no, you don't move me any more.
I meant to do a picspam featuring my favourite Doctor Who guest stars, because there are so many who have been brilliant but who haven't necessarily catapulted into stardom. (That's not to say that the aforementioned picspam wouldn't feature Carey Mulligan, because it would. Of course it would.) I ended up spending the day looking for caps of four of my favourite actors who should be more famous than they are. In short: I talk a lot about how wonderful they are and mention that someone should see them in the theatre productions they're currently in. Today's lesson is that the London acting community is terribly, terribly incestuous.
Nathalie Press (caps from My Summer of Love): The thing about Nathalie is that she's not unrecognised; she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award this year, for god's sake. It's just that she wasn't the break-out star of My Summer of Love; Emily Blunt was. And that's a shame, because Nathalie is the better actress, I think. She's been in a lot of great independent films and in Bleak House (starring almost everyone I've ever loved) and apparently she's in Island with Colin Morgan, which will be either terrifying or excellent.
Samuel Barnett (caps from The History Boys): He's my favourite History Boy. Partly because I think he's one of the best - if not the best - actor of the lot and partly because he's only done things I've enjoyed since THB ended. He's also, of course, one of the less known (raise your hand if you recognise Russell Tovey, Dominic Cooper and/or James Corden!). This saddens me greatly, because he's fantastic. He does do an awful lot of West End theatre (he's doing Women Beware Women at the Olivier come April!), but he's one of those people who pops up everywhere for about four minutes: in John Adams, Desperate Romantics, Beautiful People and Bright Star, where he drank tea and had a total of three lines. (He was Joseph Severn. Joseph Severn!)
Anna Maxwell Martin (caps from Becoming Jane): I still sort of think of her as That Actress in That Regency/Edwardian/Victorian Thing; I get a bit of a shock every time I see her in trousers. She's got two BAFTAs but I don't think any of my friends would know her by name and that's just wrong. Remember 2004 and 2005, when she was in North & South and Bleak House? Becoming Jane is a bit pointless - great, great supporting actors though - see Miss Austen Regrets instead, but Poppy Shakespeare is brilliant. She was in a series one episode of Doctor Who, though I can't remember much of it apart from Anna and Tamsin Greig guest starring. Anna does a lot of theatre too - she was in His Dark Materials with Samuel Barnett (how incestuous). At the moment she's in Measure for Measure at the Almeida.
Nina Sosanya (caps from Casanova): See, Nina Sosanya is that actress you always recognise and who is always very good, but never gets to be the star. She's so great and in so many things that I'm not even going to attempt mentioning them all, but a few of my favourites: Teachers (Jenny!), a two-minute cameo in Love Actually, Nathan Barley (look at that cast!), Casanova, Manderlay, the Much Ado About Nothing episode of ShakespeaRe-Told, Wide Sargasso Sea (also featuring Rebecca Hall, with whom I'm a bit in love) and FM, which I loved but I don't know that anyone else really noticed. Nina, too, was in an episode of Doctor Who, of course.
Caps: e-blunt.net, davidtennantfan.com, dominic-cooper.com and
darciana (notice how the cap sources prove my point about these actors not being famous enough?).
On a semi-related note, I'm glad that the BAFTAs and I still mostly agree on what excellence in film means.
Nathalie Press (caps from My Summer of Love): The thing about Nathalie is that she's not unrecognised; she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award this year, for god's sake. It's just that she wasn't the break-out star of My Summer of Love; Emily Blunt was. And that's a shame, because Nathalie is the better actress, I think. She's been in a lot of great independent films and in Bleak House (starring almost everyone I've ever loved) and apparently she's in Island with Colin Morgan, which will be either terrifying or excellent.
Samuel Barnett (caps from The History Boys): He's my favourite History Boy. Partly because I think he's one of the best - if not the best - actor of the lot and partly because he's only done things I've enjoyed since THB ended. He's also, of course, one of the less known (raise your hand if you recognise Russell Tovey, Dominic Cooper and/or James Corden!). This saddens me greatly, because he's fantastic. He does do an awful lot of West End theatre (he's doing Women Beware Women at the Olivier come April!), but he's one of those people who pops up everywhere for about four minutes: in John Adams, Desperate Romantics, Beautiful People and Bright Star, where he drank tea and had a total of three lines. (He was Joseph Severn. Joseph Severn!)
Anna Maxwell Martin (caps from Becoming Jane): I still sort of think of her as That Actress in That Regency/Edwardian/Victorian Thing; I get a bit of a shock every time I see her in trousers. She's got two BAFTAs but I don't think any of my friends would know her by name and that's just wrong. Remember 2004 and 2005, when she was in North & South and Bleak House? Becoming Jane is a bit pointless - great, great supporting actors though - see Miss Austen Regrets instead, but Poppy Shakespeare is brilliant. She was in a series one episode of Doctor Who, though I can't remember much of it apart from Anna and Tamsin Greig guest starring. Anna does a lot of theatre too - she was in His Dark Materials with Samuel Barnett (how incestuous). At the moment she's in Measure for Measure at the Almeida.
Nina Sosanya (caps from Casanova): See, Nina Sosanya is that actress you always recognise and who is always very good, but never gets to be the star. She's so great and in so many things that I'm not even going to attempt mentioning them all, but a few of my favourites: Teachers (Jenny!), a two-minute cameo in Love Actually, Nathan Barley (look at that cast!), Casanova, Manderlay, the Much Ado About Nothing episode of ShakespeaRe-Told, Wide Sargasso Sea (also featuring Rebecca Hall, with whom I'm a bit in love) and FM, which I loved but I don't know that anyone else really noticed. Nina, too, was in an episode of Doctor Who, of course.
Caps: e-blunt.net, davidtennantfan.com, dominic-cooper.com and
darciana (notice how the cap sources prove my point about these actors not being famous enough?).On a semi-related note, I'm glad that the BAFTAs and I still mostly agree on what excellence in film means.