Opinion Express View on Tom Wilkinson and other character actors: Shapeshifters on screen

I see myself as a utility player, the one who can do everything… I’ve always felt that actors should have a degree of anonymity about them,” actor Tom Wilkinson once said in an interview to The New York Times. That Wilkinson, who died at 75 on Saturday, lived by this credo was evident in the degree to which he was able to embody the characters he played, from an out-of-work foreman who becomes a stripper in The Full Monty to a mob boss in Batman Begins. His astonishing range meant that while his name was not instantly recognisable to many, the career he built through mostly supporting roles was studded with honours and critical acclaim.

In a system built around “stars” taking up most of the oxygen — both in terms of filmmaking resources and public adulation — Wilkinson and others like him are reminders that acting, ultimately, is a craft. Unlike stars, who have the luxury to go from project to project, playing versions of themselves, the chameleon-like character actors in their various supporting roles often shoulder the burden of bringing verisimilitude to the world of a film or series.

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In Hindi cinema, for example, if 2023 marked the return of the star-fronted blockbuster, there were also quiet but powerful demonstrations of the craft of acting. Consider the two utterly different yet equally believable notes of romantic wistfulness struck by Jaideep Ahlawat in Jaane Jaan and Three of Us. Or Manoj Bajpayee’s sublimation into the role of a tribal on the run in Joram and Amruta Subhash’s turn as a domestic worker with a secret in The Mirror (Lust Stories 2).

Cinema, for many, is an escape. Over a hundred years after the invention of motion pictures, if it remains as absorbing as ever, much of the credit goes to actors like Wilkinson and Ahlawat delivering performances of such authenticity that they transport the viewer into other lives and other worlds.