Exceptions that prove the rule: 10 unexpectedly amazing performances from bad actors
In most professions, being bad at the job is an instant career killer, but it goes without saying that acting isn’t like the majority of 9-to-5s.
The best actors aren’t always the ones who become the biggest names and earn the most money, and on the opposite side of the coin, the most marketable stars and bulletproof box office draws aren’t always the best actors.
While there are plenty to have walked that tightrope to maintain an acclaimed and awards-heavy career while continually putting butts in seats, many stars have made their name in mediocrity. If the cheques keep getting cashed, then there’s really no urgent need for horizons to be broadened.
Adam Sandler is a phenomenal onscreen presence when he can be bothered, but because he’s repeatedly shown he’s got a top-tier turn in his locker, he’s no longer considered a bad actor. The following ten have yet to offer more than one meaningful example, which is all the more frustrating when they’re clearly capable.
10 great performances from bad actors:
10. Denise Richards (Wild Things, John McNaughton, 1998)
One of Denise Richards’ most recent film credits came alongside Cuba Gooding Jr and Randy Couture in Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace, a fantasy sequel to an original that starred Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts, which indicates how her acting career has panned out.
Since making her big screen debut in 1993, Richards has been in several films that could genuinely be called good, which isn’t many. Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers is one of them, without a doubt, but even then, the filmmaker’s casting was every bit as intentionally subversive as the movie itself. For the most part, she’s been a bombshell and love interest, with one notable exception.
In what’s far and away the best performance of her entire career, Richards was excellent in Wild Things, the trashy thriller in which she and Neve Campbell play a pair of students who set out to entrap a guidance counsellor. For the first and only time in her career, the role allowed her to weaponise her inherent sex appeal while actually giving her a strong character and decent material to work with.
9. Hayden Christensen (Shattered Glass, Billy Ray, 2003)
Star Wars was both the making and breaking of Hayden Christensen, with the actor’s wooden performances in George Lucas’ prequel trilogy tarring him with the unfortunate brush of being a thespian of limited ability, a tag he never managed to shake off.
Despite working solidly in the two decades since and trying his hand at a number of different genres, the former Anakin Skywalker has never given a performance capable or powerful enough to make the doubters eat their words, except in Shattered Glass.
Christensen was a revelation in the riveting biographical drama, mastering the subtleties and nuances of the complicated Stephen Glass, delivering a showstopping central turn he’s never even come close to replicating, never mind bettering.
8. Dwayne Johnson (Southland Tales, Richard Kelly, 2006)
Dwayne Johnson became one of the biggest, most bankable, and highest-paid stars in Hollywood by almost exclusively playing himself in action-packed blockbusters, making it easy to forget that he actually tried and did some real acting in the beginning.
Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales is a trainwreck, whichever way anybody tries to slice it, but ‘The Rock’ nonetheless showed untapped dramatic potential as Boxer Santaros, an amnesiac actor who literally ends up carrying the fate of the world in his hands.
It’s a nervous, sincere, somewhat buffoonish performance full of tics and idiosyncracies, much more reminiscent of somebody who wanted to be taken seriously as a performer. Those aspirations vanished in short order, though, with Johnson spending the next two decades sticking rigidly to type, and only time will tell if The Smashing Machine writes the first page in a new chapter.
7. Jessica Alba (The Killer Inside Me, Michael Winterbottom, 2010)
The very same year Jessica Alba gave career-best work in The Killer Inside Me, she ended up winning a Razzie for ‘Worst Supporting Actress’ for everything else she starred in during those 12 months.
While Michael Winterbottom’s crime drama shared that unwanted distinction with comedy sequel Little Fockers, Danny Trejo’s Machete, and anthology romance Valentine’s Day, there’s no way it deserved to be lumped into the same bracket.
A difficult watch that received plenty of criticism for its graphic content, the role of captive sex worker Joyce Lakeland required a performance that held attention on its own merit, no matter how disturbing the narrative gets. There was no evidence Alba had that in her locker, but she did, even though it’s been entirely absent in everything she’s made since.
6. Madonna (A League of Their Own, Penny Marshall, 1992)
Nine-time Razzie winner Madonna has made plenty of horrendous pictures, even if some of them managed to find box office success. At no point has she been convinced by her dramatic chops, though, but A League of Their Own did display a surprisingly deft touch for comedy.
