Five hidden movie cameos from iconic directors
Many great directors started off as actors; Clint Eastwood, Greta Gerwig, John Cassavetes, Elizabeth Banks, the list goes on. It seems as if spending all your time on a film set gives you the urge to step behind the camera, although it doesn’t seem to work the other way around.
Very few directors become actors, so they have to let their creative urges out in other ways. Some of them have cameos in their own movies, most notably Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese. It’s rarer, but sometimes they tap up their buddies and ask for a sneaky appearance in one of their films, and sometimes, they say yes.
The following five filmmakers made very brief appearances in other people’s work. Most of them don’t even have lines, and, in one case, they actually forgot they were in the movie and had to be reminded. Whether they picked up a paycheque or did it out of the goodness of their hearts, the record books will show that they were among the stars.
A lot of these aren’t in the film’s official credits, so you’ll just have to trust us that they’re actually there.
Five hidden cameos from high-profile directors
Werner Herzog in ‘What Dreams May Come’ – Vincent Ward (1988)
Despite appearing in such acclaimed TV shows and movies as The Mandalorian, The Simpsons, and The Penguins of Madagascar, Werner Herzog is primarily a director. As a feature filmmaker, he has produced the likes of Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and Nosferatu the Vampyre. However, it is his documentaries that have stood the test of time, as the German has tackled such topics as grizzly bears, volcanoes, cave paintings, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his turbulent relationship with Klaus Kinski. Basically, if there’s a weird or interesting topic out there, you can bet that Herzog has at least tried to make a film about it.
His bizarre idiosyncrasies and fascination with the obscure made him the perfect candidate to play a ‘Face of the Damned’ in the Vincent Ward film What Dreams May Come. During a scene when Robin Williams’ character ventures into Hell to rescue the soul of his wife, he comes across a disembodied head sticking out of the ground. He thinks he’s talking to the spirit of his father, but it turns out to be good old Werner instead. There’s no reason this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it part had to be played by a famous name, but Herzog is not one to turn down the opportunity to do something weird.
Sofia Coppola in ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’ – George Lucas (1999)
There’s enough commentary on Sofia Coppola’s acting career to fill a book. Her appearance in her father Francis Ford’s film The Godfather Part III is widely regarded as one of the worst acting turns of all time, especially as the role was initially slated for Winona Ryder. She has done much better for herself as a director, turning out classics like Marie Antoinette, The Virgin Suicides, and Lost in Translation. The traumatic Godfather gig didn’t put her off acting in major franchises, though her next gig was significantly less prominent.
The second-generation star has a very, very, very minor role in the first Star Wars prequel. She plays one of Padmé Amidala’s handmaidens in The Phantom Menace. Because this is Star Wars, the character has a name—Saché; expect her to get her own Disney+ series within the next decade. The part is so insignificant that Coppola herself admitted to Rolling Stone that she’d forgotten she was in the movie. Given the close relationship between her father and the director, it’s not a surprise that she entered the universe. She could have probably bagged a bigger role if she wanted, but that wouldn’t have ended well for anyone.
Steven Spielberg in ‘The Blues Brothers – John Landis (1980)
Based on the Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, The Blues Brothers is a treasure trove for music lovers. A number of the titular band members are legendary session musicians, while singers like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and James Brown perform on the soundtrack. It’s not just singers who get in on the fun. Supermodel Twiggy makes a very random appearance, while Frank Oz—actor, director, Muppet—turns up as a corrections officer. In terms of big names in the background, however, they don’t come much bigger than the most successful film director of all time.
After securing the money needed to rescue their childhood orphanage, Jake and Elwood (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, respectively) rush to the Cook County Assessor’s office. There, they find a skinny man with a moustache about to go to lunch. They strongarm him back inside, get him to stamp their receipt, and officially complete their ‘mission from God’ right before getting arrested. That skinny man was none other than Steven Spielberg. Both Spielberg and Landis would go on to work on a Twilight Zone movie a few years later, both bearing witness to the tragic accident that took place on set.
Peter Jackson in ‘Hot Fuzz’ – Edgar Wright (2007)
If you look at uncredited cameos alone, Edgar Wright’s legendary action spoof Hot Fuzz might be the most star-studded film of all time. In the opening sequence, Steve Coogan makes an uncredited appearance as a Metropolitan police inspector accosting Simon Pegg’s Nicholas Angel. Additionally, why Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy were credited still remains a mystery. Cate Blanchett plays Angel’s ex-girlfriend, Janine, brilliantly obscured in a full-body forensic suit. Even the director himself turns up, stacking shelves in a supermarket.
During the aforementioned opening, in which Angel runs down his impressive list of accomplishments, he mentions a recent incident in which he was stabbed through the hand by a man dressed as Father Christmas. This scene is shown via a flashback. You wouldn’t know it from the scene itself, but knife-wielding Santa is played by none other than The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. “[He] was in the UK and he was a big supporter for Shaun of the Dead since it came out,” Wright told About. “I was telling him about Hot Fuzz and he said, ‘I’ll be in the UK and I’ll do a cameo if you want.’ Then I thought, ‘Fuck, he should play Santa.’”
Tim Burton in ‘Hoffa’ – Danny DeVito (1992)
To many, Tim Burton has earned the title of ‘Master of Macabre’. Known for Beetlejuice and its recent sequel, Johnny Depp vehicles Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd, and animations like Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie; even his take on Batman was darker than any other filmmaker had attempted up to that point. Some people grow out of their Goth phase; Tim made a career out of his. So, it should come as no surprise that he once did a cameo in a movie as a dead body.
In 1992, Danny DeVito, a frequent Burton collaborator, directed a film called Hoffa. Based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa, the leader of the infamous Teamsters union, the movie stars Jack Nicholson in the title role, and features contributions from JT Walsh, John C Reilly, and DeVito himself. During a scene at a funeral, the camera pans over a scene of various mourners. There, lying stiff as a board in his finest suit, is Burton, ‘playing’ an unnamed corpse. Wonder how much he got paid to lie there and do nothing all day. Interestingly, the film also features another famous director in an uncredited role, as a young Jon Favreau did his cameo as an extra.
