness speak VOLUMES.
Amazing amazing amazing
i absolutely love rheas acting in better call saul
It truly bums me out that so many people see “good” acting as something heavily emotional and super performative. As someone who loves writing/directing, seeing actors place themselves in a role to the point where minor actions speaks volumes is so fucking underrated. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are some of my favourite shows purely because of pacing but the performances the actors bring to their roles is unparalleled. You can tell so much about what a character is thinking based on subtle looks and small face actions and, while I think the writing in those shows are great, the actors are what brings those characters to life.
Nerdwriter’s video on Anthony Hopkins’ performance in Westworld is why I love acting. The rhythm of line delivery, the way actors can say so much by doing so little; hell, the way actors can tell the audience one thing and tell the _characters_ another is so fucking rad. It’s such an impressive art that has SO MUCH subtlety.
I’d also recommend Drew Gooden’s video on good acting; it’s a little more silly but also a fun watch.
When I'm watching a film and see incredible and subtle acting it makes me think of that nerdwriter video. Watching that video made me feel like I understood what good acting was for the first time.
mmm I do not think so... if actually look, most people prefer small acting because is "most realistic" is really annoying for me.
Yes, Jodi Foster is one of my favorite actresses. I honestly can't think of any scene where she has an over-the-top emotional outburst. When I think of her acting, I picture calm, collected, compelling, commanding, etc. There were so many scenes in Silence Of The Land where it would have been appropriate for her to act hysterical and emotional. But it fit her character, Clarice Starling, better to be more calm and collected. As a result, the subtle and controlled acting presented is more believable.
Those who become detectives have seen really disturbing things and therefore develop a tough exterior. It takes a lot to raise their eyebrows. She conveyed her desensitized subdued reactions in a realistic manner. A good detective would stay collected and cool in a tense situation. She pulled that off so well.
I agree, for films and TV shows, subtlety or at the very least not going over the top is the best way to go.
I don’t think that’s the point what makes those scenes so good to people is because there are still subtle performances and personalities in the big emotional scenes still. It’s a combo of emotions and subtlety.
A moment like this that immediately comes to mind is in Sense and Sensibility. There’s a moment when Emma Thompson’s character finds out the man she loves is engaged. In that moment, it feels incredibly authentic because she begins to show emotion, like shock, and immediately works to bury this and remain with a placid look on her face. It gets me every time.
Emma is a beast when it comes to emotional acting. When she finds out her husband bought the necklace for someone else, and she breaks down in Love Actually 😭
She is amazing in Sense and Sensibility. Her whole character is concealed emotion and she plays it so well.
You inmediately see in her facial expressions her sadness the moment she found out the man she loves is engaged.
I think it's worth noting that most people don't get the big "punch the wall" moment in their life (as you alluded to) so a lot of people get a cathartic reaction from seeing actors experience and release those massive outpourings of emotion. I think that's a big part of why people connect to those moments, and why they will rewatch movies with them, or clips of them, or compilations of them.
Are you saying most ppl don't get to violently punch walls while expressing big emotions to ppl in their life?
@@lindseypalmer5969 as the "punch the wall" is between quotation marks. I think he just says that most people don't get a lot of cathartic experiences in their lifes, where they can just let all the emotion get out of their body, and that's why some of us feel really good seeing the "massive outpouring of emotion" in movies. It's cathartic because it does something we can't.
As someone who’s been acting for over half my life now, there’s two things I’ve learned that have really stuck with me. It’s different for every person, but these were my personal discoveries.
1. The type of immersion you describe here is so crucial, yet so hard to achieve - and it’s not something that can happen consciously. It can take months to begin to develop a character’s voice, posture, general behavior, memories, etc. Eventually, it becomes second nature, but you have to work for it. Sometimes that can mean method acting, sometimes it can mean buying a raw chicken breast, putting it in your shower, turning the water on, turning the lights off, and then entering your apartment and stabbing it through the curtain. (That’s not something _I_ have done, but I know someone who has.) But anyway, once you get to the point where you genuinely feel everything the character does, you can achieve both those subtle expressions and also the breakdowns and outbursts. They should come from the same place.
