No laughing matter: How 7 comedy giants fared during their dramatic turns
Here’s what happened when stars like Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams turned to weightier material
Image: Graphic: Allison Corr TV Features Comedy
As Hollywood continues to feel the effects of the streaming boom, the sheer volume of platforms throwing money at streaming movies and (especially) TV shows has kept A-list actors busy in a way that the faltering big screen, star vehicle economy has not. For the moment, this has also led to a supersized number of classic career moves—like comic actors making a serious departure into more dramatic projects.
This fall alone has seen Melissa McCarthy do a grief drama for Netflix, Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd taking psychological turns in The Shrink Next Door for Apple TV+, and Kevin Hart attempting a Netflix crime drama with True Story. A detour to the dramatic side seems to be an inevitable complication in the career of nearly anyone who’s ever starred in a hit comedy (give or take a Dane Cook)—so let’s take a look at the recent history of comedians intentionally forsaking laughs.
The biggest comedy stars who added drama to their repertoire: Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler
Looking purely at their box-office track records, Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler both belong in the discussion for most successful comedy star of all time. Of course, they’d probably have to fight for second place after Eddie Murphy, though Murphy has put out more outright bombs than either of them—and, interestingly, has taken fewer non-comedic roles. (More on that shortly.)
After toiling in small parts, failed sitcoms, and the sketch comedy series In Living Color, Carrey’s Ace Ventura kicked off a stunning 1994 featuring no fewer than three big comedy hits, with several more comedy smashes in the years that followed. Sandler’s leading-man career began around the same time, with a few sleeper hits building an audience for his big 1998-1999, when The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, and Big Daddy put him close to Carrey’s level. Around the turn of the century, they both decided to experiment with roles that couldn’t be more or less summarized by the title of the movie.
Carrey had dabbled in some serious roles pre-superstardom, most dramatically in the Fox TV movie Doing Time On Maple Drive, where he played an alcoholic. Sandler, though, was pretty much locked into the stand-up-to-sketch-comedy-to-comedy-movies pipeline; for a while, Big Daddy looked like his version of a big dramatic departure, because he doesn’t succumb to as many fits of slapstick animal rage, and even cries in one scene. It wouldn’t exactly be fair to call Carrey or Sandler’s initial forays into drama cautious, but they both riff closely on their established comic personas.
In The Truman Show, Carrey deftly plays a man who doesn’t realize his life is a round-the-clock TV show—that performance has been unconsciously baked into his very existence. (It’s a clever inverse of Carrey’s image as a man who is always consciously on.) Carrey continued to get serious about comedy and performance by playing Andy Kaufman in Man On The Moon, a serious movie about a funny guy. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, meanwhile, is basically a classic Sandler vehicle, recontextualized with pulsing anxiety and Anderson’s lyricism, and the less successful Spanglish is, in some ways, an anticipation of the well-to-do dads Sandler would play in later phases of his dopey-comedy career. (The movie is a mess, but Sandler is very good in it.)
Neither Carrey nor Sandler abandoned their comic roots—Carrey’s next big movie is a Sonic The Hedgehog sequel, while Sandler continues to churn out silly comedies for Netflix—but they’ve both added some major career highlights by dabbling outside of broad comedy. It would also be a kick to see them swap their more serious collaborators: Let’s see Jim Carrey in a Noah Baumbach family drama, and Adam Sandler in a Michel Gondry rumination on dreams and memory!
The comedian who never looked back: Steve Carell
As common as it is to see comedians try their hand at drama, it’s rare to see them deny their genre of origin for longer than a few projects at a time. While Steve Carell will probably turn up in a comedy at some point in the next decade, he seemed to take his exit from The Office as a pledge to step away from broader antics seen in The 40-Year-Old Virgin or Date Night. Sad-sack dramedies like Dan In Real Life and Crazy, Stupid, Love became the norm, and even those have been in short supply in recent years.
To his credit, Carell has avoided comedy primarily by signing up for supporting roles in the types of movies that Hollywood makes with vexing infrequency: character-driven dramas like Last Flag Flying and Foxcatcher, intimate relationship movies like Hope Springs, and whatever the hell Welcome To Marwen is.
Most of these performances have comic notes of some sort or another (save Foxcatcher, from one of our most humor-averse filmmakers)—and for that matter, there’s plenty of pathos in Carell’s best comic work. But it would be difficult to argue that he’s made anything as good as Virgin in the past five or six years. (For that matter, Date Night is better than a lot of these movies, too.) When he does venture back onto sorta-comic grounds for a movie like Irresistible, he brings along the same tics and cadences of his comedy work, only with a stiff sense that he’s playing the hits for the rubes in service of something greater.
The most successful transitions: Robin Williams and Bill Murray
The late Robin Williams didn’t wait an especially long time before trying drama. He studied at Juilliard, and his third-ever film appearance was in The World According To Garp, a John Irving adaptation. On that same note, many of his biggest hits chased his comic whirlwind with some manner of dramatic reflection. But his image in the popular consciousness was cemented by the sitcom Mork & Mindy and his stand-up performances: the unstoppable comic force of a thousand (or at least a dozen) personalities and voices.
Bill Murray, meanwhile, came to prominence around the same time as Williams, and quickly established himself as a comic leading man with the likes of Meatballs, Stripes, and Ghostbusters. (The Razor’s Edge, a 1984 drama, was a rare exception that wound up proving the rule by bombing.)
Both Williams and Murray became more “serious” actors with the help of a typically pernicious influence: the terrible lure of Oscar gold. Serious turns from successful comic performers are near-universally understood as a desperate plea for awards glory, but in the case of Williams, that beats the desperate pleas for laughter that characterize his weaker pure comedies.
Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets Society place Williams’ riffs in more realistic context, and the Academy was right to nominate him for movies like those two and The Fisher King, and to award him the Best Supporting Actor trophy for Good Will Hunting. This was some of his best work, and likely influenced more daring later turns in movies like Insomnia and World’s Greatest Dad—as well as some gloppy, sentimental hybrids like Patch Adams. But you have to take the good with the bad.
Murray had already largely taken on the life of a supporting-actor scene-stealer by the time Lost In Translation netted him his first Oscar nomination, but that movie, as well as his ongoing collaboration with Wes Anderson, shifted audience expectations from fast-talking wiseass to a drier, more melancholic form of vintage Murray. At this point, that more tempered sensibility has been a part of his persona for the majority of his career.
The comedians who don’t much care for drama: Eddie Murphy and Will Ferrell
As mentioned above, Eddie Murphy may be the biggest comedy star of all time; his box office run from 1982 to 1992 would probably be enough to claim that title, and he’s had plenty of additional hits since that peak period. One thing he hasn’t done much of, though, is drama, unless you’re counting his weirdly grim visage in Beverly Hills Cop III.
Like fellow SNL vet Bill Murray, Murphy both received an overdue Oscar nomination in 2000s and seemingly reacted with great disappointment when he lost. But that supporting turn in Dreamgirls is one of just a handful of non-comedic Murphy roles, and it’s so full of his trademark showmanship and flashy charm that it fits in pretty well with his other work.
The more thoroughly “serious” Murphy part is in a movie hardly anyone saw: Mr. Church, where he plays a soft-spoken cook and caretaker to a young woman. It’s pretty bad, but Murphy acquits himself well enough—and has sleepwalked through so many middling family comedies with squishy sentimental scenes—that it’s hard to understand why he hasn’t done more non-comedies.
Then again, maybe the lesson in Murphy’s seeming reluctance to do awards-bait dramas should be that he deserves recognition for something like Bowfinger, a far more virtuosic performance than any number of Oscar winners. The most recent awards-buzzed Murphy role bears that out: Dolemite Is My Name is more comic biopic than self-consciously dramatic departure.
Another ex-SNL star, Will Ferrell spent some time as the seeming heir to the post-Murphy likes of Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler. But as his status as the go-to comedy leading man has gradually diminished, his choices have maintained a whimsical sensibility. Sometimes he’ll do a big, dumb, family-oriented studio comedy, sometimes he’ll decide to make a straight-faced Lifetime movie with Kristen Wiig, and sometimes he’ll clock in for a cameo in a movie you’ve never heard of.
