GUY PEARCE
Long after the highs of Priscilla, Memento and Iron Man 3, the Neighbours grad’s profile has slipped. Is it time for a comeback?
When Guy Pearce made his leading-man bids in the early-2000s, he had a bumpy ride in The
Time Machine. But he was also under consideration for another H.G. Wells variation. In retrospect, would Paul Verhoeven’s take on The Invisible Man,
Hollow Man, have been a better fit for Pearce’s evasive talents?
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Pearce noted that people still sometimes stop him in the street and ask if he’s done any acting since Neighbours. We wouldn’t go that far, but it’s been a while since his screen profile has matched his talent. While he struggled with an expository role in Mary Queen Of Scots, recent projects such as Spinning Man, Domino and Equals passed by without exciting much attention.
Whether or not that low visibility has been an indication of Pearce’s shapeshifting approach to acting, these roles are a long way from his fluent early promise. As a slippery character actor with a leading man’s charisma, he earned his big-screen breakthrough with The Adventures Of Priscilla…, L.A. Confidential and Memento. He could be camp, macho, broken and more besides, all without the seams showing.
Although his failed A-list bids left him frustrated with fame, his versatility later steered him to many fine offmainstream choices. He’s been strong in cop drag (Animal Kingdom, Lawless) and desolate settings (The Road, The Proposition, The Rover). He rose above mere imitation as true-life characters Harry Houdini and Andy Warhol in Death Defying Acts and Factory Girl, respectively.
A terrific genre return came via Iron Man 3, even if his Aldrich Killian was outshone by Ben Kingsley. Elsewhere, though, he’s been underused in minor roles (The King’s Speech), sci-fi duds (Lockout, Prometheus/Alien: Covenant) and movies beneath him. Disturbing The Peace was a streaming content-filler. And he was a highlight of the BBC’s grim-dark
A Christmas Carol, even if his emphatic jaw seemed locked in ‘humbug’ mode.
Perhaps the solution would be to unlock Pearce’s enlivening range once more. A successful redeployment of his comic chops could help, as hinted at (if not fully expressed) by Stephan Elliott’s Swinging Safari. Or, perhaps he could have good, tormented fun with a Universal monster, since The Invisible Man didn’t happen. Dexter Fletcher’s Renfield, maybe? Either way, it’s time for Pearce to be restored to full visibility. KH