A Few of My Favorite Actors…

“Some people get into this business and they’re so afraid to lose anything. They try to protect their position like clinging to a beachhead. These actors end up making really safe choices. I never wanted to go that route. If I go down, I’m going down swinging.” – Matt Damon

For me, actors, specifically male actors, can make or break a movie. If the actor doesn’t connect with his co-stars or the chemistry is off, then the movie kind of feels blah for me. Does this happen to anyone else?

But this list of male actors crosses all stages – from Broadway to film to TV to reality TV! I only added reality TV because I just finished watching back-to-back episodes of “The Challenge: Battle of the Exes” on MTV and there are a couple of hotties on that show! (OK, did I really just use the word “hottie”?)

Let’s get started…

1. Matt Damon is, of course, one of my favorite actors. He can play funny characters or serious characters. He just “goes there” for a role and really makes it his own. I recently watched The Adjustment Bureau, and I cannot imagine anyone else in that role. He gained weight for The Informant and lost weight for Courage Under Fire. Not only is he a fantastic actor, but he’s a wonderful family man and that makes him even sexier!

2. No list would be complete without George Clooney, am I right? Like Matt Damon, George goes above and beyond for a role. Not only is he a wonderful actor, but he has a great screenwriter and director, as he proved with Good Night and Good Luck (which he co-wrote with Grant Haslov). The one movie I can watch over and over is O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and he truly is a “Dapper Dan Man”!

3. Again, no list would be complete without Brad Pitt. I think his breakout role came as J.D. in Thelma and Louise, but I loved him in Legends of the Fall, Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black, Troy, and Moneyball. Whether or not his relationship with Angelina Jolie began during Mr. & Mrs. Smith, you cannot deny that this man has some serious sex appeal!

4. As U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, Timothy Olyphant has made wearing a cowboy hat, boots, and a good Southern drawl very sexy! He charmed his way into Jennifer Garner’s heart in Catch and Release and made bald sexy in Hitman.

5. Not only does he give off “Good Vibrations”, but he also looks fantastic in a pair of Calvin Klein undies! Mark Wahlberg has got it going on! Whether he’s playing Reese Witherspoon’s stalker boyfriend in Fear or portraying real-life Irish boxer Micky Ward in The Fighter, this rapper-from-Boston-turned-executive-director still has that “bad boy” vibe that makes him sexy.

6. Hal Holbrook’s love of Dixie Carter lasted for over 25 years (which is a long time by Hollywood standards) and their final film together was That Evening Sunin 2008. Hal Holbrook is such a fabulous actor. He is known for his role in Into The Wild, but he is probably best known for his portrayal of Mark Twain. He has such a charismatic Southern charm about him, which is why I put him on this list.

7. I love men with accents and Javier Bardem’s Spanish accent is so sexy, especially as he wooed Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love. He didn’t say much in No Country For Old Men, but he brought Cormac McCarthy’s character of Anton Chigurh to life! In Vicky Cristina Barcelona, he wooed not only Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall, but he wooed his now-wife, Penelope Cruz. Again, his Spanish accent is what sealed the deal for me!

8. Nathan Fillion gained a cult following after playing Capt. Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly, but I love him best as Richard Castle in ABC’s Castle, which airs on Monday nights at 10 p.m. EST. I first came to love Nathan Fillion when he starred on Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place with Ryan Reynolds, Traylor Howard, and Richard Ruccolo.

9. And speaking of Ryan Reynolds, he truly deserved the title of People’s Sexiest Man Alive! I recently saw him in Safe House, which was a good movie, but I can watch him over and over again in The Proposal. He also played a doting father explaining his past relationships and impending divorce to his daughter (played by Abigail Breslin) in Definitely, Maybe. Like Matt Damon, he can play any role, whether it be comedy, drama, action, or thriller.

10. Will Smith has starred in some of the best summer blockbusters like Independence Day, Bad Boys II,and I, Robot. His portrayal of Muhammad Ali inAli proved he could “fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee”. And for six seasons he played Will Smith, the fly “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” No only can he sing and dance, but the man can act!

11. My two reality TV hotties are from MTV’s “The Challenge: Battle of the Exes”. Bad boy C.T. Tamburello was in “The Real World: Paris” while Mark Long was in the first season of “Road Rules.” If you haven’t checked these two reality TV hotties out, then you are missing out on some serious sexiness, especially when these guys spent most of their time on the most recent “challenge” shirtless!

Some of my other faves include: Aussie Hugh Jackman (The Fountain); Robert Redford (Indecent Proposal); Paul Newman (Road to Perdition); James Stewart (It’s a Wonderful Life); Cary Grant (Father Goose); Andy Griffith (The Andy Griffith Show); Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music); Michael Caine (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels); Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent); Donald Sutherland (Six Degrees of Separation); Bradley Cooper (Failure to Launch); John Krasinski (Leatherheads); Patrick Wilson (Purple Violets); and Gerard Butler (The Bounty Hunter).