He was in Fat Albert, Snakes on a Plane, Barbershop 2, My Boss’s Daughter, Love Don’t Cost a Thing, and Crank Yankers. You probably would not be able to pick him out in a line up unless you were watching Nickelodeon during the mid to late 1990s. He is Kenan Thompson and he deserves a little respect.

Thompson certainly paid his dues as a child actor on a couple Nickelodeon television shows and kid movies. But he has been strong enough to make the transition from child actor to adult roles. Which is no easy feat.

Thompson made his debut with The Mighty Ducks and Heavy Weights in 1994. Thompson has been working for 15 years and is just getting warmed up.

Now Thompson is a regular on Saturday Night Live. In order to survive on SNL, a cast member must be a good actor. Thompson proves week after week that he can play any role thrown at him and his impersonations are just icing on the cake.

Some would think landing a spot on SNL is the apex of an acting career. However, it is actually a pivotal point that could make or break a career.

We all know Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Chris rock, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler to name a few have enjoyed success after SNL.

But not all former cast members are as fortunate. Victoria Jackson, A. Whitney Brown, Beth Cahill, Gary Kroeger, Tom Davis, and Don Novello are a small sample of the many that dropped off the radar after SNL.

Thompson has proved he is ready to play the lead in a major movie with Fat Albert and Good Burger. He has proved he had the talent with his long resume. Thompson deserves to stand with the A-List heavy hitters. I hope he soon gets his chance.

You may not know her from How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, The Last King of Scotland, The House of Mirth, Closure, The Mighty, or even Hell Cab. But you do know her as Special Agent Dana Scully from the X-Files.

Gillian Anderson earned her breakthrough role as the badge toting medical doctor hunting aliens with the lead of her FBI partner. The series survived ten seasons, a movie, and a sequel. The television series could easily stamp Anderson with the typecast like her male co-star, if not for her unfailing dedication.

Anderson continued to practice her craft with small parts while her small screen persona raked in the money. In retrospect, it seems as if Anderson stumbled onto a goldmine while her real dream was to strive as an actress. Or perhaps Anderson was smart enough to pick her roles so completely different than her popular television role in order to keep out of the pigeon hole audiences and directors love to use.

Anderson threw herself into dingy roles with The Mighty and Hell Cab to show she could offer more. She refused to be typecasted. She pushed herself in drastically different roles audiences are not used to seeing her.

In closure, she really stretched herself. Anderson’s performance turn any person’s head. You watch her character work through a 180 degree turn. In the end, her performance make you want to spend and hour in the shower scrubbing yourself clean. She made you believe every moment you watch.

Her versatility shined through with her different venue choices and her master of accents. Anderson did not limit herself to work in movies and television. She has given an award winning performance in Micheal Weller’s What The Night is For in London. Anderson doned her childhood English accent for roles in Closure and The Last King of Scotland.

She did it with pride and with no concern for the paycheck. Gillian Anderson is a great actress and is proof to what all one-dimensional actors and actresses should strive for.

You have probably seen him in more than one movie. Paying his dues in small parts. Playing his roles so tactfully, you may gloss over him. He patiently stalks the perimeter of the big name performers he sometimes works with. I am looking forward to the time when he will finally strike with a lead role and claim the star status he deserves.

In 30 Days of Night, he was the stranger who helped the vampires attack the town. In X-men: The Last Stand, he was the winged mutant. In 3:10 to Yuma, he was the loyal gunman who fought to save his outlaw friend. His performance was real and drew you into the story.

In Alpha Dog, he was the crazy thug whose debt to the wrong drug dealer made him lose his brother in a kidnapping gone wrong. His performance was scary, but you could not look away.
In Big Trouble, he was Tim Allen’s sarcastic son. His performance was believable as he appeared casual.

Foster has come a long way since his debut on Flash Forward, the television series short lived fame lived on as reruns on the Disney Channel. Foster has the talent to keep the audiences’ attention as the lead in any movie. With luck, he will find the right project that can show off his talent and catapult his career to where it deserves to be.

He has the charisma to play the leading man in any script he wants. He has the power to make most any movie into box office gold. Keanu Reeves has enough credit to sell the tickets to any movie by simply attaching his name to the project.

Beyond the list of movies he can claim, or the millions he has earned, Keanu Reeves is a bad actor. Since his debut in Parenthood or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Reeves has done little to progress as an actor. He gives the pinnacle aspect of his character in Point Break. From that movie on, he is exactly the same character in all his later movies.

Speed, Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix, Constantine, The Replacements, the list goes on. Reeves give you different shades of the same guy he regurgitates over and over. Reeves has had the opportunity to widen his horizons with so many different scripts. But no, he is not capable of even trying.

Reeves does not attempt to change his speech, mannerisms, or walk for different roles. He has found a profitable formula and refuses to stray from the path.

At least he is dependable. You can walk into a theater with confidence because you know exactly what he will give you on screen. He is the semi-spaced out surfer dude the gives ‘whoa’ new meaning.

You have seen her in Sweeney Todd, Harry Potter, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, Live from Baghdad, Planet of the Apes, and Fight Club to name a few. You have heard her in both Wallace & Gromit movies and Corpse Bride.

Carter’s popularity is due to her dark gothic roles. Though her long resume is sprinkled with some lighter roles, it seems she is the current Queen of Goth.

She shows you the best way to get rid of a dead body in Sweeney Todd while sporting a corset. She plays two sides of a witch in both Harry Potter and Big Fish. She plays a unashamed low-life in Fight Club. And she is fun to watch in all these roles.

But there is more to her depth. Carter can make us believe she is a sweet mother in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Or an empathetic researcher in Planet of the Apes (2001).

That is the reason Helena Bonham Carter is a good actress. She does not stick to the same bland roles. While she does well working in Tim Burton’s dark world (along with Johnny Depp), she can play different roles. She can play a range of characters and make you believe she is that person on screen.

That is my definition of a good actress.