Of the 94 Best Picture Oscars awarded to date, only seven have gone to outright-comedy movies. This gives us some insight into the extent to which the industry takes laughter seriously. But while the Academy might not think many comedy movies are worthy of acclaim, many "serious" actors perceive nailing a comedic role as a badge of honor. And after all, can we truly claim that an actor is a master of their craft if they cannot make us laugh?
Here is a list of nine times actors known for their more dramatic work got their comedy wings.
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Only a star with the charisma and charm of Leonardo DiCaprio could play a brazen, arrogant, wasteful, inhumane, and shameless Wall Street stockbroker and convince us to keep watching him for a three-hour runtime — although having Martin Scorsese as the director also helps. Both have dallied with comedy in the past, but neither had so much success as with the equal parts uproarious and infuriating The Wolf of Wall Street. Whilst the majority of the film is consistently funny, it is the scene in which DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort imbibes some extra-strong Quaaludes and loses all control of his muscles that leaves audiences gasping for breath, especially when hit with the punchline involving his perception of how well he has managed to drive in his condition versus the reality.
Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber)
Jeff Daniels was not exactly a stranger to comedy; he has a light comedic touch in films such as Arachnophobia. But nothing could have prepared audiences for how far he was willing to push it in Dumb and Dumber. His performance is a revelation. Made as Jim Carrey’s career was shooting through the stratosphere, any other actor would have run a mile, but Daniels matches Carrey pound for pound in ridiculous rubber-faced expressions, timing, and a total lack of regard for how ridiculous he looks. He plays Harry Dunne, the wild-haired, dopey-faced dog groomer joining his friend Lloyd Christmas (Carrey) on a misguided romantic road trip to Aspen (“I don’t know, Lloyd, the French are assholes.”) Particular highlights include Dunne licking ice from a ski lift and becoming fused to it, and a scene in which a laxative-infused coffee causes him to destroy an already-broken toilet.
Charlize Theron (Long Shot)
Long Shot is a sweet, surprisingly gentle rom-com starring Theron as the U.S. Secretary of State Charlotte Field and Seth Rogan as Fred Flarsky, the schlubby, druggy journalist she hires as her new speech-writer. Humor-wise, much of the runtime is devoted to Rogen bits, with Theron performing a more subtle style of character-driven comedy, as Field struggles with public perceptions of women in high office and the directions of her pushy PR team. However, in a spin on the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” trope, Field begins to fall for Flarsky's stoner charms and Theron’s comedic skills are given full reign. Field decides to drop MDMA and go dancing with Flarsky. Unfortunately, her high coincides with an international hostage situation, resulting in a zoned-out, cigarette-smoking, peace-and-love promoting Theron successfully negotiating with the captors whilst hiding behind a desk wearing sunglasses, to the bemusement of the gathered officials. It would be nice to see the comic timing and physical chops Theron displays here (as well as in her stand-out Between Two Ferns episode) given space to breathe over an entire movie.
Gillian Anderson (Sex Education)
Known for stern-faced sci-fi shows and cop procedurals, it was a refreshing change of tone to find Gillian Anderson playing Jean Millburn, mother of Otis (Asa Butterfield) in Laurie Nunn’s wonderful teen sex comedy-drama. In a generally deadpan, hilariously inscrutable performance, eccentric sex therapist Jean sees no reason why sensual pleasure should be taboo, and her home is therefore overflowing with phallic artwork and literature about sex including her own books on the subject. Whether pleasuring a zucchini, stumbling through the perils of raising a hormonal teenage boy, or successfully pulling off a sexual/comical double-act with her secret lover/plumber Mikael Persbrandt, Anderson shows sides of herself never before seen and runs away with the episode on more than one occasion.
