Acting and Acting Styles in GoodFellas
In this weeks blog I will identify three actors and their characters portrayed in the following movie, GoodFellas. The first character I will identify is that of in the Interpreter type role of acting, and recognizable, Robert De Niro, who plays James “Jimmy the Gent” Conway in this film. Interpreter means this description more typically refers to actors who take material and put their own stamp on it (Goodykoontz, and Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Often this involves actors interpreting well-known roles. In the film, GoodFellas, Robert De Niro, plays Jimmy The Gent, one of the associates to mob boss Paulie Cicero, and loves to hijack trucks. His character, is present but doesn’t overwhelm the film by his presence.
In the above scene, it shows the excitement by Jimmy “The Gent” Conway, of the next actor I will discuss and his acting style, Tommy, who is played by Joe Pesci. Joe Pesci is easily recognized for many roles in Martin Scorsese movies, like “GoodFellas”, and “Casino”, But also in movies like “Lethal Weapon 4”. His acting style could be best described as a star acting style, or as he won an award for his role in this movie, best supporting actor. A star acting style is a distinctive screen persona who is well known and popular with the movie going public, often to the point that some avid movie fans become deeply curious about the actor’s private life. Hollywood has had a century-long love affair with stars, since the days of Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford. Stars are actors who are simply famous on screen and off, personalities so magnetic that we are interested not just in their movies, but in their personal lives as well (Goodykoontz, and Jacobs, C. P. (2014). He could also be considered a Personality style actor as well, An actor whose own personality tends to define all the characters he or she portrays, so that the actor’s name alone lets audiences know what the screen character will be like (Goodykoontz, and Jacobs, C. P. (2014). I say this because of the following excerpt I found in regards to Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro first working together in the Martin Scorsese 1980 film “Raging Bull”, which led to Joe Pesci compromising the role of Tommy DeVito in “GoodFellas”. In this role he seems to playing a role close to him, an Italian tough guy, and Pesci comes across like that in many of his films (Biography, 2015).
And the last actor I will discuss is that of the main character but kind of the star acting or character acting role in this film, Ray Iotta, who plays Henry Hill. He starts the movie off by narrating his childhood and how he was interested in the mob life, and drops out of school to do just that and works his way up. He shows being the character acting role by playing a wide variety of characters, most often supporting or minor roles rather than leading roles (Goodykoontz, and Jacobs, C. P. (2014). And, Iotta fits the star role for his acting in this film, because a star is a distinctive screen persona who is well known and popular with the movie going public, often to the point that some avid movie fans become deeply curious about the actor’s private life.
The actor I would focus on in that being categorized in the same way, is that of Robert De Niro, from his roles in Heat, Raging Bull, GoodFellas, The Godfather part 2, Taxi Driver, The Fan, Great Expectations, his roles have all been the same, as that of an interpreter acting style. Below are some of the other films he’s played in.
In these clips it shows Rober De Niro’s top moments to his roles in The Godfather 2 as Vito Corleone, to his roles in the films like the Fan, Great Expectations. His roles in these films seem to all take a serious approach.
References:
Joe Pesci. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:50, Feb 05, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/joe-pesci-95
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.42518.