Best Descriptions of Bad Acting

I spoke to the walking wounded in my home town on Sunday and he used a rather original metaphor to describe the overwrought quality particular to the writing of many Indian hacks. "Like child actors in Hindi films, always over-acting." This made me laugh a great deal because its one of those images that makes sense immediately. 

There is much joy to be taken in particularly bad acting--I feel great awe that I'm being allowed a special glimpse into the construction of a persona, the struggle to assemble it and the spectacular ways in which it can fail. I like being able to identify the inauthenticities in the expressions of a truly bad actor because then it increases your appreciation for the actor who is accomplished and nuanced.

I want to take the chance here to include a brilliant description of particularly bad acting by Nancy Franklin, who recently reviewed a television series called 'The Beast' for The New Yorker. She says of the actor Travis Fimmel: "His expressions are those of a person whose face itches but whose hands are tied, and all he can do is twitch until the feeling goes away."