Oh I give him plenty of acting credit.
Here's Willis in an '88 Playboy interview excerpt on both Nicholson and DeNiro:
PLAYBOY: What movie actors do you model yourself after?
WILLIS: Al Pacino and Robert De Niro-the less-is-more school, the behavior as opposed to the presentation of the work. Dog Day Afternoon was an amazing film. Scar face was a brilliant movie, one of Pacino's best. De Niro in The Deer Hunter; there's a scene where they are up in the mountains and he holds up this fucking shell and says, "Hey this is this, ain't nothin' else.
From now on, you're on your own." It was mystical to me. I wanted to know that guy with that line. His work continually amazes me, how hard he strives to create a living, breathing person in each role. I would like to be directed by him. And Jack Nicholson is enormous. I would like to play a part of the same stature as the one he played as Eugene O'Neill in Reds. I think Sean Penn's work is really honest, and he strives not to repeat himself. I like actors who don't always make safe choices. Bill Hurt is a great example, and he pulls it off. Robert Duvall. Meryl Streep is the greatest living actor that America has, man or woman. Her stuff exemplifies what's important to me in acting.
Good post. THANKS!
I'd agree with him on everyone there except Streep. Jennifer Jason Leigh is much better, but given no credit because she doesn't play the role of "artist."
The thing is, like a lot of people from the 1980s, he's probably going to blow it. People who found success during that decade became cynical regardless of how much talent they had. The thing about Pacino, DeNiro, etc. is they came of age in the 60s and remained "true believers."
But at the end of the day, people won't remember that he had his own plane. They'll just remember what's on the screen.
oh yeah, the Clint Eastwood school of acting: Just just do something, stand there.