Patrick Stewart (Extras)
Revered as one of the finest stage and screen actors of his generation with a Shakespearean gravitas and sonorous voice, Stewart appears to delight in skewering this well-earned reputation from time to time. He frequently turns up in Seth MacFarlane projects to send himself up, but by far the most hilarious example to date comes in Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant’s follow-up to the original The Office, Extras. Gervais’ Andy Millman, a film extra trying to move into sitcom production, manages to secure a meeting with Stewart, playing a version of himself gradually revealed to be a strangely earnest pervert who is only interested in a series of script scenarios he has developed in which women find themselves unexpectedly naked in his presence. They try to cover themselves, but it’s too late: “I’ve seen everything,” he says like some pubescent boy. The only thing funnier than this scene is the outtakes of Gervais totally failing to hold it together whilst the seasoned professional Stewart makes it through each take completely straight-faced.
Wesley Snipes (Dolemite is my Name)
Erstwhile action star Snipes plays against type in this highly entertaining comedy biopic. This is the true story of singer and comedian Rudy Ray Moore’s (Eddie Murphy) creation of his alter-ego — the foul-mouthed, ostentatious rapper Dolemite — and the determination of the scrappy entrepreneur to make it a success. Having gained a cult following through his X-Rated comedy records, Moore sets about becoming a film star and, following a chance meeting, enlists Hollywood bit-part actor D'Urville Martin (Snipes) to direct the picture. He agrees, although he is hilariously dismissive of the entire endeavor, particularly as the crew consists of white film school kids with no idea of how to light the Black cast: "Black people absorb light. White people reflect light. This is cinemagical reality!" Snipes steals the show, which is no mean feat given the extraordinary cast, and has the time of his life hamming it up with perfectly pitched campiness, ticks and crazed facial expressions, and a wired eccentricity. It is the least Wesley Snipes performance imaginable, and totally hysterical. Somebody give this man a starring role in a comedy already!
Tilda Swinton (Trainwreck)
Tilda Swinton is at once familiar and unrecognizable in Trainwreck. Considering that her usual stock-in-trade is ethereal, androgynous characters with intriguing implied backstories, it is interesting how conventional her character appears on the surface. She plays Dianna, a Devil Wears Prada-style tyrannical magazine editor with long blonde highlights, a spray-tan, and a ruthless approach to staff management. Furthering the film’s themes of loveless relationships and cynical detachment, Dianna is a woman running a men’s magazine, S’Nuff, where they teach the “strong-willed man how to dress, think, eat, fuck,” and she is exactly the sort of fascist you would expect to run such an organization. Swinton gets big laughs from this conversely grounded performance, as she gradually makes each of her employees feel worse than the last. We have all worked with a Dianna at one time or another, but in this case familiarity breeds hilarity rather than contempt.
Meryl Streep (Death Becomes Her)
This classic black comedy-fantasy from Robert Zemeckis stars the legendary Streep as Madeline Ashton, a cold and outrageously narcissistic actress with a lifelong rivalry with Goldie Hawn’s Helen Sharp, both of whom become immortal upon discovering a magical elixir. The elixir cannot prevent injury, however, so a brutal fight involving a fall down the stairs and a shotgun leave the pair looking…less than intact. Hawn is renowned for her skilled comic acting, and she does not disappoint here, but outright broad comedy outings for Streep were few and far between at the time, and she lands every gag with precision. Whilst the special effects were revolutionary in their day, some do not hold up so well now, but the film still works in no small part because of Streep in hilarious form.
Matt Dillon (There's Something About Mary)
Having successfully turned respected actor Jeff Daniels into a brain-dead imbecile in Dumb and Dumber, the Farrelly Brothers next turned their sites on Matt Dillon. There was little in the first decade and a half of Dillon’s career to suggest he had a comedy role in him, never mind one as indelible as private detective Pat Healey. Healey is the most sleazy, sexist, duplicitous man in a movie filled with nothing but sleazy, sexist, duplicitous men. Hired by pathetic loser Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller) to seek out Mary (Cameron Diaz), his true love from high school, Healey discovers that he too lusts for Mary and begins bugging her apartment to learn how best to win her heart. Accordingly, Healey gets his teeth whitened to a high shine, and sedates Mary’s landlady’s dog Puffy to make it docile in his presence — a plan that backfires and leaves him manically constructing a makeshift defibrillator that sets fire to the Border terrier. More than a pair of comedy dentures, this is a career-high for Dillon and the beginning of a run of great comedies, an underrated example being One Night At McCool’s.