New Direction

In light of our editor's request to find an interesting topic of conversation over the next few weeks, I'd like to offer an idea on the table by asking you two very simple questions : who is your favorite actor (or actress) of all-time, and who gave the best performance in your mind? It doesn't necessairily have to be an Academy Award winner, but every time you can post a message, you can write about an actor whose performance in a particular movie gave you chills, made you believe in love, terrified you to the bone or made you laugh so hard you couldn't hold the tears. If this performance won the actor an Oscar, you can talk about how it beat out the rest of the competition, otherwise you can mention why it lost or why it deserved to win. To start, I'll talk about one I found quite amazing in my youth :

1984 : Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator

When I was young, I was initiated very early to all types of films : I would watch Disney films as much as violent or horror films and learn to enjoy watching actors play their roles. In this particular case, Arnold's Terminator in the first film was the first movie character that truly terrified me, that would haunt me in my nightmares running after me with his big guns and always warning me : I'll be back! Seriously, how can you beat a giant monster that bullets can't kill? Pretty hard, especially for a kid. This film was a great initiative for science-fiction that brought James Cameron on the sunset strip, and Arnold is perfect for this character, because it doesn't require for him to speak much, especially since he was still learning to speak English well at the time. It also didn't need much acting on his part, which is great for him, and let's face it, he is physically intimidating and he knows how to ride his motorcycle.

So, that's one of the many performances that I found interesting in movie history, and I encourage you to write your favorites.