Week 5 Assignment
The movie I have chosen is Us. This movie takes place in Santa Cruz in 1986. This is a horror movie that came out in 2019. A family is terrorized and tormented by their doppelgangers while or vacation at the beach.
Three actors from this film are Lupita Nyong’o (Adelaide Wilson), Winston Duke (Gabe Wilson), and Kitty Tyler (Elisabeth Moss). I feel that the style of acting that was used by each of the actors I pointed out in this film was realism. I don’t think there was any stylized acting because the actors weren’t trying to show that they’re acting, the movie wouldn’t be scary if it was so obvious that they were acting. I also don’t think these actors were using method acting because, with method acting, they would be pulling from personal experiences. And a whole family of doppelgangers tormenting you just sounds too farfetched to be able to use method acting with.
Winston Duke plays the father in the movie Us. His performance was very realistic; however, it was not like some of his other movie roles such as Spencer Confidential or his role in the Black Panther as M’buku the King of the Outer Guard. In those movies, he portrayed a very strong fearless leader whereas, in Us, he plays a very soft, laid-back father who doesn’t believe there could be evil around him or his family. Even when death is staring him in the eye, he doesn’t seem capable of handling it and saving his family. He’s not the leader in this film and so it seems out of character for him as an actor. Whereas his costar, Lupita Nyong’o, who plays his wife and who also starred in Black Panther as a warrior, has managed to bring from her role in Black Panther to this movie and use the fierce attitude and aggression for her character as a mom who is trying to protect her family and herself from their doppelgangers.
In Us, Lupita Nyong’o played two completely different characters, showing her capability of acting. I’ve only seen here in two different movies now, Black Panther and now Us, but I feel that just the different characters she played all in the same movie were a great performance.
I think the costuming and makeup helped to contribute to the actor’s performance. There were times in this film that the actors were injured so they had to act injured. The shadow version of Lupita’s character looked different than her human version, making her look darker, looking eviler. I think the costuming and makeup throughout this film were realistic. If someone really was trying to kill you, terrorized you and your family, and you had to defend yourself in the same ways they did in the movie, things may look the same. I would consider Lupita to be type-cast, based on the two movies I’ve seen of hers anyway. She is a fiery, strong woman character in both films.