His choices are more eccentric than Murphy’s, but their dramatic turns are similarly few and far between. In the mid-2000s—his peak era as a box-office draw—Ferrell indulged his more serious side with a supporting role in the standard-issue quirky melancholia of Winter Passing and a leading turn in the Gondry-esque dramedy Stranger Than Fiction. Since then, though, he’s stuck almost exclusively to comedies or comic experiments, even as his longtime collaborator Adam McKay has directed his satirical instincts toward more (self-) serious endeavors.
Ferrell has spoken about his desire to stick with comedy, so The Shrink Next Door might feature his most serious-minded performance for a while. It’s almost an alternate-world McKay movie, as Ferrell reunites with Anchorman and Step Brothers co-stars like Paul Rudd and Kathryn Hahn.
It’s this miniature not-quite-comic ensemble that makes Shrink compelling; it’s hard to imagine it working as well with actors known primarily for straighter parts. Ferrell seems to understand that comedians can keep making departures, and even give career-best performances doing so, but comedy will wait for them—whether they want it to or not.
262 Comments
Good article. Even if it doesn’t heap enough praise on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I saw that Dan in Real Life was linked to something and I desperately hoped it was a link to Sean’s Dan In Real Life 2 fanfiction. You didn’t let me down, Jesse.
The best thing about Dan in Real Life is watching Dane Cook get cuckolded.
The best thing about a lot of things is watching people get cuckolded. I’ve…said too much.
How bullish of you.
As someone who never cared for Carrey’s shtick as a comedian, Eternal Sunshine is a classic and he is terrific in it.
I’m convinced we will never fully appreciate just how fucking good Robin Williams was. And I think you did a good job appreciating it here.The Genie and the killer in Insomnia were played by the same guy. Garp and Mork. Patch Adams and One Hour Photo.
Patch Adams is a terrible movie, but you can’t say that Robin Williams wasn’t giving it his all. You never got a sense that he was sleepwalking through a role, unlike Murray and Sandler.
Patch Adams could potentially have been saved by a director who went for something less saccharine. Today it would be a Hallmark or Lifetime movie.
Just look at 2002, where he was in One Hour Photo, Insomnia, and Death to Smoochy. I call it his Three Psychos trilogy.
Those were impressive. But he could also play a guy with the weight of the world on him too. Awakenings. Final Cut. Garp. The man had as much range as DDL. I fucking said it.Only because he said Shazbot a lot early in his career, no respect
I think you might be jumping the gun on the argument that Steve Carell has abandoned comedy. He’s the lead in Space Force, a show that, critical response notwithstanding, is a pretty broad The Office-style comedy.
What the hell is Space Force?!?!?! Fake.Seriously, though, I admit I did kinda-sorta forget that show existed, as I never saw it, and only ever saw “buzz” that it was shockingly bad. Now that you mention it, though, my limited sense of it was also that, like Irresistible, it was a comedy, but with Carell trying to play the material with a little more dignity/seriousness than Michael Scott. Basically, playing a smart/reasonable guy frustrated by his own and others’ limitations, rather than an actual Scott-style dumb guy. Is that not true? (I dearly do not want to watch it and find out.)
Eh, the bad reviews were overblown. I found Space Force pleasantly entertaining, though I can’t say I’ve found myself asking when the second season starts. Carell is basically playing General Michael Scott, though a little more competent. John Malkovich is a delight, though! I think some of the disappointment in that show was that we were all hoping they’d lean into the absurdity of creating a new military regime for a feckless orange malcontent, but they really pulled their punches in that regard.
Yeah, it was…fine. It feels like a relic of the Trump era, despite that being 10 months ago/possibly not over
It’s super weird the way it makes the Space Force an actual, effective, well-equipped, seemingly well-funded branch, with successful rocket launches, moon bases, helicopter pilots effortlessly transitioning to lead astronaut colonels (or whatever her rank ended up being)…I assumed it was going to be a literal office comedy, in that they would sit around in an office making letterheads and never get to do any actual space stuff because the US Space Force is a fucking joke. Or just send up sounding rockets so they can do the admittedly fairly funny “picking up all the rare lizards from the launch zone” gag which I also can’t believe wasn’t a running gag…
I agree that it was overblown but I will say in a weird way the fact it was so…meh made me angrier than if it had just been flat out bad. It just had so much potential, I am hoping that it improves 2nd season like The Office and Parks and Recreation did! Those had really rough first seasons and I ended up loving them.
Malkovich is indeed absolutely fabulous in it, and totally overshadows Carell, who doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing there (sidenote: a companion list, for Serious Actors who turned out to be really good at comedy…). The rest of the show is frustrating because, again, it’s not sure what it wants to be; I think that when it tried to be a quirky little character drama with comic touches (mostly Malkovich) it works quite well, but it also wants to be a broad, common-denominator American-style comedy, and it fails. The more it tries to be funny, the less funny it is…
No. Fake is you putting ‘editor’ in your in your resume.
Carell was great as Michael Scott, but I notice most of my memories of him as Michael are more dramatic ones, along with the occasional “It’s Britney, bitch” or the Chris Rock routine. He seemed to get more in the skin of melancholy and sorrow, and any time I’ve seen him since that has carried through. It was actually a little disconcerting seeing him try comedy the last time he hosted SNL, because, yes, the writing was poor, but he was by turns manic and panicked, and if I had never heard of him I would have assumed he’d never done a comedy in his life.
Have you never seen him on The Daily Show or The Dana Carvey Show or Anchorman?
I wasn’t that into most of the Stewart era Daily Show correspondents. He was alright in Anchorman and I did enjoy some of his partnerships on the Dana Carvey Show. I guess even there I don’t ever quite remember the comic tones just for themselves – his best character on the Dana Carvey Show was the guy who, with Carvey, kept going around running away from everything to try to show how cool they were. The last segment was them winning the lottery, and running away, then when they were in their car, the laughs slowly fading as they realized how stupid they had been.
That’s my favorite sketch. When they go to the drive thru and pay for their meals and then speed off before the food gets handed to them, Carell’s over the top reactions are the best part.
To be totally fair, this article seems to be focussing largely on their film roles rather than TV (perhaps because, to my knowledge at least, Carrell’s the only one who’s still had a fairly substantial presence on TV until recently).
Hot take: Steve Carell partially abandoned comedy upon beginning ‘The Office,’ which isn’t funny at ALL.
Check out season one of The Morning Show. Carell Morning Show blanks Carell Space Force and then some.
In defense of Spanglish Paz Vega is breathtaking in that movie.
Oh hell yes. And, to be fair, it was also prime Tea Leoni, who just leaps off the screen even though her character is, to put it mildly, frazzled.
That was a movie that could have actually benefited from some flashbacks to what Sandler saw in Leoni in the first place, because by the time we meet her she’s disturbingly unlikable. Cloris Leachman having a glass that held a full bottle of wine ready for the clock to click noon everyday was gold.
Cloris was the absolute best. What a great performance.
I do think they stuck the landing pretty well, mostly because of Leachman being the one to tell Leoni she was being a selfish twit who won’t recognize how good she actually has it.
Leachman’s performance in that movie is outstanding!!!! Flashback would have only takes screen time from Paz Vega.
Very true. How badly did you want to punch the drunk assholes trying to pick her up while she’s having dinner with her daughter?
very much.
I actually think Robin Williams might have been better at drama than he was a comedy. He was that good. One Hour Photo is the role to check out. He’s riveting. I liked Stranger Than Fiction a lot, but confess that I never fully bought Will Ferrel’s performance in it. He’s great at comedy though.
“World’s Greatest Dad” for me is all the proof I need to agree with you on Williams.
I disagree about Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction; for me, he absolutely nails it as a man who doesn’t fully get just how lonely he is. Every scene with him and Maggie Gyllenhaal is gold, and his going through his daily routine, after he’s read the end of the manuscript, consistently reduces me to a blubbering wreck.
