- 5 months ago
Some performances are so powerful, they instantly cement an actor's legendary status. Join us as we explore those career-defining moments when actors transcended their roles and became immortal on screen! From intense monologues to subtle transformations, these scenes forever changed cinema history and turned talented performers into icons.
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00:00I mean, I love him, and all that type of stuff, and I, I mean, I don't want to hurt him.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the scenes that instantly cemented now-beloved actors' legacies.
00:13You're getting on, you're pushing 30, Slugger, you know, it's time to think about getting some ambition.
00:20Well, I always figured I'd live a little bit longer without it.
00:25Number 10. Funny How, Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.
00:30You're really funny. You're really funny.
00:33What do you mean I'm funny?
00:35It's funny, you know, it's a good story, it's funny, you're a funny guy.
00:41What do you mean? You mean the way I talk?
00:42What?
00:44It's just, you know, you're just funny, it's funny, you know, the way you tell the story and everything.
00:50Let's be clear, Goodfellas wasn't Joe Pesci's debut, as he'd already earned acclaim alongside Robert De Niro in Raging Bull,
00:56but it was this scene that turned him into a screen immortal.
00:59You're funny how. I mean, what's funny about it?
01:03Tommy, no, you got it all wrong.
01:04Oh, Anthony. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. What'd you say?
01:08You're right.
01:09Funny how.
01:11What?
01:12Just, you know, you're funny.
01:14As they explosively volatile Tommy DeVito, Pesci delivers the now iconic Funny How monologue with such unpredictability that it's easy to miss the genius beneath the rage.
01:24Well, I'm funny how. I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you, I make you laugh, I'm here to f***ing amuse you.
01:31What do you mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny?
01:35I'm not just, you know how you tell the story.
01:38What's more, the moment was largely improvised. Pesci, Ray Liotta, and director Martin Scorsese didn't warn the extras, making their stunned reactions painfully real.
01:47The tension is nerve-wracking, the menace unforgettable.
01:50Pesci deservedly won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but the real reward was instant entry into the pantheon of cinematic legends.
01:57How the f*** am I funny? What the f*** is so funny about me? Tell me. Tell me what's funny.
02:08Get the f*** out of here, Tommy.
02:10I almost had him. I almost had him.
02:14You stutter? You stuttering prick, yeah?
02:16Number 9. The Same Spot.
02:18Viola Davis in Fences.
02:20We ain't talking about baseball.
02:22We're talking about you going off and laying up with another woman and bringing her home to me.
02:26That's what we're talking about. We're not talking about no baseball.
02:28Rose, you're not listening to me. I'm trying to explain it to you the best way I know how.
02:34It's not easy for me to admit that I've been standing in the same place for 18 years.
02:38Fences may have been directed by and starred Denzel Washington, but it's Viola Davis who delivers its most soul-shaking moment.
02:44As Rose, the devoted wife of Washington's bitter Troy Maxson, Davis spends much of the film holding her pain in, until she can't.
02:51When Rose learns of Troy's infidelity, an impending child with another woman, Davis unleashes a raw, agonizing monologue that rips through the screen.
02:59I've been right here with you, Troy. I got a life, too.
03:03I gave 18 years of my life to stand in the same spot as you.
03:06Don't you think I ever wanted other things? Don't you think I had dreams and hopes? What about my life? What about me?
03:13What you're witnessing isn't just a great performance, it's the unmistakable arrival of one of the most commanding actors of her generation.
03:20Watching this scene, it's clear as to why Davis went from a two-time nominee to a well-deserving Oscar winner.
03:25You're not the only one who's got wants and needs, but I held on to you, Troy.
03:29I took all my feelings, my wants, and needs, and dreams, and I buried them inside you.
03:36I planted a seed and watched and prayed over. I planted myself inside you and waited to bloom.
03:41It didn't take me no 18 years to realize the soil was hard and rocky and it wasn't never gonna bloom.
03:46Number 8. Coin Toss. Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men.
03:51How much?
03:5369, C.
03:54And the gas?
