Anna in Medical Investigation it was good until the end
Anna in Medical Investigation that's the problem, her facial expressions
In the first clip Anna is actually kinda cute, until she does a complete turn and has to emote and pretend she's upset. Let's just say ummm... yeah.
And also, her laugh and her body language when she laughed were weird and seemed fake and forced.
And in the second clip, her facial expression past the 0:20 mark is hard to describe, she's as blank as a cardboard.
Thanks for the clips. It was interesting to see those again and find Anna to be ...exactly the same...
I do remember watching the show here and there when it was on, but I actually remember very little of it. I guess that says something in itself. I tuned in mainly because of Neal McDonough, because I thought he was excellent in Band of Brothers.
The first clip, her flirt laugh and twirling of hair was so, well, annoying :lol: and layered on like a kid putting icing on a cake, and by around fifty seconds, where she stands up to put her coat on, incredibly forced even though the guy was supposed to have a tip off to figure things out, and the ending of it was her usual brittle, petulant fare. Like a miffed, sussed out cheerleader or something.
The second clip, the woman at the desk was more grounded in one line than Anna was with her schpiel to get the files. The look on her face at the very end was again kinda like a thwarted child.
Like people have said before, she just has no warmth or depth to her whatsoever. She's definitely a one trick pony and even that one trick isn't pleasant for me to watch.
As PA says, Anna just doesn't have much range. If you watch Gary or Melina or Carmine or Eddie or Hill in another role, it's obvious they're playing a different character. Seeing those clips of Anna as Eva, I didn't feel she was markedly different than Lindsay...even though the two characters aren't really anything alike on paper. (Eva's supposed to be something of a hard-nosed PR type.) She doesn't inhabit her characters the way other actors do, and she's just not natural. That script is always obviously there--she's reading the lines, following the directions in the script or that the director gave her...but there's no depth to her performance.
Agree. Inhabit, that's a great word for precisely what she doesn't do.
It's like there's this perpetual transparent veneer to her performances, and can see through them to the mechanics of them. It's like her Motivations for the characters in a scene, and her function within them, just read louder than the characterizations themselves. That would mean that we are reading behind the mask of performance to see her Acting. It often seems to me that the characters as a result come across as lacking sincerity or feel self centred or even manipulative, because the mechanics of her acting and how the characters are going about supporting or moving the story forward surface and read above the actual characters and story in question. Not seamless, and not something that helps one simply sink into the show.
All I can say is that as far as PR types go, JJ on Criminal Minds puts her to shame, for being tough, compassionate, flirty on occasion, and funny when called for. And the writing (and performance of) to accomodate AJ Cook's pregnancy? Miles above.
I can't help but wish someone else had been cast as Lindsay; I wonder if there'd be so much dislike for the character if someone else had played her.
My pick? Amy Acker, from Angel and Dollhouse. She's an actress who can easily play the "awwww shucks" small town girl but actually has the warmth Anna lacks. I'm having trouble finding good clips on YouTube, but here's an
interview with her. There are a lot of fanvids, but without going too many pages in, here's the only real acting
clip I could find. She's playing a badass in it, so it's not the best example, but at least you can tell she can act.
I'm sure there are a lot of other actresses who could have played the part of Lindsay better than Anna. I really think her lack of warmth is as bad as her limitations as an actress--that scene with Adam where she says she "can't deal" with him might have been cute if she didn't come off so chilly and bitchy.
I remember a ways back in this thread someone asked that very question, would people like Lindsay better had someone else been cast to play her. And I think my response at the time was that it was moot because in S2 she was innocuous enough. But I really gotta rethink and revise that now. I really do wish someone else had been cast. I now do wonder if that would even have made the writing seem better, and if the writing's been getting a bad rap due to consistently trying performances. Mebbe the Dark Secret wouldna been so atrociously played (if they'd planned all along to have that as a backstory for Lindsay), mebbe Lindsay woulda come off as more complicated and nuanced in her troubled relationship with Danny, maybe there really was so much mor potential in the writing given her character that was never realized, so much more that could have been invested into the performances with someone able to convey subtext and subtleties more believably. Mebbe those bitchy moments would have seemed deliberate and made her a more designed character with that as another layer and edge to her. Whaddaya do.
The clips of Amy Acker were fun. But man, that I dunno what that props rocket launcher was made outta, to just toss it away like she did :lol: musta had her wheaties that day :lol:
Never watched Angel, but Dollhouse was great. I get the sinking feeling Dollhouse won't be making a return next season, but we'll see. Dunno about Mad Men or Breaking Bad. I have only started to admit I'm getting slowly tugged into Fringe from time to time and hope they leave it alone. If Dollhouse doesn't, then Amy Acker could be available...
I think that part of her problems lie in her eyes. She has that vacant look in every scene, the emotion doesn't register. It's very odd seeing her face and listening to her lines, while her eyes remain the same.
.... I guess that you are born with some abilities and it's probably difficult to achieve a dramatic range for an acting job, but she's an established actress, so it's her job to show emotion with every part of her body, no matter how hard it is. You can't simply read lines and scrunch your face every now and then when you remember that the scene requires something more.
I think that's very true. I think that goes to both the lack of sincerity, layers, and subtext in her performances. Depth, in other words, as people have already said. You'd also think that after four seasons there'd be some growth or curve in performances, if not character depth. Often seems to be sliding backwards to me. S4 and S5 have not been the strongest of the series as a whole.
Originally posted by Poppet
Watching those clips reminded me what Lindsay looked like in Season 2. I don't mean to be rude to Anna, as I don't think wardrobe/hair people do her any favours here, but Lindsay looks like she has aged about 10 years in the last 2 season. Strangely she seems to be the only character aging, in fact I think Stella looks younger now than season 1.
She did look very young there. ...*shrugs*
I think Stella's an example of that growth. I think in S1 there was a harder line taken with the character and some did see her not simply as strong, but sometimes cold, and I know what they mean. I think the character has warmed without losing that strength, has relaxed into a less guarded compassion, inverse to the trauma she suffered, and is a character I've come to like even more as the series has progressed.
