Thursday, June 08, 2006

Mark Ruffalo & Paul Bettany

The Top 100 Actors of the Aughts Countdown continues as we enter the top 20. We begin with a possibly floundering American with a gob of potential: Mark Ruffalo and a still ascending Brit: Paul Bettany. Read...then return and discuss. You know how this works.

In other listmania news...Round 2 of the Actress Poll is up and ready for your votes.

In still more we-require-your-participation reminders: Please enter the Prairie Home Companion contest if you haven't already. The movie opens tomorrow. The contest closes in one week. And re: this week's horoscopes --do you know which film your quote comes from? Let's hear your best guesswork in the comments.

13 comments:

Glenn Dunks said...

Wow, I had forgotten all about Mark Ruffalo. I haven't seen You Can Count On Me, so maybe I should before I say I dislike Mark, but... i don't.

Paul, nice choice. Althought Wimbledon was really poor.

Ooh, it's getting down to the wire.

Anonymous said...

MARK!!!!! MARK!!!!!

Anonymous said...

MARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ah... i love him. I LOVE HIM!!!!

Anonymous said...

Good choices. I would probably have ranked them as high as you have.

I'm getting more and more excited, because I have a list of 20 names, who I think are still to come. Well Ruffalo and Bettany are in there, just as I've expected, so we'll see what you'll think of the 18, who still remain.

But I'm already quite sure, that Jonathan Rhys Myers hasn't made the list though.

Anonymous said...

Love that Paul!

Anonymous said...

paul bettany is so hot to me...

Glenn Dunks said...

I've offered my views on the final 18 on my blog

http://kamikazecamel.blogspot.com/2006/06/nats-top-20-actors-of-aughts.html

Anonymous said...

Paul Bettany would be in my Top 15 at the very least. Great actor that I can see do many great things in a not-so-distant future.

Anonymous said...

Well, I've just watched your 18 remaining actors.

What about Bill Murray or Hugh Jackman?

adam k. said...

Whoa, I forgot all about Bill Murray.

I like the choices of Ruffalo and Bettany, but I have inquiries re: two of their best performances this decade.

Do you REALLY think Mark in YCCOM was supporting? I think you were pulling an "academy" and just finding a way to give him an award. I would've called that a lead performance... but I guess it's sort of on the line.

Also, Bettany in Dogville... I found it rather leadish, but I guess that one too is debatable... those two instances just surprised me, cause usually you err on the side of lead. Streep in Prime, for example, I'd call supporting, but that's just me.

adam k. said...

Also yeah, Paul Bettany is totally hot in this picture. I am loving him in that bathtub there.

NATHANIEL R said...

adam in answer to your question... i think it was probably a lead too.

what happened was this: i got more and more freaked out by the absolute fraud and then I started getting hard line about it with myself. I use to play it loose like everyone else.

this will sound silly but now I think it's too important to fuck around with. It's completely unfair to actors -- big stars get all the press and all the awards and even are allowed and supported in stealing the few recognition opportunities available to character actors. It horrifies me.

that's my feeling on it at any rate. But yes sometimes it's debatable. I usually try to err toward lead but I recognize that I've made some arguable calls myself.

however:
JAMIE FOXX is not supporting in Collateral. And ETHAN HAWKE is not supporting in Training Day. I think it was the combination of those two nominations that made me absolutely crazy about the subject. Both are even more lead in their movies than their co-star... it makes me crazy. CRAZY. C-R-A-Z-Y.

adam k. said...

Hmm... so do you think Ruffalo would've been your lead actor list? Tough year.

It pains me to admit that I personally was (and I suspect you also were) not as pissed about Jake being nommed in supporting... just from personal bias but that was less fraudulent in that at least he was less lead than Ledger, who the story seemed to "happen to" more.