What's your favorite example of an actor who completely disappeared in their character with the least amount of makeup or visual effects?

Submitted by mikebalsaricci t3_z78hey in movies

For example Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook in "Hook." I always forget that it's him and yeah there was the wig and mustache, but it's still weird to me how it's the same guy from "Meet The Fockers". What's your favorite performance that when you think of the role you don't necessarily even think of the actor because they became the character so well?

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Tea_Reckz t1_iy58p6n wrote

Gary Oldman in that one movie

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Teddydee1980 t1_iy594ir wrote

Watching Legend, I didn't once question that Ron and Reg are played by the same actor. Twins...but clearly unique characters.

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ThodinThorsson t1_iy5agry wrote

Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos(Monster), Tom Cruise as Les Grossman(Tropic Thunder), those are only two from a long list.

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ThodinThorsson t1_iy5aw3t wrote

Oh and pretty much every character portrayed by Nick Cage, especially the one where he portrays himself...brilliant.

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Bubbagumpredditor t1_iy5b7ps wrote

Christopher reeves in superman2 when he turns from Clark Kent to superman in front of us

Edit:ok, I was wrong, it's superman one I was thinking about. I thought it was at the Niagra falls hotel, but they are both good.

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bluejester12 t1_iy5bzy7 wrote

Denzel in Training Day. A close second is Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.

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ToyVaren t1_iy5cl61 wrote

Early deniro. I chased down all his early work just for his previously strong commitment to method acting.

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shinola80 t1_iy5dk3v wrote

Kevin James in “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.”

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ThodinThorsson t1_iy5eua4 wrote

Replying to bluejester12 (#743,935)

Are you sure? Maybe he looks like that away from the camera....just kidding lol. I wanted to add Collin Ferrell as Oswald Cobblepot(The Batman) but he wore a buttload of makeup and prosthetics.

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kenlasalle t1_iy5fa2b wrote

I just wrote about this on another post: Christopher Lloyd as Reverend Jim!

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Nayre_Trawe t1_iy5gopn wrote

Danny Masterson in Face / Off.

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petulafaerie t1_iy5hltm wrote

Gary Oldman in, like, any movie ever. You never realise it’s him without knowing it’s him.

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JeffRyan1 t1_iy5hmdz wrote

Rob Reiner once said he wished there had been a role for his actor friend Christopher Guest in The Princess Bride, forgetting that Guest was in it, as Count Rugen, the Six-Fingered Man. Guest so disappeared into the role as a sociopathic coward that the film's DIRECTOR forgot he was in it!

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fruitporridge t1_iy5kqgq wrote

Monique in precious

Viola Davis in doubt. That powerful 7 minute scene.

Lupita nyong'o in 12 years a Slave.

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KillyScreams t1_iy5qf3r wrote

CHRISTIAN BALE

THE FIGHTER

IS SOOOOOO FREAKING GOOD

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antonimbus t1_iy5r4zk wrote

Travis Bickle is a character almost bigger than the movie he's in, and a huge part of that is how De Niro channeled that character from paper into film. It feels like a real person in that movie, with his own thoughts and insecurities. De Niro kind of disappears and that is actually Travis on the screen the whole time.

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impliedinsult t1_iy5r6l9 wrote

Christian bale - the machinist

Would have disappeared completely if he’d lost any more weight

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Inner_Vibe t1_iy5tlbe wrote

Peter Sellers in Being There.

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gingy4life t1_iy5x5rr wrote

Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line. He didn't really look like Cash but man did he nail the character.

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SnooDucks2052 t1_iy5yo3e wrote

Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco. His body language was incredible

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ArkyBeagle t1_iy5zjuq wrote

There was a wig and later a shaved head, but Stephan Gierasch in "Jeremiah Johnson" as Del Gue. I've seen him in other things and he is never the same - a character actor's character actor.

They also gave him the best lines in the film.

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Ok_Comparison_8304 t1_iy5zxat wrote

Daniel Dayl-Lewis has already been mentioned, so I will offer Joaqim Phoenix. I utterly hated Commodus in 'Gladiator' and I could entirely feel his sense righteousness at being unfairly treated or misunderstood. He channels a similar vibe in 'Joker', but it's completely different to 'Inherent Vice' or signs.

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introoutro t1_iy60e3o wrote

Nicole Kidman in Destroyer is a pretty mean shift from basically everything you’ve ever seen her as

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UncleVen t1_iy620bj wrote

Jake Gyllenhall Bubble Boy

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mcthicy t1_iy62ho3 wrote

Heath ledger's joker from the dark knight

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TheIncredibleDjango t1_iy63xg8 wrote

Gary Oldman in anything where your makeup clause applies. The Professional for example

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mridmr t1_iy658ow wrote

Vincent D’Onofrio as Edgar in Men in Black. It was a goofy blockbuster, but he absolutely transformed his body movements and voice.

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GhostMug t1_iy65dh2 wrote

DiCaprio in The Aviator. Maybe his most un-Dicaprio-like role.

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ThrowerWayACount t1_iy65ju4 wrote

Replying to NoOneShallPassHassan (#744,728)

To me that seemed like the opposite. That it was so based on Sandler and previous Sandler roles that the character was almost Adam Sandler playing himself (Jewish New Yorker, sports fan, unlucky but still charming, has the manchild type personality and petulance of usual Sandler characters, etc).

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alllie t1_iy6aj40 wrote

Sam Rockwell. I remember seeing him as Guy Fleegman in Galaxy Quest and thinking he looked familiar but I couldn't figure out where I had seen him. Finally I realized he played Wild Bill in The Green Mile. Those two characters were so completely different that I've been in awe of his acting ever since.

