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Audiences slept on all these career-best performances.
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00:00There are so many movies being released on a weekly basis these days that it's absolutely
00:05impossible to keep track of everything, such that great movies and great performances can
00:10easily end up falling through the cracks.
00:13The sheer wealth of options available on streaming platforms makes it incredibly easy for an
00:17actor's best work to be slept on, whereby only the most committed fans have a hope in
00:22hell of discovering it.
00:24So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture and here are 10 more actors who
00:29gave their best performances in movies nobody saw.
00:33Number 10, Vince Vaughn in Brawl in Cell Block 99.
00:37Vince Vaughn probably isn't who most people picture when they think of a great actor, but he's given a
00:42bevy of hilarious comedic performances in the likes of Swingers, Old School, Dodgeball and Wedding Crashers
00:48and in the dramatic stakes has acquitted himself well in Hacksaw Ridge and True Detective's second season.
00:55But far and away, Vaughn's best work to date is in S. Craig Zahler's brutal 2017 prison thriller,
01:02Brawl in Cell Block 99.
01:04As imprisoned drug runner Bradley Thomas, Vaughn is like you've never seen him before,
01:09a bald-headed stone-faced pillar of granite who must fight to save his wife and unborn child on the
01:14outside before it's too late. Vaughn isn't an actor who cuts a naturally intimidating figure,
01:20yet director Zahler clearly saw something in him that nobody else did, because his mere physical
01:26presence throughout this ferocious, graphically violent film is deeply imposing. Vaughn underplays
01:32the part perfectly, giving a richly internalised performance as a man stewing in his own rage,
01:38while desperately trying to free his family from a helpless situation.
01:42Yet despite Vaughn receiving rave reviews for his performance,
01:45Brawl grossed just $79,208 on limited release at the box office,
01:51before more or less fading into the abyss of streaming.
01:549. Scarlett Johansson in Under The Skin
01:58Scarlett Johansson has amassed an impressive body of work over the last two or so decades,
02:03but her most impressive and truly transformative performance was in a much smaller niche project,
02:08which couldn't have seemed much more off-putting to both mainstream audiences and Oscar voters.
02:14Jonathan Glazer's sci-fi masterpiece Under The Skin stars Johansson as an unnamed man-devouring
02:19alien creature inexplicably traipsing around Scotland while donning the guise of a beautiful human
02:25woman. Despite being produced for a svelte $13.3 million and the press constantly hyping up Johansson's
02:32nudity in the film, Under The Skin failed to make much of a dent with audiences, grossing just $7.3 million globally.
02:408. Michael Shannon in Take Shelter
02:43Michael Shannon is undeniably one of the greatest actors working to date,
02:47yet Shannon's finest work to date was in a film that many expected him to receive a Best Actor Oscar
02:52nomination for, Jeff Nichols' dizzying psychological thriller Take Shelter.
02:57Shannon stars as Curtis LaForge, a man who begins experiencing apocalyptic visions and must decide
03:03whether to protect his family from the apparently incoming destruction or from himself. It's always
03:09deeply satisfying to see a card-carrying supporting actor get their own hefty leading role, and Shannon
03:14grabs the part with both hands, delivering an astonishing performance that's alternately sympathetic
03:20and terrifying. There's a deep vein of aching humanity running through Shannon's work here,
03:25and that his performance somehow didn't receive Oscar recognition over some of the lesser turns
03:30in contention that year remains an utter travesty.
03:337. Michael Fassbender in Hunger
03:37Though his acting career hasn't been up to much the last five years, Michael Fassbender is
03:41nevertheless one of the finest performers of his generation, as evidenced by his strong work in
03:47Fish Tank, Inglourious Bastards, Shame, The X-Men and Alien films, yet Fassbender's best
03:52work to date occurred before any of these films were released in Steve McQueen's expertly crafted
03:572008 historical drama Hunger. In the film, Fassbender plays IRA member Bobby Sands, who leads a hunger
04:05strike in prison which ultimately claims his life. In what would become the first of three collaborations
04:10between Fassbender and McQueen so far, Fassbender gives an astonishing physical and emotional performance,
04:17losing a concerning amount of weight while getting audiences firmly into Sands' mindset.
04:22Aided by wonderfully stripped back direction from McQueen, this is a singular examination of a
04:27devastating act of political defiance, and one surely best remembered for the jaw-dropping 17-minute
04:33single take in which a priest attempts to talk Sands out of his hunger strike.
04:38Though Hunger received rave reviews and snagged Fassbender the British Independent Film Award for Best
04:42Actor, it barely cracked $3 million worldwide, and so any Oscar buzz for Fassbender consequently went up
04:50in smoke.
04:516. Jennifer Aniston in Cake
04:54Jennifer Aniston will of course forever be remembered for playing Rachel Green on Friends,
04:59but she's also given many acclaimed performances on the big screen, whether in comedies like Office
05:04Space, Horrible Bosses and We're the Millers, or dramas such as The Good Girl, Friends with Money,
05:09and Dumplin'. Yet Aniston's finest effort to date flew totally under the radar back in 2014,
05:15when she starred in Cake, playing Claire Bennett, a woman addicted to both alcohol and pain meds
05:20following a car accident which claimed the life of her son. Though general critical response to the
05:25film was mixed, Aniston's performance received rave reviews from many outlets and even Best Actress
05:31nominations from both the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild. For many, it was so hugely refreshing to
05:37see Aniston commit this hard to such an unvarnished, unflattering role of a woman hobbled by guilt,
05:43anger and the throes of addiction. It's a performance like nothing Aniston has ever done prior
05:48or since. Yet despite a ton of Oscar buzz for her work, which ultimately didn't pan out, Cake bombed at
05:55the box office, grossing less than $3 million worldwide against a $10 million budget.