He’s pretty good in Everything Must Go as well …
Same. Farrell stretched a lot in that film, and it showed another side of him.
I don’t think he has the deeper melancholic angle that leads guys like Williams and Carrey to pursue these sorts of roles, so it’s fun to see someone like Farrell, who appears to be a legitimate low-key goofball, go after different material.
Agreed on Williams (and to a lesser extent Carrey) being able to mine the pathos that informs a lot of great comedy. Ferrell just doesn’t seem as beaten up, while we know Williams struggled his whole life, so his serious roles feel more like Acting. Williams had a far broader dramatic range, with Good Will Hunting being a prime example. I feel like Carrey just kind of mopes. The exception would be Eternal Sunshine, but that played quite a bit off his comedic talents as well.
I will fight anyone who says that Stranger Than Fiction is anything less than a beautiful little movie about love and existential angst. I think Will Ferrell is tremendous in it, and I believe it may be the best performance of his career. And I, too, am reduced to onion-chopping-in-the-room when Harold Crick finishes reading the draft and meets Karen Eiffel on the street to tell her she needs to finish the story.The contemporary reviews of the film were not enthusiastic, and I particularly remember one review (was it here? I don’t recall) saying that the film is crippled by the ending. I don’t agree. I think that Ferrell hit it out of the park with Harold Crick. He plays it note-perfectly, and I believe that more than a few people might have written off Stranger Than Fiction precisely because it was so far off the reservation for him.Anyway, I don’t care what anyone else says about it – that movie is one of my all-time favorites, and now I have to go watch it again.
A review saying the ending ruins the film is asinine, given that was the actual idea in the movie itself.
I know. I read the review before I saw the movie, and after the movie was over I was like, “Good lord, how edgy does everything need to be?”
I couldn’t stand Will Ferrell, I alway saw him as a “saying it REALLY LOUD will make it funny!” one-note performer, to the point I refused to watch anything he was in. Stranger than Fiction really made me re-evaluate that. I’m still not a fan of the “LOUD EQUALS FUNNY” school of comedy, but he definitely has more to offer than just that.
The thing about Will Ferrell, to me anyway, is that he got the reputation for being the REALLY LOUD guy because when he got to SNL, nobody else on the cast had the balls to go to some of those comedic places. If you watch his audition tapes for SNL, you’ll see that most of it is well-realized bits (like his Harry Caray), but the “GET OFF THE SHED!” bit is also there as a Newhart-esque one-sided standup bit. That he subsequently did that as one of his first SNL sketches might be why a lot of people know or remember him as Loud Guy.As his career has progressed, he’s found that there’s a lot of money to be made by being the plain, boring, vanilla white guy who will suddenly go way beyond what people expect to see from someone like that. It’s not subtle comedy but it sells. As a performer, though, he’s capable of way more, and movies like Stranger Than Fiction really bear that out.
This is an insightful read of why Ferrell gets tagged a certain way—but I’d also say that his performances in movies like The Other Guys or Step Brothers are actually a lot richer and more interesting than his work in Stranger Than Fiction—which I know a lot of people love but I just couldn’t get past thinking of as watered-down Charlie Kaufman with a vastly more corny sense of humor. Ferrell isn’t the problem with it, though! I think the writing is low-key smarmy.
I will fight anyone who says that Stranger Than Fiction is anything less than a beautiful little movie about love and existential angst.But at least the fight will be wistful and a little whimsical, right?
It’s his best performance because he isn’t trying to convince me saying something loudly makes something funny. I am being mean but Stranger Than Fiction is the only Will Ferrell performance that is actually good in my opinion.
Elf, Step Brothers, etc. are practically unwatchable. I can imagine a ton of other actors who could have given better performances than him in those films.
Maggie Gyllenhaal in that movie is my favorite MPDG.
This^^^.I had no expectations the first time I watched that movie and i was stunned. No it isn’t a ”Sofie’s Choice” level drama but he played it a as straight as he needed and made it work. Him not taking the cookie and then realizing how badly he boned that exchange. Been there, done that.Which leads to, “I got you flours.”
I think Maggie Gyllnehall is exactly the reason I wasn’t more enthusiastic about Ferrell’s performance. I remember rooting for her character over his the whole time and feeling like I wasn’t supposed to be. He’s definitely good in it, but I feel like she outshined him by a bit. I still really liked the movie.
The thing that makes him so good at comedy, his childlike naivete, is what helps him absolutely nail Stranger Than Fiction. You feel his confusion and difficulty while he struggles to handle this thing beyond his power and then watch him “grow up” yet never lose that innocence. Stranger Than Fiction would not work as well with another actor in the role – it needed Farrell and all he brings to succeed.
Yes I love the hell out of that movie. Everyone’s great it.
I was shocked this article didn’t even mention One Hour Photo. It’s always made me a little sad that Mark Romanek, who also directed several of Nine Inch Nails’ cooler videos, hasn’t directed more features.And you’re right about Williams’s performance of course.
I actually think Robin Williams might have been better at drama than he was a comedy.You know, I think you’re right. At the very least, this is an interesting suggestion. I need to revisit his filmography to get beyond the memories of “Aladdin” and “Good Morning, Vietnam” (the latter of which straddled comedy and drama).
Live at the Met. There’s yer comedy.
Everything Must Go is even better than Stranger Than Fiction.
YES. I was surprised it wasn’t mentioned in the article (if it was, I missed it). I really enjoyed that movie and his performance. Rebecca Hall and Christopher Wallace Jr. also were great.
I think he indeed could be better at drama. Even when he did a caricature of his One Hour Photo performance (sort of) on that one episode of Law & Order.
As much as Carrey, Murray, and others on this list have given good or even great dramatic performances, a lot of it boils down to taking the manic energy out of their persona. What’s left is this vulnerable underbelly that plays great in certain roles. But I think only Robin and Eddie Murphy are natural actors regardless of genre. It’s a shame Eddie doesn’t take more challenging roles, because he’s just great and it’s such a wasted career.
People don’t talk enough about how shockingly good Eddie Murphy is as a mostly-serious romantic lead in Boomerang. That movie isn’t great, but he’s very good in it, and so is Halle Berry (though the idea that she’s the “plain-looking” one in the movie is absurd)
He was also for all intents and purposes an action star, which is very different from everyone else here. The BHC movies are light but they’re your typical 80s action movies, and he carried them and helped them be blockbusters.
My enduring memory of Early Murphy isn’t his tight leather pants in Raw, it’s his white hightops flashing in the sunlight as he (or at least his stunt double) swings on a chain in the open back of a truck at high speed while packs of illegal cigarettes fly out onto the road behind him…
Yeah, I was weirdly angry that One Hour Photo didn’t get a mention. Williams is so freakin’ unnerving in that movie.
It’s an outstanding performance, maybe not his biggest role but in my opinion probably his best. It’s the sort of creepiness that sticks with you for a bit after the movie is over, and makes you wonder whether there could be a creepy fucker like that somewhere on the periphery of your own life.
It’s by far the most against-type for Williams. He’s so still in that movie. They use the fact that we all know Robin Williams against us, we’re all aware of how hyper-verbal and kinetic he is, so just watching him feels like we’re watching a pressure cooker building to an explosion.
I agree.You made me think of something I saw last year – a breakdown by a therapist of the Bench Scene from Good Will Hunting. The deconstruction reveals just how deeply both actors and the director went to set the scene up; I came away realizing that Williams put far, far more work into his drama roles than people recognized at the time.The man could act. He also happened to be funny as hell, which was his entry into the business, but had he lived I suspect we’d have gotten a few more Oscar worthy turns from him.
For me, the best Robin Williams performance was Awakenings. It was subtle, restrained, and if you were familiar with Oliver Sacks, it feels so much like a real person you forget it’s the famous motormouth playing him. He shares scenes with De Niro and is easily his equal. Not sure how the article missed that film to be honest
I’m surprised “Awakenings” wasn’t mentioned at a Robin William serious role touchstone or I may have missed it. It one of the few were that only at the very beginning and end that I get reminded that it’s him.
