overacting
Chewing the scenery
Overacting is exaggerated or excessive performance, especially by an actor who delivers emotions too broadly or dramatically for the material.
The term implies a failure of restraint—ham acting that draws attention to itself rather than serving the story: The villain's overacting turned the thriller into unintentional comedy.
Beyond theater and film, overacting describes any behavior that seems theatrically excessive: His overacting at the meeting fooled no one.
Robbery with violence
- scene-stealingOutperforming others onstage
- campyEntertainingly artificial and overblown
- showboatingOstentatious self-display
- over-the-topExcessively dramatic or extravagant
clowning · vaudevillian · burlesque · slapstick · buffoonery · corny · hokey · schtick
Making expressive hand movements
- grimacingDistorting face unpleasantly
- eye-rollingExpressive gesture of annoyance
- eyebrow-raisingProvoking astonishment or doubt
- flailingUncontrolled limb movement
mugging · double-take · pratfall · wild-eyed · bug-eyed · scenery-chewing · posing · strutting
Exaggeratedly emotional in behavior
- overwroughtExcessively emotional or elaborate
- theatricalExaggeratedly emotional for effect
- emotingExpressing theatrically
- effusiveUnrestrainedly emotional in expression
impassioned · sentimental · weepy · swooning · fainting · hand-wringing · pearl-clutching · breathless
Pretentiously impressive in scale
- declamatoryPompously rhetorical in style
- pompousAffectedly grand in manner
- overblownInflated beyond reasonable proportion
- grandstandingPerforming to impress onlookers
speechifying · oratorical · stentorian · thundering · booming · ranting · bellowing · posturing
mugging
Robbery with violence
- scene-stealingOutperforming others onstage
- campyEntertainingly artificial and overblown
- showboatingOstentatious self-display
over-the-top · clowning · vaudevillian · burlesque · slapstick · buffoonery · corny · hokey · schtick · shtick
gesticulating
Making expressive hand movements
- grimacingDistorting face unpleasantly
- eye-rollingExpressive gesture of annoyance
- eyebrow-raisingProvoking astonishment or doubt
flailing · mugging · double-take · pratfall · wild-eyed · bug-eyed · scenery-chewing · posing · strutting · preening
histrionic
Exaggeratedly emotional in behavior
- overwroughtExcessively emotional or elaborate
- theatricalExaggeratedly emotional for effect
- emotingExpressing theatrically
effusive · impassioned · sentimental · weepy · swooning · fainting · hand-wringing · pearl-clutching · breathless · gasping
grandiose
Pretentiously impressive in scale
- declamatoryPompously rhetorical in style
- pompousAffectedly grand in manner
- overblownInflated beyond reasonable proportion
grandstanding · speechifying · oratorical · stentorian · thundering · booming · ranting · bellowing · posturing · preening
- scene stealinghamming, mugging, upstaging, grandstanding, showboating
- Silent Filmsilent films, silent era, silent comedy, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton
- melodramatichistrionic, theatrical, overwrought, exaggerated, dramatic
- theatricstheatrics, dramatics, melodrama, histrionics, theatricality
- tomfoolerysilliness, foolery, clownery, clownishness, goofing off
- showboatingshowing off, bragging, boasting, grandstanding, posturing
overactingunderacting
Performing with insufficient intensity
underplaying · restraint · subtlety · minimalism · understatement
- overactive bladderUrinary urgency condition