You never know what’s going to be memorable about a movie. It could be a villainous monologue in a romantic comedy, bad CGI in a prestige drama or a really nice sweater in a murder mystery. Sometimes, it’s a performance that’s so good, you don’t even realize the actor is barely in the movie.
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For example, as Redditor TM15295 pointed out on r/Movies, we think of Anthony Hopkins as the star of The Silence of the Lambs, but he only gets 16 minutes of screen time. He won an Oscar for those 16 minutes, too.
They further cited Richard Madden’s work with what he was given in 1917. “Two minutes of screen time, eight lines of dialogue and still managed to break my heart,” they said. “Absolutely crushed it in what was already a difficult project to put to film.”
They then asked for more “actors that kill it in only one scene,” and their fellow Redditors definitely helped prove that it’s what you do with an opportunity that counts, not how big that opportunity might be.
Bronson Pinchot in ‘Beverly Hills Cop’
J.T. Walsh in ’Outbreak’
Denis Ménochet in ’Inglourious Basterds’
Leland Orser in ’Seven’
John Candy in ’Home Alone’
Michael Shannon in ’Revolutionary Road’
Viola Davis in ’Doubt’
Beatrice Straight in ’Network’
Peter Serafinowicz in ’John Wick: Chapter 2
William Hurt in ’A History of Violence’
Rob Morgan in ’Smile’
Drew Barrymore in ’Scream’
Kevin Bacon in ’JFK’
Mickey Rourke in ’The Pledge’
Viggo Mortensen in ’Prophecy’
Alfred Molina in ’Boogie Nights’
Alec Baldwin in ’Glengarry Glen Ross’
Antje Traue in ’Man of Steel’
Peter Stormare in ’Constantine’
Tom Cruise in ’Tropic Thunder’
Matthew McConaughey in ’The Wolf of Wall Street’
Dave Bautista in ’Blade Runner 2049’
The Propeller Guy in ’Titanic’
