Talk:Overacting

A fact from Overacting appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 1 August 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that overacting can be intentional for some roles, particularly when exaggerating the evil characteristics of a villain, but is often the subject of parody and satire?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2006/August.

Wikipedia

Beginnings

This is a very simple beginning to this article, and there are plenty more examples other than Jim Carrey. I've just started it off the top of my head without any sources yet, so any content additions are certainly very welcome. violet/riga (t) 22:21, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Merging and redirecting to existing article at Over-acting. -- Vary | Talk 22:26, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've reversed this, as it is the larger article. violet/riga (t) 22:30, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Questions about the article

It seems to me that this article does not take into consideration a wide variety of acting styles and methodology and is geared toward what we think of as "good" film asking, or method acting, in which actors are portray characters with subtlety. The comment that "enunciation can lead to exaggeration" seems almost negative toward enunciating.

The references in the article are from no credible acting source, but rather compiled from movie reviews and quotes from the IMDB as well as the NNDB. As a person with a degree in theatre, I question these sources and this article as it comes from overacting from a vary narrow, cinematic, American point of view.

It is my opinion that the article should be overhauled to reflect a more holistic approach to the topic rather than a black and white "it's bad or it's funny" approach that this article takes. For instance, in Japanese theatre overacting is common in the Kabuki style while Bunraku (puppet theatre) and Noh theatre are much more subtle. (Liontamarin 03:02, 1 August 2006 (UTC))[reply]

I agree -- this is written from a viewer's stance, with little understanding of the craft of acting, different styles of drama (and comedy), and a history of the theater. --Dhartung | Talk 05:31, 1 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Relax, all article start like this as most of us are not a specialist in any field. All articles start out quite badly and biased on one view. Anyway, Kabuki is more of a "stylized" acting rather than "overeacting" as clearly, nobody use to react like that. It's supposed to be "dramatic" and less "realistic". "Overeacting" is a very cultural concept and differs widely across media and genres. Getting as many idea as possible into a complete article is going to take time.--Revth 08:24, 1 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. I know nothing about acting other than from a viewer's perspective, so it only includes information that I thought about. Maybe there is loads to add, maybe very little - we'll see as the article evolves. violet/riga (t) 09:47, 1 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Intentional/Unintentional?

I don't think these divisions are helpful. There is no such thing as 'intentional overacting'. If a person is required to exaggerate his or her dialogue or performance by the director, then he/she is not overacting but fulfilling the requirements asked of the role. In these cases the actor needs to identify which elements to overexaggerate and to what extent. That is not overacting in any sense and is not comparable to poor acting.--Stevouk (talk) 13:09, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Historically, in Jazz

mugging was used by many african americans during jazz performances because it played into the stereotype that black people were easily entranced by music. mugging allowed african american performers to play in white venues because it put the audience at ease. mugging, therefore was a defense technique.

This should be integrated into the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.81.50.242 (talk) 23:29, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]