What Secretly Great Actors Do You Like?

Eva Green in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
*NOTE: Originally published on Readwave

They may star in garbage, but they can sometimes outperform the pros.

This Monday marked the 35th birthday of actress Eva Green. In general, her very presence in films and TV shows like Penny Dreadful fill me with anticipation. She is among the most interesting actresses currently working today. Everything she does has at least one scene of amazing physicality and dedication that makes you realize how fearless she is. At times, she outclasses those that are multiple Oscar-winning performers with demented enthusiasm. Even then, her actions aren't used as a gimmick, but something more complex. She is defined by her confidence and sexuality, using it artfully to lure us in to her twisted fantasy. It makes oddly more attractive. 

Yet here is the truth: I wouldn't be able to give you a Top 10 for her career. This isn't because of the noticeable brevity. I couldn't even give you a Top 5 without half of the selections coming across as mediocre fodder. Yes, I still consider Green to be one of the current greats, but you know what: she's in predominantly terrible movies. For example, she's great in Dark Shadows, which is Tim Burton's love letter to Tim Burton's love of pandering. 300: Rise of an Empire is utter garbage, even if there's one great scene in it. Coming out towards the top is White Bird in a Blizzard, which is risque melodrama that is more about Shailene Woodley being sexual than Green's overbearing mother figure. If one was to compile her best work, it would be wise to just use fragments of these movies.
Yet I am attracted to her work, finding so much of the visceral glee that comes with the film medium. She was the reason that for a few days, I honestly thought that Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was really good. However, there is one singular force that almost redeems this: Penny Dreadful. The Showtime horror show is a great blend of macabre with classical characters and themes. It's a weird concoction that may be uneven in quality, but is far more consistently enjoyable than some of HBO's biggest hitters. The largest reason is that it is Green's career personified. She writhes like a demon possessed every few episodes and the magic is there. Her possessions unveil an actor so dedicated that it makes Daniel Day Lewis look lazy. It is in these moments that you embrace the insanity and realize the truth: Green is great.
Which is why I want to bring a certain question to the table: What actors do you genuinely like that are in projects that will not let them have credit for their brilliance? I'm talking roles that may be so inspired and specific in niche that the Oscars or Emmys will not recognize them. Try and find one with so much allure to you personally that to explain yourself is to look foolish to those that don't get it.
The popular answer is Nicholas Cage.In a sense, it would be easy to gender swap Green for Cage. Yet I don't see the magic that Cage brings anymore. He may make The Wicker Man a surrealist laugh riot, but what about all of the other times that are just plain hammy? I can't count the amount of Direct-to-Video titles from the past decade that I have no desire to see. Yet I know plenty of enthusiasts who will defend him needlessly, even turning him into a meme culture. I will admit that when he's on, he's on. But most of the time, he is far gone.
In a way, it is easy to see Green going down the same path with b-movie productions. It is a fear that precedes my anticipations. However, she is still fascinating simply for the effort that she puts into every role, great or terrible. What makes an actor good is not their project, but their charisma. The one benefit is that Green, for all of the generic roles she's given, doesn't quit. So while I am forced to admit that she hasn't been in a few good movies, I still really like what she brings to them. 
I am not entirely sure where the line between a performer being misunderstood and just being awful is. To an extent, Green and Cage are my bars for contemporary insanity despite their variances in experience. There's likely more performers like Green, but right now she is earning a major cult status that fans of only good films won't notice.

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