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00:00The following actors were somehow able to take care of business and put some amazing
00:05performances on film while being as lackadaisical about their roles as someone can be while
00:11still having a pulse.
00:12So I am Gareth here from WhatCulture.com and here are 8 Amazing Performances by Actors
00:18Who Stopped Giving a Damn.
00:208.
00:21Edward Norton – The Italian Job Contractual obligations don't always create
00:26on-screen magic, but in the case of Edward Norton and his behind-the-scenes battles
00:31with Paramount over his required involvement in The Italian Job, it cemented the fact that
00:36Norton is a consummate professional who's nearly impervious to giving a bad performance.
00:42Norton wanted nothing to do with the remake of The Italian Job, but since he'd signed
00:46a three-picture deal before making his on-screen debut in Primal Fear, Paramount threatened
00:51to sue him for millions of dollars if he refused to make the movie.
00:55After much back and forth between the actor and the studio, Norton eventually caved and
01:00agreed to participate.
01:01Though he was reportedly very business-like and amiable during filming, he actually refused
01:06to promote the movie afterwards.
01:08You can almost feel the behind-the-scenes disdain seeping out of the screen whenever
01:12Norton is present, which imbues his slimy villain with a natural sense of mischief.
01:17He doesn't ever come off as detached, though it's likely his natural charisma that simply
01:22doesn't allow that to happen.
01:23The Italian Job may rank just outside of Norton's top ten performances, but considering
01:28the circumstances, it's hard to imagine anyone else coming in and playing the character
01:32of Steve Frizzelli any better.
01:357.
01:36Jackie Chan – Rush Hour Rush Hour is another installment in the odd
01:40couple buddy cop action movie genre, this time bringing together goofy martial arts
01:45legend Jackie Chan and even goofier comedic sidekick Chris Tucker.
01:49Now it wasn't exactly an Oscar-worthy performance from either of them, and in fact doesn't
01:54rank anywhere near the top ten from Chan's filmography either.
01:57But it was the first time most audiences outside of Hong Kong were introduced to Chan's combination
02:02of top-notch stunt work and silly and occasionally subversive comedy.
02:06But for Chan, it was a disheartening experience.
02:09In his words,
02:10I have reasons to do each film.
02:12I have something to say.
02:14Unlike Rush Hour, there was no reason in making it.
02:17You just give me the money and I'm fine.
02:19I dislike Rush Hour the most.
02:21Chan thought the stunt work was uninspired and the fight choreography was too Americanised.
02:26And yet anyone watching the movie without prior knowledge of the action star's previous
02:30work would be wowed by scenes where Chan effortlessly scales a 15-foot wall and drops hundreds of
02:36feet with the use of wires of course onto a makeshift slide.
02:39It's a reminder that even when he's just going through the motions, Jackie Chan is
02:43one of the most underrated action stars of all time.
02:476.
02:48Alan Rickman, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
02:51Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves was this close to being an unwatchable mess.
02:56Then along came a hero, who happened to be playing a villain, to carry the hot mess of
03:00a script on his back while completely disregarding the suggested tone of the movie.
03:05That hero was Alan Rickman.
03:07Between Kevin Costner's wavering English accent, charmless secondary characters and
03:12bombardment of intrusive subplots, Robin Hood needed someone to hold the audience's hand
03:17and assure them it was okay to take the movie as a bit of fun.
03:21Rickman's extraordinarily hammy turn as the Sheriff of Nottingham did just that.
03:25It's as if Rickman watched Costner's bored brooding orations from the sidelines on the
03:30first day of filming and decided there and then that he'd have to single-handedly make
03:34up for the star's lifeless portrayal, or at the very least he was going to have some
03:38damn fun making an awful movie.
03:40Rickman's lines are delivered with the kind of sashaying menace that makes you forget
03:44how terrible the dialogue actually is.
03:46Instead drawing you in with campy readings that put the entire cast of Batman and Robin
03:51to shame.
03:52Somehow, someway, it just works.
03:545.
03:55Orson Welles' The Transformers – The Movie No, not the live-action Transformers, my friends.
04:01The original animated version from 1986, which features less robotic testicles and astonishingly
04:07voice work from one of the greatest actor-directors of all time, Orson Welles.
04:12This Transformers flick also includes some wonderful performances from Leonard Nimoy,
04:17Robert Stack and Judd Nelson.
04:19Even weighed against this respectable ensemble though, Welles stands out as Unicron, a man-eating
04:24super planet.
04:25The fact that he manages to do this while not appearing to remotely care about or even
04:29understand what the role was, makes it all that more impressive.
04:33During production, Welles apparently told his biographer the following,
04:36You know what I did this morning?
04:38I played the voice of a toy.
04:40I play a planet.
04:41Some terrible robot toys from Japan that change from one thing to another.
04:45I menace somebody called something or other.
04:48Then I'm destroyed.
04:49My plan to destroy whoever it is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen.
04:54Those are not the words of someone heavily invested in his role, are they?
04:584.
