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The End of One Generation, The Start of A New One
Other | Wednesday 8th October 2014 | Luke
It is exciting times for film fans because there is so much promising talent beginning to appear and now they have the opportunity to flourish in blockbuster films. Young actors and actresses are now being entrusted with the big roles in those big films. Look at Jennifer Lawrence, her career has experienced a meteoric rise and she is now regarded as the best young actress in the world by many. At 24 years of age Lawrence has played the role of Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games which has now become an iconic film series for many young fans. She has also already won an Oscar for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook which really was a fantastic display of her talents and also has two other nominations to her name. The relationship she has developed with director David O. Russell has been key to her rise and her best performances have been in his films! Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle were both massive films and had great success at awards, being nominated for several Oscars and Golden Globes. She has also been cast in Russell's upcoming film Joy and for the sake of many film fans I hope that this partnership continues to flourish. Partnerships are now so important for an actors/actresses career and you only have to look at Leonardo Di Caprio and Martin Scorcese to understand just how important they are.
Another promising actress arriving on the scene is Shailene Woodley. Most recently she starred in hit film The Fault in Our Stars and produced her career best performance. Shailene Woodley had a chance to portray the role of Hazel Grace, a role that comes with the pressure of the fan base that follows it. Yet the execution was perfect, Woodley produced a powerful and emotional performance that will certainly be remembered by fans of the genre. In my eyes it was up there with the performance of Emma Watson as Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a performance that set the standards for the genre. Woodley also has had roles in big films such as The Descendants which won an Oscar itself, at 22 Woodley is quickly becoming the talk of the town. She has also appeared in Divergent and is currently filming the rest of the films in the series, I can imagine very soon she will be pitted head to head with Jennifer Lawrence because of the audience these two films attract. But at the moment the lack of blockbuster experience puts Woodley quite a way behind Lawrence at the moment. Nonetheless she is a very promising young actress who has the potential to become one of the best in the business.
Moving onto the male side of things, where there is again so much potential for great actors to emerge and there already are some that are starting to arrive on the scene. Jason Clarke is one of them, he has had a fantastic past few years and recently had the lead role in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as Malcolm, the man who befriends Caesar and I must say I was very impressed with his performance. He was strong in his delivery and gave the aura of a real steely persona for Malcolm and I think it worked. Now he has some very big performances coming up, in Terminator: Genisys he has the opportunity to play John Connor. Connor was previously played by Christian Bale who was strong in role and now Clarke has taken up the mantle in the series reboot, that Paramount have already pre-planned two sequels. Clarke has not yet been nominated for any awards in his career but if he continues to develop the way he is then I think it is a matter of time before he receives one.
My other male candidate to become a superstar is Oscar Isaac, a man who has only had bit part role so far in his career so far but has recently had a few really good breaks. He has been cast in the reboot of Star Wars and has already finished filming his part in the film, due to release in 2015. Isaac is most known for his roles in Drive, the popular crime film from 2011, Robin Hood as Prince John and Sucker Punch as Blue Jones. In all of these he plays the role of the villain and is pretty good at it as well. He is forceful, particularly in Sucker Punch where he plays the owner of the club that the girls perform in. He has also shown his versatility by appearing in several different types of film as well and his biggest role was in Inside Llewyn Davis as the title role. He put everything into the role and the performance itself was very, very good. Alongside the Coen Brothers Isaac had set himself a real platform to head to a bigger stage. He has also been cast as Abel Morales in J.C. Chandors new film A Most Violent Year, a film that could well be his big break. It is being released in December 2014 in the USA and in January 2015 in the UK, which is Oscar season and I would not be shocked to see Oscars name amongst the list of nominees.
As you can see there is so much talent around at the moment and we have very little to worry about, if you think the film business will decline because of the loss of these star actors/actresses do not fret. Of course the joy that these people brought to us on the big screen will be sorely missed, in terms of replacing them I cannot see it happening ever. But that is the beauty of this business because if you think somebody cannot be replaced then they have done their job properly. One day these actors and actresses will be remembered in the same light.
Luke Robertson
