10 Best Playing-Against-Type Performances in Movie History, Ranked

These are some of the actors who broke from their own respective norms the most effectively, and, at the time, turned in some performances that were the right kind of surprising. Some of these actors are no longer associated with one kind of role, but if they once were connected to just a specific kind of movie, and broke free of it, then they still might show up below.

10 Ben Kingsley as Don Logan

'Sexy Beast' (2000)

Sexy Beast is a movie that stars Ray Winstone, who’s probably best known for his roles as aggressive and intimidating characters, oftentimes criminals, but he’s low-key in this film compared to Ben Kingsley’s character. Okay, that does mean Winstone could also be singled out here, as going against type a little, but Kingsley is the one in this film who goes against type most dramatically.

Before Sexy Beast, Kingsley was best known for playing roles in biographical movies like Gandhi and Schindler’s List, and he won an Oscar for playing Mahatma Gandhi in the former. He seemed most at home playing characters who were quiet and/or intelligent, so his playing a relentlessly aggressive, blunt, and almost cartoonishly evil character in Sexy Beast makes him an even easier actor to admire (especially since he manages to be both a little funny and more than a little frightening in this role).

9 Robert De Niro as Louis Gara

'Jackie Brown' (1997)

Admittedly, it’s hard to single out a “type” of character that Robert De Niro usually plays, as his acting career before 1997 was pretty varied. Still, there hadn’t really been anyone quite as tired and schlubby as Louis, who he plays in Jackie Brown, because this character doesn’t have a lot of energy or intensity, for the most part, and is kind of a joke, but then he does also prove frightening when he does eventually snap.

It’s a strange character, and De Niro was a strange choice to play him, seeing as even his past incompetent characters tended to have a good deal of energy or passion toward something (like his role in The King of Comedy). Louis is just a loser, albeit an occasionally intimidating one, and De Niro’s casting here feels weirdly perfect (and that’s something that can be said about quite a few odd casting decisions throughout Quentin Tarantino’s filmography).

8 Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos

'Monster' (2003)

This is a slightly tricky example, because Charlize Theron wasn’t really active for a long enough time before Monster (2003) to run the risk of being type-cast, but there still wasn’t anything she was in before then that felt comparable. There’s also not been much post-Monster that sees Theron playing someone quite as frightening, nor a role of hers that’s been as dark.

She plays Aileen Wuornos, who was a real-life serial killer, and Monster is a pretty solidly made biopic about Wuornos, with the main reason for watching the film being Charlize Theron. It wasn’t a role that got her typecast afterward, and neither is it one that was very in line with what came before, so that makes it feel as though Monster (2003) should be mentioned and regarded here, in some capacity.

7 Frank Sinatra as John Baron

'Suddenly' (1954)

Given his status as one of the most popular singers of the 20th century, it’s hardly surprising that a good number of Frank Sinatra’s film roles had some kind of connection to music, or were musicals. 1953’s From Here to Eternity might've shown off some more of his dramatic range than various other roles earlier, but Suddenly was the film where he got to do something pretty much completely different.

In this one, he plays an assassin who plans to assassinate the President of the United States, who’s passing through a small town, and he takes over a household – holding the family there hostage – while waiting for the opportunity to strike. Suddenly saw him breaking away from his more expected fare almost a decade earlier than The Manchurian Candidate, and though it’s not a perfect film, it is one worth watching in order to appreciate Sinatra’s range.

6 Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank

'The Truman Show' (1998)

There was an internal debate here over which Jim Carrey performance to highlight here, as signifying his break from broadly comedic roles. Maybe an honorable mention can be given to The Cable Guy, since that’s sort of a horror comedy, but it mostly comes down to either 1998’s The Truman Show (which is a dramedy, but arguably one with more drama than comedy) or 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The latter is very light on comedy, and proves pretty downbeat and intense, though it’s not a strict drama when you take into account the sci-fi and romance elements. But still, The Truman Show is going here. Some of it’s funny, but it’s not really a movie where Jim Carrey is required to be funny in his expected kind of way, and then it’s the more dramatic scenes (again, there are quite a few of them) where he ends up debatably shining the most.

