HANGAR MO-55

The Jack and the Beanstalk Test

3 min read

0### Few things are admired in an actor as much as range. Being able to convincingly disappear into a wide array of characters and archetypes is deeply impressive, and while it’s hard to rank actors on such a scale, it’s easy to point them out.

My wife and I were discussing this just before watching The Last Witch Hunter, a Vin Diesel flick from 2015 that’s as good a time as it is fun to heckle. There’s legitimately neat setpieces and uses of special effects, cool magic, and Vin Diesel spits more charm than you typically expect from the man.

Talking about Vin Diesel’s range is what set us on track to talk about it for a good half hour before even starting the movie. A man of many faces he is not, but he’s got a little flexibility. And that’s when she hit me with The Test:

An actor with truly great range can play the four primary roles in Jack and the Beanstalk:

  • Jack
  • The Bean Seller
  • The Parent
  • The Giant

They don’t necessarily have to be able to play these roles a particular way - they just have to make it convincing. Sell it.

The first example I gave (and the first one that always comes to mind for me when talking about actors) is Willem Dafoe. I can easily see him playing each of the roles in a wide variety of ways.

Then, she hit me with Danny Kaye, and I don’t know if there’s an actor with better range. I’ve only seen three of his films, and I have no doubt he would absolutely and totally embody every role.

Nicholas Cage would be a fun one. He might not fully disappear into each one, but he would act the everloving fuck out of each one. He’d do The Bean Seller and the Giant true justice.

I might update the lists below at some point.

Actors/Actresses who I think can pull this off1:

  • Danny Kaye
  • Willem Dafoe
  • John Candy
  • Michael B. Jordan
  • Gary Oldman
  • Octavia Spencer
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar
  • Antonio Banderas
  • Thandie Newton
  • Daniel Radcliffe, and I’d be extremely interested in his take on the Giant
  • Giancarlo Esposito

Honorable Mentions:

  • Nicholas Cage, for The Bean Seller, and The Giant, and for putting his whole entity into The Parent and Jack
  • Pedro Pascal, who I’d believe as Jack, The Bean Seller, and The Parent
  • James Earl Jones for The Bean Seller, The Giant, and The Parent
  • Viggo Mortensen as The Bean Seller and The Parent
  • Cate Blanchett as The Bean Seller, The Parent, and The Giant

Footnotes

  1. I can add a lot of actors to this list, and it really highlights just how overwhelmingly Old and White and Male it could unequivocally get. It’s important to acknowledge that it’s because of who these opportunities were primarily granted to, and I think only adds to the prestige of the non Old and White and Male folks who make it on. ↩

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