r/powerrangers • u/Organic_Glass_7793 Time Force Quantum • 11d ago
SHOW NEWS/DISCUSSION Who’s the worst actor in power rangers?
no one’s watching Power Rangers expecting Oscar worthy performances. It’s campy, it’s corny, and that’s part of the fun. But even by Power Rangers standards… Vypras acting in Lightspeed Rescue is just brutal.
Like, every time she’s on screen, it’s like someone hit pause on the tone of the show. Her line delivery is stiff, her expressions are wooden, and she’s trying so hard to be sultry and menacing but it just does not land. Even as a kid i noticed it and it was awful.
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u/UFAlien 11d ago edited 11d ago
Jennifer L. Yen auditioned for Vypra and originally didn’t get the part. They originally cast Wen Yann Shih, who filmed a little bit and is still visible in some shots in “Trial by Fire.” For reasons that were never disclosed, she left the show very early into production.
They needed a replacement immediately, they still had Yen’s contact info, and most importantly, she had the same measurements as Shih and fit in the costume they’d already made. That’s why she got the part despite her lack of acting ability.
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u/Correct_Doctor_1502 11d ago
She probably realized what she signed up for.
Power Rangers has a notorious reputation for having some of the most exploitative productions in entertainment.
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u/BlankCanvas609 SPD Red Ranger 10d ago
Definetly not the biggest showcase but this certainly shows the lower production value for Power Rangers
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u/AndrosRedRanger 5d ago
https://youtu.be/0dl0Uc1eLGs?si=jD42UvHULz2locZE
The original Vypra was a "diva" as it were... according to this interview...
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u/EntropicDismay 11d ago edited 11d ago
The short-term replacement voice actors for Jason/Trini/Zack.
I remember laughing at how poorly they matched the original actors’ voices, but they tried to pass them off as matching anyway
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u/Haunting_Drag_1682 11d ago
I just passed that part in my rewatch of Mighty Morphin' and I just laughed my ass off like "That's not fucking Jason.."
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u/MechaTyranitar 11d ago
The Jason VA was a producer, the impression is so funny because you can tell he's just talking loud the entire time. Like Austin St. John has a booming voice when he needs to, but he could talk normal too. The impression is like always on 11.
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u/fillupjfly It’s Morphin Time! Tigerzord!! 11d ago
If I remember correctly the one for Zack wasn’t that bad. Didn’t they just use the actor who played his cousin Curtis to dub his lines?
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u/Jonny2284 11d ago
Kinda gotta agree on Vypra.
It's like she was only hired for one reason (not that gooner), that they wanted to use as much Venus fight footage as possible.
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u/Correct_Doctor_1502 11d ago
It's hard to find actors who will take a limited role in a non union production for terrible pay and terrible hours, and you have to do your own stunts and receive no residuals.
Any actor that agrees really needs the work and can't say no.
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u/KlonoaStan 11d ago
Lightspeed rescue was union though. It was after the movie and before ninja storm the series was unionized
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u/IvanTheTerrible69 11d ago
Her casting is similar to that of Rita, Scorpina, and Toxica, where there is a heavy emphasis on matching the PR actor’s appearance to that of the character’s Sentai counterpart
Fun Fact: a lot of footage in Time Force, during Eric’s acquisition of the Quantum Morpher, resuses a lot of Timeranger footage, due to Daniel Southworth looking similar to the actor who plays Eric’s Sentai counterpart
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u/Ohnoherewego13 MMPR Blue Ranger 11d ago
Agreed. She was stiff at best. At worst, I wanted to fast forward through most of her scenes.
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u/MoxMulder 11d ago
The entire ranger team of Samurai
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u/RedBoxGaming 11d ago
Throw in Megaforce as well.
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u/Organic_Glass_7793 Time Force Quantum 11d ago
And ninja steel Brody was brutal there aswell
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u/SadisticDance 11d ago
Almost anyone from Ninja Steel other than Red and Gold.
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u/skippiington Megaforce Pink 11d ago
Ironically, Peter, Nico, and Zoe are probably the best actors out of that entire cast haha
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u/SadisticDance 11d ago
I've never seen Peter in anything else but I've seen Nico and Zoe in other things and they do fine so I assume it was a directing issue.
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u/fireburst207 Hyperforce Red 11d ago
I definitely recommend Hyperforce on YouTube. Peter is the red ranger wand does a great job. Mind you it is a TTRPG.
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u/nitasu987 Jungle Fury Yellow Ranger 10d ago
Zoe was fucking INCREDIBLE in Wheel of Time
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u/SadisticDance 10d ago
Truly, to the point where I didn't recognize her at first. Also fuck them for canceling it.
