Judd Nelson And The Blind Side

Judd Nelson, who played John Bender in the classic film, The Breakfast Club, won the MTV Silver Bucket of Excellence award for his performance in 2005. His role as a “classic bad boy with a heart of gold” truly is emphasized by his facial expressions and use of vocabulary. On the other hand, Sandra Bullock won an immense amount of awards for her role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in the beloved film, The Blind Side. Sandra really became her character in this particular movie by her reaction to realistic events, the ability to make the scenes believable, and the intensity she put into her emotions. Both actors have proved to be phenomenal in the acting world, but take on two very different approaches to achieve their character.

Judd Nelson,
as John Bender in The Breakfast Club, truly attained his character by continuous unpleasant pestering and constant joking. Throughout the film, Bender continually makes smart comments to the other four individuals in detention with him as well as the teacher in charge. His smart mouth lands him in isolation as well as months of Saturday detentions. With use of jokes, he provided comic relief and turned a tense situation into a light, humorous, eventful Saturday. Specifically, when Bender gets caught intentionally distracting Vernon by running through the halls singing “I wanna be an airborne ranger / I wanna lead a life of danger.” In this film, Bender played as the class clown and showed his techniques by adapting to his character and showing a side different from his true self.

Sandra Bullock’s role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side was achieved by her ability to place herself in realistic events and her actions and emotions that followed.
Her character in this film can easily be based off Stanislavski’s system of acting where actors draw upon their own feelings and experience to convey the truth. Because this movie was based off a real life scenario, the scenes in this film hit more to home. The situation with a young black male, Michael Oher, proved to be a sad one for viewers. He was a big boy with a sweet heart and a desire to play football yet continued to run away from his foster care families after he was placed in there because of his mother’s drug addiction. Mrs. Tuohy and her family, took this child of need in and provided him with the things he needed to prosper in life. Leigh Anne faces racism throughout this film because of the distinction in color between Michael and the Tuohy’s, but continues to rebuke the people who talk negatively. Particularly, in the scene when an opposing teams fan made racist remarks to Michael. Mrs. Tuohy tells the fan off and becomes the mother bear to her baby cub. Like any mother would, Mrs. Tuohy stood up for her son. Throughout this film, the love, care, and nurturing Mrs. Tuohy provides to Michael as well as her two kids is
heartwarming. Even though these actors played two completely different roles and used techniques on different ends of the spectrum, their appearance in these films assisted in creating two award winning movies. Judd Nelson focuses mainly on his sense of humor and expressions to justify his characterization while Sandra Bullock focuses on reactions to real life incidents and her emotions to portray her character. The techniques the actors use to create their character is vital in producing a movie.