Lauren Bacall: Tom Cruis is not a great actor

[Fiona]

from drudge: LAUREN BACALL: 'VULGAR' TOM CRUISE IS NOT A GREAT ACTOR
Sun Jul 31 2005 11:06:05 ET

New York -- Lauren Bacall tells TIME Tom Cruise is not a great actor. "When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise," Bacall says.

"His whole behavior is so shocking. It's inappropriate and vulgar and absolutely unacceptable to use your private life to sell anything commercially, but I think it's kind of a sickness."

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We haven't had a Tom Cruise thread in days. I'll kick it off:

Lauren Bacall was never a great actress, either.

[Darth_Kitten]

1. But she has style!!!

:evilgrin:

Go, Lauren, Go! :)

[XanaDUer]

4. And class.

Try to picture Bogie jumping on a couch and ranting about religion.

[tjdee]

8. But if he did, that wouldn't make him a bad actor.

That would just make him Crazy Bogie.

[XanaDUer]

11. Right.

Cruise is okay in some things. I actually think he did a great job in Interview with the Vampire. Depends on the role.

[Greyhound]

13. Did you read the book? n/t

[XanaDUer]

30. No, I tried but it didn't hold my interest.

...

[Salviati]

16. "Depends on the role"

And that's what makes him not a great actor... Fact is most of the things I've seen him in, it's as if he's not acting the role, he's acting "the role as played by Tom Cruise".

For me a good actor is someone whose name you recognize in the credits, and you have to sit back and ask "Now who were they in the movie?"

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Lauren Becall is totally on target

And she was a pretyty good actress, in her way.

Unlike Tom, who's just a flying fucknit.

[tjdee]

3. Great entertainer does not equal great actor.

Cary Grant never got an Oscar, for example (except for the lifetime achievement, or whatever). I think Charlie Chaplin is another example of that.

Lauren Bacall isn't a great actress IMO but she's pretty classy and is enjoyable to watch. Kind of funny she'd be passing random judgment at Crazy Tom (as I know call him)...but hey, everyone's got an opinion.

I think Crazy Tom's a better actor than he's given credit for, and certainly a better producer and arbiter of 'successful film' than a number of other actors.

[stlsaxman]

5. "Lauren Bacall was never a great actress, either."??????

wow. i'm speechless.

okay, i'm going home now...

ACTION: stlsaxman shuts down his laptop and leaves work, getting in his car to drive for the next twenty minutes or so, pondering in silence the ramifications of the above statement

[Fiona]

7. I'll stand by it

she had a look and a style. She married well. But I can't really think of any outstanding acting she did.

[Capn Sunshine]

14. You've never seen "To Have and To Have Not" have you

Or "The Big Sleep" ?
Or you wouldn't make that statement.
So you get a pass for incomplete info.

[Fiona]

15. I have seen both a number of times

I like Lauren Bacall, actually. I just don't think she's in the pantheon of great actresses.

[bettyellen]

34. he married well

and he was the first to admit it.

[caty]

6. I've always like Lauren Bacall.

[madrchsod]

9. boogie and bacall-----legends

she was a kid when they fell in love. she may not have been great but she had what it takes to be a legend in her time..

[Maddy McCall]

10. Lauren is a Hollywood icon. Cruise would do well to listen to her.

Lauren Bacall is Miss IT!

[tjdee]

12. You think a 15 year old would think Lauren Bacall is Miss It, LOL?

Hollywood icons are only so to those who know who they are. I'm pretty distressed at the number of people who know about the older films/stars, but there are a lot of them.

I think Tom will be a Hollywood icon in the future. Even if he's plumb nuts now.

[supernova]

21. The difference is whether you take the craft seriously

Tom is nothing but a pretty guy with a nice butt.

Lauren Bacall had put her time in and learned her craft the hard way: Theatre, Broadway. She's earned the right to be called an actor. Tom is simply a pinup. It's up to him whether he chooses to move beyond that.

[tjdee]

23. Charlize Theron was a model.

I take the craft pretty seriously, believe me. I have a huge chip on my shoulder about what passes for acting these days--particularly the fact that 90-95% of working black actors in the industry are in fact hip hop stars.

That said though, I don't think just because Lauren Bacall worked, she is a great actress. She is an icon, obviously. She had a thing going for her, fine.

There are lots of people working in theater, who graduated from Tisch or Yale or wherever, but they don't have any more of a right to call themselves actors any more than people who enter the industry off the street and take the craft seriously, as you put it.

