Saturday
Aug242013
Remember When...
Saturday, August 24, 2013 at 6:49PM 
...it seemed like Emile Hirsch was going to happen? How can 2007 be so long ago now? Who would you say is in the Emile Hirsch position right now? I want to say Alden Ehrenreich. Any other suggestions?
tagged Emile Hirsch
Emile Hirsch
Reader Comments (15)
I remember being a big fan of Into the Wild. To bad he has not was not able to build on that. As an aside I am surprised Sean Penn has not directed another feature since then either.
He's older but perhaps Eddie Redmayne?
Agreed, Into The Wild was quite fantastic and Emile looked like a promising prospect, a one to watch. He has had a few semi-interesting roles since (Killer Joe) but nothing thats close to Sean Penn's Into the Wild. Shame. The immediate high of Into the Wild followed by the excruciating low of Speed Racer = Game Over
John Gallagher Jr. So good on Broadway in Spring Awakenings and of course now in Short Term 12.
He's not really a leading man ever though Into the Wild is an obvious highlight in a movie. I just think when he is works well sometimes with others but not in the forefront. I liked Killer Joe but actors like Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon, and Juno Temple were completely going tiff for tiff with McConaughey while I really just thought Hirsch was over-matched against him- another thing that seemed unbelievable in 2007.
Speed Racer is a classic cult movie case (classic in having the fate of the many movies that go from disasters to cult classics). The post-Matrix Wachowskis get to do anything they want with a huge budget and basically make the movie you expect. I cannot really fault the acting and the 'stain' for that movie does not even touch The Long Ranger/John Carter levels of troubled production flops.
It seemed so upward after Milk. Was he just too picky? He did an Ang Lee movie but that movie was a straight up misfire. His pre-Into The Wild career was interesting in working up but playing a teen for forever with movies and TV.
He'd make a wonderful young version of a Leo character in one of those crazy decade-spanning biopics.
I think what was good for Alden Ehrenreich was Beautiful Creatures flopping so he was not stuck with some Pattinson fate. Even DiCaprio worked up to leading man by taking some smart studio projects where he worked with some of the best in the business but was the clear supporting player before he went through Titanic and then went through the stage as a movie star. Ehrenreich is somewhat doing that with PCW, Allen, and to some extent Coppola (Tetro and Twixt are underrated imo).
CMG's mention of The Lone Ranger makes me think of Armie Hammer as the possible successor to Emile Hirsch. I don't think he's ever going to be as big as he wants to be. (Though he never really headlined a hugely successful film.)
Maybe someone like David Oyelowo? Can he break out of the "Oooh yeah- he *was* good" bubble? Or Miles Teller? Logan Lerman?
Yes. I was just thinking this the other day!
Someone let me be god of Hollywood for a day, and I'll definitely get ol' Emile signed to something good again. (Preferably reteaming with James Franco!)
Eddie Redmayne or Logan Lerman.
I'm with Evan and Philip H. Right now Logan Lerman seems to be in that spot (perhaps with his former costar Ezra Miller).
Hirsch is only 28. Might he not still happen...?
Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller are both in that position where they've had solid performances in well-respected films. Their careers could go anywhere after Perks and Kevin, respectively, but who knows? (Lerman also has Percy Jackson, but that franchise isn't doing him any favors.)
I was never high on Emile Hirsch. Even when he lands good films he never boasts the best performance in them. Milk was the Penn show, Killer Joe was the McConaughey show and he was even outshined by Into the Wild's fantastic ensemble.
Hirsch can't carry a film, either. He had as much charisma as a lamp post in The Darkest Hour and Taking Woodstock. He was possibly one of the worst part of those films. The CGI was the real star of Speed Racer, so I'd give him a pass for that. But even beyond the lack of charisma or chops, there's also the fact that he's still playing immature, sullen kids. If he wants to have any kind of career, he needs to break free of that typecast.
So, yeah, you won't see me mourning Hirsch's missed opportunities.
W.J. -- I'm with you on this. I didn't do this post as mourning for missed opportunities so much as an errant thought about how much people were expecting for him around the time of INTO THE WILD. But I don't think anything he's done since then makes good on that promise (and I'm not sure he's as good as people thought he was in that film, either)
Scott C -- Lerman is a good choice for this career spot. I have high hopes both because i've met him and he seemed unusually down-to-earth and because he has Aronofsky's Noah coming up and clearly wants to challenge himself.
Logan Lerman seems so bland to me. I am braving the next 10 years where he is the rom-com male lead cipher.
Ezra Miller seems like a person who will get solid work from the art house circuit for the rest of his life with Perks being the closest to the mainstream he gets.
"Maybe someone like David Oyelowo? Can he break out of the "Oooh yeah- he *was* good" bubble? Or Miles Teller? Logan Lerman?"
Black male leads are hard to come by so we can be certain that barring something miraculous that Oyelowo's just going to be an invaluable supporting player for his career.
Miles Teller has a John Cusack meets frat-bro vibe going on. I think he can break through.
CMG, that's a good point about black male leads and part of the reason why I'm not so optimistic about Michael B. Jordan's chances although I think he's similarly positioned right now.
Back in 2006, I remember everyone talking about Derek Luke with "Catch a Fire" and a bunch of mainstream projects in the pipeline. Aside from an interesting guest spot on The Americans, it's been an uphill climb ever since.
And what of Chiwetel Ejiofor? He seemed to be on the cusp of something big back in 2002 and again in 2005 and again in 2009. But the momentum of Dirty Pretty Things, Kinky Boots and Endgame didn't carry him very far. Frustrating.
Even guys like Don Cheadle and Terrence Howard, both seemingly anointed by Hollywood, have a rough go of it with subpar scripts, second-fiddle sidekicks and the straight-to-DVD bin.
I still think he'll be a good character actor. I read an interview with him in The Playlist (I think) in which he admits some misfires in the choices he made after Into the Wild and how Speed Racer made Hollywood dismiss him as leading man material and that's ok.
Nathaniel, I know you didn't like Prince Avalanche but I thought he and Paul Rudd were absolutely fantastic in it.