06:00Number 5, Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass. Poor Hayden Christensen. Appearing in the latter
06:07two Star Wars prequels might be both the best and worst thing that's ever happened to him,
06:12convincing an entire generation of fans that, to be blunt, he can't act. Though Christensen doesn't
06:18exactly have a bevy of quality roles to his name, there is one which confirms him to be a shockingly
06:23underappreciated performer when cast in the right role.
06:26In between the two Star Wars prequels, Christensen starred in Shattered Glass,
06:31a low-budget drama where he played disgraced journalist Stephen Glass,
06:34who, while writing for The New Republic, falsified the majority of his news stories.
06:40Christensen's performance as the elusive, cagey journalist whose life and career slowly unravel
06:45is nothing short of terrific, and yet is largely unknown among those who freely dismiss him as a
06:51terrible actor. Number 4, Aubrey Plaza in Black Bear. While undeniably being best known for her
06:58brilliant work as April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation, Aubrey Plaza has rather quietly built
07:03up an enviable filmography of quality roles in dramedies in more recent years. Plaza received vocal
07:09rave reviews for her sublime performance in the 2020 Blackley comedic dramatic thriller Black Bear,
07:15a difficult to categorise but utterly mesmeric film built almost entirely around Plaza's incredible
07:21work. This is certainly a movie best watched without knowing the finer particulars, but Plaza stars as
07:27a filmmaker suffering from creative block who heads to a quiet rural retreat in the hope of entangling
07:32her mind, only to do quite the opposite. Its tricky central conceit won't work for everyone,
07:38but even if Black Bear isn't fully for you, Plaza's sheer magnetism in the lead role,
07:43launching between poles of depression, sedonic humour and outright terror is a treat that needs to be seen.
07:50Number 3, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Maggie. Arnold Schwarzenegger is as larger than life
07:55as actors get, and though it's basically impossible to imagine anyone else playing the part of the
08:00Terminator, few would go so far as to call him a genuinely great actor. We've seen Arnie experiment
08:06around a little more in recent years as he's gotten up there in age and his action chops have
08:11unavoidably waned, leading to him starring in a most unexpected project in 2015. An Arnie-led
08:18zombie film doesn't sound like the most unnatural of moves for Schwarzenegger, but Maggie is no normal
08:23undead horror romp. This is more a post-apocalyptic drama than anything, with Arnie portraying Wade,
08:29a father who must come to terms with his daughter's transformation into a zombie. This is more than
08:34anything else, Arnie like you've never seen him before, a vulnerable, hurting man pulled between
08:40knowing what he needs to do and the love for his daughter. It's as subtle a performance as Arnie
08:45has ever given, and while the film itself isn't doing too much new for the genre, seeing the actor
08:50in this more dialed-down mode, lending shocking dramatic nuance to Wade is a sure sight to behold.
08:56It's a shame that Maggie didn't do much business either theatrically or on VOD though, as we've seen few
09:02similar attempts from Schwarzenegger in the years since.
09:052. Vin Diesel in Find Me Guilty
09:09Much like Arnold, Vin Diesel isn't an actor many would look to when casting a subtle or complex
09:14character, and though Diesel's filmography is almost entirely comprised of brutish action heroes,
09:20he quietly proved himself capable of much more in 2006's courtroom drama D, Find Me Guilty.
09:27Written and directed by the late legendary Sidney Lumet, the film is a biopic of New
09:32Jersey mobster Jackie DeNorcio, who, while on trial for racketeering charges, decides to defend himself
09:38and against titanic odds, successfully beats the rap. The idea of Carson Diesel in the role of a
09:44man who charmed the pants off a jury doesn't seem to fit, and yet he gives a genuinely believable
09:49performance as the infectiously likable mobster without transforming him into a total caricature.
09:55Diesel certainly had everything working in his favour, with Lumet in the director's chair and Peter
10:00Dinklage playing opposite him as the lead defence lawyer. But credit where it's due,
10:05Diesel completely defied expectations enough to make you wonder why he hasn't done more of this
10:10since. The answer may ultimately lie in the fact that Find Me Guilty was a colossal box office bomb,
10:16grossing just $2.6 million against a $13 million budget.
10:211. Elizabeth Moss in Shirley
10:24Elizabeth Moss has near countless brilliant performances to her name, but the best of the lot?
10:29Moss' performance as eccentric novelist Shirley Jackson in Josephine Decker's hypnotic 2020 biopic
10:36Shirley. Focus on Jackson while she was writing her 1951 novel Hangs a Man. This may only be a mere
10:43snapshot of her life, but Moss provides such a tenacious window into the woman as both mentally ill
10:48and creative genius that we come to feel like we truly know her essence by film's end.
10:53More than any other film Moss has made, this gives her the freedom to swing and swing hard. Untethered by
10:59the expected bounds of a formal biopic, director Decker taking a step back and opting for a more surreal,
11:05dreamlike filmmaking style. At least unlike Diesel, Moss seems quite content working on these smaller,
11:11less restrictive indie projects, even if it'll take some serious doing to top her work in this film.
11:17And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in the
11:21comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
11:25Don't forget to head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social
11:29medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture,
11:33I hope you have a magical day and I'll see you real soon!
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