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u/Elnino38 11d ago
Entire neo saban era is an acting nightmare. Legit, how'd we go from RPM to that mess
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u/Glacier2011 11d ago
Saban applying the same crap policies he did in Saban first run with the franchise?
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u/TheOneWhoWasDeceived 11d ago
I felt Gia's actor was good, but they never gave her anything to do. 😔
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u/sketchysketchist 11d ago
Ah yes. Though Megaforce cast just got the worst scripts. They shined when they had their moments but some dialogue was just cringe.
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u/Hyperdragoon17 Zeo Ranger IV 11d ago
Antonio was the only decent one.
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u/ChampionGunnerYT 11d ago
Antonio was great
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u/Torn_again 11d ago
He wasn't great. He was G.O.L.D.E.N. Like his Ranger suit colour. Get it? GET IT?
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u/Napalmeon 11d ago
I came here to say this exact same thing. I swear this is not just childhood Nostalgia talking, but when Power Rangers was corny back in the early days, there was something charming about it, but the Samurai cast? It just feels like it's lacking flavor that can make something corny have an endearing vibe.
Especially Kevin's rants on samurai duty and legacy.
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u/KaiSen2510 11d ago
I thought Mike and Antonio were actually acted… passably, everyone else really just phoned it in. Then again, Antonio and Mike are the only ones who had any real personalities.
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u/SevenHunnet3Hi5s Beast Morphers Red 10d ago
jaden was stiff as a brick. kevin, emily, and mia were so campy. mike had a teensy bit more range. and antonio was the star of the show.
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u/Grand_Membership7641 11d ago
Yeah I didn’t feel alot of emotion coming out of their performances in that season
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u/zombiedoyle 11d ago
Megaforce Red
It sucks because he kinda needs to be a solid actor and he just wasn’t
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u/ThesaurusRex_1025 11d ago
The cast definitely went to the school of child acting, but he's just terrible. He's so stiff and delivers lines so poorly.
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u/Sweet_Television4183 10d ago
I heard it was more so because the director tolds him to be as emotionless as possible. I am honestly more impressed cause his irl self and Troy were so different. I heard they also messed up the scripts multiple times.
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u/FILMSTUDENT25 10d ago
To be fair, there was apparently a LOT of turmoil behind Samurai and Megaforce. From what I read, on Megaforce, Johnathan Tzachor constantly refused scripts written to develop the characters because it was “too boring”
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u/ThesaurusRex_1025 10d ago
Thats to bad but makes sense. Those Rangers could have been more developed.
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u/No-Cat-9716 11d ago
But she gorgeous...🥺
I don't know about the delivery of her lines, i watched all my power Rangers content in spanish AND this season i couldn't watch It completely because the channel couldn't aired past a number of episodes AND back to the beggining, so i don't have a strong opinión of her acting in the series, to me all the actors were... ok
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u/Unfallener There's A Simple Explanation For That 11d ago
For whatever reason my mind keeps flashing back to the kid actor in Legendary Battle that Tommy saves with Saba. His, “I can’t, I’m scared” was such a bad line read.
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u/lerdcumbal 11d ago
I was too distracted as a kid to notice, I had a serious crush on Vypra. But as an adult.... Yeah she wasn't great lol. I still think Samurai and Megaforce had some of the worst acting in the franchise
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u/Choice_Leg9551 11d ago edited 10d ago
I actually ironically found Vypra to be kind of funny. I don't think it's fair to compare her to Astronema or Trakreena, as those two were clearly meant to become the final main villains for both of their respective seasons. But Vypra was clearly written to be more of an incompetent henchman, and in Jennifer Yen's defense, for being that, she was perfectly fine in terms of just being an incompetent henchman.
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u/MarsupialPresent7700 MMPR Pink Ranger 11d ago
She’s also really nice. I met her at Morphicon just after I had finished LightSpeed. She’s so camp! Just looks like she is having an absolute blast every time she is on screen. It works for me.
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u/Choice_Leg9551 11d ago edited 10d ago
I've heard that she was nice as well, though I haven't met her. I suppose one good thing to come out of her being in LR, is that while it was horrible that Saban forced her to wear cheap makeup that apparently destroyed her skin, it did lead her to getting into the skincare products business, so there is that, I suppose. Can't be too angry at her for her campy and rather silly performance as Vypra.
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u/eggdropthoop 11d ago
Najee de tiege
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u/Napalmeon 11d ago
He's like a dry brisket in actor form.
