Running down each of the actors...how would you rate their acting styles/methods?

Hmmmmmm...this is just off the top o' my head...


BEST --- Mr. Moore, Miss Meara

Pretty good --- Arvid, Dennis, Simone, Dr. Samuels

Fair --- Alan, Eric, Maria, Sarah

Most obvious --- Darlene, Janice, Jawaharlal


Anyway, that's my take on it from just thinkin' about on the go.

Here I go.

Howard Hesseman-to me, he's pretty decent. I wouldn't watch a show that's just about the Mr. Moore character, however, because he's too bland on his own. But watching him bounce off the others shows how much talent he has.

Jeannetta Arnette-doesn't stand out to me, that much.

William Schilling-his acting is so schmacty, it's ridiculous. I really couldn't believe that this person is the head of a school.

Leslie Bega-I think she's pretty decent. I can always hear her improvised lines, and they're decent ones. I mentioned this before...during the "Grease" episode, I could really believe that she was having fun during her "audition."

Dan Frischman-when he's playing Arvid, it's good. But when he's playing Arvid being someone else (like "Privilege"), it gets too schmacty. It's like he's doing stand-up or something. (BTW-Dan F. was really a stand-up before HOTC.)

Robin Givens-I agree with you, TALL GUY, that her acting seems one-note. As opposed to "playing actions and pursuing objectives, she's just playing a state of being." (Damn theater classes!)

Khrystyne Haje-for the most part, she's okay, but there are times when I felt she said her lines wrong. In "Coach Charlie" last night, Eric was poking fun at the class, and Simone responds with "You can't be supportive" which sounded very flat to me. I think it should've been said like "can't you be supportive?" or "You can be supportive" (emphasis on "can").

Jory Husain-Okay, I'm biased because I find him highly pleasing to the eye, but I'm not going to go too easy on him. For the most part, Jory's acting is very calm, quiet, and calculated, and he's not all "in your face." There are rare moments, however, when I feel Jory is "not in the moment" and not really there.

Tony O'Dell-partially what I said about Robin, and partially decent (when he's not Alan during his condescending mode).

Brian Robbins-his acting is decent when they show the other sides of Eric, like his sensitive side towards Simone. I tune out when he's Eric the Jerk.

Kimberly Russell-I think she tries too hard a lot of the time, and it looks fake to me. (Like when she tried to be "angry" in eps like "Science Fair-Weather Friends" and "The Big Squeeze," it doesn't work for me.) However, I truly believed her in "Let's Rap." She seemed to really care about helping someone. (And she bounced off Rain Pryor-who is an overactor herself-pretty well.)

Dan Schneider-they try waaay too hard to make him funny. But when he's not trying too hard, it works.

Tannis Vallely-mind you, she was just a kid, so I'll go a little easy. Tannis improved as she got older. There was one moment in "The Outsider," where Janice was telling Charlie how great Shayeeda was, and stopped so Charlie could interrupt her. I learned that you're supposed to keep talking until you get interrupted (hence you need to improvise), so it doesn't look obvious.

Dag! The fact that NaN is giving this show the shaft is really making me dig for things to keep an active discussion going. Have I really become that much of a nerd to talk about acting?

:happyface

Originally posted by TALLguyinKY
Hmmmmmm...this is just off the top o' my head...


BEST --- Mr. Moore, Miss Meara

Pretty good --- Arvid, Dennis, Simone, Dr. Samuels

Fair --- Alan, Eric, Maria, Sarah

Most obvious --- Darlene, Janice, Jawaharlal


Anyway, that's my take on it from just thinkin' about on the go.

TALL Guy (if you're out there, since I haven't seen ya on here in weeks), I must admit that I gave a second glance...and I agree with you about Jory's (Jawaharlal) acting. I rewatched "Child of the 60s," and when Dennis gives Jawaharlal the flyer with the protest demands, he makes a grandiose gesture before reading it that read, "look. Dennis gave me a flyer. I'm telling the whole world that I'm going to read it." Also, in the recent "Will the Real Arvid Engen...," when everyone wanted Eric to sit down to teach him how to be Arvid, Jory made another huge gesture that Brian Robbins wasn't paying the least bit of attention to. And in yesterday's "Love is Debatable," while everyone else is subtly not paying attention to the opposing debater, Jawaharlal lets everyone know that he doesn't like her speech. (And he does an overly dramatic speech for his debate.) The problem is that from theater classes, he became too technical and cliche. In theater, we are taught to be loud and grandiose and project your voice...when on TV and film, everything is supposed to be simple. Theater students that don't know how to be flexible in acting tend to let the technicalities kill their acting...they never learn how to truly emote. I hate to be a hypocrite, but his acting is not as great as I thought the more episodes I see him in...but he's still cute.:D

Originally posted by realchic1999
TALL Guy (if you're out there, since I haven't seen ya on here in weeks), I must admit that I gave a second glance...and I agree with you about Jory's (Jawaharlal) acting. I rewatched "Child of the 60s," and when Dennis gives Jawaharlal the flyer with the protest demands, he makes a grandiose gesture before reading it that read, "look. Dennis gave me a flyer. I'm telling the whole world that I'm going to read it." Also, in the recent "Will the Real Arvid Engen...," when everyone wanted Eric to sit down to teach him how to be Arvid, Jory made another huge gesture that Brian Robbins wasn't paying the least bit of attention to. And in yesterday's "Love is Debatable," while everyone else is subtly not paying attention to the opposing debater, Jawaharlal lets everyone know that he doesn't like her speech. (And he does an overly dramatic speech for his debate.) The problem is that from theater classes, he became too technical and cliche. In theater, we are taught to be loud and grandiose and project your voice...when on TV and film, everything is supposed to be simple. Theater students that don't know how to be flexible in acting tend to let the technicalities kill their acting...they never learn how to truly emote. I hate to be a hypocrite, but his acting is not as great as I thought the more episodes I see him in...but he's still cute.:D

I noticed the movements he makes too. Hes way too over dramatic.

Lol, yeah, and I notice vocal stuff a lot too, so if I "hear" that somebody is acting, it makes it more conscious for me.

Currently I've been stuck workin' 58-hour weeks, so not a lotta message board time---and boy, does it suck! :mad:

Yep, Jory has definitely been conditioned by theater. I graduated with my BA in Theater, and pretty much "dropped" everything I learned, since I found a lot of it to be too cliche and corny. I am currently involved in a project at my alma mater, where I am the writer/assistant to the director, and I recruited one kid who definitely isn't the phony theater type, but who is insecure and is always trying to prove something. Theater caused him to be too technical...in our meetings, he starts out sentences with "As an actor, I tend to do..." or "I am going through the script and figuring out what I want in each scene..." and it's so ridiculously unnatural. I pulled him aside after and told him to let all that mess go. I could care less about "pursuing objectives." In all honesty, one really cannot be taught to act. There are times where I regret getting a Theater degree (as opposed to sticking with journalism, or taking English, sociology, psychology...), but that's getting way off topic, and anyone who wants me to specify can e-mail me. But to sum it up, theater training can either help or hinder a person...and it's seemed to have hindered Jory. (There are the rare moments that I do see that subtle actor in him that first drew me to him and the show. I wish I could see more of that!)