I agree about Robin Williams. His dramatic acting was incredible. As good as his performance in GWH was, I think his Homicide Life on the Streets episode is at the same level.
That was such a great show. Don’t remember how I found it, but I recall sneaking up on school nights to watch it.
Weeks late, but to split hairs further, I think he was a better dramatic actor than he was a comedic actor, though also a better comedian than actor. Still, at or near the top of both fields when working in em.
I cannot think of one Will Ferrell movie or role that I thought was fun or funny in any way, I might be forgetting one but… Just my personal opinion. When Nicole Kidman can out comedically act you, wow….
If you don’t like Anchorman or Ron Burgundy then we just can’t be friends.
Or Step Brothers, which I initially avoided because it looked like it was going to be a crappy improv fest. Glad I corrected that because while I’m sure there was plenty of ad-libbing, the result was pure gold.
Step Brothers is great, but I find that John C Reilly has reached Warren Oates/Harry Dean Stanton status where even if the film sucks, it’s a little better with him in it. He’s the best.Also: can someone on the AV Club site remove bfred from the grays? The guy has been here forever and isn’t a troll/neo-nazi/Limp Bizkit fan…
Which is why I’m always amazed when I hear him referred to as primarily a man-child type, when he has proven over and over he can do about anything. I’d love to see him play a heavy again like his gangster / cop in Gangs of New York.
The man can SING. What a voice for a guy who has a face for comedy…
I would also go to bat for Blades of Glory. Which I watched because there was nothing better on at the cinema that week, that was way more funnier than I was expecting.Also it gave Jay Z and Kanye a decent sample to use.
I generally concur – I don’t love the standard Will Ferrell persona – but I will watch Elf a million times and still love it.
I think he’s really close to being great, but his delivery is often far too big for the material. I’ve been catching up on Succession, and I’m pretty sure Will Ferrell is responsible for all of Greg’s best lines. I can hear one of his characters panicking about his safe room being invaded by attack children, but it wouldn’t be nearly as funny.
Will is an E.P. in name only. It’s McKay and Ferrell’s production company. I highly doubt he’s feeding lines to the writers.
I’m still alive, I’m just very badly burned!
The LEGO Movie!He’s pretty good as Lord Business, but agreed with you on all of his other movie roles.
I skipped his movies in college because I never liked him on Saturday Night Live. When I got around to seeing Old School and Anchorman I was glad I hadn’t rushed. The bit in Anchorman where he mispronounces San Diego and says that it’s Spanish for a whale’s penis is funny, but the other 90.5 minutes were… fine.
* A whale’s Vagina.
what about Donald Mahanahan?
Mugatu was funny in Zoolander, but he’s not an ideal example because he was totally ruined in Zoolander 2.
Great article. Does this go back to Jerry Lewis wanting more serious roles after the break up of Martin and Lewis?
Some of my very favorite movies are in this article, interesting. I love Punch Drunk Love so much, and I’m so glad you included that scene, although it makes me miss PSH a whole lot. He and Sandler are so great in it. Such a strange, magical movie.
Punch Drunk Love is the cinematic form of getting a cavity filled without novocaine. I mean that as a compliment.
Farrell’s work in Stranger Than Fiction was truly excellent. He deserved some shiny trinkets for it.I’ll never forget when Carrey (rightfully) won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, Drama but didn’t even get nominated for an Oscar. And only Jim Carrery, when presenting at the Oscars, could lean into the situation by saying something like, “Of course, we all know that winning an Oscar isn’t everything. It’s an honor just to be… (*sniff*) nominated….”
Edit: Found the video
Geez that video just reminds me that Roberto Benigni was “a thing” for about ten minutes back in the 90’s.Weird times.
That’s a fantastic clip. I’d never seen that before. And agreed – Jim Carrey not winning for The Truman Show is an Oscar crime. Jim Carrey not even being *nominated* for The Truman Show? That’s closer to a war crime.
Eddie Murphy hasn’t been in more bombs than Adam Sandler, though.Yes, Murphy has the bigger bomb (‘Pluto Nash’) but he didn’t make a movie that lost money in the first 15 years of his career.Meanwhile, Sandler started failing at the box office almost immediately (‘Bulletproof’ was his 3rd starring role), and he’s consistently made money-losers since: ‘Little Nicky’, ‘Eight Crazy Nights’, ‘Punch Drunk Love’, ‘Spanglish’, ‘Funny People’, ‘That’s My Boy’, ‘Men, Women & Children’, and ‘The Cobbler’ all failed to recoup their budgets, and he’s now shielded from being demonstratively box office poison by Netflix not revealing their revenue.By my count, 13 of the 38 movies Sandler made (not including cameos) prior to the Netflix years were financial failures, vs 10 of the 39 movies Murphy made.A lot of both men’s worst movies were pretty big money-makers: ‘Jack and Jill’ and ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry’ both made back double their budget, and ‘Norbit’ made back its budget 2.5 times over.
10 out of 39 and 13 out of 38 are actually pretty similar, though, aren’t they? Especially when you take into account the riskier stuff Sandler has made that wasn’t really in his wheelhouse. Murphy has made far fewer of those. I think the more interesting stat is, how many times did they completely bomb out in something right in their strike zone, after they became a big star? For Sandler, it was pretty much just Little Nicky, That’s My Boy, and Blended. For Murphy, Beverly Hills Cop III, Holy Man, Imagine That, I Spy, Meet Dave, A Thousand Words. Murphy has a great advantage in that he became a movie star, essentially, immediately. Which is also very impressive and probably puts him ahead! But I think he’s had more “Eddie Murphy in a broad comedy!” movies fail to sell.
Given it’s both more in terms of raw numbers and more in terms of percentage (10% swing), I’d argue it’s significant, even more so since you didn’t couch your statement that Murphy made more bombs than Sandler with anything other than the word “more”.Add to it, the Netflix movies that aren’t included in that count for Sandler have pretty universally terrible critical reception, so while it’s not possible to gauge their money-making ability, it is worth pointing out that ‘The Do Over’ and ‘The Ridiculous Six’ have a COMBINED Rotten Tomatoes score of 9%.And I’d argue that Sandler’s record of making genuinely abysmally reviewed movies compared with Eddie Murphy is probably relevant as well. I can think of at least 5 Adam Sandler movies that are strong contenders for worst movie of a given year, and as much of a failure as ‘Pluto Nash’ was at the box office, it’s nowhere near as unwatchable as Sandler’s worst efforts.
it is worth pointing out that ‘The Do Over’ and ‘The Ridiculous Six’ have a COMBINED Rotten Tomatoes score of 9%.Kind of a misleading way to phrase it since The Ridiculous 6 has a 0% fresh score. The Do Over has a 9% score, more than double the score of The Adventures of Pluto Nash, sitting at 4%. While I personally use the critics’ scores to judge my potential enjoyment, I’d argue that audience scores are the better metric for a movies like the ones we’re talking about. Sandler wins by that metric. The Do Over and The Ridiculous 6 are at 42% and 34% respectively while The Adventures of Pluto Nash is at 19%.