2. Anyone can mimic someone else’s performance, and anyone can just put on a mask and play the role. But if you’ve been cast as a role, it’s because there’s something that only _you_ can bring to the character. You can visualize it by imagining that there are hundreds of dials, each for a different trait that you have. Becoming a character means adjusting those dials, finding the things you need within you, not conjuring out of thin air. Intensify the extroversion a little, amplify the neuroticism, tone down the cynicism, play up the nerdiness. Don’t try to make yourself into the character, make the character into you.
I’ll say to everyone watching this video: if you like Daniel Kaluuya and Steven Yeun then I highly recommend watching Nope. Both of them play fantastic roles with a lot of subtly. Some of my absolute favorite bits of acting!
Daniel Kaluuya in Nope was really good at playing a subtle character.
I’ve seen many say his character was boring and he didn’t do enough but I feel like it was the right choice for the character he was playing.
OJ gave me a good impression of an older sibling who struggles with anxiety and the pressures of family responsibilities and continuing his fathers legacy. That’s just my thoughts, though.
@@marzh1073 i think his character is very clearly introvert and and on the spectrum, i think kaluuya did a great job
Dude when he said subtle character and Kaluuya I immediately thought of Nope. Ppl shit on the film cuz it doesnt explain everything and the character is quiet, introverted, which audiences clearly seem to reject. I’ve heard ppl suggest he might be on the spectrum, cuz a lot of ppl who are find him quite relatable. It might be so, but I just love the subtlety with which he portrays a character who’s not necessarily shy or weak in the cliche Hollywood sense. He’s confident in his own skills and business, but not the social small-talk skills like his sis, which is a more typical performance. Anyways, that movie solidified for me that he’s a wonderful actor. Those eyes of his, you can read so much from that subtlety
I can't believe "Nope" didn't get any big Oscar nominations. It was brilliant.
@@PeaceBang horror is, unfortunately, always snubbed at the oscars 🥲
It's empathy... that's what allows an actor to make those micro expressions. They are personally empathizing with the character's emotions. Not everyone is capable of empathy. But, what is happening is the actor opening up their own heart and letting themselves feel as if it was their personal situation. It can be very psychologically taxing because they are taking on the trauma of their character... the expressions are real because their emotions are real. It's deeper than sympathy.
Everyone was blown away by Paddy Considine's performance in the recent House of the Dragon (and it is an incredible performance) but what really blew me away was Olivia Cooke's Alicent. Her microexpressions and little nervous tics made her performance so compelling to watch.
She was amazing. Agreed.
Her acting in Bates Motel is also really good as well.
Give Dead Man's Shoes a go. Paddy Considine delivers such threat in such a micro level (as well as the macro)
Speaking of HotD, I also think Matt Smith did incredible job at subtly portraying Daemon's internal emotions. You can kind of see his mind constantly racing but never revealing his true intentions. I believe he gave the character a lot of depth with his portrayal.
For someone who grew up watching Asian tv & movies, Subtle Performance is in fact one of the greatest acting an actor will be credited on. Given how most Asian production are really heavy on emotions. That is why when I transitioned to watching Western production at a later age, I always find it so different; louder body language, more flamboyant, bigger set, etc. Steven Yuen always give me such comfort. Best of both worlds.
Asian referring to which countries? Dramas? Movies?
To Adam Driver's credit, he did a lot of subtle acting in Marriage Story. The scene where he asks Alan Alda's character whether he's paying to hear his joke is really good. We all remember the explosive scene but there was fantastic subtlety by Adam AND Scarlett leading up to it.
Yes, It is completely absurd to focus on Driver's performance in a Marriage Story and is a comically bad example of what he is trying to criticize.
@@alexlindstrom9971 tbf he wasn't criticising the entire performance, he was just criticising the notion that that scene is what good acting is, and that scene in particular went viral on social media for its acting
@@mrbrightside3440 in context this scene works really really well. There's a reason it got to this point.
