Horrible acting from Bee Vang, Christopher Carley and Ahney Her.
Horrible acting from Bee Vang, Christopher Carley and Ahney Her.
shareI found Bee's performance to be okay to a point, and I guess he wasn't experienced. He played it naturally as a young kid from that culture. Where he went wrong was when he had to show any emotion. In the scene where Walt locks him in the cellar and he's yelling, he was horrible. I'm sure Clint and even Bee himself would say he sucked in that scene. I'm guessing they filmed that scene a little later in the shooting schedule, else Clint and his producers would have realized that they had the wrong kid. Really, though, they should have just changed the scene to work within the kid's abilities.
As for Christopher Carley, yes, his line readings were often poor.
I won't say that he deserved an Oscar, but I saw it differently. He was screaming and going nuts like a cages animal. How much depth and range can any actor show when they are acting in a scene where they are supposed to be in hysterics?
I also didn't have a problem with Chris Carley. Walt chastises him for being nothing more than someone who spouts dogma at the appropriate time. I saw that in the beginning. By the time he's presiding over Walt's funeral, you can see that he's grown a bit. He's more comfortable in his role as spiritual leader, even to the point that he ridicules himself.
Again, not going to say he deserves an Oscar either. I just think that some people look for things which weren't supposed to be there in the first place.
It's easy to spot bad acting, though. You're either able to emote realistically on screen or you're not. This kid wasn't. Like I said, he was acceptable when he was just being low key and shy. The way he was yelling, he was trying, but it didn't come off as real even in a movie version of real. Like I said, they should have re-structured/re-written that scene and Thao's reaction around the actor's limitations.
shareLike the above poster said before, I think your looking for something that wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. By the time Bee's character got locked in the basement, he wasn't supposed be weak anymore, nor was he supposed to be this tough guy you expected him to be in that scene. I think his weak screaming at Walt worked in this case.
shareI actually thought Chris Carley was the weakest. Some of his lines were pretty hammy, to be fair. " ... Dear God ... " and "there will be bloodshed".
I thought Ahney Her was okay, e.g. when she was showing Walt round the Hmong family gathering.
Ahney and Bee's accents were quite strong. They have different cadences and rhythms in their speech, and I think that makes some of their deliveries seem weird. I thought the acting per se was okay.