I was watching Up in the Air yesterday, and there’s the inevitable scene where George Clooney’s character gets what he always wanted and -surprise- finds out it wasn’t what he wanted after all. The scene starts when the pilot comes out of the cockpit to talk to Clooney, and hey, it’s Sam Elliott! My first thought was “what, Morgan Freeman was busy?”, my second thought was “hey, this is the scene where the wise, old man gives the not-so-wise, not-so-old man some good advice that we can all learn something from, just like Sam Elliott does in other movies!” So Clooney says there’s something he had always wanted to say and…
…nothing happens. Clooney shows all the signs of a man in deep despair and Elliott just sits there, smiling apologetically. It’s a great scene because it shows there are no ready-made answers, but to me, it was made better by the fact that is was Sam Elliott, who sort of makes you expect a different kind of scene.
So, any other examples that come to mind where a non-typical use of a typical actor makes a scene, or a movie?