Today, TIME Magazine announced its 10th annual TIME 100, a list of the 100 most influential people in the world. A number of entertainers made the list including Lena Dunham, Jennifer Lawrence, Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg. Their inclusion should come as no surprise, as these film figures all had hugely successful past years on screens big and small. The TIME 100 also includes Jimmy Fallon, Mindy Kaling and Beyonce. Below are a few excerpts from the list, penned also by famous actors and writers.
Jennifer Lawrence, by Jodie Foster:
You’ll remember where you were when you first felt it, how you were stuck to one spot like a small animal considering its end. The Jennifer Lawrence Stare. It cuts a searing swath in your gut. A reckoning. I remember going to the cutting rooms of “Winter’s Bone.” I thought, Sure, this girl can act. But, man, this girl can also just be. All of those painful secrets in her face, the feeling that there’s some terrible past that’s left impossibly angled bone and weariness in its wake. She’s worn from the pain of living — something none of her characters would ever have the energy to articulate. It’s just part of her, like skin and muscle.
Daniel Day-Lewis, by Tony Kushner:
Daniel carries his talents and achievements modestly, charmingly and generously. Like the President he brought to life in “Lincoln,” he’s a deep-sea creature who’s unexpectedly approachable and thoroughly delightful company. He’s a concerned and active world citizen, a spectacular husband and father. But when Daniel acts, he makes the physical metaphysical, and vice versa. He makes the art of acting creative as much as performative.
Steven Spielberg, by Tom Brokaw:
However different their subjects, Spielberg’s productions have a common thematic DNA of humanity, so we are enlightened as well as entertained. His work on “‘Lincoln” alone was worthy of enduring acclaim, for it brought to life as no other film has this quintessential American President struggling with the greatest moral dilemma of our history… The power of the film remained long after the closing credits, and so it is with Steven’s career.
Lena’s power lies largely in her self-awareness and wit. Like all great comics, she has a joke ready to deflect any jeer. Hannah’s pathetic declaration that she could at least be “a voice of a generation” invites and thwarts many a poisoned arrow. Lena’s true power, though, lies in her transparency. She is unflinchingly, unnervingly honest. She exposes, beneath all that bare skin, a multitude of shortcomings: acute self-involvement, obsessive-compulsive behavior, overeating, oversharing.
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