I just rewatched season 2, even after all these years, Nina was phenomenal as Katherine. She sizzled and that role just suited her so well. She was such a different character than Elena, and Nina really shined with the differentiation of the two. She was bad, and it was delicious.
share Exactly, same for the first half of season 5. Her characters are at least as differentiated as Tatiana Maslany's on Orphan Black.
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"Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth"
Absolutly
shareI think Nina did a great job on TVD. Her portrayal of Bitch Katherine was awesome but for me her comedic touches to human Katherine were just great. Nina has great comedic timing and I think she would do well to aim for a lead role in a Hollywood rom-com.
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Never argue with stupid people,they will drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.
I loved her in season 5 when she was human Katherine. One of my favorite scenes is when all the dopplegangers are together doing a spell with Tessa and Amara is like "A grimwhat?" And Katherine is like "idiot.". Really good timing. I can definitely see her in a rom com.
shareLiked that scene too, grimwhat? Was good. She was so good in every aspect, miss her. And wish her the best.
We're all on our way out, act accordingly.
I'm not really a fan. Sure, her characters are distinguishable but individually she does not portray them very well. Katherine was (for most of the part), a bitchy, high-school mean girl portrayal. She is not on par with Tatiana at all. She has done some emotional scenes very well, such as when Jeremy died and when Katherine's daughter was being given away, but the bad outweighs the good.
None of the regulars on this show are very strong, IMO, they're just very attractive people. Certainly not Golden Globes material.
S.P.E.R.M member 270
I completly disagee. She gave deph to katherine,something a bitchy, high-school mean girl lacks of
shareI got a new-found respect for what Nina does when I saw Paul portraying Silas. It was like watching a sassy Stefan. But with Katherine, her voice, mannerisms and body language is different from Elena. She does the change whole-heartedly and I realised that is not something every actor can do. I think she puts everyone on this show who has played multiple characters or different versions of their characters to shame.
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul.
Exactly
shareTotally agree! I have said this many times on here, she changed her voice, her walk, etc., it felt like 2 different actresses. While she benefitted a bit from hair and makeup changes, Stefan felt like Silas. I think the decision to play Silas as Paul's personality made no sense in the context of the character, why was this super powerful 1000 year old witch was a sarcastic emo teen?
shareIt's always weird cause in the S5 premiere he plays Silas serious with a dry "I hate the world" attitude, and only makes one actual joke I think and after that I feel like someone told him to Hamm it up hard. While I thought he was funny, a 2000 year old immortal shouldn't have known so many pop culture references.
shareI can forgive hamming it up a bit for entertainments purposes, they have all done it. The problem for me is that whenever Paul is asked to do something different, I just see Paul being Paul. Paul is naturally a sarcastic, dry, dark-humoured guy so I guess that is why. It won't win him any acting awards but who really cares?. He is much more impressive to me behind the camera than in front of it. He really shines in the directors chair, he has a good eye.
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Never argue with stupid people,they will drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.
Yeah, I also feel that's the problem with Silas though, he was changed from being the scary villain in S4 to a darker of Paul Wesley himself in S5, I was trying to say I feel like Paul really tried in the premiere, but they instead wrote Silas to be with the quips because it worked for Katherine. Kai also had a little bit too much humor pre-Merge. Paul and Ian are both gifted directors, I wish they were directing the final episodes, they obviously put more into it than the what seem tired circulation of Director list for TVD.
sharePaul as Silas made her look good, sure, but that's because he was excessively bad. Katherine and Elena are portrayed differently, I agreed on that. The part that I don't agree with is that they are portrayed well individually. Elena is OTT in terms of being dull and basic and Katherine is OTT in terms of being evil and sassy. I like Katherine because of the way that she is written, but don't feel that the acting was good in most cases. Nina being one of the stronger actors of the main cast isn't saying much because IMO none of them are great.
S.P.E.R.M member 270
I thought she was good before I saw Paul as Silas so that's not the reason but it made me realise how much work she puts into differentiating the characters.
I think Katherine being OTT is what makes her entertaining to watch so I don't see that as a bad thing. I do find Elena dull but I never had a problem with believing whatever emotion she is trying to convey so again I don't see the performance as bad.
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul.
It's one think for the character to be OTT, it's another for the acting to be so. I will give you examples of what I believe to be bad acting.
As Elena: excessive exhaling during line delivery; it doesn’t sound convincing.
As Katherine: strange eyebrow movement during line delivery and constantly tilting her head to one side makes her look like she's trying too hard. Good acting looks effortless, even if a lot of effort was put into it in reality. That is why I do not think that she compares to Tatiana, who has portrayed OTT characters but scarcely overacts. Clearly she also puts a lot of effort into her portrayals but it doesn't seem that way.
S.P.E.R.M member 270
Well, to each his own. I actually like the head tilting and simply see it as a classic Katherine mannerism.
To me, Ian Somerhalder is an example of an actor trying too hard and where it doesn't look effortless. I don't see Nina that way at all and I think she really shines in some of her more emotional scenes.
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul.
I agree, Nina did an amazing job differentiating her characters. Katherine was an OTT character, Elena more sedate. Human Katherine was different to vamp Katherine. Amara was completely bat *beep* crazy. Katherine as Elena was not the same as Elena, and pre vampire Katherine was different again ans was human Elena v vampire Elena. This woman palyed many variations of the same but different character and pulled it off.
A brief comment on Ian. Ian has been effortless at portraying Damon in all of his forms until this last season. This attempt to bring back humanity-less Damon feels forced, and at times the acting has been forced although the scene when he ripped out Sybils heart in the last episode was just classic Damon and well acted as was the scene in the car with Stefan.
Furthermore, when I see Ian, I see nothing of Damon in him only in stills. During interviews, his mannerisms, speech patterns etc are nothing like Damon aside from the fact he talks with his hands but even those actions are different.
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Never argue with stupid people,they will drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.
Nina was excellent, if you look at S1 you can see that she was unsure of herself and gained confidence as the series progressed, that said by S2 she was a force to be dealt with, so good! By the time Nina left the show she had the experience and confidence that she needed for an acting career.
I love the progression that I've seen in Nina. Am impressed!
A brief comment on Ian, Ian's portrayal of Damon has not been effortless, ever, for this guy to assume this character took hard work and he pulled it off, in spades, let's not forget that just because he has a pretty face, like Nina, he hasn't worked to prove himself.
Furthermore, the Damon we see now, is exactly the one that Ian wants us to see, the emotionless, humanity free servant of Cade.
P.S. Stills? Speech patterns?
Wow.
We're all on our way out, act accordingly.
Yes, so true. I was thinking of Amara also and how she managed to make her feel so different as well. She was required to do many different variations of her characters and she definetely delivered.
The thing with Ian is that Damon gets a lot of funny lines and I probably would find Damon funnier if it wasn't for Ian's delivery. It's like he's either trying too hard to be funny or he's too aware that it is funny. When it comes to comedy I just prefer a more deadpan delivery. I also think he uses his "crazy eyes" too much.
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul.
He does that strange thing with his eyes all the time, it's really distracting. He also seems to be stuck on portraying Damon with the inability to move outside of the role. When I saw him on Lost again after he started TVD, he was acting just like Damon.
S.P.E.R.M member 270
I agree 100% with this. In Ian's return as Boone in the Lost finale, he wasn't playing Boone and it was sooooo distracting. And I know he still knows how to play that neurotic / introverted personality well because we still see that in Damon flashbacks. So it really just looked like Ian didn't want to plain *act* in that scene.
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