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Scene Stealers

Scenes We Love: Henry Fool

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:02:00 EST

Filed under: Independent, Scene Stealers, Trailers and Clips

One of the most overlooked actors in the world of cinema is Thomas Jay Ryan, also known as Henry Fool. In Hal Hartley's world, he was a Fool by name, but only in the most dynamic and classic sense. Ryan served us one of the most dynamic and irresistible characters that quirky cinema has seen. He's an actor that oozes presence, and it's one of Hollywood's biggest oversights that this man can't get a big, and dramatically engaging break.

Writing about Henry Fool, I want to call it a masterpiece, and I don't use that phrase lightly. The film is wonderful, but it is more about the world that was created, and how Fool's adventures can morph from serious poetry and child rearing to spies, intrigue, and explosions (in Fay Grim). In Fool, Ryan even makes the simplicity and awkwardness of grammar seem intriguing, and below, you can watch him teach Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) the differences between there, their, and they're.

Yes, the scene taps into my writerly inclinations, but it's also a wonderful example of Ryan's skill -- taking such a simple notion and thought, and expressing it Just. So., punctuating thoughts with a simple tapping of the piano key, and deliberate pauses.

Scene Stealers: Chiwetel Ejiofor

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:01:00 EST

Filed under: Joss Whedon, Scene Stealers

Most American audiences know Chiwetel from his small part in Love Actually; he played the groom to Keira Knightley's blinding ultra-white toothy smile. Americans who don't know him from that probably know him from playing the antagonist in Serenity, where he almost single-handedly managed to outshine Nathan Fillion and crew. He played the lead in last year's Sundance hit Kinky Boots, where he literally walked away with the entire film. If you haven't seen Kinky Boots, I can't recommend it enough, last year I found myself liking it despite the predictable storyline and the hit-you-over-the-head message. This guy has so much charisma that he should be marketing and selling what's left over.

Although classically trained as a Shakespearean actor in the UK, his first film role was in Spielberg's 1997 Amistad. Since then he's also been seen in Dirty Pretty Things, She Hate Me, Four Brothers and Melinda and Melinda. He had four major film roles in 2005, and so far this year he's been in both Inside Man and Children of Men, which isn't too shabby. He has four big projects lined up in 2007, including two that pair him with Don Cheadle, and he can be seen in HBO's Tsunami: The Aftermath on Sunday, December 10.

Chiwetel ("Chewie," to his friends and Han Solo) is one of those actors who can be difficult to describe. He really has a commanding screen presence, but he doesn't have the forced "I'm the star!" quality of someone like Russell Crowe. He's more quiet and imposing without chewing up the scenery. He's played both a a cross-dressing drag queen (is that redundant? Like, a drag queen who dresses like a man? I think I just confused myself) and an interstellar bounty hunter in equally convincing and different manners. It's hard to be the Scene Stealer when you're not someone who tries to completely fill the screen with your presence, like Alan Rickman and Parker Posey do pretty well, but Chiwetel (I know that sounds like I'm on a first-name basis with the guy, but it sounded better than typing Ejiofor over and over) pulls it off in every role he's been in so far. Here's hoping he'll keep his streak running.

Besides, when's the last time we've been rooting for someone named Chewie that wasn't covered in fur?

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Scene Stealers: P.J. Soles

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:04:00 EST

Filed under: Horror, Music & Musicals, Scene Stealers

It may not be fair to label someone a scene stealer when they've got the lead role in a film, but when they're up against The Ramones and manage to hold their own, they've earned it. P.J. Soles, playing high-school groupie/wanna-be songwriter Riff Randell in Rock 'n' Roll High School, is one of the reasons why people still remember and cherish this goofy Roger Corman-produced movie today. (Other reasons include The Ramones and Mary Woronov.) Soles manages to be perky without acting at all stupid, and her high level of energy helps keep the movie interesting. The above photo is from a memorable scene in an all-girls gym class where the scantily clad young women shake it to the movie's title song.

Rock 'n' Roll High School is one of Soles' few star turns -- she mostly appeared in supporting roles, usually as a "screamer" in horror films or as a bubbly girlfriend. One of her first memorable films was the 1976 movie Carrie, where she played one of the mean teen girls -- the one in the red baseball cap, which became a trademark look for her. Many people remember her as the chick whose every other word was "totally" in Halloween. She also has a small role as a sorority girl in the 1980 film Breaking Away. (I didn't realize until writing this article that Soles was married at that time to Dennis Quaid, who had a lead role in the film.) She was one of Goldie Hawn's fellow recruits in Private Benjamin, and then played Bill Murray's love interest in Stripes.

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