03:56Y'all getting any rain up your way?
04:00What way would that be?
04:01I've seen you was from Dallas.
04:05What business is it of yours?
04:08Where I'm from?
04:10Friendo?
04:11By all accounts, Javier Bardem hated the haircut, but after his chilling turn as the fearsome,
04:17almost otherworldly Anton Chigurh in the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men,
04:21it was clear the discomfort paid off.
04:23Early in the film, Chigurh engages in a quietly menacing exchange with a gas station owner.
04:27What begins a small talk curdles into a tense, increasingly hostile meditation on fate, chance, and control.
04:34What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?
04:38Sir?
04:39The most you ever lost on a coin toss.
04:44I don't know, I couldn't say.
04:49Call it?
04:50Call it, yes.
04:52For what?
04:53Just call it.
04:54Bardem doesn't raise his voice, but he doesn't have to.
04:57The dread alone is suffocating.
04:58From bodying Chigurh, Bardem won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor,
05:02and this scene alone makes the case airtight.
05:04I didn't put nothing up.
05:06Yes, you did.
05:07You've been putting it up your whole life.
05:09You just didn't know it.
05:12You know what date is on this coin?
05:14No.
05:151958.
05:16It's been traveling 22 years to get here.
05:19And now it's here.
05:21And it's either heads or tails.
05:23Number seven.
05:24Joanna leaves.
05:25Meryl Streep in Kramer vs. Kramer.
05:27I'm leaving you.
05:28Honey, please.
05:29I can't hear you.
05:30What?
05:32Okay, you too.
05:33Thanks a lot.
05:33See you tomorrow.
05:35You guys eat?
05:36Ted, I'm leaving you.
05:38Ted.
05:40Keys.
05:41Here are my keys.
05:43Here's my American Express card.
05:44Here's my Bloomingdale's credit card.
05:46Here's my checkbook.
05:47As Joanna Kramer, a wife and mother quietly buckling under the weight of an unfulfilling
05:51life, Streep delivers a heartbreakingly restrained performance as she tearfully leaves her husband,
05:56played by Dustin Hoffman, and young son, Billy, behind.
05:59I paid the rent, I paid the con ed bill, and I paid the phone bill, so.
06:03Well, you really picked your times, Ted.
06:09Well, I'm sorry that I was late, but I was busy making a living, all right?
06:14Come on, okay?
06:16Can we stop now?
06:18So, that's everything.
06:20There's no screaming and no melodrama.
06:22Just anguish, honesty, and the haunting clarity of a woman attempting to reclaim her agency.
06:27Despite the sheer weight of the bombshell she drops on Hoffman, Streep never appears evil
06:31or villainous, just nakedly human.
06:33It's me, it's my fault.
06:36You just married the wrong person, that's all.
06:38I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't.
06:39Okay, fine, fine, let's just go inside, please.
06:40I can't, I tried.
06:42I swear.
06:43Joanna, please, now, just, I'm sorry.
06:46Now, don't, don't, don't make me go in there, please, please don't make me go in there,
06:50don't make me go in there.
06:51Just talk.
06:51If you do, I swear, on one day, next week, maybe next year, I don't know.
06:55In that brief yet unforgettable scene, Streep announced herself as a generational talent.
06:59She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, but more importantly, the industry knew a
07:04new force for the ages had arrived.
07:06What am I doing?
07:10I'm not taking him with me.
07:13I'm no good for him.
07:14I'm terrible with him.
07:16I have no patience.
07:19He's better off without me.
07:21Number six, The Filibuster.
07:23James Stewart and Mr. Smith goes to Washington.
07:25Well, I guess the gentlemen are in a pretty tall hurry to get me out of here.
07:28The way the evidence is piled up against me, I can't say I blame them much.
07:33And I'm quite willing to go, sir, when they voted that way.
07:36But before that happens, I've got a few things I want to say to this body.
07:39Today, Jimmy Stewart is remembered as the Tom Hanks of his era, a steady, paternal presence,
07:44beloved for portraying men of quiet conviction and moral clarity.
