Actors That Surprised You

[Ducky Momo]

I'm sure we all have a long list of actors we think are mediocre at best. However every once in a while they surprise you.

I'm watching Bowfinger and was really surprised by Eddie Murphy. For the first time ever I thought he was excellently playing a character. Specifically the audition scene, were he plays a nerd. It was marvelous.

[The Omega]

Jamie Foxx from Collateral onwards.

[Jiren]

- Will Smith - Will's dad (Fresh Prince)

[gamblore]

I had chalked Leonardo DiCaprio as a has been teen star in the late 90s, but he surprised me first by making a comeback and then by turning out to be a pretty decent actor.

[theryno665]

I'll second Leo DiCaprio. I wrote him off as a pretty boy until Catch Me If You Can. Now, it's not like I'll watch every movie of his but he's quite good.

I used to hate Brad Pitt too for much of the same reasons, him being a popular prettyboy and me being a bitter ugly teenager. But now he's pretty much my favorite actor.

[JRX]

Aaron Eckhart: singlehandedly made me forget about Heath Ledger in Dark Knight.

[seanmichael]

not that I think he's mediocre but Jim Carey in anything serious. Growing up watching him in things like Ace Ventura and The Mask I was really impressed and plesently suprised he could do serious roles like in Man on the Moon and The Majestic

[sryans]

Marlon Wayans impressed the hell out of me in Requiem for a Dream.

[Paul Servo]

Leo in GANGS OF NY. Prior to that I thought of him as a Tiger Beat cover boy

Cameron Diaz in GANGS OF NY, I thought she showed some spark of "if given the right role, she can be more than a pretty face"

Brad Pitt in the OCEANS movies. Thought of him as a slab of beefcake prior to those films. I think interplaying with Clooney and Co helped bring his game up (the poker game at the end of 12 and the airport scene at the end of 13 seem more like the actors than the characters)

Marlon Wayans in REQUIEM.

Mickey Rourke in THE WRESTLER. If Mickey fricken Rourke can make me cry like a baby, that means something

[Hulkshi Tanahashi]

Brad Pitt in "Fight Club." After I saw him in that movie, he went from "pretty boy" to "damn fine actor" in my eyes.

[Yami Daimao]

Aug 23, 2009 21:47:03 GMT -5 JRX said:

Aaron Eckhart: singlehandedly made me forget about Heath Ledger in Dark Knight.

This. THIS. THIS!

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

Throwin' my hat into the ring for the Leo support. Wrote him off as a pretty boy after Romeo and Juliet and Titanic, but pretty much everything he's done in the 2000's has been awesome. Plus his early work is fantastic too (Basketball Diaries, Gilbert Grape)

[The Charismatic Enabeler]

Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man. I thought it was gonna be awful with a cost effective has been and it wound up being perhaps the best super hero casting ever.

[default]

Yeah for Leo and Pitt... they were both great in Gilbert Grape.

I never really noticed how good of an actor Rourke was until The Wrestler.

Also, Ron Perlman with Sons of Anarchy. I realize now he has some insane training... but the Hollywood roles he got were jokes for the most part until he made Hellboy better than it had any right to be.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Aug 23, 2009 21:08:43 GMT -5 Ducky Momo said:

I'm watching Bowfinger and was really surprised by Eddie Murphy. For the first time ever I thought he was excellently playing a character. Specifically the audition scene, were he plays a nerd. It was marvelous.

Bingo. I've always felt that Eddie would be considered a better actor if he made movies where other people held the reigns. "Dreamgirls" also proved that. When he makes movies that he feels 'plays to his audience', we get crap like "Norbit".

Also, Julia Roberts in "Erin Brokovich". Didn't really like her movies up until that one. She was able to play a tough cookie without looking like she was 'playing tough'.

[bob]

DiCaprio in Catch Me if You Can

Rourke in The Wrestler

Brad Pitt in the Ocean's movies

Jim Carey in The Majestic

[gamblore]

Aug 24, 2009 1:06:55 GMT -5 The Charismatic Enabeler said:

Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man. I thought it was gonna be awful with a cost effective has been and it wound up being perhaps the best super hero casting ever.

If you haven't seen it, you should check out Zodiac, which came out about a year before Iron Man and also had a fine performance from Robert Downey Jr.

[The Charismatic Enabeler]

I saw it but figured he was just a supporting actor (though he was good) so it wasn't the same thing as being the star of a franchise.

[rawthentic]

Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad.

I did not think he was a mediocre actor, i was still surprised on how great of an actor he can be.

[Mozenrath]

I wouldn't say he WOWED me exactly, but I know I'm not the only one who left Forgetting Sarah Marshall liking Russel Brand. Granted, he's got the sort of public persona I often find grating, but he took a character that easily could of been "Nameless Douche", and just sort of made it click.

I liked Neil Patrick Harris before I saw Dr. Horrible and him as Barney Stinson, but he went from "Funny dude" to "I love this man."