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Paddlesons t1_iy6ajz5 wrote

Robert Duvall - Augustus McCrae: Lonesome Dove

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cvmotors t1_iy6bb70 wrote

Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade

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Arfguy t1_iy6by5z wrote

A friend once told me that Leo won for The Revenant, but should have won for Calvin Candy in Django Unchained. I never thought I wanted to see Leo die a horrible, horrible death until his portrayal.

I am personally very used to Ryan Gosling as the cool guy, but Gosling does goofy and fidgety pretty well in roles like La La Land & The Nice Guys.

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alllie t1_iy6drst wrote

Replying to CaptainExplaino (#750,967)

I don't find any of them memorable with the possible exception of Zorg in The Fifth Element. But he was especially boring as Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula. But I know I'm right because he's never given leads these days. At most he'll play the villain or some secondary character role.

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Bellikron t1_iy6gusp wrote

I know it's not a movie but Tatiana Maslany disappears so completely into every one of her Orphan Black clones that even though you explicitly know that the trick is that she's playing all the roles and that whenever you see two of them on screen it's being done with clever camerawork and doubles you mostly just don't think about it. None of those characters feels like an actor playing a role.

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BlackBrown1827 t1_iy6k2nl wrote

Replying to BobaTeaExtraBoba (#744,030)

Helps too that he has no "baggage" or real persona in the real world. So many actors are all over the place, doing interviews, tweeting, or otherwise being newsworthy. Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't seem to exist outside his films. Bill the Butcher or Daniel Plainview just seem to be these characters that come from the ether and disappear back into it.

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oco82 t1_iy6kj3t wrote

Replying to kenlasalle (#744,599)

He’s WILDLY underrated as a chameleon actor….Doc Brown, Uncle Fester, Judge Doom, Rev Jim, Professor Plum are all so different and all so memorable.

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oco82 t1_iy6l0t3 wrote

Replying to Bellikron (#751,970)

I’m glad she’s getting some Marvel money now but I think she’s somehow so talented no know one has known what to do with her based on how she’s not a massive star…or maybe she’s a chill Canadian who doesn’t want that life lol.

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gogojack t1_iy6lslb wrote

Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote."

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Tatis_Chief t1_iy6lxtg wrote

Alec Guinness, yes Obi wan, in Kind hearts and Coronets and the lady killers. Dude was amazing comedic actor.

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Rookie512 t1_iy6q6us wrote

Maybe people might disagree but I though Andrew Dice Clay in "A Star Is Born" was pretty intriguing and totally different than his usual shtick. So much so I didn't even think about him being in the movie till it was already finished.

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thunder_struck85 t1_iy6qb5p wrote

I watched all of House of Gucci and did not know that was Jared Leto ....

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Sad-Top-7979 t1_iy6qgqz wrote

Robert Pattinson in good time or the lighthouse

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[deleted] t1_iy6rg1k wrote

Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote”

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[deleted] t1_iy6rljq wrote

Jared Leto - “The Dallas Buyers Club”

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Rhett9able t1_iy6vs6s wrote

Al Pacino is so damn good in Michael Mann's THE INSIDER that I genuinely forgot that I was watching a goddamn Al Pacino performance and just sat in awe of the tenacity of Lowell Bergman the character.

THE INSIDER is underappreciated and you should visit / revisit it sooner rather than later.

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wnose t1_iy6ysja wrote

Chris Evans in Snowpiercer. I had NO IDEA it was him until halfway when I realized - hey this guy is pretty good. Who's the actor??? What - Captain America???

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Shamon_Yu t1_iy6z44w wrote

Hugh Grant in The Gentlemen

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FantasiaDolls t1_iy72ing wrote

Dan Aykroyd in the film Neighbors which is a crazy ride start to finish and I feel like more people need to see. Like he has such a goofy nice guy image that to see him in an unhinged and really pretty menacing role was a trip. My friend and I watched it for the first time with absolutely no clue where it was going to go, we kept wondering if it was going to turn into like a horror- comedy situation. his character is just that strange and unpredictable. the only thing I could compare it to is maybe Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy.

He also has this bleached blonde hair and the most intense blue eye contacts you've ever seen, which looks incrediblely uncanny and adds to the unease of it all.

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Bellikron t1_iy75kie wrote

Replying to oco82 (#752,817)

I can't imagine a better acting showcase than pulling off Orphan Black. It's not like it was obscure either, she won an Emmy and everything. So yeah, maybe she was just so good that it backfired. Hopefully She-Hulk gets her more public recognition, although it's a shame that the reaction to it was so ugly (for the most part undeservedly so).

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OhWowMan22 t1_iy7721t wrote

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove. It genuinely took me years to realise he was playing multiple characters.

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Rickykkk t1_iy7plwk wrote

Cate Blanchett in TAR, Elizabeth, The aviator, I’m not there (Bob Dylan), Carol, Blue Jasmine, Don’t look up.

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PlasticCouch92 t1_iy80883 wrote

Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, Ewan McGregor in The Lottery, John Candy in Space Balls (ok, no! just joking around)

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arealhumannotabot t1_iy8cnd3 wrote

Currently, Everything Everywhere All At Once

I had no idea it was >!Jamie Lee Curtis as the IRS agent!<. I guess I Just hadn't looked at her face for long since so much is happening in that movie. She was very good in the role.

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BeadedBumblebee t1_iy8yio2 wrote

Charlize Theron in Monster. She was transformative.

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Crix6t6 t1_iy9s4sw wrote

Val Kilner as either Doc Holiday in Tombstone , or as Jim Morrison in the Doors

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