The 5 Most Intense Acting Performances Ever

With the hundreds and perhaps millions of acting performances in films it would seem very difficult to narrow down the list of the 5 most intense acting performances ever. That's exactly what the website call Study Finds has done.

What a job that must have been to put this list together, after all there are so many to choose from. You can go all the way back to the golden age of Hollywood and see some pretty intense acting performances from great actors like Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando and James Cagney. Those were all great actors who were larger than life and would make the most of any scripts, but the modern actors that you will see on this list are all much more intense. That stems from the scripts that called for a heightened sense of reality as opposed to the scripts of that time that were much more gentle.

Today's actors relish the opportunity to turn up the intensity volume to grip the audience in a way that would have been considered way over the top in the past.

Because I have always been a fan of the late Roger Ebert, I have chosen to use his reviews to describe the performances based on his reviews at the time of the movie's release.

5.  Charlize Theron as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster", 2003

Here's a review of her performance by the late Roger Ebert:

What Charlize Theron achieves in Patty Jenkins' "Monster" isn't a performance but an embodiment. With courage, art and charity, she empathizes with Aileen Wuornos, a damaged woman who committed seven murders. She does not excuse the murders. She simply asks that we witness the woman's final desperate attempt to be a better person than her fate intended.

4.  Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull", 1980

Here's what Roger Ebert said about DeNiro in Raging Bull:

It's not De Niro doing Brando, as is often mistakenly said, but De Niro doing LaMotta doing Brando doing Terry Malloy. De Niro could do a “better” Brando imitation, but what would be the point?

3.  Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in "The Shining", 1980

Here's Roger Ebert on the character Jack Nicolson played:

 We meet Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a man who plans to live for the winter in solitude and isolation with his wife and son. He will be the caretaker of the snowbound Overlook Hotel. His employer warns that a former caretaker murdered his wife and two daughters, and committed suicide, but Jack reassures him: "You can rest assured, Mr. Ullman, that's not gonna happen with me.

2.  Daniel Day-Lewis as oilman Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood", 2007

Here's what Roger Ebert said about his performance, noting that Day-Lewis was in fact channeling another great American actor:

The performance by Day-Lewis may well win an Oscar nomination, and if he wins he should do the right thing in his acceptance speech and thank the late John Huston. His voice in the role seems like a frank imitation of Huston, right down to the cadences, the pauses, the seeming to confide. 

1.  Heath Ledger as The Joker in "The Dark Knight", 2008

Roger Ebert knew that Heath Ledger was going to win an Oscar for his performance, and he was correct;

The key performance in the movie is by the late Heath Ledger, as the Joker. Will he become the first posthumous Oscar winner since Peter Finch? His Joker draws power from the actual inspiration of the character in the silent classic “The Man Who Laughs” (1928). His clown's makeup more sloppy than before, his cackle betraying deep wounds, he seeks revenge, he claims, for the horrible punishment his father exacted on him when he was a child. In one diabolical scheme near the end of the film, he invites two ferry-loads of passengers to blow up the other before they are blown up themselves

Many rock stars have tried to transition from stage to screen with mixed results, but these seven rock star acting cameos will always be worthy of a standing ovation.

Idol playing himself in The Wedding Singer is simply brilliant.  Plus, the disdain with which he says “CD players” is something that always gets a laugh.

There are few scenes more quotable than this gem that finds Wayne and Garth backstage hanging out with Cooper. Cooper says fans still come up to him this very day to reenact it.  The best part?  He actually obliges!

Who could forget Vedder, Gossard, and Ament as members of the Matt Dillon-fronted Citizen Dick in Singles?!  However, that's still not the best grunge musician acting cameo of all time...

...because the title of "Best Grunge Acting Cameo" will always be Alice In Chains' Cantrell as "Jesus of CopyMat" in Jerry Maguire.

Sure...Eddie's fate was grizzly, but Meat Loaf's performance is easily the most underrated number from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Morissette doesn’t utter a single word in her role as God in Dogma, arguably Kevin Smith’s best film.  (Yes, better than Clerks!  I said it!)  Nonetheless, she makes the most of her screentime and is remarkably powerful.

In addition to being a musical genius, Bowie had incredible comedic timing.  As if we all needed another reason to miss him!