As a general rule, actors are known for their sole expertise in either dramatic or comedic roles, with their occasional forays outside their comfort zone ranging from uncomfortably unconvincing to uncomfortably atrocious. There are very few performers who can swap between far-ranging skill sets with ease, and it’s especially entertaining to watch serious thespians in supporting comedy roles who completely nail it and steal the attention away from the comedians whose names hog the top of the movie posters.
Vote up the actors who made you laugh out loud, thereby shattering all your assumptions that they were only as funny as a late-night commercial featuring Sarah McLachlan singing about neglected puppies.
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When audiences saw Vincent D’Onofrio play the evil space roach Edgar the Bug in the sci-fi comedy Men in Black, most hadn’t seen his name since his incredible performance as Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket a decade before. Looking like a completely different person than the corpulent, tragic Parris Island recruit, D’Onofrio was also hilariously nefarious in his 12-foot, homicidal, six-legged arthropod form.
In between his more serious roles in the following years, he reminded a whole new generation of his skill at playing a ridiculous jerk in Jurassic World, in which he made theatergoers everywhere cheer when a velociraptor gobbled him down like a tasty Christmas goose.
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Ben Stiller may have been the star and director, and Robert Downey Jr. may have been the one who earned the awards-season accolades, but Tom Cruise may be the Tropic Thunder cast member that gained the most from his participation in the film. And that's not just a reference to the fat suit he was disguised in for his performance as the shouty studio exec Les Grossman.
Prior to filming his surprise supporting role, Cruise had not only mostly stuck to drama throughout his legendary career, but the intensity of his off-screen persona had also come under heavy scrutiny in the years leading up to the comedy's 2008 release. His enthusiastic Tropic Thunder performance not only gave him an opportunity to prove his comedy chops, but also helped soften and rehabilitate his reputation. The result was one of the most memorable - and, naturally, most unrecognizable - outings of his career.
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Before his appearance in the Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston rom-com Along Came Polly, most people probably thought Philip Seymour Hoffman’s crowning comedic accomplishment was in Red Dragon, when Hannibal Lecter sends him fireballing down a hill while strapped to a wheelchair after a fun game of "DO YOU SEE?"
He showed that he could be even more hilarious than that, however, when he played Stiller’s goofy pal, Sandy Lyle. And for a film that holds an abysmal 27% on the Tomatometer, the “Sasquatch Basketball” scene has to be responsible for at least a handful of those points.
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Jason Statham is to British tough guys as Sean Bean is to British guys who get killed before the end credits roll, so seeing him paired with Melissa McCarthy in a slapstick comedy about secret agents came as a bit of a surprise. Sure, he basically plays a parody version of the grim tough guy he’s already known for in director Paul Feig’s Spy, but Statham’s character somehow winds up getting the most laughs in a film that’s supposed to be a vehicle for McCarthy’s antics.
Even when she’s front and center - as in the scene in which they’re both dangling from the landing skid of a helicopter - it’s Statham’s character of operative Rick Ford who winds up delivering the physical punchline. Specifically, he risks the wrath of CIA Human Resources by trying to climb to safety using McCarthy like a climbing wall.
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If you thought Kevin Kline’s funniest work was in the regrettable Wild Wild West with Will Smith, you’ll be pleased to know he’s a stitch in the animated Bob’s Burgers, in which he plays the landlord Mr. Fischoeder. And if you dig back all the way to 1988, he was in the classic heist comedy A Fish Called Wanda.
As a British-hating criminal partner to Jamie Lee Curtis, weapons expert, and certifiable nut, Kline was so good at playing a con artist with a lunatic streak that he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. So he’s perfectly justified in saying “Don’t call me stupid” to anyone who said he should have stuck to dramatic roles.
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Charlize Theron is an actress whose range seems almost limitless, having played everything from romantic leads to a serial killer to the top Imperator of the Wastelands. But few would have expected her to handle so deftly the challenge of playing a funny “MRF.” That acronym stands for an extremely out-of-date term, and you can take it up with the producers of Arrested Development.
They're the ones who cast Theron as Rita Leeds, a character whom Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) falls in love with and whose unorthodox behavior led viewers to suspect her of being a British spy, when it was actually just the result of her parents being cousins. Such a role could easily come across as crass and insensitive in lesser hands, but Theron proved to us all she’s the MVP of MRFs.
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When descriptions like "best actress of her generation" get tossed around in relation to your multi-decade and ridiculous-amount-of-awards-winning career, you can confidently give a thumbs-up to pretty much whatever script you darn well feel like. Nonetheless, seeing the legendary Meryl Streep matched up with Goldie Hawn and a young Bruce Willis in the Robert Zemeckis black comedy Death Becomes Her seemed like it might be something of a challenge for the star of such films as Sophie’s Choice and A Cry in the Dark.
