Tears of a Clown Blogathon

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Wendell came up with a wonderful idea for a blogathon and even provided us with the most terrifying banners I have ever seen. He asks us to talk about a comedic actor that took on a serious role. A clown we love that gave us a hell of a dramatic performance. Here are the rules.

 1. Create a post about a comedic actor in a non-comedic role. Tell us what are your favorite comedic roles of this performer. More importantly, tell us why you like the dramatic role in question. Be as thorough as you feel you need to be. Convince us it's a great performance.

 2. Use one of the banners I have in this post.

 3. Include a link back to this post.
4. Leave a link to your post in the comments section below or tweet it to me @w_ott3

 You know, there's a lot of comedic actors that give great dramatic performances. Jim Carrey came to mind first. A comedian who I loved as a kid, but now prefer his dramatic turn. I love Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction and Adam Sandler in Spanglish as well, but I wanted to go with one that absolutely blew me away

 Mo'Nique in Precious

 If you told me a few years ago that Mo'Nique, a comedian who randomly popped up in sitcoms and movies was going to be an Oscar winner. I would've laughed at you. She's tried her hand at drama before (Remember Shadowboxer?) but this one she really nailed. She's terrifying as possibly the worst mother on Earth. The things she does to her daughter are unspeakable, and she does them with the coldest look I've ever seen in her eyes. 

 And she threw a fucking TV at her daughter and grand daughter. You don't get much worse than that. 

 You never get the sense that Mo'Nique could be funny in Precious. There's absolutely no spark of humor there. She complete shed herself of it and was cold and abusive. She deserved that Oscar for sure.

Comments

  1. DellMay 23, 2015 at 8:12 AM

    Yeah, the TV...ugh! Mo'Nique totally disappeared into that role. I'm one of the few who didn't hate Shadowboxer, but it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Helen Mirren. Fun fact about Mo'Nique, since you brought up it up. The director was Lee Daniels and her character's name was Precious. Thanks so much for participating!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMay 23, 2015 at 10:07 PM

      I didn't hate Shadowboxer either. I actually own in, and Daniels in the DVD extras really made me appreciate him more as a director. She was excellent in Precious. Thanks for hosting!

      Delete
  2. UnknownMay 23, 2015 at 10:56 AM

    Great choice! I had never seen her in any other movies, but -- yes -- watching this movie after seeing her in comedic roles must've been surreal. She was terrific in this -- thoroughly loathsome. That T.V. scene is seared into my brain for eternity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamMay 23, 2015 at 10:07 PM

      Yeah that was a huge wtf moment. I never would've thought she had this performance in her.

      Delete
  3. JoshMay 25, 2015 at 7:52 AM

    Nice choice. She definitely sheds any comedic image she had going into the role.

    ReplyDelete
  4. joel65913June 15, 2015 at 11:34 AM

    This is one I haven't gotten to yet. It just looks so heavy and disturbing I've avoided it. I'm not terribly familiar with Mo'Nique's work outside of this so perhaps I should check out some of her lighter stuff first so that I won't be totally turned off by her once I've seen this.

    ReplyDelete

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