Actors and Acting Style

The actors cast in American Beauty are Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvarii, Peter Gallgher, Allison Janneey and Chris Cooper.

The Burnham family (Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Thora Birch) are the main actors in this film. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged office worker who has a midlife crisis when he becomes obsessed with his teenage daughter's best friend. Annette Bening plays Lester's materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure teenage daughter, Jane. These characters react quickly to each other, are manipulative and their response's are dramatic.

In this scene from American Beauty we see that the Burnham Family are all very self absorbed. Lester and Carolyn are being aggresive and sarcastic towards eachother. They seem to be oblivious to the emotional impact their verbal exchange has on their daughter Jane. This scene represents the all time low as a family.




The actors in Revolutionary Road are Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Micheal Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, Kathy Bates, Zoe Kazan, Ryan Simpkins and Ty Simpkins.

The main characters in Revolutionary Road are Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Wheeler and Kate Winslet plays April Wheeler. Frank has a job he hates but is willing to stick with it to provide for his family. April is a stay at home mum but is wanting something more interesting in her life. April finds out she is pregnant and the pregnancy interferes with the couple’s dream for the future. These characters are very emotionally complex and dramatic towards each other.

In this scene from Revolutionary Road, Frank and April have their neighbours over for dinner. They have a son, John Givings. John is a brilliant mathematician but has suffered a major mental breakdown. He challanges Frank and April for changing their plans about going to Paris because of April's pregnancy. This is a very emotional and intense scene for all characters. It is difficult to decide weither John is truely mad or just very insighful. We can see from Frank and April's reactions that John had actually read their relationship and current situation accuratley.



The actors in the film Jarhead are Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx, Lucas Black, Chris Cooper, Skyler Stone, Wade Williams, Brian Geraghty, Evan Jones, Laz Alonso, Tyler Sedustine, Jocko Sims, Dennis Haysbert and Katherine Randolph.

The main actors in this film are Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Jamie Foxx. Jake Gyllenhaal who plays Anthony Swofford comes from a family of military men. Swofford decides to join the Marines and experiences the toughness of bootcamp. Peter Sarsgaard plays Alan Troy. Troy is Swoff's friend and is one of the few Marines who enjoys being in the military. Jamie Foxx plays Sargant Sykes. He is Swoff and Troy's trainer at Boot Camp.

These characters are very passion driven, agressive, humorous and dramatic. These trates are shown in this trailer for Jarhead.


Jarhead isn't your typical action filled war film. Instead, it focuses on the psychological aspects of war.

All actors in these film's convey deep emotional feelings to the audience. Weither the actors are acting very sad or very happy they are a major element when it comes to conveying the stories message. The Drama genre is associated with all Mendes' film work. American Beauty, Jarhead and Revolutionary Road all come under the Drama Genre.