Acting - Is charisma more important than ability????

Think it is these days..

In terms of landing roles, yes I think the film industry has leaned that way in more recent times. There are lots of actors who's charisma is their talent. Take Will Farrell. He plays that card very well of being able to match off screen persona with the roles he plays and his charisma is being dry and witty and outlandish.

That said the film industry has many talented actors who on ability land roles and are able apply that ability on a range of genre's. Look at Di Caprio who yes some might argue is Scorcese's leading man, but he has had some very varied roles over his career. Similar to his co-star in Basketball Diaries Mark Wahlberg. Started with some minor supporting roles and has had some really solid performances in the lead roles.

Actors with charisma to me end up being typecast very early and easily in their careers. Jim Carrey for me was one I always expected to remain typecast to comedies and despite surviving Batman Forever landed some really good roles and put in more complex peformances like in The Truman Show, Man on the Moon and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Charisma will get you so far, but if haven't the ability you could end up in the wilderness. Travolta had charisma and was the forgotten man in the 80's because he was so limited and took time out in between failure films to improve his acting.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Think it is these days..

Think it always has been depending on the type of film you're looking at.
For example, Clark Gable, Cary Grant or Errol Flynn, why were they cast so often as leading men? Because they were great actors or because they were charismatic ones?

If you're looking at film-making as a business then box-office charisma is more important, if you're looking at film-making as art then ability is more important.

Actually I think its less these days. So many new actors I see on chat shows etc seem so void of personality and have such little to say.
I do think though that any actor needs some form of charisma to engage an audience. Which is why I really do not understand the success of 'Twilight'.

Agreed about twilight.

Twilight was succesful due to teenage girls lapping up "shirt off" shots of young muscular men, according to my wife...

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Think it is these days..

"These days"? It always was.