It took me a few minutes to recognize Samuel L Jackson in Kill Bill. Also, Jon Gries in Real Genius.
Didn’t recognize Brittany Murphy in The Devil’s Arithmetic until the checked the credits. And to think I just saw Sin City a few days before I watched this on DVD. *So-so film but she was wonderful in this one. *
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Anthony Michael Hall in Edward Scissorhands.
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Yeah, that surprised me too!
A beardless Richard Dryfess in The Graduate (Should I call the cops?).
It seems a lot of people are surprised to find out that’s David Bowie as Tesla in “The Prestige”.
Might not have been a surprise to some people, but I kept wondering who the hired gunman was at the end of Shane until IMBD told me it was a young Jack Palance, who I’ve actually met.
Spoilers for the late-80s movie Made In Heaven, which starred Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis follow.
Again, if make-up counts, I would have never known that Debra Winger played that weird angel Emmett had someone not told me much later. In the movie Emmett is credited coyly as “Himself.”
Sir Rhosis
A pleasingly built (i.e., non-anorexic) Lara Flynn Boyle in How I Got Into College.
I sure didn’t recognize Cameron Diaz or John Cusack in Being John Malkovich.
Somewhere in Zombies Of The Stratosphere, a young Leonard Nimoy stalks about in a cheesy costume, & I simply cannot pick him out of the crowd.
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I also didn’t recognize William Forsythe in The Waterdance, having seen him previously in Raising Arizona. I had a lot more respect for him as an actor after that.
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William Forsythe, then aged 40, played a 20something so convincingly in Palookaville that it never even occurred to me that it might be him, even though I knew he was in it. “Who’s that young guy? And where’s William Forsythe?”
And Mel Gibson was near-unrecognizable in The Singing Detective; my wife finally caught on that it was him by recognizing his voice. Nutjob or no, he was terrific in that movie.
If makeup counts-
Daryl Hannah in *Steel Magnolias * as “Anelle”
Just had one tonight – Willem Dafoe on American Dreamz. That’s definitely a makeup example though.
I did not recognize Tim Curry in Legend. I had only really seen him in Clue until then.
[QUOTE=Malienation]
Ever see a star in a movie that features them so much younger/skinnier/different than you are used to you that you don’t even recognize them? Well, if you ever get a chance to see “My Best Friend is a Vampire”, watch closely for a very short scene with a much skinnier Kathy Bates.
Any other stars unrecognizable in a movie?
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Angie Dickinson in “Pay It Forward”.
VCNJ~
Sean Penn in Carlito’s Way- I watched this entire thing, knowing he was in it, and at the end couldn’t tell you what character he played (Pacino’s lawyer- btw).
Alec Baldwin in Beetlejuice. It was on cable tonight, and I had forgotten all about him in it. He was about half the size he is now.
It took me a few viewings of This is Spinal Tap to recognize Dana Carvey.
[QUOTE=Priceguy]
I sure didn’t recognize Cameron Diaz or John Cusack in Being John Malkovich.
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Cusack stood out pretty quickly to me (same voice and mannerisms as in most of his other films), but Diaz completely disappeared. I remember seeing her name in the opening credits, looking around a bit for her, then forgetting she was in the film until the ending credits. “Holy crap, that was her?!”
Gary Oldman is often hard to spot. I missed him completely in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.