As nerds, we have a lot of great examples of epic scenery chewing: Brian Blessed in ‘Flash Gordon’; Wentworth Miller’s Captain Cold on ‘The Flash’; William Shatner in… pretty much everything? But we, as fans, seldom truly think about the heightened reality created by such perfect overacting. Much as the sight of Batman in a mostly realistic setting makes him seem possible (and makes every other dipstick in Tae Kwon Do class think he’s on his way to combatting The Joker), really good scenery chewing overenunciating madness makes the more subtle performances feel more real, leading to memorable moments and today’s Stanislavskian query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would also like to remind Faithful Spoilerites of the existence of Charlotte Rae, who left no backdrop without teeth marks as Edna Garrett, asking: Who gives the best, most scenery chewing, over-the-top, overted experience of them all?
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Toshiro Mifune as Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai. His goofiness makes everyone else seem so respectable and stoic. Amazing range, considering he was the archetypical quiet man without a name decade later.