“True, some can cry better than others but I just don’t see that as noble.
I like to be entertained by actors, but I can’t say I respect them.”
To clarify: I never said acting is “noble.”
I said it was a craft and that I respect excellence in a craft, regardless of the craft. I also said that I can admire the craft without necessarily admiring other aspects of a particular individual’s life. But I could say that about any profession.
Actors, IMO, are like anybody else. Sure, there are actors who are “naturals,” just as there are “naturals” who are baseball players, cabinet-makers, chefs, entrepreneurs or any other craft or profession; but you don’t get very far just on being a “natural.”
To evaluate an actor, you need to look at his or her entire career. I have seen brilliant flash in the pan performances by people who never quite panned out over time. We don’t know what kind of a performer Heath Ledger would have turned out to be, since he died so young. For such a young man, though, he had accumulated quite a remarkable body of work.
Quite different. There are plenty of "actors" in Hollywood who make it just on looks or maybe personality. That can never happen in the world of well-paid cabinet-makers, baseball players, and chefs.
I don't consider the movies he made "remarkable".
Apparently a lot of Freepers do.