Er…this is hard to explain. But does anyone notice how weird it is when an actor plays someone uber frightening- psycho killer or just all around strange guy- and then goes back to doing normal roles? It just…isn’t right.
Someone in the violent scene thread mentioned Michael Madsen playing Mr. Blond in “Reservoir Dogs” and then playing the adoptive/foster father in “Free Willy”- a very odd contrast. Which made me go “Whaa?” when I realized that was the same guy.
Another example- Ted Levine, who played Buffalo Bill/Jame Gumb in “The Silence of the Lambs” but who now plays not only a normal role, but the exact opposite- a very by-the-book police chief, Stoddlemyer, on the TV series “Monk.”
I’m not exactly talking about type-casting, just people who do one really frightening or disturbing role, and then go on to do something normal, and how it just looks strange, seeing them in such disparate roles.
One more example, though- Edward Norton. In the two movies I’ve seen him in, he’s played completely different people. “Fight Club” saw him as a strange and psychotic individual, whereas “Death to Smoochy” showed him as an extremely caring (to a fault), “Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children!” type.
Yes, I agree it sometimes can be very strange. The closest thing to it I can think of was when I watched Mark Harmon (I think it was him) play the role of a serial murderer. Shoot, I can’t remember who he played but it was the one who killed all women, I’m wanting to say they were nurses. Anyway, he did the role so well that I simply didn’t like him after that. That was quite awhile ago, though, so seeing him play something else probably wouldn’t bother me now.
Harmon played Ted Bundy. Wasn’t that called The Stranger Beside Me?
The only guy that comes to mind is Steve Railsback. He played Charles Manson in Helter Skelter. I can’t watch him in anything else without thinking of Chuck.
Railsback for sure, and Levine. He really freaks me out, and I always picture him saying stuff like “I’d fuck me.”
Isn’t Tony Perkins the ultimate though?
Chris Walken probably doesn’t count, because he just looks that way all the time!
Robert Englund, who played Freddy Kruger, always bothered me when I saw him in other films, like V, where he was as mild-mannered as he could be as Willie the alien. Then again, he freaked me out when I saw him grocery shopping at Albertson’s downtown…
I suppose that this isn’t exactly what you’re talking about (not enough contrast), but it’s what I have:
A few weeks ago I watched For a Few Dollars More and realized that the good guy who sided with Clint Eastwood throughout the film was the exact same fellow we were carefully taught to dispise as the “Bad” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Lee Van Cleef. It didn’t seem right to be cheering him on after cheering at his death (Of course, GB&U came out later, but it’s the first one I saw).
J.K. Simmons will always have a whiff of Schillenger, the white-supremacist rapist he played in Oz.
Unsettling to see him as anyone else – particularly as J. Jonah Jameson in Spiderman.
“Parker!” :eek:
His4Ever – are you thinking of The Deliberate Stranger? That movie really coloured my perception of Ted Bundy. Now I know to be really really careful around nice, safe-looking young men, if they are perpetually accompanied by incredibly-cheesy analog synthesizer noodling.
I was just thinking about this concept myself. I just saw Frida today, and her father is played in that film by Roger Rees.
Rees has been in a great many films, but the one that stands out in my memory head and shoulders above all the others is BlackMale, and those who have seen it know why. Every time I see him now I can’t stop seeing him at the end of that movie, leering over the two lovers in bed…
Seeing him with a mustache and a German accent in a movie set largely in Mexico and imagining him with the theatrically overdone British accent and totally psychotic was just jarring.
Lance Henriksen always seems to be playing psychos, so seeing him as the lead in “Millenium” was strange. But he was good.
Same goes for Kurtwood Smith (the evil bad guy in “Robocop”) who now plays the dad in “That '70s Show”. And Michael Ironside so often plays bad guys, it’s weird to see him playing a good guy (but he does it very well).
But boy o boy did he just eat the scenery in every shot he was in. LOVED IT…he captured ol JJJ PERFECTLY.
Still, remembering him as Schillenger upset me for a time when I saw him as the psychologist on Law and Order.
Got to admit though, through his repeated viewings, the guy is one damned GOOD actor. He was able to totally seperate the characters, even though they wore the same face IMHO.
Ever see Wes Craven’s New Nightmare? In it, Englund plays retro Freddy, a new Freddy, and himself! I thought it was really weird to see him as himself.
I have an example of the opposite effect. When I saw Insomnia with Robin Williams playing a very creepy murderer, I just kept thinking “Mork! No!!!”
He is amazingly talented. He’s living proof that a good director can choke-chain a great performance out of a manic comedian. Now if only someone could control Jim Carrey. . .