I am sure many of you have seen this before - it is rather famous - but I must link to it. My good friend Ruben sent it to me and I just can't get past it.
It is Kevin Spacey doing Christopher Walken's audition as Han Solo. I mean ... genius. There are others in there too: Richard Dreyfuss auditioning for C3P0 and Walter Matthau auditioning for Obi Wan Kenobi. All of them are laugh out loud funny.
I've mentioned before that I have problems with Spacey as an actor (sometimes. I liked Glengarry Glen Ross and Usual Suspects.) But I've seen him do his imitations of people on talk shows - and the guy is an uncanny mimic. Like - he's not just imitating - he's channeling these people. I have a clip of him on tape doing Al Pacino and tears of laughter stream down my face every time I see it. But his Christopher Walken is a stroke of genius. And to hear him do Christopher Walken saying "she did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs" ... is really just about as good as life gets.
Posted by sheilaShadowboxing. The walk. The Stance, before his first line is spoken. His Hairstyle.
These subtleties play up the character so much, by the time he's finished his first sentence, you're already a mess with laughter.
The man is talented. Kevin Spacey does not do bad work. Even in 'The Ref' he was good.
Posted by: Wutzizname at September 25, 2005 2:03 PMyeah, the shadowboxing is classic!!!
and also how he stops himself and says it sucked.
Posted by: red at September 25, 2005 2:20 PMSpacey's Johnny Carson is also brilliant - I remember falling asleep one night while watching Letterman and waking up right at the moment Spacey was pretending to do a Carson monologue. I had a brief moment of panic because my brain just couldn't process what I was seeing - it wasn't as if he was "doing" Carson, he WAS Carson - voice, vocal inflections, body movements, everything. Scary.
Posted by: Jeff at September 25, 2005 5:33 PMjeff - hahaha he really is uncanny! I haven't seen the Carson one, I don't think.
Posted by: red at September 25, 2005 6:44 PMI think that epsode was the first time I realized teh sadness I felt for growing older. Michael Palin and John Cleese were extra special guests that night. They did the opening sketch and then, right in the middle, they did the Parrot Sketch from the Flying Circus. You could tell they didn't really remember the lines and the audience was almost completely silent. It was so sad and lost to the times. But then there was KS all Christopher-Walken-ized. Such an emotional mixed bag, that episode
Posted by: Marti at September 26, 2005 10:49 AM