I hope I can explain this right…I want examples of movies where the most important role goes to somebody who doesn’t get star billing. This person does appear in a sizeable amount of the movie, but the actor isn’t exactly a household name, and chances are would be unrecognizable in another movie.
It wouldn’t always be the villain, or antagonist…maybe a loyal sidekick, or the star’s child/neighbor/coworker, for example. But if it weren’t for their role, the movie wouldn’t exist.
Emperor Palpatine from the *Star Wars * movies comes to mind. Ian McDiarmid doesn’t get top billing, but he’s effectively the “star,” in that his character’s actions lead to the upheaval of the known universe. But, he’s not known outside of Star Wars much, and I doubt any moviemaker is rushing to him to be the lead in their next picture.
Also, the Astrophysicist from 12 Monkeys. She acts as the chief spokesman for the scientists who give Bruce WIllis’s character his assignments. She also appears at the end of the movie with a couple of lines indicating that she’s the reason the plague wiped out almost all of Earth’s population. The actress otherwise doesn’t have that big a movie resume.
They didn’t really advertise it the same way before and after release, but pre-release, I was under the impression that X-Men was going to be about, you know, the X-Men, not Wolverine.
Waiting for Godot usually shows up in these kinds of threads.
I think your use of the term “star” twice in the thread title was confusing.
The “star” or “stars” of a movie, in the commonly-accepted sense, are generally those who spend the most time on-screen, and whose characters tend to be the ones followed through the narrative.
Your question is really about situations in which a minor character—generally not one of the stars—is also the most crucial to the movie’s plotline. Perhaps the title of the thread should have been, “Movies in which the key character isn’t really the star,” or something like that.
You could argue, for example, that Matt Damon’s character in Saving Private Ryan would fit the bill. After all, without the existence of this character, Tom Hanks’ squad would not have been given their mission. Yet Damon does not spend that much time on screen.
Does this qualify? I once read that the film The Pink Panther was intended to be a David Niven vehicle. Of course, this is the movie that unleashed Peter Sellers’s Inspector Clouseau character on the world, so it quickly became Sellers’s movie. I don’t think Mr. Niven was pleased.
Keir Dullea was notoriously out-acted by HAL 9000 in 2001. Come to think of it, he might have been outacted by the guys in the ape suits too. And the Douglas Trumball’s special effects. Okay, I’ll admit he out-acted the monolith.
I disagree. I’ve seen countless threads like the type you describe, but the OP seemed to be asking about something entirely different:
So while Saving Private Ryan is a prime example of the type mhendo is referencing, it doesn’t fit Knowed Out’s OP because Tom Hanks was the star in both senses of what he’s asking.
Hollywood will market a movie based on star power, even if the star power is coming from a secondary character. That’s what I think the OP is asking for.
Let’s see if I can come up with an example…well, it’s a hindsight example of the class of movies where an unknown later on becomes famous, but that [what’s-her-name-who-played-Malorie-on-Family-Ties]-Liam Neeson summer beach fun movie where the girls had a band is now often billed as a Julia Roberts movie.
Steven Segal was marketed pretty heavily in Executive Decision, despite being killed off early. (It was a Kurt Russell movie, so I’m not sure why they picked Steve “I-can’t-lift-my-leg!” Segal as the poster boy.)
I don’t know if this counts or not. I rented a movie based on the fact that the box billled it as a Jim Carrey movie (yes, I like Jim Carrey. hangs head and blushes). Turns out that, though he was in it, he wasn’t the main character and didn’t even appear very much at all.
I’m glad I rented it though–the movie was High Strung, and I really loved it! If it had said “starring Steve Oedekerk,” I probably would’ve passed up what has become one of my favorite movies.
I knew this thread idea would be difficult to describe, but **Ellis Dee ** has got a good idea. The star-who’s-not-really-the-star doesn’t have to be anybody who eventually became famous. The role is memorable, but the actual actor is not.
Another example would be Pete Postlethwaite’s character in The Usual Suspects. He’s the one who acts as Kaiser Sozhe’s right hand man. He’s the one who effectively manipulates the stars of the movie to commit the capers, so without him there is no movie. Yet what else is Pete Postlethwaite known for? He’s not really famous.
Deep Blue Sea. I think most people would be assuming that Samuel Jackson is the star, but he really isn’t. LL Cool J is the only other big name in the film. Samuel L. Jackson gets eaten by a shark about half way through. LL Cool J ends up being the hero.
The Turning is billed with Gillian Anderson on the cover. Her debut, I believe. She’s one of the least important characters, and if it weren’t for her being topless for like 10 seconds, the movie probably wouldn’t even be known.
I hope this counts in the spirit of the OP, but I once rented a video that had a big picture of Kevin Costner on the box, and it was near the time when his movies had yet to piss me off. He was barely even in the movie and his part was little more than a walk-on. Needless to say, I have repressed the title of the movie, but if you’re a (ahem) fan of Costner, beware the video with a big picture of him (it’s more like a drawing than a photo) on the box. It sucks canal water.
