rewatched “The Fugitive” recently. Man, Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t just steal scenes, he hijacked that whole movie from Harrison Ford.
and the first Pirates movie, I’ve read, was supposed to have Orlando & Keira’s characters as the main roles. Ha! Johnny Depp steals scenes, and the movie. You can’t look away from him when he’s on screen -except when Geoffrey Rush is up there out-thieving him.
What performance, for you, defines “scene-stealer” ? (those were my examples)
Just Friends starring Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart was a sub-par teen comedy but the whole movie was made by Anna Faris’ character. Her best comedy work.
James Dean in *Giant. *Though the stars of the movie were Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, Dean stole every scene he was in. It was his last performance before his death.
Alan Rickman in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” (and possibly “Die Hard” too but Bruce Willis certainly held his own in that one)
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Joe Pesci - Goodfellas
Val Kilmer - Tombstone
Teen Wolf is a completely stupid teen horror comedy. Except for every scene that Jay Tarses is in. Tarses was brilliant and probably wrote his own dialog (he wrote for The Bob Newhart Show and Carol Burnett, among others).
Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Wedding. I don’t even remember who played the actual “best friend” – I’d have to go look it up.
With all the amazing actors in Glengarry Glen Ross it’s amazing that Alec Baldwin waltzes in and makes off with at least part of the movie.
Dunst in Interview With the Vampire.
One from music. After the Monterey Pop Festival, no one came away talking about anyone but Jimi Hendrix.
In the brilliant David Lean movie Hobson’s Choice, Brenda de Banzie almost steals the whole film from Charles Laughton. And Laughton was brilliant as usual, playing a hilarious, wonderful old bossy reprobate. Brenda de Banzie’s character was just a straight-laced, businesslike, determined spinster, yet she trumped Laughton.
Trumping Laughton is not for sissies.
In these threads I always bring up Wilford Brimley’s one scene in Absence of Malice.
On the commentary for the DVD “Cat Ballou” Michael Callan and Dwayne Hickman are full of praise for Lee Marvin’s acting, saying even when he is not speaking, your eyes are on him. The musical troubadours, Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye, are pretty good too.
John Banner as Sgt Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes” could still scenes with his exaggerated motion of leaving a room.
Word. He pwns everybody, including Sally Field. Paul Newman is so passive there (he can afford to be) he lets Brimley kick ass.
Not to take anything away from Rickman (who is brilliant in everything he does) but since Kevin Costner practically slept his way through that movie, virtually everybody steals scenes from him. Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, and my personal favorite, Mike McShane (as Friar Tuck). Sean Connery’s cameo as King Richard is just icing on the cake.
This is the one I think of. Rickman doesn’t just steal scenes, he basically decides that he’s making a Robin Hood spoof, and he doesn’t let the fact that Costner seems to be in a Robin Hood drama deter him. He hijacks the entire film. Whenever they’re in Nottingham, the movie changes from drama to parody.
One day when I was sick and home from school I watched a (I hope the) Ozzie and Harriet movie on TV. It was quite as bad as you might suspect, except one scene where Alvy Moore (Mr. Kimble on Green Acres) enters for some reason and does his shtick while the other characters just watched. It was like he was from another movie entirely, a funny one.
I’m going to give you a different one from The Fugitive. Julianne Moore completely owns the 5-10 minutes of screen time she has in her short scene in the hospital.
Anthony Hopkins arguably counts, for The Silence Of The Lambs; the guy deservedly won Best Actor despite being on screen for – what, fifteen minutes and change?
That was a memorable performance. But I’m not sure it was a ‘scene stealer’. It seemed to have been written for that climactic moment.
I’ve said this before, but Robert Carlyle on Once Upon A Time can just be standing there during a scene waiting for someone else to stop talking, and I have a hard time focussing on that conversation.