Tom Cruise hasn't been a star for twenty years by not taking it seriously. He may not be a 'great' actor, but he is every bit as much of an actor as she is. Even if he is now crazay.

[supernova]

24. Emphasis on the *was* part

Look you can come from anywhere and be an actor. It's whether you take it seriously or not. I don't think TC does. It's really a matter of do you want to leave a leagacy more of "Born on the 4th of July" or of "Top Gun"? TG was entertainment, but I wouldn't call it art.

LIke I said, he can choose, so far he chooses not to.

[tjdee]

27. Yeah, but Shakespeare wasn't Shakespeare either.

Shakespeare was more the Jim Cameron/Steven Spielberg of his day rather than the...I don't know....Lars Von Trier.

I see what you're saying, and I'm inclined to agree,mostly....but acting is basically about telling the story of a person in a believable way. Does it matter if the story is of substance, or if it's a fluffy summer piece? I don't know. Is one more *difficult* than the other? I don't know.

It's not like "Key Largo" was Othello either, LOL.

[Maddy McCall]

26. That black actors have to be hip-hop stars is not a problem of the...

actors. It's a problem with the industry. Perhaps it's one of the few avenues to becoming an actor available to them.

[tjdee]

29. Well, yeah, you're right.

But, I'd also argue that those hip hop "actors" don't take it seriously so much as it's another avenue for them to further their career and to make money. Like, another fun thing to do. For a number of them it's not about the craft or the individual work/pieces at all.

It's getting to a point where it's the logical next step for these folks. That's not their fault, you're right. But yuck all the same.

[ForrestGump]

36. Thus spake Elvis:

(on stage in 1969) "my next move was Hollywood. That's how it happens. You get out a record, and then you get on television, and then you go to Hollywood."

Elvis speaks the truth. This is a given.

It's always been this way. The varous Ice men, Will Smith, and more recent crossers of that line (some of whom are convincing actors in the roles assigned, their promotion of a certain image and performing style being a form of acting) are following in the footsteps of not just Elvis but of Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Ricky Nelson, the Beatles (and John and Ringo, individually), Sammy Davis Jr, Diana Ross, and even Meatloaf (whose image and operatic style and stage presence was the work of a brilliant actor). Actually, if you add in all the teen-wonder films and classic rock and pop films that featured acts like Roy Orbison and Little Richard, it's easy to see an incredibly strong connection betwene popular music and film throughout the past 50 years or so.

[Maddy McCall]

25. Who says that only 15 year olds have the right to judge?

It's all relative. Different people have different tastes and opinions.

To me, and many others, Bacall is an icon. I don't give a flying feck what others think of her.

To me, Tom Cruise is a terrible actor. I thought that before the scientology revelations. I still think that. If other people like him, that's fine with me.

I bet 15 year olds don't know who Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Marlene Dietrich are. That doesn't make them any less Hollywood icons.

And people don't have to be "in the industry" to admire actors that they believe are talented.

[bettyellen]

35. you think anyone cares what a 15 year old thinks is "it" ?

except for those 15 and under?

[nuxvomica]

17. Lauren Bacall is a fine actress and she's right about Cruise

He hasn't turned in a believable performance, IMHO, since his first three movies, though I must admit I haven't seen "Born on the 4th of July."

[Wapsie B]

18. I've had this thing for Lauren Bacall for years.

She's a fine actress. But what I admire is the way she carries herself as a person.

[no name no slogan]

19. yeah, right. neither is kevin costner. (nt)

:P

[supernova]

20. BWAHAHAHA! Smack down from Lauren!

:D Lauren, you go girl. Damn, she is a classy broad.

[pretzel4gore]

22. he's a scientologist, which is stupid

travolta is a scientologist too...this means they're rather homer simpsonish men w/out much curiousity about life and death etc....scientology always was a con, made up like a pig in lipstick lace and a thong for a beauty contest of one...

[CanuckAmok]

28. Everybody on Earth to Bacall: Duh!

n/t

[progressoid]

31. Damn, she deserves an Oscar nomination for that one!

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. But she was married to Bogie

so it doesn't matter if she can't act. And Tom Cruise could be the best actor ever but he will NEVER have as much class as Lauren Bacall.

And he ain't fit to shine Humphrey Bogart's shoes.

[sendero]

33. I think.....

.... Lauren Bacall in "The Big Sleep" is one of the sexiest, most sophisticated performances I've ever seen.

Call it "acting" or whatever, it is incredible.