The New York Times recently asked a bunch of high profile actors (including Sandra Bullock, Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson and George Clooney) to discuss their favourite performances of the last decade.
I’m surprised at the general timidity of the choices (Eddie Murphy?!) but three I’d totally agree with are Woody Harrelson on Ulrich Mühe (The Lives of Others), Vera Farmiga on Michael Fassbender (Hunger) and Zoe Saldana on Tang Wei (Lust, Caution).
Here’s a few I’d say were amongst the best performances of the last ten years:
- Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive (2001)
- Danny Huston in ivansxtc (2002)
- Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper in Adaptation. (2002)
- Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (2003)
- Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church in Sideways (2004)
- Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- Bruno Ganz in Downfall (2004)
- Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote (2005)
- Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood (2007)
- Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men (2007)
- Mathieu Amalric in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
- Anamaria Marinca in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)
- Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008)
- Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man (2009)
I’m sure there are more, but I’m still amazed that no-one mentioned Daniel Day Lewis.