Ridley and Boyega both showcase far more scenes of “theatrical acting” in the ST than “cinema acting” - though neither style is necessarily greater than the other, they do have benefits and disadvantages. Driver spends most of his time doing more “cinema acting,” though all three actors have shown their range can go to either type if need be. Rey and Finn are simply meant to be more extroverted than the introverted Kylo/Ben, and are *meant* to have more emotional bluntness in their stories compared to him.
Theatrical acting is much more openly emotive and more “enthusiastic” in terms of energy. It’s never confused with “dull surprise” or cardboard cut out acting; the entire style is meant to be vivid and engaging whether JP close or at a distance. But it can suffer greatly when there’s a lack of focus or an artificiality to the characterization exposed by a script - it can become hammy, cheesy, or campy, or just seem like a bunch of loud nothingness.
Cinema acting is much more targeted at nuance, intentional ambiguity, and “intense quiet.” A small facial twitch or a slight change in posture are the tools of its trade. When it works great, it can engage an audience with a character on an intimate and familiar level, and it has a flexibility from the nuance and quiet nature of its emoting - multiple interpretations can be applied to scene, which can sometimes exponentially increase a performance’s meaning, or small issues with the plot can be covered up by ambiguity. It’s weakness, aside from the fact that some struggle to perform it and thus come off flat as a board, is that a bad script can sometimes create deeply contradictory interpretations of scenes and acting choices.
Ridely, Boyega, and Driver all started pretty well in TFA without much issue, at least in part because all three are naturally talented, and because they were helping to construct the characters a bit with Abrams and Kasdan’s scripts (especially during reshoots with Ridley and Boyega.)
TLJ was a bit different - I think that Driver had an easier time because the script was trying to is the ambiguity of his acting and the core idea of his character didn’t change much, but Ridely and Boyega both have scenes where they seem a bit lost for *exactly* what type of personality they’re playing because of the script’s different priorities and interpretations. Boyega tried to compensate by leaning into being funny and charismatic, which is why Finn comes off as a bit cheesy at times, while Ridley tried to go all in on the dramatic part, which is why she can seem a bit melodramatic there.
TROS is arguably the worst outing for all three. Again, Driver comes off best, likely because of his experience, but also because there’s still a bit of clarity in what he’s supposed to do as Kylo and Ben... arguably too much clarity, since it makes Ben seem like an improvised all new character instead of a redeemed Kylo, but the focus is there. Boyega simply isn’t asked to do all that much on an emotional level, while Ridely seems clearly a bit overwhelmed by the sheer schizophrenia of her character’s arc.