04:59Alec Guinness' Star Wars It's always a hard pill to swallow when one
05:03of the most essential actors from one of the most revered movie franchises in movie history
05:08says that he abhors said franchise.
05:12Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with the late Alec Guinness, who played mystical
05:15mentor and all-round badass Obi-Wan Kenobi.
05:18The experience of working with George Lucas is one he was happy to be done with once he
05:23wrapped on Return of the Jedi.
05:24Guinness reportedly despised the dialogue, and expressed while on set that old Georgie
05:29didn't have a firm enough grasp on the characters he was writing for.
05:32As he put it, apart from the money, I regret having embarked on the films.
05:37I like them well enough, but it's not an acting job.
05:40The dialogue, which is lamentable, keeps being changed and only slightly improved,
05:45and I find myself old and out of touch with the young.
05:48A letter Guinness wrote to a friend during production reinforced his dismissal of the
05:51material.
05:52As he wrote, new rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper.
05:58None of it makes my character clear or even bearable.
06:01Despite his contempt of the material, Guinness provided a performance that Star Wars fans
06:05hold close to their hearts to this day, and even non-Star Wars fans can admire.
06:09And he still managed to walk away with an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting
06:13Actor, after utterly detesting every word that tumbled out of his wise old space wizard
06:18mouth.
06:19What a legend.
06:203.
06:21Marlon Brando's Superman
06:23As Marlon Brando approached the end of his career, the genius method actor who diligently
06:28crafted legendary performances in The Wild One and On the Waterfront started to, well,
06:33get a touch lazy, let's say.
06:35For instance, rather than coming to the set of The Godfather with his lines memorised,
06:39he requested the use of cue cards, which had to be carefully placed around set, sometimes
06:43on the chests of other actors in the scene, so as not to be seen in the finished shot.
06:48But at least in that case, Brando seemed to be invested in his character and the film
06:52itself.
06:53The same can't be said for his portrayal of Jor-El in the original Superman movie.
06:58According to his co-star Terrence Stamp, who plays General Zod, when Brando first arrived
07:02on set, he asked him if the script was any good.
07:05Stamp, bewildered, asked Brando if he'd read it yet, to which he replied, no, I was
07:09worried it might be poop.
07:11This anecdote proves two things.
07:13Number one, Marlon Brando, one of the greatest dramatic actors of all time, casually used
07:17the word poop in conversation.
07:18And number two, he didn't even have to read through the script to deliver the second-best
07:23performance in Superman, just behind Gene Hackman's definitive portrayal of Lex Luthor.
07:282.
07:29Robert Shaw – Jaws By his own admission, Robert Shaw didn't
07:34take his profession too seriously.
07:36According to one story, Robert Shaw actually drank himself into a blackout while he was
07:40filming the famous SS Indianapolis monologue in the classic That Was Jaws.
07:45He'd convinced Steven Spielberg that he should be a bit tipsy for the scene, since
07:48his character had been hitting the bottle, and unsurprisingly, not much work got done
07:53that day.
07:54When he wasn't drinking, Shaw was humiliating his co-star Richard Dreyfuss.
07:58He'd spray him with a fire hose, or convince him to jump off frighteningly tall things
08:02for a few hundred bucks.
08:04A couple of years after he finished Jaws, Shaw was asked about his penchant for boozing,
08:08to which he responded, can you imagine being a movie star and having to take it seriously
08:12without a drink?
08:13And indeed, it seems like this loosey-goosey approach Shaw took in bringing fisherman-slash-shark-bait
08:19quint to life probably helped make the best version of this character.
08:221.
08:23Marlon Brando, Apocalypse Now Apparently, this entire list could have been
08:27culled together using nothing but examples from the back half of Marlon Brando's filmography.
08:32By now, the on-set animosity between Brando and Francis Ford Coppola is one of Hollywood's
08:37worst-kept secrets.
08:39The tension was so thick between actor and director that an entire documentary was made
08:43about their behind-the-scenes antics.
08:45Playing the integral role of Colonel Kurtz, a lean and savage Green Beret, Brando showed
08:50up on set monstrously overweight and wholly unprepared, as was his MO around this time
08:56in his career.
08:57He didn't bother to read the source material, couldn't memorise his lines and supposedly
09:00halted filming on numerous occasions to discuss the script.
09:04In spite of all this, Coppola and Brando found a way to churn out a legendary performance.
09:09The process became simple, dress Brando in black, shoot him in shadowy lighting and just
09:14let one of the world's greatest actors improvise until there was enough material to use.
09:19Easy as that really.
09:20Essentially, Marlon's role was fleshed out on the fly, with the camera pointed at
09:24him until he didn't want to monologue any more.
09:26That is a special kind of laziness right there.
09:29And that's our list, nobody other amazing performances by actors who stopped giving
09:33a damn.
09:34Well let us know all about them in the comment section right down below and don't forget
09:37to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're down there.
09:41Also if you like this sort of stuff then why not go and check out the rest of our channel
09:44and click on some more awesome WhatCulture videos.
09:47I have been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, cheers for watching today and hopefully we'll see
09:51you again very, very soon.
09:52Bye bye!