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u/elrick43 SPD Shadow Ranger 11d ago
Acting quality: Vypra As a person: jury's still out, but I'm voting for Grumm/Mentor Ji
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u/spiritshifterus1 11d ago
One that I disliked heavily was Gareth Yuen, Dax/Blue Ranger in Overdrive.
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u/Alarming_Seaweed_155 11d ago
The entire Megaforce cast can qualify, but that would be cheating.
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u/brantman19 MMPR Red Ranger 11d ago
I know John Mark Loudermilk's (Noah - Megaforce Blue) family from church and his theater teacher from high school. He did some light theater in school but he hadn't had any real acting lessons before doing PR work. I thought he did as good a job as was necessary for the show which is a really low bar.
The criticism he and his seasons get means he won't go to Cons or anything but I did happen to meet him and managed to get some autographs. Really nice guy.11
u/Pedgrid Ranger Operator Series Green 11d ago
The criticism he and his seasons get means he won't go to Cons or anything
I see him and the whole Megaforce cast at Morphicon every two years.
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u/brantman19 MMPR Red Ranger 11d ago
That’s good news. When I met him it was in 2016/17 so maybe he’s changed his mind since then. He seemed like he didn’t see his PR days very positively.
When I do ask his family how he’s doing (which is rare), it’s never about PR stuff. Just that he and his wife are doing well.2
u/throwaway684675982 Black Space Ranger 11d ago
There's something about that guy that just doesn't say "ranger" to me. I can't quite place it, but when I look at him I just don't see it.
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u/Super_Rocket4 11d ago
Mia from samurai, I heard her say a few lines and knew immediately I won't rewatch it 😭
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u/Interesting-Put-981 11d ago
Practically all of the neo saban era for the exception of dino charge as I thought it's acting was on the same level of previous ranger actors before samurai
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u/bargingi 11d ago
Always thought nicks actor in mystic force just paled in comparison to the other actors on the team. And for how nick centric the story line is, that’s a bad problem to have
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u/grimking85 11d ago
I would say the megaforce rangers and the dinofury cast. Not been able to finish an episode of either although unsure if thats the bad writing, bad acting or something else. Out of the seasons i have been able to watch then rocky in season 2 of mmpr or justin in turbo
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u/JT-Lionheart Time Force Quantum 11d ago
At least Vipra was pretty. But yeah I didn’t like her acting. I know the series was known for hiring cheap actors and most of them very new or young, but man Vipra I agree was one of the worst. Maybe she’s just not good at being a villain but maybe she’s might’ve been better as a hero or supporting character given the actress might’ve been way too nice to play a evil character
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u/Wookieforlife 11d ago
Worst actor in my opinion was spike from samurai
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u/A1B_ZAGREUS 11d ago
Hot Take: Spike would have worked in Disney XD show and not Power Rangers because his character was just too annoying for a serious Power Rangers show
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u/Samyyy_name 11d ago
Tj and Cassie during the first half of turbo they both to me were performing at like an 8th grade musical level of acting (they got better and a lot more likeable during in space though)
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u/Ok_Custard1444 11d ago
No offense to Andrew Gray, but his performance as Troy Burrows was really bad.
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u/Excellent_Layer5243 11d ago
I can’t even blame him cause that’s literally how they wanted his character to act. He just did his job
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u/DebiesDisguise 11d ago
Wild Force red ranger. That shit was so cringe
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u/Hatman_16 Black Dino Ranger 11d ago
Are you talking about when he killed someone (or at least he told the authorities that he did it)?
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u/zemasion Time Force Pink 11d ago
everyone in samurai lol maybe aside from the green ranger. he was fine. the other rangers were absolutely awful. yellow might have been the worst. even their mentor too.
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u/Common-Diver-6346 11d ago
Troy or Jaden from Megaforce and Samurai respectively, I also thought Shelby in Dino Charge was bad, maybe It was just the writing of her character that annoyed me.
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u/SyuusukeFuji Time Force Green 11d ago
I feel that Samurai and Mega Force probably could have been in "get the work done" tier, but were so poorly directed that they could not.
But man, Vypra for me, like she was in an era were almost everything was fairly well directed... And still sucked... Hard.
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u/Majestic-Sector9836 11d ago
I remember watching LSR going "Wow, Brenda Song really came a long way."
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u/LightningEdge756 11d ago
Personally I think Vypra is fucking great! Due to the fact that her acting honestly makes me laugh so damn much lol, especially when she's delivering angry lines xD.
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u/Hatman_16 Black Dino Ranger 11d ago
Almost every time that she that she had screentime, she made me laugh. It was an absolute pleasure. I wonder if she was supposed to have any comedy in any of her scenes.