Which then begs the question: if audiences like (or, at very least, tolerate) Adam Sandler movies more, why do his fail to make back their budget more often than Eddie Murphy? What’s the disconnect there? What might be the reason an audience of Adam Sandler’s fans are more likely to review his movies on Rotten Tomatoes than Eddie Murphy’s?Or, what might be the reason that Eddie Murphy’s well-received and money-making movies from the 1990s have since received a ton of negative “audience” reviews in years long after the movies came out?tl;dr – objectively, Sandler has made more financial bombs (though none as big as Pluto Nash), and subjectively, he also has more horribly reviewed movies (many of which he also wrote, a double dip of hackery), all of which explain why Adam Sandler is 2nd only to Sylvester Stallone for taking home Golden Raspberry awards.
if audiences like (or, at very least, tolerate) Adam Sandler movies more, why do his fail to make back their budget more often than Eddie Murphy? I don’t know. I’m not necessarily saying that audiences like Adam Sandler more than Eddie Murphy over the course of their careers. Though I would probably say that audiences like Adam Sandler more than Eddie Murphy in 2021. Neither has had a big hit in a long time, but I feel like Sandler is a more active presence in people’s lives than Murphy. That doesn’t hold true when you look at the entirety of their careers, but it’s true as I write this, in my opinion. As terrible as many of them may be, Sandler has been in a lot more movies over the last decade or so. Also, we don’t know whether Sandler’s most recent movies have made back their budget or not because it’s all nebulous streaming math. Or, what might be the reason that Eddie Murphy’s well-received and money-making movies from the 1990s have since received a ton of negative “audience” reviews in years long after the movies came out?I guess you’re implying it’s racism? I mean, maybe. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility. But Eddie Murphy has always been popular with white audiences and hasn’t been out there in the press making comments about critical race theory or defunding the police or anything that I know of, so it would be pretty weird if white nerds on RT were targeting his movies. Most of Murphy’s more recent movies have a pretty decent audience score. For example, A Thousand Words has a 48% audience score despite it’s 0% critics score. So if racists are mass downvoting his movies, they were either absurdly high to begin with or their bots aren’t doing a very good job.
I don’t think it’s racism so much as revisionism: by the time Rotten Tomatoes had an audience score, most of Eddie Murphy’s hits, and even financial successes that were so-so/negative with critics, were long since released, and he had been relegated to a punchline. I’d bet most everyone who has rated his movies from 1985-2005 did so without watching it recently, which I don’t think is the case for Sandler, since his middle-of-the-road frat guy comedies ran only moderately censored and nonstop on cable for the entirety of the 2000s and early 2010s.
I agree with you that young people likely don’t know how big of a star Eddie Murphy was in his heyday, which is part of what I meant by my previous comment. And that could color the way people view his new projects. But I doubt that people are going back and negatively rating his old movies without having watched them recently. Doesn’t seem like typical Rotten Tomatoes usage. I could be wrong though.
I think also this fellow is also unfairly dismissing Sandler’s Netflix movies, given that (a.) they are by all accounts very successful for the service (which granted involves some pretty vague metrics, but still, it’s not surprising that Sandler movies would be go-to comfort-watches there) (b.) they include some of his best recent work! The Week Of, Murder Mystery, and Sandy Wexler are some of his best and/or most interesting broad comedies in years, and the Netflix pact seems to have emboldened him to make more interesting stuff in between his big comedies. Murphy, meanwhile, was in self-described semi-retirement for much of the past decade. He’s still obviously widely beloved (and, like Sandler, he came back to host a killer SNL episode!), but after a while, opting out of the box office/streaming/whatever race can only hurt. Who’s gone longer without making a $100 million movie? Sandler’s last one was Grown Ups 2, in 2013. Murphy’s was Dreamgirls in 2006 (or if you want to round up/account for some inflation, Norbit in 2007). (Not counting either of their voicework, as they’ve both had more recent hits in animation—though Sandler’s, again, for more recent.)Murphy is by far more the more important cultural figure. He was arguably America’s biggest movie star for most of the ’80s! But he definitely has felt like he’s opting out the past decade or so.
Even though it’s impossible to gauge the “box office” for Sandler’s Netflix movies, Netflix seems happy to keep doing business with him, so apparently they think they’re getting their money’s worth in some fashion.
calm down Eddie
Sandler may have had a lot of box office bombs but I’m sure those movies made up for it in Red Box rentals.
Sandler went down that rabbit hole where it was like each character had to be more bizarrely offputting than the last. It’s astonishing some of those were actually filmed. Meanwhile Murphy decided fat suits were his gig. It’s no surprise the general public was like “what the fuck happened here??” with both of them (Murphy more than Sandler, granted, given where the two started).Sandler also never had a standup set that was in the same universe with Delirious and Raw.
I think Murphy had ambitions beyond broad comedies but, for the most part, did not abandoned humor in works where he tried to be taken more seriously. I think Boomerang, Life and Harlem Nights (and to some extent The Nutty Professor) were his attempts to step outside the limited categories Hollywood pigeonholed him (and other black performers) into. Murphy wanted to show he could thrive in many genres, just like classic Hollywood stars. Richard Pryor, Murphy’s idol, seemed more invested in taking on contemporary dramatic roles like Blue Collar, as well as in period pieces like Greased Lightning and Lady Sings the Blues.
Tie goes to Eddie Murphy because of Bowfinger.
Sad, because Spanglish, Punch Drunk Love, and hell, 8 Crazy Nights were better than Jack and Jill
I cancelled my subscription to “Comic Films Box Office Digest,” so I’m glad you told us this.
You know when something doesn’t sound right so you take the 5 minutes needed to fact-check it? Anything that says Adam Sandler isn’t a decades-long cinematic abortion makes me double-check things.
Probably in the minority but World’s Greatest Dad is maybe my favorite Robin Williams movie.
It’s up there for me as well, although I flat out love “The Survivors” with him and Walther Matthau.
It’s amazing. And I thought Goldthwait’s follow-up, God Bless America, was just as good. Joel Murray is amazing in that movie.
No mention of Sandler in Uncut Gems? It’s a masterpiece, and for my money a better performance than any of the other movies mentioned in the article that I’ve seen.
I thought I could not possibly feel more wrung out after watching a film, then decided to check out Good Time. Jesus.
I’m a little worried about the Safdies.
How about Tom Hanks? He was widely seen as a comedic actor before taking on Philadelphia and becoming a superstar.
Apparently the writer is too young to remember BACHELOR PARTY.
Did you know Michael Keaton used to do comedy as well?
This list needs more Tom Hanks.
Tom Hanks is a case where he started out in comedy but his dramatic career has pretty much completely eclipsed his earlier roles.
So maybe you could say he was a comedian that never looked back?
Ehh, he was always more in the romcom, family comedy world in his early career, rather than the more broad comedies Steve carrell appeared in
Tom Hanks best role is in Punchline.Fight me!
Except on talk shows, where he’s consistently hilarious.
But Hanks was not a stand-up or sketch comedian, which is the kind of hard comedy that defines you as a comic performer (rather than simply an actor doing a comedy), and makes it kind of a surprise when you show up in a drama and aren’t playing for broad laughs. I’m also guessing (because they were before my time) that Hanks wasn’t the slapstick/punchline guy in his early comedies, like a Joey Tribbiani, but rather he played more of a straight man, like a Paul Reiser in Mad About You.When a Paul Reiser goes on to do a dramatic role, or—more contemporarily—Kaley Cuoco goes on from Big Bang Theory to do The Flight Attendant, no one goes “wow, can you believe this comic performer is doing drama?”, they’re just an affable actor in a new role. I think it’s a much less rare or remarkable kind of career “transition” than somebody like an Eddie Murphy/Jim Carrey/Will Ferrell, who incite laughter on sight without saying a word, doing hard drama.
Paul Reiser was a stand-up comedian long before becoming a sitcom actor though.
I guess a bad example, he was the first person that came to mind as a flat (no slapstick, straight-man delivery of jokes) performer in a successful sitcom. I wasn’t aware of his standup career, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him tell a stand-up joke.
