Starring in a Bio-Pic, Another Challenge for Actors

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk

It looks like I’m going to go see a movie called Barbie that is really and truly based on the doll from Mattel. (Margot Robbie in the title role.) Who’dathunkit? (I’m not going today, by the way, but eventually.) 

The reviews are in and they are overwhelmingly positive (a current 90% on the tomato meter). Also opening this week is Oppenheimer which is about the famous physicist. Robert Oppenheimer was a character in my novel Threat of Night. One of two real people in the book, the other being Fritz Weidemann the German general counsel in San Francisco in 1941. In including “real people” in my book I was diligent about research. Thus I got to know Opie a fair bit. Cillian Murphy seems an odd choice to play him but a lot of odd choices in bio pics have worked out well, see Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Less of on odd choice is Joaquin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon; due in theaters this fall. I’m sure he’ll do bang up job. Odd to think that Phoenix will have portrayed both Johnny Cash and Napoleon Bonaparte.

I guess I’m on the topic of actors playing historical figures. Daniel Day-Lewis set the standard when he played Abraham Lincoln. None of us have ever seen Lincoln nor is there any existing film of him (not that there could be, given that he died in 1865) but surely, we all believed, that was what Lincoln sounded, looked and acted like. We were all convinced that Day-Lewis WAS Lincoln. 

Gary Oldham similarly won a best actor Oscar for his turn as Churchill in The Darkest Hour. It was damn good but we’ve all seen plenty of footage of Churchill so the delusion that he was perfect was not quite there. Still he embodied the character and it was a bravura performance. 

Bruno Ganz gave an incredible performance as Adolph Hitler in Downfall. The movie was controversial because some claimed it humanized Der Fuhrer. I thought that was precisely the point. Hitler was a human and it’s important to remember that true evil springs from us. This was not some monster created in a lab or that arrived from another planet. Hitler and all those who did his bidding were people. Just like you and me.

So far I’ve only mentioned men, let’s fix that. Cate Blanchett (in yet another Oscar-winning performance) was positively brilliant as Katherine Hepburn in the aforementioned The Aviator. She barely looked like the great actress — not her fault — but totally captured her voice and mannerisms. 

Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (yeah, she won an Oscar too) was mesmerizing. So too Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash (yup, got an Oscar) in Walk the Line opposite Mr. Phoenix. Singers are especially hard to do but great actors somehow manage. John Cusack and Paul Dano both excelled as Brian Wilson in Music and Lyrics.

I can’t believe I’ve gone this far and not mentioned Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in Milk (yes, he won the Oscar too, the Academy loves to reward actors for playing real people). It was one of the greatest performances in a film I’ve ever seen.

Ya know who else was good as real people? From the same film, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein in All the President’s Men and Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee. That was a helluva cast.

Here’s one that doesn’t get mentioned a lot, Joan Allen as Pat Nixon in Oliver Stone’s Nixon. That’s a tough one to do because you’re playing someone who is so publicly restrained. 

Damn! Here’s another I forgot and it’s another Oscar winner, Robert DeNiro as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. In terms of portrayals of real people it’s got to be in the top five along with Penn as Milk. 

Shout out to Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I hope people realize that Robbie is much much more than a gorgeous woman, she’s one of our better actresses. Here’s an example: her portrayal of Tonya Harding in I, Tonya. Another stunning bio pic performance.

Here’s another for my top five (better make it a top ten it’s getting kind of crowded), Al Pacino as John Wojtowicz in Dog Day Afternoon. Surely one of the greatest performances never to garner an Oscar. Of course Wojtowicz is not a familiar figure (according to those who knew him or met him — like my wife— Pacino nailed it) so I don’t know if that’s the same thing as Penn’s Milk. Maybe there’s two categories: portraying familiar people and those who, while real, are not seared into the public consciousness. It’s a whole different deal playing someone that the public is less familiar with. It’s much easier for Warren Beatty to play Clyde Barrow (Bonnie and Clyde) and John Reed (Reds) than for David Strathairn to play Edward R. Murrow (Good Night and Good Luck) or Meryl Streep to play Margaret Thatcher (Iron Lady).

There’s a terrific performance in a film not widely seen that’s well worth mentioning here and that’s Michael Sheen as the great British football manager Brian Clough in Damned United. If you’re not familiar with Clough watch the film then check him out and You Tube (there’s tons of clips) and you’ll see how good Sheen was. Another lesser known but brilliant performance was Ian McKellen as the director James Whale (Gods & Monsters). Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce (Lenny), Denzel Washington as Malcom X (Malcolm X), Ray Liotta as Henry Hill (Goodfellas), Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth ( Schindler’s List) were also good. So too Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn (Coal Miner’s Daughter) and Diana Ross as Billie Holiday (Lady Sings the Blues).

I’m sure I’m missing a lot. Some haven’t been mentioned because I’ve not seen the movie or don’t hold it in high esteem.

I wonder from an actor’s perspective if it’s more difficult to play a historical figure or one who’s well-known in fiction like Henry Fonda playing Tom Joad (Grapes of Wrath) or the many women who have played Jo March — most recently Saoirse Ronan — in the many versions of Little Women? People develop pretty strong ideas of what a fictional character in a book looks and sounds like and the darn thing about it is they vary. If the actor’s version varies too widely from something resembling a norm, you’ve got trouble. Is it easiest to play a character who comes from an original screenplay? I would think so. Not only are you not dealing with the same type of expectations from the audiences, but you’ve got license to create the character pretty much as you see fit (though the screenwriter, the director and maybe even the producer might inhibit that process either for better or worse.)

Anyway I’m interested to see what Margot Robbie does with Barbie. Just hope she gets the voice right.