Acting, despite all its upsides, can sometimes be a real chore. You've got to memorize lines, put on make-up, don a costume, and sit around set all day as lights are set up and shots are prepped. However, when it comes to voice acting, that's an entirely different ball game. Some of the biggest stars in the world seem to be more than willing to drop by a recording booth for an hour to quickly and easily bang out a super-exciting cameo voice line or two.
Sometimes A-listers make uncredited voice cameos in films and TV shows because they are already a fan of the show, like Oprah in The Handmaid's Tale or Natalie Portman's small role in Bluey. Other times, stars are already friends with filmmakers, but there simply wasn't a major role for them in the director's latest project - like with Harvey Keitel in Inglourious Basterds or Michael Caine in Dunkirk. Then, there's the occasional cameo that blows viewers' minds and has no real logical explanation at all. In celebration of fun cameos and uncredited Easter egg appearance, here are some great voice performances that you may not have realized came from wildly famous stars.
Texas native Matthew McConaughey brought his southern drawl to the role of Cowboy Deadpool in Deadpool & Wolverine - a Wild West-themed variant of Deadpool who is one of the slew of Deadpools that travel from the void to fight Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in one of the film's most exhilarating action sequences. The movie is jam-packed with surprising and exciting special appearances, but McConaughey's voice cameo was among the most unexpected.
Michael Caine has been one of director Christopher Nolan's most stalwart collaborators, appearing in nearly every one of his biggest films (including The Prestige, Interstellar, Inception, and each installment of The Dark Knight trilogy). When it came to Nolan's 2017 historical war drama Dunkirk, Caine's involvement was much more subtle. The two-time Oscar winner had an uncredited voice-only cameo as Fortis Leader, who communicates with the spitfire fighter pilots over radio communications.
Like so many parents these days, the animated kids' show Bluey plays a big role in Natalie Portman's life, so the Oscar-winning actress was delighted to get to lend her voice to one of the episodes. Portman makes a cameo in the Season 3 episode "Whale Watching," as the narrator of a nature documentary Bluey and Bingo watch on TV, and is credited simply as “Whale Doco Narrator.”
Amid the jokes and gun fights that permeate director Shane Black's 2005 action comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Laurence Fishburne makes an uncredited voice cameo as a talking bear in a beer commercial. The Matrix star delivers the catchphrase for the fictional beer company, Genaros, declaring, “I prefer Genaros, but what do I know? I suck the heads off fish!”
When director Quentin Tarantino made his World War II action epic Inglourious Basterds, he made sure to include his frequent collaborator Harvey Keitel, even if it was just in a small role. Keitel makes a voice cameo as an unnamed OSS Commander who agrees to a deal with the villainous Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and delivers specific instructions over the phone to Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) regarding Landa's surrender.
The Ted Lasso star got the chance to actually don stormtrooper armor (or, technically, bike scout trooper armor) and shoot some scenes - alongside fellow comic actor Adam Pally - for the series premiere of The Mandalorian. Sudeikis's cameo led to the actor taking some heat online because he, along with Pally, both punch Grogo (AKA Baby Yoda), in the scene, which is something the internet simply couldn't stand for.
After appearing as the flight director in Apollo 13 in 1995, Ed Harris made a wonderful call-back cameo in Alfonso Cuarón's 2013 drama Gravity as the unseen Mission Control in the film's single-take opening. The Easter egg goes even deeper, as astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) speaks to Mission Control and says, "Houston, I have a bad feeling about this mission," which mirrors the iconic line Tom Hanks delivers to Harris in Apollo 13: “Houston, we have a problem.”
Among the slew of blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos that pop up at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, singer Miley Cyrus's voice-only cameo is the easiest to go unnoticed. Cyrus provides the voice of Mainframe, an AI construct that appears to be a disembodied robot head, who is also the leader of a ravager faction in space.
Director Rian Johnson's longtime collaborator Joseph Gordon-Levitt made a voice cameo in his 2019 mystery thriller Knives Out, playing Detective Hardrock on TV cop drama that main character Marta's sister is watching in the background of one scene. Levitt made an even more subtle voice cameo in the 2022 sequel, Glass Onion, providing the booming, hourly "dong" noise made by billionaire Miles Bron's clock.
Universally beloved actor Keanu Reeves surprised fans in the long-awaited Season 2 premiere of the mind bending Apple TV+ drama Severance. Reeves provides the voice of an animated office building in a quasi-propaganda video the Lumon employees are made to watch. The show's creator, Dan Erickson, told People that they cast Reeves because the animated building “had to be a very warm presence… [and] there’s a friendliness to that particular voice and a heart to that particular voice.”
In Free Guy, Dwayne Johnson makes an uncredited cameo as the voice of Bank Robber #2. The cameo comes during a pivotal moment in the film when the titular Guy (Ryan Reynolds) decides to go off-script in his virtual world and fight back. The moment was a neat compliment to Reynold's unexpected cameo in Johnson's 2019 action blockbuster Hobbs & Shaw.
In David Fincher's 2002 thriller Panic Room, Nicole Kidman makes a voice cameo during a phone call, as the supermodel girlfriend of Meg's (Jodie Foster) ex-husband. The cameo is a nod to the fact that Kidman was originally cast to play Meg, but had to back out, leading to Foster stepping in and the screenplay getting tweaked to accommodate the new casting.
In the stressful, high-energy drama Uncut Gems, Tilda Swinton makes a voice cameo as Anne, the manager of an auction house. Swinton can be heard over the phone as she delivers some bad news to jewelry store owner Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) regarding the surprisingly low value of an opal that plays a central role in the film's incredibly tense plot.
Director J.J. Abrams's 2016 sci-fi thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane is a claustrophobic nightmare with only three main characters for nearly its entire runtime. However, Bradley Cooper manages to sneak in a cameo, providing the voice of Ben, the ex-boyfriend of main character Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who calls her in an effort to convince her to return home after a big fight.
Media mogul and celebrated star Oprah Winfrey makes a small but important voice cameo in a Season 2 episode of The Handmaid's Tale, titled "Holly." Winfrey plays the host of a radio station broadcasting news of the world to anyone who might be listening inside the dystopian nation of the Republic of Gilead.
