On the big screen, there are very talkative characters, but also others who are very sparing with their words. Focus on 6 movie heroes whose voices we rarely hear.
In the cinema, we love big mouths, talkers, those who talk a lot and who, sometimes, do not let others place one. But we also really like the more mute characters, who prefer the economy of words to profusion and who thus often surround themselves with a mysterious aura. Focus on six of them, movie heroes who speak little but are remembered very well, embodied in particular by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ryan Gosling or Tom Hardy.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Terminator”
Columbia TriStar Films
In our list of mute heroes, it is impossible to ignore him… in silence! The Terminator embodied by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1984, in front of the camera of James Cameron, is indeed a famous movie hero for expressing himself on the screen with parsimony.
In this great classic of SF, “Schwarzie” utters only seventeen sentences (nineteen, if we take into account the times he borrows the voices of a police officer and Sarah’s mother) and 58 words. The T-800’s most famous speech? Inevitably when he balances the essential “I’ll Be Back”!
Finally, note that the character played by Schwarzenegger will almost become a big talker in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, since there will be 700 words to his credit. With a salary of 15 million dollars on the film, the actor thus earned on average more than 21,000 dollars per word!
Tom Hardy in “Mad Max: Fury Road”
Village Roadshow Films (BVI) Limited
Follower of roles of few words (Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, for example), Tom Hardy does it again with Mad Max: Fury Road. In this 2015 theatrical reimagining of the myth, his Max Rockatansky character is a veteran of a desert war, trying to survive alone and having given up being attached. One of his peculiarities: he is very sparing with words, since he only pronounces 52 sentences.
“Max is a guy who just wants to go home but has no home”explains Tom Hardy. “There is nothing left for him but silence, pain and destruction. He lives in a universe devoid of humanity, but he is still looking for it.”
It should be noted that to create his cult SF franchise, the Australian director George Miller studied the cinema of the pioneers and in particular silent cinema, such as that of Buster Keaton. Certainly no coincidence…
Groot in “Guardians of the Galaxy”
The Walt Disney Pictures
In the Marvel superhero feature film Guardians of the Galaxy, released in theaters in 2014, there is one amazing character that stands out: Groot, a tree-like humanoid voiced by a certain Vin Diesel. Almost silent, he utters only one sentence: “I Am Groot”.
Vin Diesel has revealed that he recorded the famous “I Am Groot” more than 1000 times! The Fast & Furious hero dubs the plant alien in Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and French. For the hexagonal version, the Hollywood star pronounces a cult “My name is Groot”.
On a more serious note, it should be noted that doubling the character of Groot proved to be a therapeutic exercise for Vin Diesel, then affected by the death of Paul Walker, his friend and colleague on the saga Fast & Furious. According to the actor, the innocence and sensitivity of the “floral colossus” allowed him to mourn his comrade, who died in a car accident.
Ryan Gosling in “Drive”
The pact
In Drive, released in theaters in 2011, Canadian actor Ryan Gosling plays a lonely young man, “The Driver”. He drives by day to Hollywood for the cinema as a stuntman, and by night for gangsters.
Ultra professional, The Driver, who has his own code of conduct, also has the distinction of not being very talkative, whatever the circumstances. In 1h40, he pronounces only 116 sentences and 891 words! A silence that gives the character played by Gosling – and the feature film by Nicolas Winding Refn – all its mystery and strength.
Clint Eastwood in “Pale Rider, The Lone Rider”
The Malpaso Company
Another not talkative movie character at all: the one played by Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider. In this 1985 western that he directed himself, the American legend embodies a mysterious solitary rider dressed all in black who arrives in LaHood, a mining town in California.
LaHood’s last independent gold diggers are harassed by the gang of Coy LaHood, the town founder who wants to take over their claim. The perfect opportunity for the enigmatic character played by Eastwood, with his shooting skills and no need to express himself much, to restore order.
It should be noted for the anecdote that in addition to speaking very little, the character of Eastwood in Pale Rider is devoid of identity, as were those that the actor played in “The Dollar Trilogy” (For a Fistful of Dollars, And for a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).
Kevin Smith in Silent Bob
TFM Distribution
In Kevin Smith’s films, there is often the brilliant duo composed of Jay & Silent Bob. The first, played by Jason Mewes, is a real talker, while the second, interpreted by Smith himself, is almost silent.
Silent Bob’s speeches in Kevin Smith’s films, from Clerks to Jay & Bob strike back, are really not legion. But why is this character so mute? “It’s really because Jason talks a lot. It was as simple as that”said Smith at the Zanies Comedy Club during the Wild West Comedy Festival, in remarks reported by the site Comicbook.
“I wanted to have Jason in a movie, but I didn’t want him to be standing there alone talking or talking to someone who happened to pass by.”continues the American filmmaker. “So the idea was to have a buddy who stands there, who is basically his sounding board, who he talks to all the time.”