WE’LL GET TO THE DOGS WHO CURSE—and thus incite laughter—in a moment. Before we address them, however, I would like to take a moment to praise Will Forte for taking a grave professional risk in the feature film Strays.
As an actor, your job is to be believable. Not realistic, precisely, but believable. For instance: Tony Stark isn’t a realistic character, but I believe Robert Downey Jr. when he smarmily informs Chris Evans’s Captain America—who, again, is not realistic but believable as a teen who takes magical steroids so he can throw a circular shield at villains in such a way that it always bounces back to him—that, absent Iron Man’s suit of armor, Stark is still a “genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist.”
When you’re a hero, being believable is fine. Good, even! Everyone wants to be a hero. And sometimes, when you’re the villain, being believable is perfectly safe. Anthony Hopkins is eerily believable as Hannibal Lecter, and that believability has helped transform Hopkins into a household name and Lecter into something of a lovable scamp. Sure, he eats people’s brains, but only when they’re rude. That’s our Hannie!
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