Is There any Love for Colm Meany's acting skills?

[nx1701g]

Trivia: They worked in a Trek reference in the episode. The character he played tore his rotator cuff while kayaking.

Nice. That pesky rotator cuff.

Sure, some people want to debate waterboarding, but what about poor CM? Guy gets his arm half-ripped off, like clockwork. Knowing its coming must make it worse.

Starting to think there was a Cardassian on the writing staff.

It was something that brought a smile to my face. Another show that has frequent DS9 and Trek references is Medium. Just the other night it had:

The victim lived at 1701 Pike's Way Arizona.

The account number the villain tried to bribe someone with started with 74205.

 

[Bertie]

All three of them just always seemed to speak in the same theatrical tone all the time, which made it less believable to me when they were meant to convey any emotion besides confidence. Oddly enough, even when they were struggling with personal issues, they managed to sound annoyingly cocky to me. It was hard to root for them or feel sorry for them when they always sounded so overbearing. Meany, on the other hand, showed vulnerability very convincingly when required to.

Right. DS9 was filled with stage actors who were constantly belting everything to the last row. Often times, maybe even most of the time, that was a strength. But sometimes not: sometimes they overpowered or overshadowed those few actors on the cast — like Meaney — who regardless of their background delivered more normal TV performances.

 

[DevilEyes]

(Too Much, I adore your avatar!)

Thanks. I was hoping somebody would get the reference (which I'm assuming you did).

Well I voted for him in the thread of best actor in DS9. I was apparently one of the few, but I honestly don't see why the overwhelming majority preferred Kira and Odo. I thought they were way more one-note and Colm showed a lot more range, especially in those "O'Brien must suffer" episodes.

I've noticed that people tend to say that an actor is "one-note" when it really means that they don't like the character as much as some others and were not emotionally invested enough in them.

Not in my case. I admit I hated Kira and Odo in the early episodes (especially Kira - I wished they'd kill her off!), but over time I came to like both and I still thought they were one-note because they never seemed subtle to me. The same goes for Andrew Robinson, the other apparent fan favourite.

All three of them just always seemed to speak in the same theatrical tone all the time, which made it less believable to me when they were meant to convey any emotion besides confidence. Oddly enough, even when they were struggling with personal issues, they managed to sound annoyingly cocky to me. It was hard to root for them or feel sorry for them when they always sounded so overbearing. Meany, on the other hand, showed vulnerability very convincingly when required to.

Didn't say you hated them, just that you don't like them as much as some other characters, as evidenced by the "annoyingly cocky" comment, and "hard to root for them or feel sorry for them when they always sound so overbearing" comment. in other words, you prefer an everyman to O'Brien to people with more confidence or arrogance, if you will - which has nothing to do with actors or characters being "one note". People can go through all sorts of emotional states - and these characters did, and the actors portrayed it convincingly - but they always remain the same people, and actors cannot abandon the persona, the bearing, which are the integral part of the character. It's not like a person is going to completely change his voice or speech pattern depending on their mood. That is not called "one note", that is called portraying characters consistently, and people call it "one note" only when they don't really like the characters' persona. As evidenced by the fact that I did not find them one note at all, I saw vulnerability and personal issues, and it was very easy for me to feel sorry for them and root for them.

 

[Myasishchev]

Sometimes he was a little stiff and wooden, but sometimes he was a tremendous actor. Where the Meany love?

Colm Meany is awesome. Which is why he's actually been in other things than Star Trek.

 

[Too Much Fun]

in other words, you prefer an everyman to O'Brien to people with more confidence or arrogance, if you will - which has nothing to do with actors or characters being "one note". People can go through all sorts of emotional states - and these characters did, and the actors portrayed it convincingly - but they always remain the same people, and actors cannot abandon the persona, the bearing, which are the integral part of the character. It's not like a person is going to completely change his voice or speech pattern depending on their mood. That is not called "one note", that is called portraying characters consistently, and people call it "one note" only when they don't really like the characters' persona. As evidenced by the fact that I did not find them one note at all, I saw vulnerability and personal issues, and it was very easy for me to feel sorry for them and root for them.

I think the person making the post about their theatrical background possibly making their acting come across a little more 'artificial' supports my point nicely. I don't have an issue with them being confident or arrogant and I'm not biased towards underdog characters.

After all, Jadzia is my favourite DS9 character and she is definitely one of the most confident characters on the show. I think many people find her irritating because of that, but I've always found that quality about her charming. With Odo, Kira, and Garak, though, them playing that same quality was less appealing to me and often very frustrating (Garak less so, as the show went on and he at least backed up his arrogance with some fantastic scheming).

Like I said, I think it's more their style of acting. It takes a lot of skill to be able to play smug one minute and yet be someone the audience can sympathize with when the situation calls for it. Their style made it hard for them to do that effectively in my eyes. I did feel sorry for Odo at the times when he was pining for Kira, though.

It's just that most of the time, his performance was so grating, I found it hard to care when he suffered. Same goes for Kira. By 'one note', I meant they just sounded smug (and not in an endearing way) no matter what they were saying about 95% of the time, so when they tried to show their characters' vulnerability with that same style of acting, I didn't buy it. I mean if they hadn't seemed more so forced in the first place, it would be more convincing when they tried to show natural human frailties.

 

[Wil has a posse]

Personally, I think Colm Meaney is a perfectly competent actor, but I've never been particularly impressed. Can someone give me an example of a shining moment for him in DS9? I'd be willing to watch and re-evaluate.

 

[Myasishchev]

Hard Time, maybe.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I loved him in Hippocratic Oath.

 

[mattyhugh]

Hard Time, maybe.

I just rewatched Hard Time the other day. And the final scene in the cargo bay with Basher and Ee'Char. I really hit me this time. Pretty powerful stuff.

 

[D Man]

His short scene in "Paradise Lost" as a changeling infiltrator on Earth taking the shape of O'Brien is great stuff. He takes his usual mannerisms and puts a little twist on them, making a completely new character for just a few minutes. The way he dismissively laughs at Sisko is disarming.

 

[Myasishchev]

Hard Time, maybe.

I just rewatched Hard Time the other day. And the final scene in the cargo bay with Basher and Ee'Char. I really hit me this time. Pretty powerful stuff.

The only problem with Hard Time is actually extrinsic to it--the lack of follow-up in subsequent episodes. That's par for the course for the passion of the O'Brien eps, however.