@@alexlindstrom9971 "completely absurd" okay, calm down drama queen!
@@alexlindstrom9971 You missed the point buddy - Driver's scene was an example of GOOD expressive acting. He never said he didn't also act subtly in the same film. I love his scene with the social worker observing dinner with his son. That was subtle acting on top of completely wild and ridiculous instances going on simultaneously.
this is why julie deply, and ethan hawke's performances in the before trilogy will always be my fav..every emotion portrayed by them feels so organic!
Was looking for this comment
The whole trilogy is a masterpiece
@@junainahrahman4156 right?! theyre so raw in portraying the highs and lows of a relationship between two people while subsequently showing us their relations to the world around them! comfort movies fr xD
@@nahreentajree2806 totally! It's full of insightful quotes and swoon-worthy moments
Succession is filled to the brim with flawless micro-acting. No one ever over-does it.
Tom and greg are my favourite characters to observe this because they both secretly disgust and want to be the roys so much
This is why I love 'No Country For Old Men'. It's full of these performances. It's impossible not to become immersed in the story due to the amazing acting, writing, and direction. Incredible film.
Oscar Isaac is sooo good too, he puts so much effort and emotion into everything he's in, he makes even the mediocre movies seem like art when he's in the scene
Maybe I was just in the right mood but Garrett Hedlund and Oscar Isaac’s performances in Mojave made that one of my favorite movies
In ‘Ex Machina,’ there were these little pauses where Nathan/Oscar Isaac would be looking at Caleb after he’s said something. Like he’s wondering if he’s wasting his time, or trying to hold back some expression of frustration. It’s something that a casual viewer might overlook, but when put to good use, a moment’s silence can speak volumes.
@@Alligator81 he was so terrifying in that movie for so many subtle reasons
Florence has this downturned expression she displays in so many different moments to convey different expressions, of disappointment, sadness, grief, its so immaculate.
Hugh Laurie as Dr. House is my favorite example of this subtle acting. His ability to portray such a complex character is phenomenal. Dr. House's cynical personality almost being an act itself to hide very vulnerable emotions and being able to portray these emotions so clearly. Whether it's physical pain or emotional pain from letting his cynical, sarcastic persona get in the way of truly connecting with another person.
Hugh Laurie didn't just act as Dr House. He became Dr. House. He co-created Dr. House.
“Because if you die, I’m alone” that line and that delivery. The honesty after
being cynical and uncaring for half the episode.
I don't know why the algorithm took me here but I really enjoyed this content. Acting is one of my biggest interests and I'm so glad you highlighted something I've always relished in. This subtle performance that you describe is what I call the moment when and where the actor disappears and the character becomes alive. There is the method acting which I feel is more calculated and the performance satisfies the eyes and brains of the viewers but there is also this natural involuntary acting which speaks to the heart. It may appear clumsy, diluted or subtle like the examples here, but it delivers a huge story and feeling and shapes the role into a real-life human that I am watching.
An example I love is Cate Blanchett in the final shot of "Carol". She seems to go through 3-4 different expressions while somehow barely moving her face. I've rewatched it so many times.
I thought of the final shot of Carol too, but specially Rooney Mara, Cate gives an intense stare but Rooney just stands there but you can notice her emotions shifting by just looking at her face
Fantastic work by both.
In the whole film, actually.
Agree. And particularly agree with Rooney Mara in that film. Subtle yet so expressive.
Yes, that's a great example of nuanced performances.
The last 10 seconds of Before Sunset right after Ethan Hawk says 'I know' will always be my favourite example of subtle acting. He portrays such an array of emotions and thoughts within such a short span of time, not to mention the subtle body language of touching his wedding ring, knowing and thinking about everything he is sacrificing after saying that line. Great video topic!
Omg YES! One of my most favorite films ever. That ending still gets me after all these years, esp with that Nina Simone song playing in the background. Stupendous.
