# Best Performances "Against Type" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2020, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938 "2020-03-05T00:16:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/41 "2020-03-05T20:15:46Z")
Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/42 "2020-03-05T21:48:14Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > The obvious one is Adam Sandler in _Uncut Gems_. I thought he did a good job in he first real non-comedic role. _Reign Over Me_ was another dramatic role (and I much preferred it to _Uncut Gems_). ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/43 "2020-03-05T23:15:17Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > And before that in _Punch-Drunk Love_. The Adam Sandler movie I was going to mention was Spanglish. After seeing Terry O’Qinn play lawmen and doctors, I was surprised by The Stepfather. ETA: Sandler is surprisingly good in dramatic roles. He should do more. I heard that he says it’s ‘work’ unlike his dial-it-n comedies. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/44 "2020-03-05T23:17:28Z")
Henry Fonda in _ **Once Upon A Time In The Wes** _t. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/45 "2020-03-05T23:20:54Z")
From the Great Actors never in Great Films thread: James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/46 "2020-03-05T23:29:06Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Fair to say Ben Kingsley’s Don Draper in \*Sexy Beast \*was a bit of a departure. > > Not sure he had a type, but _Ghandi_ is his career-defining performance and you can’t get further away from Don Draper than that. Gandhi. Not Ghandi. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/47 "2020-03-06T00:04:48Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Humphrey Bogart in _Sabrina_ (1954), playing against type as a (fairly) honest businessman and eventual romantic lead. I opened this thread to name Bogart for _The Caine Mutiny_: figure that he’d paid his supporting-actor dues as a sneering tough-guy gangster heavy, and that he earned his leading-man Oscar nomination as iconic antihero Rick Blaine in between perfecting the private-eye role as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe; and that, after heading up one war movie after another as the confident military officer who knows what he’s doing, he wasn’t really anybody’s go-to choice to earn another Oscar nomination being flustered and overwhelmed as a weak-willed stammerer who’s in over his head. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/48 "2020-03-06T00:28:45Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I opened this thread to name Bogart for _The Caine Mutiny_ Great example. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/49 "2020-03-06T00:50:29Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Fair to say Ben Kingsley’s Don Draper in \*Sexy Beast \*was a bit of a departure. > > Not sure he had a type, but _Ghandi_ is his career-defining performance and you can’t get further away from Don Draper than that. Don Draper? The Mad Man? ETA: Logan, Don Logan ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/50 "2020-03-06T01:35:00Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > We talked about this recently in another thread, but I nominate Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, and especially Leslie Nielsen in _Airplane!_ Straight dramatic actors all, doing great jobs in a satirical comedy. _Airplane!_ was a comedy, but with the exception of Stephen Stucker everybody played it straight. It needed actors like Nielsen and Bridges who could be absolutely serious to make it as funny as it was. It was brilliant casting, and obviously all the serious actors were in on the joke, but they weren’t exactly playing against type. In the same vein, **Tommy Lee Jones** was hysterical in _Men in Black_. When he’s interrogating a dog and treating it like the most normal thing in the world, it’s brilliant. Also **George C. Scott** in _Dr. Strangelove_. That’s another comedy that’s played mostly straight, but Scott has the gung ho turned up to 11 and he’s excellent. I read somewhere that he was unhappy about it, though. Stanley Kubrick wanted the character to be over-the-top, and was having trouble getting the performance he wanted. He asked Scott to do a few takes as broadly as possible, with the promise that he wouldn’t use them, and then put them in the film anyway. I don’t know if Scott got over his objection; the finished film is clearly a masterpiece. Hmm, maybe every deadpan comedy needs one silly character just for the contrast; someone the other characters should laugh at, but don’t. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/51 "2020-03-06T02:17:09Z")
Betty White in Lake Placid. Foul mouthed crocodile lover. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/52 "2020-03-06T02:18:30Z")
Betty White in Lake Placid. Foul mouthed crocodile lover. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/53 "2020-03-06T04:56:54Z")
‘If I had a dick, this is where I’d tell you to suck it.’ Fuckin’ awesome. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/54 "2020-03-06T05:40:42Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > The obvious one is Adam Sandler in _Uncut Gems_. I thought he did a good job in he first real non-comedic role. I thought so too. I hope he does more. It was as surprising as Ray Romano’s mob lawyer role in The Irishman. Ray Romano as mob lawyer sounds like an SNL sketch but it worked. Now that I think of it, while Uncut Gems is a serious movie and it’s a serious role, he plays an irresponsible jackass which I think is not quite the first time in his career. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/55 "2020-03-06T06:28:19Z")
Malcolm McDowell in _Time After Time._ Not very rapey or murdery at all. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/56 "2020-03-06T12:59:53Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Malcolm McDowell in _Time After Time._ Not very rapey or murdery at all. When you’re in a movie with David Warner, you don’t get to play the villain. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2020, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/57 "2020-03-07T04:48:04Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > How on earth Helena Bonham Carter (archetypical costume drama English rose) got herself cast as the female lead in Fight Club has always been a mystery to me. But well done to her for managing it, and she did a great job. > > j Or Charlize Theron as the serial killer Aileen Wuornos? However, she won an Oscar for it, and deserved it. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2020, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/58 "2020-03-07T07:22:21Z")
Isn’t Woody Harrelson the trope namer for this? He plays a lovable goofball on Cheers and then his next big role is as a psychotic murderer in Natural Born Killers. I also recall Elisabeth Shue having never played a role like her character in Leaving Las Vegas. John Goodman’s dramatic role in Kevin Smith’s Red State was great. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/59 "2020-03-07T13:28:18Z")
Steve Coogan is well known as a comedic actor and writer. Especially as his character Alan Partridge. But he’s done some serious stuff, most notably _Philomena_ which he he co-wrote, produced, and starred in. It won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Similarly, Will Forte was generally known only for comedy before he did _Nebraska_. (A movie that got six Oscar nods.) I’d give the edge to Coogan over Forte here. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938/60 "2020-03-07T16:05:36Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Meryl Streep as an aged rabbi in Angels in America. You think _Meryl Streep_ has a _type_ to play against?!? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-performances-against-type/848938.md?page=4)