Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

ignore_me_im_high t1_jedn35g wrote

Reply to comment by grumble11 in Cynthia Rothrock was the best Martial Arts female movie star and yet she almost never gets any credit by Lili_Danube

Better than a lot of her male contemporaries. JCVD is terrible and so is Jet Li. Their acting only got better when they started doing movies that could afford/cared about doing more then one take of each scene..

−14

PennStateInMD t1_jedy6ao wrote

Hmmm. It's hard to think of any actor that would not benefit from multiple takes.

13

ignore_me_im_high t1_jee04vg wrote

Right.... and if Cynthia Rothrock didn't get those extra takes and those other actors did, then it's easy to see why someone might think she wasn't as good at acting.

I mean, in their first English speaking roles neither Jet Li or JCVD could even speak English and were just doing lines phonetically. It was awful to say the least, and both those actors getting to be in bigger films had nothing to do with acting ability. Cynthia was easily on their level at the very least.

2

-SneakySnake- t1_jeen0fj wrote

'cause it's not just about acting, it's also who looks good on a poster. Cynthia Rothrock looks like Kitty from That '70s Show, not at all like an action star. Michelle Yeoh for example always looked convincingly tough. Same deal with say, Pam Grier if you wanna go back a little further.

You do know that there were other martial arts guys in the '80s and '90s that studios tried to get behind and they bombed for pretty much the same reasons, right? They mighta been great martial artists but they looked like someone's dorky dad.

3

ignore_me_im_high t1_jegec6b wrote

Chuck Norris did ok for himself and he's probably the most average looking person ever. His beard had always been a joke, he's essentially a woodshop teacher from the 70s.

Jackie Chan? Hasn't looked tough for a day in his life.... so I think you're "reasoning" leaves more than a little to be desired.

1

-SneakySnake- t1_jeghlz8 wrote

Chuck Norris wasn't that big a deal, man. His biggest releases were all with Cannon. If you know what Cannon was, you'd know why that's not great.

As for Jackie Chan, he didn't really play "tough" parts, he was generally a goof who got into trouble. Tough wasn't his persona. He was like the Tom Hanks of martial arts movies. Or Buster Keaton more accurately.

If you think being marketable isn't an important part of being a movie star... I really don't think you know jack-shit about the subject there. Sorry to say.

2