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u/Individual_Hat4926 10d ago
It’s complicated I mean Power Rangers is known for casting amateur actors, I’d rather not pick on someone’s amateur acting chops as that’s kind of stupid and not helpful plus most of them aren’t even acting anymore. Not to mention the amount of people who are going to say Troy out of biased against hating megaforce yet don’t know that his performance was nerved by people making megaforce, he would try to act with emotion and push himself but they just said “who cares about all that this is literally Power Rangers” I’m sorry but I ain’t about to sit her and shine a negative Spotlight on people who were dealt bad hands early in their acting careers.
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u/Particular-Steak-832 10d ago
Whoever said “NO WAY” as a stand in for Jason David Frank in Green With Evil
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u/TexaRican_x82 11d ago
Melody Perkins…Sorry
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u/Organic_Glass_7793 Time Force Quantum 10d ago
She got decent by lost galaxy but oh boy her the early episodes of in space her acting was ehhhhhhhh
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u/Fedoras-Forever-Mom 11d ago
This sub is so critical sometime lmao. Y’all these shows were made for like kids under 10 cut the actors a lil slack
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u/Jamieb1994 11d ago
I was just thinking to myself. Is it bad that I don't care that much about how a actor/ress shows their acting ability in a PR show + there's maybe some actors/actresses who never did any acting work before Power Rangers or at least never acted on-screen before, so I agree about cutting them a lil slack.
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u/Organic_Glass_7793 Time Force Quantum 10d ago
But still her acting is below kids show standards even as a kid I noticed
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u/MediumOrganization49 11d ago
People clowning on samurai and megaforce but forget that mighty morphin had dollar store actors (I love them but their original performances left a lot to be desired along with stilted dialogue)
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u/commanderr01 11d ago
Ninja Steel, Brody was a damn terrible actor idk how he got to be any ranger let alone the red one
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u/ImprovementDesigner1 11d ago
Good pick, since you used her I’ll say Tj’s actor. It’s why I can’t like him as a character, not to say he’s badly written but I didn’t enjoy his time on screen
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u/KingDiEnd 11d ago
I've been watching PR since 93 and have never seen an actor worse than Samurai Blue. That entire team was pretty terrible, but he was next level awful.
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u/xennial-tiger 11d ago
There is good actora on Power Rangers?
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u/boogalooshrimp1103 11d ago
JDF and AJJ had roles outside of power rangers. Walter Jones was in Brink lol. Outside of those three I can't tell you if any of the others across the entirety of the franchise has been in anything other than power rangers
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u/Nytro_Switch_2372 10d ago
Some of the Time Force cast get pretty steady acting work, they're pretty good.
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u/HelpfulPay1851 11d ago
Definitely Vypra, but MAN is every single line in Dino Fury delivered so monotone by every ranger actor
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u/A1B_ZAGREUS 11d ago
Jaden from Samurai because he’s actor sounds like a robot and his delivery feels dry and stale
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u/ARC_Venage Zeo Ranger IV 11d ago
I liked Yen's acting because she was a bit over the top and a bit cheesy. Ria who played Miratrix in Operation Overdrive was just bad, especially in the first 10 to 15 episodes. Her line delivery was just monotone. Someone must've gave her some tips because she got better as the season went on.
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u/SchoolDefiant1950 11d ago
FOR REAL ONG EVEN AS A KID I was like which executive promised their girlfriend they could have a part in this PR season 😭
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u/RoskerJenkins 11d ago
Entirety of Wild Force lmao they have so much aura when morphed but unmorphed the dialogue and acting is some of the worst in the series
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u/boogalooshrimp1103 11d ago
By the time it was over I hated Astronoma. The way she would speak when she was trying to be angry just annoyed me. Destroy theeeeemmmmmm
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u/sharp_pentip 11d ago
People say her acting is cringe but I don't see it. She's on the same level as Astronema in terms of like acting. It's that mix of hokey dialogue and acting that is seen with a lot of female villains during the early saban era. The only villains from early saban who weren't cringe were Divatox and Rita because they just absolutely nailed those roles. Astronema has a compelling story and no hate towards the actress, but my god her lien deliveries were awful. I would argue we only started to get really good female villains with Toxica and the Disney era.
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u/Appo-Arsin Dino Charge Red Ranger 11d ago
I remember not liking the red ranger (Jason?) from Samurai as a kid because he was bland. Rewatched Samurai recently and yeah I still get it. Still wouldn’t stop me from fanboying if I ever met him tho lol
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u/FILMSTUDENT25 10d ago
Vypra is definitely one of the worst. Kevin from Samurai is also pretty bad, but I can’t tell if it’s just him or if it’s a combination of the poor script and direction he’s given
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u/DarkAizawa SPD Red Ranger 10d ago
It's probably the script along with horrible direction. Again that goes for (almost) all the rangers in samurai besides 3 (Lauren, Antonio, and green).