Sounds a lot like the last 15 or so seconds of The Graduate, with Dustin Hoffman & Kathrine Ross silently sitting in the back of the bus, still giddy with the excitement of the grand, romantic “escape” they just pulled off, and we start to see a strange look come into their eyes, their smiles slowly grow more forced, their loving glances at each other more awkward & fleeting, as they start to consider the bridges they just burned and without a single word spoken, you can see them both start to secretly wonder if they might have just made a huge mistake.
@@briangonigal3974 Always loved that scene!! When I first watched it as a kid I didn't understand it at all, but it still stood out as a special moment to me. Then I rewatched it as an adult and everything just made sense :) Beautiful stuff
Damn y'all not joking
Such a beautiful ending…the small moments in life are often the biggest ones
Just watched Another Round and I gotta say, Mads Mikkelsen is absolutely incredible at restraining emotion & giving subtle, yet powerful performances.
I was just about to make a comment about him. That man can convey with a few subtle movements emotions that others can't come close to.
He does it really well in Hannibal too. Dude can say a million words with a look
Cillian Murphy and RDJ too
Have you seen rogue one that line "all my life has been a lie" the little tremble on his voice it's just amazing, with so little he just show how broken the character is
I think this is really needed in animated movies as well. I love the subtlety in the father's sadness in Tangled before they fly the 17th lantern, there's so much in the look he and the mother share. Thinking that the lanterns are useless. Having to be king and queen when all they want to be doing is joining the search for their lost daughter. Wondering whether she's even still alive.
Anthony Hopkins is a prime example of subtle acting. His portrayal of Hannibal Lector is so errie because of his robotic like gestures, his ominous glare, and his calm yet intelligent manner of speaking. He never had any emotional outbursts or tried to make a creepy face. They made it a point in the film to relay to the viewer that even while he attacked a nurse, his heart rate stayed low. He simply fumed with tension just by standing and staring a certain way.
The dinner scene he did in Season 1 of Westworld was downright incredible. Man goes through almost 6 emotions in the span of 12 seconds at one point.
@@zachr5779 yes I agree. He's great in Westworld.
A true test is when he's able to bring gravitas to a role in a movie like Freejack, an otherwise silly, over-the-top actioner, but when he shows up, the movie's energy simply changes and belongs to him.
@@zachr5779 You've probably seen this Nerdwriter video in which every second of Hopkins' expressions in this scene is analyzed (if not, watch it!): th-cam.com/video/4kSGkGKwp9U/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=Nerdwriter1
He did do a few creepy faces (for example, tereth clicking), but it was well timed
Claire Foye in the Crown is sooooo internal!!! I literally perform her scenes at home by myself because she is EPIC when it comes to conveying so much with so little. She is a master of subtly and nuanced expression. The Crown Season 2 Episode 10. Claire and Matt Smith act their asses off!! Respectfully. Their chemistry and timing is unmatched and played a huge part in the shows success.
Claire Foy in most things, honestly ❤
@@nikitawyllie-cinemastitch3267 FACTS!!
I was about to say this 🙌🏻
Meh. She utilized this tense shoulder breathing expression several times every single episode that became very annoying. It was less micro expressions and more like zero expressions, and panicked breathing. Maybe she was overly Botoxed.
@@bodyofhope It was the expert use of her eyes for me. She conveyed The Royal Stoicism that Queen Elizabeth is known for but she made Elizabeth more relatable and human thorough the use of her eyes. Also, The tense shoulder thing is a quality Queen Elizabeth has in her demeanor it's apart of her regality. Claire was conveying that too.
Tony Leung is a master of conveying subtle emotions. From Internal Affairs to Lust, Caution, he's just amazing at subtle expressions- a glance too long, a sigh too deep, a laugh cut short. He's just so good at it.
Scrolled down to find this exact comment!
In the Mood for Love in general is basically the perfect example of why subtle performances can be so effective to me, like just the level of emotion that Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung communicate with very subtle expressions and gestures is just mind-blowing
Exactly who I thought about while watching this video!!