“This facility has a considerable dollar value…” was a pretty good joke, given the situation when he said it. Though I can’t remember if he was standing up, or was slammed against a bulkhead with Hicks’ shotgun up his nose…
I’m a huge Sandler fan, but I’ll be the first to admit he sometimes makes no effort at all, especially when he makes broad comedies that by his own admission are an excuse to take his family on vacation, or give work to his college buddies. But then there’s Uncut Gems, where he was excellent; and his monologue in Reign Over Me where he talks about his family is heartbreaking. The guy is a good actor, especially now that he’s older and more subdued. He just needs to stretch a whole lot more. I read that Tarantino wrote the part of Donnie Donowitz in Inglourious Basterds for him; that would have been great to see, and you can definitely picture a buff Sandler swinging a bat at a Nazi’s head and shouting at the top of his lungs. Eli Roth was okay, but his delivery was a bit off.I think Steve Carrell is a much better dramatic actor than a comedic one (he mostly shouts a lot when he’s trying to be funny), and I’m glad he’s sticking to that lane.Will Ferrell has tried drama, but he tends to fall back on stupid comedies that are progressively less funny; his funniest role is IMO his cameo in Wedding Crashers (“MA! THE MEATLOAF!”). I recently saw him in Downhill and Eurovision Song Contest, and both Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Rachel McAdams acted him off the screen.Eddie Murphy is legit one of the funniest guys to ever exist; he just makes it look effortless. I’ve never understood why he wasted so many years doing shitty family films. Dolemite was a return to form, hopefully he doesn’t screw up again.
“I read that Tarantino wrote the part of Donnie Donowitz in Inglourious Basterds for him; that would have been great to see, and you can definitely picture a buff Sandler swinging a bat at a Nazi’s head and shouting at the top of his lungs. Eli Roth was okay, but his delivery was a bit off.”
Yeah, Sandler passing on that role is a huge miss for him. He would have been perfect.
Definitely better than Roth, who obviously just isn’t an actor. His “Teddy Ballgame hits it out of the park!” bit was the worst part of the movie.
Speaking of Sandler’s better performances, I was surprised that Funny People wasn’t mentioned in the article. It isn’t a great film, but Sandler is tremendous in it, and it’s a really interesting bridge between comedy and drama for a lot of its cast. (It also convinced me that Seth Rogen could do drama if he so chose.)
Agreed. Sandler gives a really great performance in that movie. My issues with that movie are mainly with the script but I think Sandler and Rogen are both great in it. Eric Bana, too, though his part of the movie is completely unnecessary.
Between Dolemite and his (finally) return to SNL, I realized just how funny that guy can be. You’re absolutely right in that he just has IT. (And I am a Will Ferrell fan who finds him exceedingly funny, but Murphy…it’s just so natural from him)Man I loved that Dolemite movie. I still can’t believe he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar because he killed it. He brought a lot of humanity and pathos to what could have been a one note bio.
Murphy was 18 (!!) when he auditioned for SNL and immediately became the biggest draw for the show. You just don’t see that kind of natural talent.
It’s crazy. I mean, I remember thinking he was the funniest man alive as a kid, then kind of thinking he was a sort of has been but when he has great material and he’s on…his natural talent is just insane.
He filmed Delerious at 22. Most comedians don’t compile that kind of set over a lifetime.
I completely agree. He’s been omnipresent since I was in early adolescence. I for some reason didn’t watch much SNL though, and missed most of his movies, or somehow he just didn’t click with me comedically in the ones I saw. But when I saw him on his SNL return – holy cow – this guy’s FUNNY!!! lol.
If Uncut Gems was the only dramatic role Sandler played, it was good enough to give him credibility. There were some dark comedic moments, but there was nothing funny about that character. It’s gotta be hard to play someone unlikeable and pitiable at the same time.
The movie was a bit frenetic, but I think his self-destructive character was grounded in a lot of realism. Might seem over-the-top unless you’re from the Northeast and know guys like that – over-optimistic, always hustling, addicted to the stress. I don’t even know why coke was so popular in New York – seems redundant.
The comedian/funny man who grows a shaggy beard and takes a half serious role in a Wes Anderson movie is almost cliché at this point.
Why is there no Steve Martin on this list? As both a performer and a writer, he has taken some serious dramatic projects. He has basically 3 modes: (1) Thoughtfully stupid comedy; (2) Cash Projects to fund his art collection; and (3) serious dramatic work. Ignore the middle part (Cheaper by the Dozen, Pink Panther, etc) and he has an amazing career that launched with a quick succession of The Jerk, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, and The Man With Two Brains and has included some comedy masterpieces like Bowfinger. But then you have tragicomedy like Novocaine and dramatic roles like The Spanish Prisoner. He tends to mix comedy in his drama (Shopgirl, both the book and film) but he has some excellent work in both modes.
And with Only Murders In The Building, he gets to play witty wordplay, stupid pratfalls, and character work, in addition to giving Martin Short one of the best showcases for his talents. Definitely one of the most successful at straddling the lines.
Murders in the Building is sooooo good. I’m hoping that it’ll be remembered for tv awards season, not sure how American system works or when it’s eligible.
Also off topic – Swagger on Apple+ is brilliant and O’Shea Jackson Jr deserves the same award love IMO.
No reason to hit pause at The Man with Two Brains – his next five years included The Lonely Guy (an unfairly forgotten gem), Three Amigos, Little Shop of Horrors, Roxanne, Planes Trains & Automobiles and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (a personal favorite. Oklahoma!).
How the hell did no one mention ‘’All of Me’’?
I loved that movie. Just got lost in the shear number of excellent comedies he’s done.
Mea culpa. He and Tomlin are terrific together in that one.
My bad. That was a great performance and a truly funny movie.
Bowfinger is great but I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece. The Jerk and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels are both better comedies. Bowfinger is just bizarre.
Agreed, Steve Martin was the biggest comedian in the world for 5-10 years. He sold out stadiums. He had hit comedy songs playing on the radio. He was a de facto SNL cast member. How is he not on this list?
I really enjoyed Mad Dog & Glory way back in the day. Would love to have seen Murray play more heavies. He’s pretty menacing in that. Thinking about it, he’s always sat between the two modes for me, especially as I grew up without SNL. Where the Buffalo Roam, Ed Wood, Wild Things etc…
“But, doctor, I am Steve Carell…”
Even though it bombed at the box office, The Razor’s Edge is a worthwhile watch. Bill Murray wanted to make this movie but the studio wanted him to do a comedy first and then get the OK to make TRE.
Obviously missing out on the biggest comedic actor / dramatic turn of the 90s.
“Is that true?”
“Yes. Everything except the reading part.”
Idk that I’d call ‘Crazy Stupid Love’ a “sad-sack dramedy.” It’s very fun and funny, and I don’t think is any heavier than your typical rom-com. I love that movie, so maybe I’m missing something, but I’ve never thought of it that way.I’ve always enjoyed when comedians show off a new side in a more daring or dramatic role, but there’s also no shame in being very funny. It’s a strange thing in our culture that only “serious” acting is considered “good” acting, when most actors will tell you how hard comedy is.
Agree, it’s a rom-com. Frankly, Ryan Gosling dressing him up and getting him to try on personas is just a slightly subdued version of 40 year old virgin. They even have the same basic scene, with Carrel trying and failing to execute a plan with Elizabeth Banks and Marisa Tomei.
Seriously, ask any actor which is harder.
Crazy Stupid Love is the best romantic comedy of the last 10 years, IMO. Carell, Gosling, Stone and Moore are all tremendous in it. So are the kids, and so are Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei. And John Carroll Lynch! Seriously, people, it’s worth a watch. It’s much funnier than I ever thought it would be, and very cleverly written.
I was straight up surprised how much I enjoyed this movie the first time I stumbled on it. Bought the DVD, love it. Everyone in it is good and fun.
I really liked Carell in The Way Way Back. He played a very convincing asshole.
I just re-watched this on HBO the other night and I agree with you. He plays such a convincing asshole piece of shit in The Way Way Back. I forgot I was watching Steve Carell. That is the mark of a good actor.
He’s a real piece of shit in The Morning Show, too.
He was outstanding in the Big Short too.
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a Jim Carrey *fan*, but I do greatly prefer his dramatic work, which lets in just enough comedy to be sadsack vulnerable, as opposed to his earlier over-sugared toddler routine.
