Last night I watched 9½ Weeks, starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. Since I’m not a big fan of either actor, I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my favourites, Christine Baranski, billed fourth in the opening credits. My hopes at enjoying some of her trademark scene-stealing as a supporting actress were dashed; she gets less than a minute of screen time, during most of which her face is obscured by a spoon!
This got me thinking about other cases in which a highly billed star or supporting actor gets almost no screen time. A recent example (spoilered because it’s still in theatres) would be Mark Hamill in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If memory serves, he got second billing, but appears only for a few moments, with no dialogue, in the film’s final scene.
Been a while since I’ve seen Shakespeare in Love, but web searches suggest that Dench is on-screen for about eight minutes. That’s pretty short, but still several times longer than the two examples in my OP. Lugosi’s role in Plan 9 is reportedly less than three minutes, which is more what I had in mind.
Can anyone think of any other highly billed performances that last less than three minutes? Or even less than one?
You’re repeating an urban legend here. Lugosi died before Plan 9 was even written. The director of that film, Ed Wood, reused archival footage of Lugosi from earlier, unfinished projects.
I can point out the opposite: Victor Killian was the lead in Unknown World, but was not billed at all (the blacklist).
Frankie Avalon had only six minutes of screen time in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini; he was the co-star of all the other Beach Party movies and they insisted he be there, even though he was working on another film.
Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff got special billing in The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, with a prominent title card in both the trailer and the movie credits (though they were billed as their characters). They probably had about three minutes of screen time altogether.
Mark Hamill was second billed after Harrison Ford in The Force Awakens. He had about a minute of screen time, and no lines. That has to be some sort of record.
A couple of years ago there was a comedy about airplanes and all of the advertising featured Mike Meyers but it turned out Mike Meyers was essentially a few minute cameo in the movie.
I believe Steven Seagal got second billing after Kurt Russell in Executive Decision. You didn’t make it clear if this thread should be open spoilers or boxed, but I’ll just say he is not in much of the movie compared to what most people expected.
As opposed to the “price of fame” Brando in this movie and several others demonstrated the counterpart “reward of fame.” This after almost not getting the role of Don Vito!
What’s even weirder is the ex post facto reward that people like Kevin Costner got by appearing on the VCR box as a star in some jerkleg straight-to-video mess in which he had maybe one line or one shot of his face in the entire movie. I can’t even remember the name of the thing, but I was wary enough not to fall for the trick of renting it. I learned later how lucky I had been just to pass by on the other side of that one.
There’s a more recent instance involving Bruce Willis (that I refuse to look up for its title) where his face on the cover takes more time to look at than his screen time does. I’d wager that he did get paid, though.
IMDb says “He ultimately received about $14 million for ten minutes on film.” At that, Guinness Book of World Records repeats the “just 10 minutes of screen time” figure.
You’re probably right that they get that number by excluding the minutes of narration when his face isn’t showing; still, that’s pretty impressive for top billing.
The VCR version of The Devil’s Rain shows John Travolta as one of the six actors mentioned on the box. Travolta had a single line and was in the film for less than a minute. He was not billed originally, but after his career took off, he was listed.
Just saw Suffragette yesterday. Meryl Streep is on the poster and billed as “and Meryl Streep”. She was on screen for one shortish speech and another line or two.
