Karl Urban has joined the top ranks in the My Favorite Actors list. The list isn’t that long. I have actors I love to watch because they are pretty to look at but only a few actors actually count as favorites. Karl Urban is now one of them. I loved the man in Star Trek (2009) and Legion (2009) — in fact, he made Legion for me. He’s a fun actor with great range. After watching Dredd (2012), I like him even more.
Not because of that movie mind you. I waited for the DVD for a reason. Dredd was violence for violence’s sake and not that great on the plot and it left a lot of things unanswered, but whatever. According to the hubby, the movie stayed pretty close to the comic, which is another reason I’m happy I never bothered reading it.
The reason Dredd made me like Karl Urban even more is because of the helmet. He NEVER took off that helmet through the whole movie. Not once did you see his whole face. I didn’t even know it was him until the end credits started rolling. Once I saw his name, I recognized his voice, but I genuinely didn’t know. And that’s why he made the list. I absolutely LOVE when an actor puts aside his ego to play a role.
The top spot on the My Favorite Actors list belongs to Hugo Weaving — the infamous Agent Smith from the Matrix trilogy, or more recently Elrond in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. The man got my attention with those movies. Hell I kept watching the Matrix Trilogy because I wanted to see what Agent Smith would do next. Hugo Weaving earned the top spot because of his role as V in V for Vendetta.
Before him, I had never seen an actor pull off so much extreme emotion. And he did it without showing his face to the audience. He made me see tears and anguish while wearing a mask with a permanent smile. His voice alone gave so much to the character that I stopped seeing the mask. To this day, I can’t look at a Guy Fawkes Day mask without hearing Hugo Weaving saying, “Remember, remember the fifth of November.” Just writing this paragraph makes me want to re-watch the movie for the (what has to be) five hundredth time.
For those who are curious, also on my list of My Favorite Actors is Robert Downey, Jr. He isn’t at the top, but he is on it and his role as Iron Man put him there. He’s not afraid to act behind a mask and no one better epitomizes Tony Stark than Robert Downey, Jr. That’s what I call PERFECT casting.
I have a favorite actresses list too, but that’s a topic for another post.