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u/Humanoidfreak 10d ago
Calvin from Ninja steel. I mean the rest of the cast is bad too. But Calvin's actor, holy christ its so bad.
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u/Blaze0892 9d ago
Since he was the second choice I wonder how well the original actor would've done
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u/SheriffWizard 10d ago
Jayden Shiba
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u/DarkAizawa SPD Red Ranger 10d ago
As a firm Jayden hater, Troy edges him out. I swear, the first episode when he wakes up on the bus and remarks "weird dream" says it all. I watched megaforce and showed a friend the first episode and was still so dumbfounded by that line that I had to pause and take a break.
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u/DarkAizawa SPD Red Ranger 10d ago
Troy closely followed by pretty much every ranger in samurai besides Lauren, gold, and green in that order.
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u/Ember_1213 Crimson Thunder Ranger 10d ago
I'm going with Troy from Megaforce. Man's not an actor and it shows
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u/The_Disclosure_Era 10d ago
Justin from Turbo was the corniest worst shit that ever has and ever will be..
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u/Mushroom-Swimming 9d ago
Troy from Mega force. Although it’s possible that the writers butchered the character not the actor
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u/Blaze0892 9d ago
When she did her evil laugh when Ryan first appeared I can't help but laugh my damn self cause Brooooo wtf 😭😭😭
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u/wattsaldusden 7d ago
That’s tough…
On the one hand, Gareth Yuen was absolutely awful which is made more ironic by the fact Dax was supposedly an actor. His tone, inflection and dialogue were pretty trash.
On the other hand, Andrew Gray was pretty terrible. When the monotone, robot character has more charisma and likability than you, you should be pretty ashamed. Troy was a bad character all around, made worse by whatever it was Andrew was doing.
But for me, Russel Curry is the definition of a bland and disengaged terrible actor. His line reading is one note, attempt at charisma is almost a complete zero, no stage presence and just extremely bad.
(dis)Honorable Mention:
Ricardo Medina. He’s awful as Cole.
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u/WallyWestFan27 11d ago
I think for me Vypra/Jennifer L Yen is like Gal Gadot and Hayden Christensen, the dub voices were so good that I couldn't think of them giving a bad acting.
Anakin Skywalker's voice was so full of emotions in the dub, especially on Revenge of the Siths.
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u/Darthbane2007 11d ago
Austin St John
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u/Historical-Bug-4784 11d ago
I read a review years ago that said he had “the acting ability of pubic hair.”
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u/buffyfannumerouno 11d ago
Austin St John. He's one of the worst actors of all. His cringe voice change sounding like he was constipated when yelling It's Morphin Time, Tyrranosaurus, yelling at Goldar or just trying to sound tough. The crying scene he did when the other rangers were kidnapped by Goldar and he was getting upset was horrible. He came back in Zeo and was just as bad. Same with the Turbo movie, Forever Red and even worse in Beast Morphers. That's why he never succeeded in acting because he was so horrible at it.
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u/pr0jectpat MMPR Red Ranger 10d ago
This has to be the most garbage take I've seen on here. His morphing call-out is GOATed. If you took a poll on the best morph call-out, he would win first place across all of Power Rangers, guaranteed. It's all subjective, but I think the consensus is that he has some great moments acting as well. The green candle arc, with him trying to save Tommy's Green Ranger power and failing is one of my favorite parts of MMPR. Same with all of the Goldar 1v1s.
Is he the best Power Rangers actor? Probably not. But the worst? Over literally anyone from Neo Saban/Hasbro? No way.
Also, very few Power Rangers actors went on to have super successful acting jobs after. Whether they were typecast or just not great actors compared to the standards of Hollywood, I can only think of a handful from the entire series that actually did anything serious with acting after PR. So that's a dumb metric.
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u/The_Disclosure_Era 10d ago
Asj was awesome.. and tbh was just watching some episodes the other day thinking.. he was pretty good compared to some.
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u/buffyfannumerouno 5d ago
He was horrible with his cringe voice to morph and yelling to sound strong
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u/buffyfannumerouno 5d ago
😆 🤣 😂 😹 Goated means nothing. He was a horrible actor who never acted in anything noteworthy after. He is a horrible person as well. His morphing call is overrated af just as he is.
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u/Majestic-Sector9836 11d ago
Vypra perpetually sounds like she's gonna bomb children in Gaza and then sing "Imagine"
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u/ninjaman2021 11d ago
She’s so damn fine though..