07:47That reputation was cemented with Mr. Smith goes to Washington, wherein, Stewart reunited
07:52with director Frank Capra to deliver one of cinema's most stirring portraits of idealism
07:57under fire.
07:58And as a matter of fact, I'm not going to leave this body until I do get them set.
08:01President, will the senator yield?
08:02Will the senator yield?
08:03No, sir, I'm afraid not.
08:05No, sir.
08:07I yielded the floor once before, if you can remember, and I was practically never heard
08:10of again.
08:11No, sir.
08:13And we might as well all get together on this yielding business right off the bat now.
08:17In the film's defining scene, Stewart's Jefferson Smith launches into an epic, day-long
08:21filibuster, desperately fighting to clear his name and expose a corrupt political machine.
08:26It's the cinematic embodiment of principled resistance, and the moment Smith became the
08:31conscience of Hollywood's golden age.
08:33It's just the blood and bone and sinew of this democracy that some great men handed down
08:37to the human race, that's all.
08:39But of course, if you've got to build a dam where that boy's camp ought to be, to get
08:43some grass to pay off some political army or something, that's a different thing.
08:46Oh, no!
08:47Number 5, Ezekiel 2517, Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction.
08:52You read the Bible, Brett.
08:54Yes!
08:55Well, there's this passage I got memorized, so it fits this occasion.
09:00Ezekiel 2517, the path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of
09:09the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
09:12The caviar bardem after him, Samuel L. Jackson was relatively unknown to mainstream audiences
09:17before landing a career-defining role in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
09:21As the coolly philosophical hitman Jules Winfield, Jackson shared the screen with John Travolta,
09:26whose own career was revived by the film.
09:28But it was Jackson who walked away with its most unforgettable moment.
09:32Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley
09:38of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
09:45Jules delivers a fiery monologue, quoting a mostly fabricated Bible passage lifted from
09:50the martial arts flick, Bodyguard Kiba.
09:52What could have been Grindhouse Cheese becomes, in Jackson's hands, a sermon of righteous fury,
09:57elevating both the scene and the actor into pop culture immortality.
10:01And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison
10:10and destroy my brothers.
10:13And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
10:20Number four.
10:21Michael meets with Sollozzo and McCluskey, Al Pacino in The Godfather.
10:25Of all the moments that marked Al Pacino's rise, none announced his arrival louder than the
10:45restaurant scene in The Godfather.
10:47As Michael Corleone, Pacino plays a man teetering between reluctant son and ruthless air, brought
10:52to a quiet boil in a tense sit-down with crooked cop McCluskey and rival gangster Sollozzo.
10:58What I want, what's most important to me, is that I have a guarantee, no more attempts
11:09on my father's life.
11:10What guarantees can I give you, Mike?
11:13I am the hunted one.
11:15I missed my chance.
11:16You think too much of me, kid.
11:18The scene is a masterclass in restraint.
11:20Every glance, twitch, and hesitation layered with dread, as Michael excuses himself, retrieves
11:25the hidden revolver, and commits his first murders.
11:28It's not the act of violence that cements Pacino's legend, but the transformation behind
11:32it.
11:32The shift from civilian to future Don unfolds in real time, forever shaping the trajectory
11:37of both character and actor.
11:39I have to go to the bath.
11:42Is that all right?
11:45You gotta go, you gotta go.
11:46Number three.
11:47Torn Apart.
11:48James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.
11:50A minute ago, you said you didn't care if he drinks.
11:53He said, a little drink.
11:56You're tearing me apart!
11:59What?
12:00You say one thing, he says another, and everybody changes back again!
12:05That's a fine way to behave.
12:06Well, you know who he takes after.
12:09In one of Rebel Without a Cause's most emotionally fraught scenes, James Dean's Jim Stark confronts
12:14his parents in a desperate plea to be heard, understood, and seen.
12:18It's not just the famous line that resonates, but the way Dean embodies every ounce of confusion,
12:23rage, and heartbreak in a teenager pushed to the edge.