5 Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett

'Philadelphia' (1993)

It didn’t take long for Tom Hanks to shine in a “playing against type” kind of role, but there’s a first time for everything, and he really went and redefined what he was capable of with Philadelphia. Looking through his first decade’s worth of performances brings up more comedies than anything else, and he was well-regarded as a comedic actor for sure (see Big, The ‘Burbs, and A League of Their Own).

The first big and successful film of his to not be some kind of comedy or dramedy was Philadelphia, and he won an Oscar for playing a senior associate at a law firm who’s dying from AIDS. Once the risk of type-casting was well and truly broken, with Philadelphia, Tom Hanks went on to be in plenty more dramatic films, and has shown a more recent willingness to keep taking risks with his bizarre (and sort of comedic, despite the film’s dramatic tone) performance in Elvis.

4 Robin Williams as Walter Finch

'Insomnia' (2002)

It would be wrong to classify Robin Williams as just a comedic actor, and doing so would've felt wrong even some decades ago, given he was able to break free from that kind of potential type-casting thanks to some early dramedies like The World According to Garp and Good Morning, Vietnam, and then thanks further to some full-on dramas like Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting.

Regarding those last two, though, they're still ultimately inspiring and kind of crowd-pleasing dramas, so Williams really breaking from tradition came when he played a creepy/villainous role surprisingly well in Insomnia. That wasn’t the only time, though, and neither was it even the only uncomfortable role Williams played in 2002, seeing as that year also saw the release of One Hour Photo. There’s one other Christopher Nolan movie from the same decade that had an even more surprising instance of against-type casting, but more on that in a bit.

3 Patrick Stewart as Darcy Banker

'Green Room' (2015)

If you hear the name Patrick Stewart, you're probably going to think of either Star Trek: The Next Generation (where he played Jean-Luc Picard) or the X-Men series (where he played Charles Xavier). They're not identical roles, but both see him playing morally sound leaders, which makes it surprising when he also plays someone who’s a leader (in a way) in Green Room, but with a very different sense of morality, to say the least.

Basically, he plays the leader of a group of neo-Nazi skinheads, and he’s terrifying, not to mention surprisingly great as a villain, considering the sorts of roles Stewart’s best known for. That he had range isn't the surprising part, but it’s more just how uncomfortably well he settles into such a role, and how he works, overall, for what’s ultimately an incredibly dark and unwaveringly intense film.

2 Heath Ledger as the Joker

'The Dark Knight' (2008)

For as questionable or confusing a decision as it might've seemed pre-2008, casting Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight ended up being rather perfect, and though it’s not the only role for which the late actor should be remembered, it’s kind of understandable why it’s his defining performance. Ledger had been in a fair few different sorts of movies before, but usually as someone who was heroic or maybe a bit complex at most.

In The Dark Knight, he plays a full-blown villain with no redeeming qualities, and yet he channels his usual charisma into the role somehow, making for an instantly iconic and difficult-to-forget villain. If he could go from 10 Things I Hate About You to Brokeback Mountain to The Dark Knight, being great in all of them, in the space of under a decade, it becomes hard to think about what could’ve been, since that sort of range isn't seen all that often.

1 Henry Fonda as Frank

'Once Upon a Time in the West' (1968)

At the risk of going a bit overboard with shouting out actors not typically known for villainous performances who turned in great villainous performances, here’s one more: Henry Fonda playing Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West. Fonda had a fair few high-profile Western roles in the decades prior to this one, and hadn’t exactly been a traditional hero in Fort Apache (1948), but him being a true monster was something else.

He’s convincing as one of the most ruthless villains in cinema history, in Once Upon a Time in the West, and though he’s far from the only reason that movie’s such a classic, he’s certainly a sizable contributor. Henry Fonda’s so menacing here that if you happen to watch Once Upon a Time in the West before any other movies of his (not out of the question, given it’s endured to a particularly great extent, for a film of its age), you might be surprised to watch something like Young Mr. Lincoln or 12 Angry Men and find him shining in a heroic role.