Mansur Ahmed

Whenever comedians go serious, they tend to give us among the greatest of dramatic performances. Three names in particular come to mind: Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, and Robin Williams. There is a very intense vulnerability in all comedians. It’s an important quality because the greatest comedy is raw, often observational about very awkward and uncomfortable truths. To make us laugh about these things, an individual has to put themselves on the line, to be willing to risk making a fool of oneself. Many of us know what it feels like to be embarrassed, especially in front of a large group of people. It’s usually a traumatic experience and the average person may recoil from ever putting themselves into similar circumstances for quite some time, if ever again. A comedian isn’t perfect overnight. A comedian isn’t perfect at all. To get up on stage and tap into the uncouth segments of an entire audience of people’s personality takes years of practice and failure. Comedians aren’t ordinary people. They need a strong will to fight through all the hopelessness and self-doubt, and these kinds of experiences and feelings, and a comedian’s willingness to confront these feelings head on in an attempt to stave them off, must bring them to a deeper, more intimate understanding of oneself. So it’s no doubt comedians are geniuses of the acting craft. Acting isn’t just about doing an impersonation of a character, it’s about being a translator for the character’s emotions. Who better equipped to make the examination of a personality than those of whom are already experts in the darker side of human nature?

Jamie Foxx of course grabbed our attention with his seamless portrayal of Ray Charles. He deservedly earned the Academy Award that year for Best Actor. What some people might forget is that he was also nominated the same year as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the Michael Mann film, Collateral. You can’t exactly compare performances. Ray Charles was a larger than life figure, and a performance of Ray Charles will overshadow the performance of a sheepish cab driver called Max. But I think Foxx’s role as Max is a better example of his acting range. He showcases real power and restraint. He doesn’t get under your skin with big gestures or explosions of unbridled passion. It’s with his subtlety and the quiet way he expresses fear and regret that the character is defined for us. Lots of people will take Ray Charles as his definitive performance, but you can’t see the whole picture of Jamie Foxx’s depth without witnessing the complete dichotomy. He will soon be in the upcoming movie The Soloist and it looks as though we have not even scratched the surface of his ability’s vastness.

When Jamie Foxx was just starting out, he was a member of the sketch television show, In Living Color. An alumni of his was Jim Carrey. If you look at his early career, Carrey is the last person in the world anyone would think about taking seriously. Then came The Truman Show. He followed The Truman Show with a second dramatic performance in The Majestic, which is very underrated. Despite having proved himself with Truman, Carrey’s acting in Majestic was not taken seriously. Then a few years later came Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, nothing short of a revelation. In this movie, Jim Carrey is totally camouflaged, and I don’t mean in physical appearance. His entire personality is transformed into a meek, insecure individual. This is what acting is. The thing about comedians, Carrey in particular, is that they are extremely charismatic and so full of energy. In a role like that of Joel Barrish from Eternal Sunshine, Carrey is forced to keep that energy at bay. It creates for very interesting tension, especially with the tumult of emotions this character is subjected to. You can feel him wanting to explode, but Carrey’s nature in that movie is to keep everything bottled up inside. It’s wrenching to witness the flurry of heartbreak, denial, love, and loss, then to watch Carrey try and helplessly preserve the feelings which he took for granted.

The greatest example of a comedian who exercises restraint in dramatic performance is Robin Williams. Williams is actually not very synonymous as a comedian for his work in films, but as a stand-up comic. He has done very few anarchic comedy films, but more black comedies or character driven films that have humor. That’s not to say when Robin Williams explodes on screen you won’t fall out of your chair with laughter, but most times the laughter is balanced with sadness. Films like Mrs. Doubtfire or Good Morning Vietnam, which were marketed as comedies, have elements in them that will leave you with more than just laughs. Then there are his downright intense performances like Awakenings, The Fischer King, or One Hour Photo. Robin Williams is one of the most articulate actors out there, and I guarantee this is because of his intuition as a comedian. It has always been said that the best way to know someone is to know how to make them laugh. Maybe comedians know us better than we know ourselves.