Action Week at Consequence continues with our ranking of the 30 best action movie stars of all time. Be sure to see which of these great action movies actors’ films appear on our list of the best action movie franchises of all time, as well as our look back at cinema’s great female action heroes — some of whom appear below.
The best action movies owe everything to their stars. It’s a level of difficulty that goes beyond acting talent — there are some Oscar winners on this list, but they’re not here for their ability to disappear into characters or master complicated accents. Because the important thing is how well they’re able to bring the audience along with them on their journey.
Whether across many franchises or at the center of one, the men and women depicted kicking butt, swinging swords, or putting the pedal to the metal are what make us engage with these movies. For the best action stars don’t just convince us that they’re capable of incredible stunts — they make us care about whether or not they’ll survive.
There are some true stunt professionals here, and also some folks who are very good at looking convincing, and that’s fine. It doesn’t necessarily matter if these actors can actually fight off a pack of soldiers or assassins or robots: It’s called acting, after all. At the movies, what matters is that the audience believes.
— Liz Shannon Miller
Senior Entertainment Editor
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source consequence.net ’
