# Actors Who Impress More Playing Against Type
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 20, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373 "2021-12-20T18:02:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/1 "2021-12-20T18:02:01Z")
For each of us, there are actors and actresses who don’t impress when doing their usual schtick.
But then they take a role playing against type, and suddenly, you’re impressed.
Take Steve Carell. His comedy roles leave me unimpressed.
But his dramatic roles? Wow. I had a few days off for health reasons a couple weeks back, and I went through both Netflix and Amazon Prime looking for “the road less travelled,” and came across “Last Flag Flying,” with Steve Carell, Lawrence Fishburne, and Bryan Cranston.
Basically an updated remake of The Last Detail, Steve Carell overall brings a mild, meek, sad demeanor to his role, but transitions to a hurt bafflement, with to an underlying hint of (righteous) smoldering anger, all played with an underlying vulnerability.
I was impressed.
So: who’s done that to you?
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/2 "2021-12-20T18:16:22Z")
Steve Carell is a good example.
Wil Ferrell in _Stranger than Fiction_. It is pretty much against type. He’s really good in this. I can rarely stand him in other movies.
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### Author:  [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/3 "2021-12-20T18:24:04Z")
Timothy Dalton played a great villainous character in Hot Fuzz and a Nazi spy in The Rocketeer. The latter came when he was still officially James Bond although legal issues put a third movie with him on hiatus which never happened in the end.
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### Author:  [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/4 "2021-12-20T18:35:32Z")
I’ve pretty much always liked John Goodman’s turns in comedy roles as good guy, but the times he plays a bad guy (or even just a guy who other characters think might be a bad guy, like in The West Wing), he’s really knocked it out of the park.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/5 "2021-12-20T18:38:54Z")
For me Dalton has played more villains and/or weaklings than heroes.
His first major role was Philip in Lion in the Winter. The weakest and shittiest of the 3 brothers. I guess he was a hero in Flash Gordon. But he really has a lot of villains in his career.
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### Author:  [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/6 "2021-12-20T18:41:50Z")
For extroverts playing introverts, **Jack Nicholson** in About Schmidt and probably not many more films, and **Robin Williams** in Awakenings, Good Will Hunting and probably a few more films.
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### Author:  [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/7 "2021-12-20T18:44:22Z")
_Awakenings_ is a good example for Robert De Nero as well.
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### Author:  [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/8 "2021-12-20T18:51:00Z")
> [@ExTank](#):
>
> _Awakenings_ is a good example for Robert De Nero
Impressive to watch, but I don’t know how far he strays from his usual roles in that film. When he’s not catatonic, he seems like a nice guy having a good day, until he gets angry and determined. In the meantime, his character displays spasms, contractions, inability to focus, etc. These are things that, like playing a drunk, don’t require great acting skills. Insofar as playing against type, I was a bit more impressed by his performance in Jackie Brown. I dunno, it’s just my uninformed opinion, and I’d have to see all of these films again in order to be sure.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/9 "2021-12-20T19:08:49Z")
Heath Ledger was the very last person I would have thought could play an evil Joker-ish character. Yeah…so he definitely could.
Tom Cruise was also very impressive at the start of Edge of Tomorrow. He’s a coward and sneak who deserves what happens to him. He thinks he can get out of anything. He becomes cool, but starts intentionally playing the guy we hate.
I’d love to hear did not impress playing against their type. Tom Hanks played the villain in Ladykillers and it was actually really bad. Probably not his fault, but I would love to see him play a straight up unlikeable character again to see how he does.
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/10 "2021-12-20T19:17:58Z")
Jack Black in **Bernie**. Should have been nominated for an Oscar.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/11 "2021-12-20T19:21:17Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#):
>
> Jack Black in **Bernie**. Should have been nominated for an Oscar
Oh, yeah, I did see that. He was great. He should do more non-comedy work.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/12 "2021-12-20T19:28:58Z")
My son recommended a movie for us, didn’t tell me or his mom anything about it… and I started it and, what the hell? _Adam Fucking Sandler?_ Oh, god, where’s the remote, or maybe I’ll just throw my shoe through the TV… wait, it’s in black and white? And it… doesn’t suck? Huh, maybe I’ll give it a chance… whoa, _ **Uncut Gems** _ is really good, and I almost forgot that guy was Adam Sandler.
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### Author:  [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/13 "2021-12-20T19:36:45Z")
Gems isn’t B&W - maybe you’re mixing it up with _The Lighthouse_, which was produced by the same company, A24 - but yes, this was the example I was going to post here. I know he’s done some other serious movies, but that one was his true magnum opus and the proof that he is 100% capable of delivering an amazing dramatic performance.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/14 "2021-12-20T19:38:14Z")
Jim Carrey in _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/15 "2021-12-20T19:46:43Z")
Watching Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers was a mind blowing experience for me.
I like his later stuff too but NBK was the first time I’ve seen him outside of Cheers. Was not expecting this goofy dolt I knew on Cheers to play such a good bad guy.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/16 "2021-12-20T19:58:32Z")
Sacha Baron Cohen in _Hugo_
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/17 "2021-12-20T20:26:24Z")
I didn’t like _Uncut Gems_. To me it just felt like Adam Sandler, as Adam Sandler, yelling for 90 minutes. However, in 2002 we were all surprised to see Adam Sandler acting, and doing a good job of it in _Punch Drunk Love_.
I haven’t seen any clips yet but I was just reading buzz yesterday about Kunal Nayyar (better known as Raj from “The Big Bang Theory”) in an upcoming series called “Suspicion”. It’s a remake of an Israeli thriller. In the thread talking about this show, people were saying how good Nayyar was in an episode of “Criminal: UK” and was unrecognizable to those who know him as Raj.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/18 "2021-12-20T20:42:22Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> For me Dalton has played more villains and/or weaklings than heroes.
> His first major role was Philip in Lion in the Winter. The weakest and shittiest of the 3 brothers.
I think you’re confusing him with someone else in that movie (John? He was played by Nigel Terry). Dalton played Philip II of France, not one of the sons of Henry, and as such was weak and inexperienced rather than villainous. Henry walked all over him.
Sorry to come in just to post a correction, nothing comes to mind that hasn’t already been posted, but if I think of something I’ll come back. I know you can’t wait.
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/19 "2021-12-20T20:45:56Z")
Sonny Tufts – _The Crooked Way_ (1949) - Tufts specialized in goofy second leads, but he is chilling as a gang leader in this film noir.
Ronald Reagan – _The Killers_ (1964) - Forgettable light leading man played heel in his last and most convincing performance.
David Carradine - _Sonny Boy_ (1989) - Carradine’s familiar personas of cool and cocky good guy and coldly villainous bad guy do not apply to this role where he plays (in drag) the wife of grotesque criminal patriarch Paul L. Smith.
Hugh Grant – _The Gentlemen_ (2019) - Grant was intolerable playing stammering romantic/comic leads, but he excels as a fast-talking scumbag associate of criminals.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-impress-more-playing-against-type/956373/20 "2021-12-20T20:52:34Z")
In studio cinema, Fred MacMurray was best when playing heels. His turn in _Double Indemnity_ is powerful, and in the _The Apartment_, his nice guy persona made him a great villain.
Jack Elam built his career on playing hard-assed outlaws. Then he grew a beard and became a great comedy actor, notably in _Support Your Local Sheriff._
Marlon Brando was very funny riffing on his _Godfather_ role in _The Freshman._
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