9 Bad Actors Who Have Recently Given Oscar Worthy Performances

1) Nicolas Cage – Joe

Is Nicolas Cage really a bad actor? Is he even really an actor? The self-proclaimed king of the ‘nouveau shamanic’ school of acting (he invented it, perfected it, and as far as anyone can tell is the only one who implements it), Cage has been doing many a wild and freaky thing on-screen these past few years, but nobody really seems to know how to classify much of it.

Even most of the contemporary performances of Cage’s that critics consider to be great are now completely OTT (see: Bad Lieutenant, Kick-Ass), like the actor’s stuck in a perpetual game of one-upmanship with himself. Not so in David Gordon Green’s Joe though, which brings Cage down to earth, gives him a beard and a beer gut, and encourages him to give one of his most affecting performances ever.

There’s nothing artificial about Cage in Joe, in which he plays the titular Texas loner, prone to uncontrollable rages and a desperate, lingering sadness. It’s a genuine, lived-in performance, and Cage hasn’t been this good since Leaving Las Vegas, all of 20 years ago.