12:26Is that why you moved from the last town?
12:27Because you're in trouble?
12:28Well, they think that they can protect me by moving around all the time.
12:37You had a good start in the wrong direction back there.
12:40Why'd you do it?
12:41What do you mean?
12:45Mess a kid up?
12:46The performance is all slouched posture, halting breath, and raw nerve, a startling contrast
12:51to the polished acting of the era.
12:53In that moment, Dean didn't just play a troubled teen.
12:56He was one.
12:57Though his career would be tragically cut short, this scene cemented his status as a cultural
13:01icon and rewrote the emotional vocabulary for generations of actors to come.
13:05You called me chicken?
13:08And your folks didn't understand?
13:12They never knew.
13:19They think that I can make friends if we move.
13:23Number two, Travis's Reflection, Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver.
13:28I'm standing here.
13:29You make the move.
13:31You make the move.
13:33It's your move.
13:35Don't try it, you're f***ing.
13:40Fresh off his Oscar win for The Godfather Part II, Robert De Niro could have easily coasted
13:44on prestige.
13:45Instead, he delivered one of the most unsettling, era-defining performances of his career in Taxi
13:50Driver.
13:51Nowhere is that more evident than in the mirror scene, in which De Niro's unhinged Travis Bickle
13:55practices a confrontation in his dingy apartment, slowly unraveling before our eyes.
14:00You talking to me?
14:04You talking to me?
14:05Well, then who the hell else are you talking to?
14:10You talking to me?
14:12Well, I'm the only one here.
14:14His most famous line wasn't in the script.
14:16It was improvised.
14:17And yet, it became a battle cry for the alienated.
14:20A line that would echo across decades of pop culture in homages, parodies, and pastiches.
14:25In that moment, De Niro crystallized the Vietnam generation's simmering disillusionment and carved
14:30his name into cinematic history.
14:32Who the f**k do you think you're talking to?
14:36Oh yeah?
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14:52Number 1, Taxicab Confession.
14:57Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront.
14:59So what happens?
15:00He gets the title shot outdoors in a ballpark and what do I get?
15:03A one-way ticket to Palookaville.
15:05You was my brother, Charlie.
15:07You should have looked out for me a little bit.
15:10You should have taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives
15:13for the short end money.
15:14There are great performances.
15:16And then, there's Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront.
15:18In the film's most haunting scene, Brando's Terry Malloy sits beside his brother in the
15:23back of a taxi cab, quietly mourning a life derailed by compromise and betrayal.
15:27I Could Have Been a Contender is a lament spoken with such aching vulnerability that it
15:32redefined what screen acting could be.
15:33You should have taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives
15:37for the short end money.
15:38Well, I had some bets down for you.
15:39You saw some money.
15:41You don't understand.
15:42I could have had class.
15:44I could have been a contender.
15:46I could have been somebody.
15:48Instead of a bum, which is what I am.
15:53Let's face it.
15:54With hushed pain in his voice and eyes cast downward, Brando stripped away theatricality
15:58and introduced a new, emotionally grounded realism that will become the gold standard
16:03for generations.
16:04It's not just a powerful moment.
16:05It's a sacred one, marking the birth of modern American film acting.
16:10It was you, Charlie.
16:11Which scene on our list is your favorite?
16:24Are there any we missed?
16:25Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
16:27I don't know what to do anymore except maybe die on her.
16:30I mean, if he had guts to knock mom cold once, then maybe she'd be happy and then she'd
16:36stop picking on him.
16:38Because they make mush out of him.
16:42You know?
16:43Just mush.
16:45Dance theifikinky first till one.
16:45Yeah, and then you're back.
16:46Let us know in the minute.
16:46I know in progress.
16:47kke waftime the courage.
16:47Continue to get away with nurses.
16:48Bye-bye.
16:48Bye-bye.
16:48That's why we have a walk-bye.
16:51Bye-bye.
16:51See you next book.
16:51Bye-bye.
17:05Bye-bye.
17:08Bye-bye.
17:09Bye-bye.
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