But of course, she was more than up to the task of embodying a twisty-necked, self-absorbed member of the undead. The special effects-heavy film was made in 1992, when computer-generated effects were still new, which presented another hurdle for Streep to overcome. Yet overcome she did, delivering a performance that was both nominated for a Golden Globe and described as being "as fabulous as Death Becomes Her's innovative special effects" (which won that year’s Oscar over Alien 3 and Batman Returns).
Surprising comedy chops?Ever since playing the titular character in Gandhi way back in 1982, British actor Ben Kingsley has been associated with weighty portrayals and films that ooze gravitas (Mike Myers's regrettable The Love Guru notwithstanding). So it came as a pleasant surprise to watch him chew the scenery in Iron Man 3 playing Trevor Slattery, a hilariously degenerate, over-the-hill actor hired by the terrorist organization AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) to be a doppelgänger for the Mandarin, the presumptive main bad guy.
Completely clueless as to his deeper involvement in world affairs, Kingsley as Slattery is a joy to watch as he enjoys wallowing in all the opulence and hard substances made available to him by AIM. And even when Tony Stark saves the day and the scheme all comes crumbling down, Slattery has a blast in prison with his ill-gotten fame.
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Leslie Nielsen’s hysterical performance in 1980’s Airplane! may have set the gold standard for so-called serious actors being way funnier than you’d expect. But in 1984, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, best known at the time for giving people the non-giggle-related feels in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, showed up in Top Secret!, another madcap comedy by the brains behind Airplane!
While co-director David Zucker stated that he didn’t want to include a lot of surprising cameos again, Sharif was nonetheless brought on board as Agent Cedric, forever cementing his place in the pantheon of master thespians by allowing himself to become the butt of a dog poop joke.
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The legendary actor who later played General “Old Blood and Guts” Patton himself, George C. Scott, took an unexpected detour off the beaten path in 1964 to play another general, Buck Turgidson, in Stanley Kubrick’s bizarre black comedy masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Even Scott was shocked at how amazingly absurd his performance was, as Kubrick tricked him into being as silly as possible as an "exercise," with the promise the takes wouldn’t be used. But Kubrick did use the takes in the final cut, earning a vow from Scott to never work with the famed director again. Thankfully, Scott eventually did see the method in Kubrick’s madness, and came to appreciate the final product.
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While Ryan Gosling has always shown his comedic side, he's never truly flaunted it to ridiculous heights. His roles in The Nice Guys, Lars and the Real Girl, and Crazy Stupid Love all had some level of restraint. 2023's Barbie completely unhinged Gosling's kenergy, allowing us to laugh and fall in love with his outrageous performance.
Director Greta Gerwig described his turn as Barbie's supposed plastic boyfriend as “some combination of Marlon Brando meets Gene Wilder meets John Barrymore meets John Travolta” and it's hard to deny that description. With plenty of dramatic insecurity and emotion, he tries to win Barbie's heart with grand gestures and coordinated outfits. His dude-bro vibe combined with his earnest and over-the-top facial expressions not only makes his performance the best in the movie but one of the best of Gosling's career. It's his commitment that makes this singing, dancing beach boy such a standout.
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They Came Together, the 2014 rom-com satire featuring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler, received mixed reviews from the critics. But it’s definitely worth a watch simply to witness Michael Shannon play a lunatic ex-convict and Poehler's ex-husband, Spike.
Neither the brightest nor the most capable product of the prison system, Spike is beaten soundly in a fight with Paul Rudd’s character, then gets shot during a subsequent escape attempt. To Shannon’s credit, not even the most veteran of comedic actors can manage to make taking a fatal round to the face something to chortle at.
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Puppy dog-eyed handsome fellow Jake Gyllenhaal may have technically begun his acting career in a comedy (playing Billy Crystal’s son in City Slickers when he was just a wee lad of 10), but his IMDb page is rather lacking in chortles and snickers. That doesn’t mean he’s not capable of delivering the occasional comedic performance, however. He proved as much by appearing as himself in John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (a spoof on classic children’s television shows) and removed all doubt when he played a nutty celebrity zoologist named Johnny Wilcox in writer/director Bong Joon-ho’s strange tale about a super pig, Okja.
Commended for his contribution to a “tricky tonal juggling act” (which is a difficult descriptor to avoid when you’re making something described as a “Vegan adventure film”), Gyllenhaal delivers a performance - and some truly earnest attempts to be incredibly annoying - you’re not likely to forget.
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Many would consider Al Pacino’s over-the-top performances in films like Scarface and Scent of a Woman top-notch examples of unintentional comedy. But it turns out he can be equally hilarious on purpose, which he proved without a doubt in the Adam Sandler atrocity Jack and Jill.
Using the word “atrocity” to describe this movie wasn’t a typo, as it garnered a record-breaking 12 nominations at that year’s Golden Raspberry Awards. Yet Pacino’s song-and-dance number in the service of tasty breakfast beverages by all rights should have negated all 12 Razzies and perhaps even resulted in a brand-new award for making terrible movies watchable.
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