Carrey’s brand of slapstick comedy hasn’t aged that well, it’s kind of a time capsule of the comedic sensibility of the 90s that we “grew out of”, perhaps because its fans literally grew up, or because they grew exhausted with it and it lost its luster as something fresh and surprising, or because 9/11 made everyone less tolerant of silliness. But it was really fucking funny in its day. Maybe it’s a style of comedy that finds popularity in cycles, because even though it is definitely out of favour at the moment, silly slapstick has a long legacy of mainstream popularity dating back to the inception of film (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, The Three Stooges). We also had Pink Panther in the 60s, and The Naked Gun starting in the late 80s, leading up to Carrey’s heyday in the mid-90s. Carrey’s style maybe hues a little bit more “childish” than some of those slapstick predecessors, but not by a huge margin.Having re-watched it recently, I will say that Ace Ventura has aged pretty poorly, not least of all because it is nauseatingly homophobic/transphobic (featuring a montage of Carrey vomiting after realizing he kissed a trans woman). Conversely, Dumb & Dumber I think remains spectacularly funny, I don’t know how anyone could sit in front of that movie and not burst into hysterical laughter at least a dozen times. It has a beating heart of emotion that Ace Ventura very much lacks.
I couldn’t watch hockey for a decade without screaming, “Kick his ass, Seabass!”
I loathe Jim Carrey but the Truman Show is in my top 5 and I loved Eternal Sunshine.
A good corollary to this list would be a list of (male) comedians who have been labeled “surprisingly handsome” or “unlikely sex symbol.”
Think of it as the Jim Carrey Rule. When he was hitting it big in the early 90s, every magazine profile on him included the line, “Surprisingly handsome/dashing” because when he lets his face do normal stuff, he’s a good-looking guy.
Steve Carrell is another one. Probably Jason Sudekis can be added to this list.
Jason Sudekis has always been handsome. I certainly wouldn’t kick him out of bed.
The boy pulls, I can tell you that. And there is no shame in losing your lady to Harry Styles.
Agreed.
I was a little disappointed to see that Everything Must Go wasn’t listed among Will Ferrell’s dramatic turns.
One of life’s great mysteries is that The New Yorker film critic Richard Brody has expressed a great love of Eddie Murphy’s Norbit. This knowledge tests my sense of reality on a daily basis.
Norbit is…..fine. Personally I didn’t think it was as bad as folks generally think it is.
It’s definitely not the film to have out when you’re in the middle of awards season, trying to sway favour with people who are Academy voters.
I’ll admit that I laughed a few times, but it was in a sense a kind of bewilderment – It really seemed to be Eddie Murphy’s showcase of his casual hate or condescension of asians, dark skinned women, fat women, and women in general. Who watches Breakfast at Tiffany’s and comes to the conclusion that Mickey Rooney didn’t go far enough?
https://www.spin.com/2017/05/its-been-ten-years-since-brian-wilson-said-his-favorite-movie-was-norbit/
LOL, I was just reading that!I enjoy that there exists a movie at the center of the Joe Rogan – Brian Wilson – Richard Brody venn diagram.
I absolutely abhor Steve Carrell as a dramatic actor. His distracting prosthetic schnozz in Foxcatcher might be the most memorable aspect of any of his performances. He was especially off-putting in The Big Short, which stands to reason, being directed by Adam McKay, another comedy guy who does drama with the subtlety of a wrecking ball.
Whither Michael Keaton?
I remember seeing Pacific Heights in the theater. It was not at all what I expected and showed he had a lot of range outside of comedy.
My favorite example of this is probably Molly Shannon, who is so funny but has done some pretty dark dramatic stuff, for Bryan Fuller and in other projects (she played Emily Dickinson!)
Shannon was so, so good in White Lotus. I mean everyone was, but she was a total scene-stealer (which was appropriate for her character).
Molly Shannon is also amazing in The Other Two (on HBO Max, highly recommended). Her work in Season 2 especially is so damn good.
I suppose when I think about this roster of only men (ahem), my greatest affection is for Williams, who consistently demonstrated a depth of artistry and soul in every performance, even in the truly bad movies like Jakob the Liar.Murray sort of plays the same guy, and while very funny and sharp, I kind of get the sense that he’s not all that likable. What I respect most about Ferrell is no matter the role he takes, you always get the impression he’s having fun and is probably a delightful guy to be around. His commitment to the seriousness of comedy is also pretty remarkable. He’s often doing performance art in the most obscure way possible. I need him teaming up with John C Reilly more.
Murphy’s best role is probably Bowfinger, where he got to take a swing at his own reputation by playing both the mentally unbalanced actor and the nerdy brother of the mentally unbalanced actor.
While Tom Hanks isn’t exactly a comedian, so maybe that’s why he’s not here, he came to mainstream attention in comedies (Bosom Buddies, Bachelor Party), built a solid base with more comedies, and then transitioned into drama (he had some meh dramas/dramedies, like Nothing In Common, Punch Line, and one Seize The Day-esque film in Every Time We Say Goodbye, which was a huge bomb, mainly because no one wanted to take him seriously yet.
No Jerry Lewis? How’d he fare?!
Fun list to read through! I think for me Robin Williams should be in a class of his own – he’s the only one on this list whose career as a dramatic actor was as long and as acclaimed as his career as a comedic actor.I’d definitely disagree with Bill Murray being in that class. Murray’s Wes Anderson roles are less overtly comedic, and sometimes tragicomic, but I wouldn’t say those are purely dramatic roles at all – it’s more that Murray changed his comedic energy to one that was softer, a bit more deadpan and laid-back. Murray has very few purely dramatic roles outside of “Lost in Translation”. Off the top of my head there’s “Broken Flowers” and “Hyde Park on Hudson”. Whereas Williams’ career really ran the gamut.
Hyde Park on Hudson was really bad
i’ve never seen the attraction of “good will hunting.” i mean, it’s good, it’s enjoyable but i never understood all the hooplah.
Agreed – I find that movie to be painfully bad. Though in fairness the only part about it that I did like was Williams’ performance.
The chemistry between Damon and Driver is warm and unpretentious, though it feels more like best friends than movie soul mates, but I think that was ultimately kind of the point. I guess the premise of the whole movie is a bit cheesy, but I liked it.
With Murphy what about movies like Metro or even Best Defense?
I realize that a pair of comedy titans, Peter Sellers and Rowan Atkinson, don’t have a large body of work in drama. But they gave terrific performances when they did. Peter Sellers in Lolita was amazing to watch. And Rowan Atkinson as Maigret did a laudable, if not spellbinding job.
Is “Being There” a comedy, or has it come full circle to a tragedy?
The answer to both questions is yes.
Do you guys not know about Murray trying to make “The Razor’s Edge” too early in his career?? It didn’t go well, and it’s utterly suitable to your article.
Ultimately, cut out a mention of it because I haven’t actually seen it, didn’t have time to catch up, and was such a one-off in his career compared to how well he integrated that side of himself into his later movies. I also wanted to talk about how Mad Dog & Glory somehow casts Murray against type and STILL makes him a smarmy aspiring stand-up (to amazing effect, great movie!), but, you know, can’t include everything.
It was an utterly bewildering big deal at the time. Steve Martin in “Pennies from Heaven” was different because it was such a shock to see him dancing, and you knew he worked his ass off on it. Murray’s movie just seemed bizarre (for him to star in) and lazy.
But the reference is there?
Ha! You’re right! I thought I cut the parenthetical. Shows what I know!
It’s extremely significant in that Murray agreed to appear in Ghostbusters (arguably peak “smart ass comedic leading man Murray” which cemented his legend as such) on the condition that Columbia also greenlight “The Razor’s Edge.” So Murray’s instincts and passions were clearly pulling him in different directions even at the height of his comic powers/fame.
A couple of things about that movie1. It was one of the few films of the 80’s to depict a World War I battlefield2. Murray included a farewell speech to his recently deceased friend John Belushi in the script; this appears as Larry Darrell’s farewell speech to Piedmont, a fellow ambulance driver in World War I.3. Dan Aykroyd suggested that Murray could appear in Ghostbusters for Columbia Pictures in exchange for the studio’s approving to make The Razor’s Edge. Murray agreed and a deal was made with Columbia.
It’s actually a good movie, even if Murray is the weakest link in it. And you do know that he only did GHOSTBUSTERS so that the studio would let him make it?
