re.:Avery Brooks' acting style

[Dal Rassak]

I've come across a few critical and disparaging remarks about it. Why?
To my mind he's a superb actor. Certainly his style is theatrical - which isn't surprising, given that like a lot of the actors who end up playing main parts in Star Trek, he's classically trained. But the same applies to Patrick Stewart - watch Picard giving one of his famous speeches, and that's pure stage acting right there. He could be in a Shakespeare performance. Yet I've never heard him being criticized for it.
As far as I'm concerned, the theatrical style fits characters like Sisko and Picard to a nicety, because they're written to be larger than life. A bit of grand declamation never comes amiss there I feel.

 

[Avon]

i like brooks, i think it's More. To. Do. With. The. Slight-Ly. Odd. Way. He. Speaks when he's angry/excited, which some people find distracting.

 

[R. Star]

Really Brooks gives his best performance when he's playing an angry/upset role. He often does fall flat when he's just delivering the daily dialogue and you can't have him being angry ALL the time without him becoming a parody.

 

[Deckerd]

i like brooks, i think it's More. To. Do. With. The. Slight-Ly. Odd. Way. He. Speaks when he's angry/excited, which some people find distracting.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[Relayer1]

i like brooks, i think it's More. To. Do. With. The. Slight-Ly. Odd. Way. He. Speaks when he's angry/excited, which some people find distracting.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Bill. Shatner. Also. Did. Something...Similar !

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

i like brooks, i think it's More. To. Do. With. The. Slight-Ly. Odd. Way. He. Speaks when he's angry/excited, which some people find distracting.

Wasn't that how Shatner delivered all of his lines as Kirk?

 

[commanderkai]

Really Brooks gives his best performance when he's playing an angry/upset role. He often does fall flat when he's just delivering the daily dialogue and you can't have him being angry ALL the time without him becoming a parody.

Eh I just found the delivery of some of his lines in the first season incredibly flat disinterested. After Season 1, he seemed to have more interest in putting some weight in acting Sisko out beyond just a paycheque.

 

[DS9forever]

I think once Brooks was allowed to shave his head he really gave greater performances.

 

[indolover]

Brooks is one of the outstanding actors in the franchise, period (behind Sir Patrick Stewart IMO).

I think Brooks actually portrayed anger the best of all actors. My favourite scenes in that regard are where he punches Garak in In the Pale Moonlight and scolds Worf and Jadzia in Sons of Mogh.

 

[EnsignRedshirt]

To my mind, no-one could do righteous indignation the way Sisko could. I pity whoever stood in the firing range of one of his angry speeches.

 

[R. Star]

To my mind, no-one could do righteous indignation the way Sisko could. I pity whoever stood in the firing range of one of his angry speeches.

Well yeah, he was usually within punching range when he was giving one of those.

 

[Ro_Laren]

I pretty much always liked his performance of Sisko.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

My least favorite thing is how in early season one he goes, "ah.. hee HEE HEE" as a kind of filler laugh. And also he walks down stairs very oddly, absolutely rigid from the hips up bu this hips down are moving like a marionette.

All of that kind of disappears though.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I liked Brooks' performance as Sisko a lot. I think any kind of unevenness had more to do with the way the character was written at times, but I think generally Brooks played Sisko as a thoughtful character who could explode if pushed too far.

 

[KNH]

The speech... oddity is the reason I prefer german Sisko by far.

 

[lurok]

I always felt he just wasn't...engaged...in first couple of seasons. Like, why the frak am I doing this? (other than a paycheck). Hence the slight monotone performances. But once he gets into it (around end S3, S4) and loosens up, he's a joy to watch, 99 per cent of time. Great cadences. Though he still does strike the odd bum note, and his Hannibal Lecter routine is just seriously creepy (and not in a good way; just makes me giggle).

 

[Marcus Porcius Cato]

Like some in the Fandom, I feel that Brooks took a long while... until S4 to get into the role. Until then, he felt, stiff and distant.

 

[Third Nacelle]

Like some in the Fandom, I feel that Brooks took a long while... until S4 to get into the role. Until then, he felt, stiff and distant.

I think that was intentional. Brooks was playing Sisko as a man who was having trouble accepting his role. He was distant at first because Deep Space Nine was not where Sisko wanted to be.

 

[Deckerd]

I think it's more I got used to his strange delivery than that he materially changed it. I have to say his singing in S7 was cringe-makingly awful. Whoever thought that was a good idea should be shot at dawn.

 

[DS9forever]

Brooks is a great singer, he even released a CD:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/averybrooks