Acting

1. Acting

3. Janet Leigh – Marion Crane Within Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’, Janet Leigh portrays the main character Marion Crane. A key scene within the film whereby Leigh connects the audience with Crane’s character is when she is in the car and is driving on her way to see Sam after replacing her car with a new one. Without using any dialogue, Leigh uses her facial expression and gestures to portray the anxiety that she is currently feeling after the run in with the police officer. On Marion’s face, we see her brows are furrowed, she bites he lips indicating indecision and worry and her hands and clutching and unclutching the steering wheel of the car displaying her nervousness. Leigh continues to purse and unpurse her lips to show that she’s increasingly getting worried over her actions. Her facial expression however, transforms radically when she begins to hear the voice over dialogue of the man she has stolen from. Leigh shows this through slightly smiling and her eyes demonstrate a glow of pleasure that she has managed to get steal from such an arrogant and horrible person. She smiles and almost justifies her decision in taking the money.

5. Anthony Hopkins - Norman Bates Within Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’, the multi personality character of Norman Bates is portrayed by Anthony Perkins. A key sequence whereby we see the depth and skill of Perkin’s acting is in the closing sequence. Here, Bates has been captured for the murder of Marion. The ‘mother’ personality has taken over. While he is sitting in the police questioning room, Perkin’s face is one of confusion and displeasure. His brows are furrowed and creased and his lips are firmly pursed. Mother’s voice over can be heard reaffirming that she had to take over; she had no choice; Norman was too weak. Perkins then relaxes his facial expression. His brows have relaxed and his eyes are more open and innocent, confident that he will be able to convince others that he is ‘harmless’. He briefly smiles and looks friendly as Norman did earlier. At the end of this sequence, we see another side of Norman/Mother. The disturbed side. To portray this Perkins tilts his head down and angles his gaze upwards giving him a deranged, evil and sinister look. The audience is then left convinced that Bates/Mother are indeed disturbed and evil.

7. Hugo Weaving – Agent Smith Within the Wachowski Brother’s ‘The Matrix’, Hugo Weaving portrays one of the lead agents who is essentially a machine. His character is known as Agent Smith. Using his acting abilities Weaving portrays this character in detail during the interview sequence he has with Neo. Weaving’s movements and the way he enters the room are slow, precise and calculated. This is to reflect the fact that he is not human and very mechanical like. The way in which he speaks and delivers his dialogue is very stilted and deliberate reinforcing the notion that he needs to calculate and process information like a computer would. When Agent Smith tries to make Neo an offer, he tries to appear more human. To do so, Weaving removes his sunglasses so that his eyes can be seen and he leans forward. Although this is designed to mimic an emotional human connection, he still appears cold and stoic through Weaving’s performance as the character of Smith will always be a machine.

9. Joe Pantaliano - Cypher Within the WachowskiBrother’s ‘The Matrix’ (1999). Joe Pantaliano portrays the character of Cypher, a crew member on the Nebbecenezza. During the scene whereby Cypher reveals his betrayal to the team by preventing their exit from the Matrix was well executed by Pantaliano through his acting skills. Here, Pantaliano uses his eyes to sweep over Trinity’s body making it clear that he is attracted to and is romantically interested in her. This is further confirmed when he leans close and whispers in a soft tone his confession to her unconscious body. He touches her almost in a loving manner. This behaviour is diametrically opposite to the way Cypher than interacts with Morpheus’ body. Here, Pantaliano straddles him to face him directly. This indicates a lack of disrespect and desire for confrontation. Unlike his confession to Trinity, Pantaliano delivers his script to Morpheus in an aggressive and angry manner. His eyes stare threateningly at Morpheus. He points aggressively at him and punctuates every word that he uses indicating frustration and hatred. Through acting, Pantaliano has clearly demonstrated to the audience the different feelings that he has towards Morpheus and Trinity and why he blames them him being trapped in the ‘real world’.