This makes me wonder, have there been any actors/actresses who are not known to be the brightest bulbs on the shelf yet can consistently do "intelligent" convincingly on screen?

The only time I ever saw her try it, Heather Graham sold me on brainy.

It could have been a one-time thing, natch.

Cereal:

Oooh, A Hundred Days is on! I lurve this episode. It's got Jack-angst extraordinaire, one of my biggest weaknesses. I love the episodes in which one of the team members gets left behind/captured/kidnapped and the rest work their asses off to bring him/her home.

I've always liked Laira. Apparently the writers tinkered with the idea of having a wee O'Neill in Edora. In a way, I'm glad they abandoned the idea because babies in genre show give me hives in general, but it might have been worth it, if only to see how Jack would have reacted to the news.

Can you parse that for me?

Hmm. What I meant to say was, 1) if you as an actor are truly stupid (let's say you have been catapulted onto screen solely based on your physical assets), it would be pretty difficult if not impossible for you to pull off an Austen or a Shakespeare role convincingly, but 2) the mere fact that you are intelligent doesn't necessarily guarantee that you'll be good in such a role, either.

Ehh, I think. Logic, she defeats me.

Right, good, I get it. I didn't know how good or bad Lemmon was at Shakespeare, nor how bright or dumb. No referents.

This makes me wonder, have there been any actors/actresses who are not known to be the brightest bulbs on the shelf yet can consistently do "intelligent" convincingly on screen? I can't think of any, off the top of my head.

De Niro is reportedly quite off.

Really? I've met his brother and he seemed pretty bright. I was interviewing him for a newspaper article about his business.

"Hello, Newman."

Bwah! I hadn't caught that before. (SG - ep where Jack goes to Maybourne's secret off-world base). Verra funny.

De Niro is off? Huh. Charisma must make up for a lot.

RDA is really, really hot out of the uniform.

Maybourne is such a little weasel in this episode. It still astounds me how much I've gotten to like the bastard over the following seasons. They did a really good job of turning him from a pompous one-note villain to a fun Trickster figure of SG-verse.

I've met his brother and he seemed pretty bright.

I can't decide if I should make a joke about me being dumb or my sister, so I'm going to settle for just recording the urge.

RDA is really, really hot out of the uniform.

sigh

Maybourne is such a little weasel in this episode ...They did a really good job of turning him from a pompous one-note villain to a fun Trickster figure of SG-verse.

ITA.

Also love the bit at the end about Daniel drawing the short straw when Jack was trying to be all bondy.