Before anyone tries to play the Evita card, was it really revelatory to discover somebody who’s been dubbed the ‘Queen of Pop’ since the 1980s could hold their own in a musical? Drama is where she’s always struggled and struggled greatly, apart from the beloved baseball caper.
Being part of a top-notch ensemble certainly helps, but in what’s a rare testament that can’t be said about any of her other big screen credits, Mae Mordabito genuinely feels like a fully realised and fleshed-out character, and not just a movie part being played by global superstar Madonna.
5. Ryan Reynolds (Buried, Rodrigo Cortés, 2010)
Much like friend and regular co-star Johnson, Ryan Reynolds has done very well for himself by playing nobody other than himself in a string of mass-marketed crowd-pleasures that don’t require anything other from him than being Ryan Reynolds.
The results can’t be argued with, but there’s a great actor in there who’s only ever been let out once. The Voices was a winner, sure, but it was a deliciously dark comedy that saw Reynolds utilise his innate timing and easygoing charisma to lull viewers into a false sense of security.
Buried, meanwhile, was set entirely within the confines of a coffin. Robbed of his quips, jokes, and sardonic one-liners, it was the biggest challenge of his career by far from a purely dramatic perspective. He absolutely nailed it and then hasn’t come close to doing anything similar ever since.
4. Mariah Carey (Precious, Lee Daniels, 2009)
Musicians have a long and storied history of trying their hands at acting to varying degrees of success, and for a while, it looked as though Mariah Carey was on course to be possibly the worst ever.
Self-indulgent vanity project Glitter won her a Razzie for ‘Worst Actress’ and bombed at the box office, while subsequent feature-length outings in crime story WiseGirls, road drama Tennessee, and a small part in sequel State Property 2 offered no indications she could act her way out of a soggy paper bag.
And then, Lee Daniels’ Precious came along, with Carey astonishing as social worker Ms Weiss. Initially decried as stunt casting destined to end in disaster, looking at all of her previous film roles, the bestselling artist disappeared into a character for the first time and gave the only worthwhile performance of her movie career into the bargain.
3. Vin Diesel (Find Me Guilty, Sidney Lumet, 2006)
Legendary 12 Angry Men, Network, and Dog Day Afternoon director Sidney Lumet partnering up with Fast & Furious figurehead Vin Diesel didn’t make a whole lot of sense on paper, but Find Me Guilty was a long overdue reminder of the talents that initially shot the latter to fame.
Diesel first made waves by writing, producing, directing, and starring in his own self-created productions. That won the attention of Steven Spielberg and landed him a part in Saving Private Ryan, opening all the doors he’d walk through for the next 25 years in the process.
However, the gravel-throated action star didn’t show any interest in stretching the only underdeveloped muscles in his body; the dramatic ones. Seeing him sporting a wig and a paunch takes a bit of getting used to, but once that obstacle is overcome, his Jackie DiNorscio is remarkably accomplished work.
2. Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers, Lorene Scafaria, 2019)
After breaking through on the big screen when biopic Selena and Steven Soderbergh’s sizzling Out of Sight premiered within less than a year of each other, Jennifer Lopez was predicted to enjoy a stellar acting career.
While she technically did in a way after headlining a string of hits, it wouldn’t be unfair in the slightest to suggest that at a push, the number of good movies where she gave a good performance to arrive between the late 1990s and the release of Hustlers in 2019 was one or two, and that’s being generous.
As veteran stripper and criminal ringleader Ramona Vega, Lopez fully deserved her Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actress’. The downside is that it appears to have been a one-off after she wasted no time resuming the mundane rom-coms and action thrillers that sent her right back from acclaim to apathy.
1. Marlon Wayans (Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
Before collaborating with Darren Aronofsky on his harrowing addiction drama, Marlon Wayans had never played a dramatic role in his entire professional life, having been a comedy guy since the very beginning.
After Requiem for a Dream, the member of the sprawling Wayans dynasty was being heralded as having the potential to become the next sitcom veteran to seamlessly evolve into a cinematic power player, only for the star to revert to type immediately after.
In the quarter of a century since Requiem for a Dream, Wayans retreated into his slapstick wheelhouse and never ventured out of it again. Many of his films have been egregious affronts to the good name of silver screen comedy, which makes it all the more frustrating that Tyrone Love turned out to be a one-time deal.