He even brought that to shang chi
The subtle performance of Thomas Flight is amazing. Without raising his voice he teaches us that you can be an excellent video essayist/TH-camr that is compelling to watch.
That Riz Ahmed scene is incredible. He's so good it hurts. But if I had to choose one actor who exemplifies everything Thomas is talking about here? Rhea. Freaking. Seahorn. Her turn in Better Call Saul has left me speechless and in tears on multiple occasions, often with just a bat of an eye and intake of breath. It's frustrating that the lack of big emotional outbursts by her character has meant she's gotten overlooked.
I simply LOVE catching those subtle moments. They can be so much more intense and meaningful than big expressive performances. You catch them and then just take a deep breath taking in the great subtle bit that is just so satisfying!
Yeah... seeing through a character is more powerful than seeing a character's outburst.
Rami Malek gripped me with the micro expressions in Mr Robot, I wasnt a fan of Bohemian Rhapsody, but his performance in Robot is criminally underrated. Nicole Beharie is another actor who is masterful with subtlety
Interesting since Brian May, the lead guitarist of Queen, was quite impressed with Rami Malek's performance as Freddie Mercury in capturing what FM was like.
Bohemian Rhpasody was horrible. It fell into the conspcious performances that the Oscars love
I'm glad you mention Nicole Beharie. 👏 She EXTREMELY underrated & underutilised in Hollywood. Wish she was given more opportunities.
His performance as Snafu in The Pacific is another brilliant role of his.
I got ta say Jonathan Banks playing Mike Ehrmantraut in BCS is my all-time favorite for his subtle performance. He's just so mysterious and profound. The way he achieves that not by yelling or crying earned him so many close-ups throughout the series.
In Manchester by the Sea, Casey Affleck plays a depressed/grief-stricken character with such realism and sublety. There is only one scene in the entire movie where he cries.
I came here to say this!! When he talked about Darjeeling in the video, I got flashbacks of the hospital scene at the beginning of Manchester. And that crying scene. So good.
Yessss, came in here to say this.
It’s so good. That performance was excellent and I loved how music amplified his scene at the precinct
Interesting. This video definitely made me think of his performance in The Assassination of Jesse James where he was fantastic as a more meek, almost background character even in spite of being one of the main characters. He's an incredible talent. Too bad it doesn't run in the family, haha.
I just commented about this before I scrolled two lines and saw yours lol
>Won best actor, but there aren't many huge emotional moments, just feels like dead resignation, smothered guilt, loss of a will to really live but not trying to actively die for the most part. I'm glad he got the recognition for it.
My all time favourite for subtle expression is Claire Foy, especially the series The Crown. Her face muscle twitch, the subtle way her eyebrow moves, the way she moved her lips, eyes, hands. I kept rewatching the series just to see her micro expression.
Agreed! Also why I love a lot of English dramas as well (Downton Abbey & The Crown, mostly) because English culture has SO much unsaid, and it lends to a lot of very subtle acting.
yes, what an actress! Claire Foy, Vanessa Kirby, amazing actresses!! Vanessa in pieces of a woman was phenomenal.
Timothée Chalamet is insane with this exact aspect of acting. He completely embodies every scene he's in. Him and Florence together in Little Women? Stunning. So many of the scenes in The Truman Show and when Steve Carell's character had to tell the boy he is color blind and can't be a pilot in Little Miss Sunshine are examples of this too. These movies don't just entertain you, they immerse you.
Paul Dano's performance in Little Miss Sunshine is one of my favorites. He's fantastic always but the way I felt I KNEW this character despite him not speaking for most of the film is outstanding.
@@chuckfinn89 Agreed! That movie was so well casted.
Since Little Miss Sunshine I’m still mad at
- Steve Carell for not doing more dramatic roles because he is formidable
- not seeing more of Paul Dano
@@chuckfinn89👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
lol, Chalamet is arguibly the most overrated actor at the moment, he has no impressive perfomances.