At some point or another in their careers, I expect that all young actors and actresses will consider Shakespeare, in order to be taken seriously. Sometimes it’ll work, sometimes not. For every Jude Law there’s an Ethan Hawke. I think the ladies have it even tougher. Shakespeare didn’t write many Daisy Duke / blonde bombshell roles, so once an actress is stereotyped as eye candy it’s that much harder for her to be taken seriously. I was a little worried, then, when I saw this article about country star Carrie Underwood being "more than just blonde hair and a pretty dress", especially when it came up in my Shakespeare filters. Ugg. But surprise surprise:
"I don’t have an acting "bug." It’s not something that is on my bucket list," Underwood said. "But if the right thing came up and we were approached and told ‘hey, this would be something cool for you, something small.’ I’m not looking to do any Shakespeare or anything major. Something small, something fun and it sounds like it would be a good time then I’d be in."
Maybe she could write a song about Shakespeare instead? It worked for Taylor Swift.
I don't know that it entirely worked for Jude Law, unless you mean it rescued him from being identified solely with Alfie
re: Jude Law, I have not seen his performance of Hamlet on Broadway but was under the impression that it wasn't too bad. I couldn't think of another young male actor that made my point. Keanu Reeves doesn't count. 🙂
Aw come on. Keanu gave me one of my favorite moments in a movie theater ever. As Don John he said "I thank you: I am not of many words…" and someone who knew the line was coming immediately interjected "good!"
I haven't seen Jude Law either, but I can't say that Ethan Hawke's was the worst stab at Hamlet I've seen.
At least it was an attempt to show Hamlet as closer to the college student he is.
Up there in my list of "Film Actors Who Should Not Have Tried to Do Shakespeare" are Robert Sean Leonard in Much Ado and Jack Lemmon in Hamlet. Of course keanu can make you writhe, but at least he was palying a character he could kinda sorta handle. How bad would it have been if he'd played Benedick?
Also, you've gotta love Arnold as hHamlet in Last Action Hero…
As far as movie Hamlets go, I couldn't finish the Ethan Hawke version. I don't know that he's the worst I've ever seen, but it was just too painful to listen to the delivery.
You didn't like Jack Lemmon in Hamlet? It was a small enough role, I thought there was something to be said for the "Look, I just wanna do my job I don't really know WTF is going on" role. He's basically there for the "Something rotten" line, really. I don't think he could have done Polonius.