It’s not embarrassing, but it’s pretty dumbfounding that he or anybody else thought his starring in it was a good idea. It made about twelve dollars.
I’ve always figured Jim Carrey to be a real actor trapped in Carrey-comedies because that’s where he made money for the studio, thankfully he made enough bank that he got the opportunity to do a few serious, more experimental things. Robin Williams was always good in the non-comedic stuff he did, I always thought it was amusing that he would often take uncredited roles to do this to satisfy the strange billing rules of the time; he did a pretty good job of bouncing back and forth between “ACTING!” jobs and studio comedy “sure-fire hits” (in big air quotes) like Paradise Island. Kind of like how Clint Eastwood would get to do whatever arthouse project he wanted as long as he did agun-toting police drama or something the studio wanted him to do to pay the bills.Adam Sandler tried, and as long as he was given the part of a sweet sad sack, he could kind of pull it off, but beyond that, not much range there.I never really saw Eddie Murphy as anyone else beside being Eddie Murphy “trying” to be an actor. On occasion he could show a flash or there, but I always got the sense that he was really afraid of trying to do something serious, because he was afraid of failing at it.Will Ferrell just feels like he’s not even going to try to do anything outside his wheelhouse.
The end of the Sandler/Carrey section seems to imply that Sandler has worked with Noah Baumbach. Am I crazy for not being able to figure out what that’s referencing even with Wikipedia’s help?
Sandler starred in The Meyerowitz Stories, which is on Netflix right now! Watch it! It’s super good!!! Also I love your handle.
What about Uncut Gems??
I second Jesse Hassenger on The Meyerowitz Stories recommendation. Sandler is excellent in it, and he and Ben Stiller make very convincing brothers. (Really, the whole cast knocks it out of the park.)
I think Groundhog Day deserves a bit of credit as a stepping stone into drama for Murray – he certainly pushed for the script to go deeper than it did, and it still gave him the opportunity to run a gamut of emotions and show a bit of growth out of line with most characters he played.
I would add Scrooged as well, which in some ways is a prototype for Groundhog Day. Both even have tragic scenes with homeless men.
Missed the boat on Carrey and Eternal Sunshine. Not only his best film, comedy or drama, but one of the best films of the last 20 years.
Albert Brooks?
These dramatic turns by comedians are usually fine, sometimes good or even great, but there’s an undercurrent of “I have to be doing serious and important work” that feels kind of desperate or even depressing. Like they’re ashamed to be “just” comedians. The whole lot of these guys need to watch Sullivan’s Travels or something.Steve Carrell is the worst of them.. He’s such a mope in everything now. I used to love him and now won’t go anywhere near anything he’s in.
By that way in case you didn’t know, Robin Williams was a good person: Recently Revealed Stipulation In All Of Robin Williams’ Contracts Just Means We Miss Him Even More. (dailykos.com)
I’ll add my voice to the chorus of “Williams was fantastic in ONE HOUR PHOTO.” He was also very good in THE NIGHT LISTENER, as a DJ who gets involved in the story of (if I remember correctly) a missing girl, that turns out to be something quite different. It also helps that the movie is shot like a supernatural thriller. Not sure if anyone’s mentioned THE NUMBER 23, in which Jim Carrey becomes obsessed with…the number 23. I acknowledge this film isn’t fantastic, but Carrey’s manic intensity is used to glorious, dark effect, and I honestly felt a bit unsettled after watching the film.
“A detour to the dramatic side seems to be an inevitable complication in the career of nearly anyone who’s ever starred in a hit comedy (give or take a Dane Cook)“This is Mr. Brooks erasure
Mr. Brooks was serious?!?!?!
I didn’t see any else laughing! Did you, Jesse?!
Dearth. Of. Women.
You missed one. Yikes…
I could see Bill Hader make the leap to drama. He’s already done it with The Skeleton Twins, and he has some crazy good dramatic scenes in Barry, like when he’s in the car with his old Marines buddy and realizes he has to kill him.
Bill is phenomenal in Skeleton Twins. He’s also phenomenal on Barry – there are some funny moments, but it’s moments like the one you mentioned, and his PTSD afterward, that really stay with me.
Where would you place Melissa McCarthy or Julia Louis-Dreyfus in these groups?
Jim Carrey has shown himself to be an amazing actor in all kinds of roles. From his earlier slapstick roles, to Eternal Sunshine and The Truman Show, continuing to the TV show he is doing now Kidding. He is better than Sandler in both comedic and serious roles.
I saw Jim Carrey in Doing Time on Maple Drive, and he was really good in a dramatic role.But his comedy was so shockingly beyond what anyone else was doing, and was so successful (for a good size of audience), that there must have been enormous financial pressure on him to solely keep doing comedy. The size of the paycheques that come from an Ace Ventura or The Mask movie would be orders of magnitude bigger than for a drama his fans probably wouldn’t turn out for.I think something similar has happened to Ryan Reynolds. He can do dramatic roles too, but Deadpool changed everything for him, and he’s unlikely to go back to serious movies until the offers for those big-money comedies stop coming in.
I really like Williams in World’s Greatest Dad(directed by Bobcat Gildthwaite iirc), and One Hour Photo. What Dreams May Come was also pretty decent.
These are Versus, right?
Jim Carrey vs Adam Sandler: I like Carrey’s movies more, but I think Sandler is the one giving the better performances. The suggestion of a swap is exactly how to measure this- I think Adam could pull off a Majestic, or an Eternal Sunshine. I don’t think Jim could pull off a Punch Drunk Love or an Uncut Gems. At all. Winner: SandlerRobin Williams vs Bill Murray: I wish I could say this is tough, because I love ‘em, both, but honestly it’s no contest. Robin Williams’ filmography is the GOLD STANDARD for comedians who what to turn dramatic. He even played President Eisenhower in The Butler and it wasn’t distracting. Winner by some degree: Williams.Eddie Murphy vs Will Ferrell: I think the Oscar loss for Dreamgirls discouraged Murphy from pursuing more dramatic roles, and that’s a shame. He’s a natural. Moreso than Ferrell, imo, who elicits giggles from me at the very sight of his face. He’s got to work harder for me to see past his persona. But he’s trying, and Eddie isn’t. Winner: FerrellAbout Steve Carell: He might be the only one where I haven’t really cared for his dramas at all. It’s absurd he got praise for whatever that was in Foxcatcher. Absurd. I give him two passes: Crazy Stupid Love which is a romcom to me, and Little Miss Sunshine, one of his darkest roles because he’s suicidal, is still basically a comedy.
Pauline Kael had a real bugbear about comedians who tried to become serious actors. She made her disdain toward Mary Tyler Moore and particularly Carol Burnett clear over these choices. Even in one of her last interviews, she was unhappy with Jim Carrey for moving into dramatic parts. I can understand how she felt, but I do think some comics are naturally tailored to drama, and in some cases, like Bill Hader, I may prefer their dramatic work to their comedy. That’s also the case for Robin Williams, even if his drama could border on maudlin – it felt much more human and compelling than how manufactured his comedy could seem. He also took some real chances in his choices, even early on – imagine being a new TV star of that period and choosing The World According to Garp.
You guys only managed to forget the biggest comedy-to-drama transition in history: Tom Hanks! He’s the quintessential example of this. From making a sandwich containing a chippendale dancer’s penis, he has gone to perform so many memorable dramatic roles it’s insane: Philadephia, Forest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Bonfire of the Vanities (that last one might have been a joke).
Apologies to others who have raised this earlier and who I didn’t respond to, but for whatever reason, Hanks doesn’t scan as a “comedian” the same way that the others do. I know he started on a television comedy, and made primarily comedies for the first bunch of years of his movie career. But to me that’s more like calling Ryan Reynolds a “comedy actor”—yeah, he mostly did (and continues to mostly do) comedies or comedically slanted stuff, but the vibe is still much more “movie actor” than “comedian” I think the distinction for me is that everyone on this (non-comprehensive) list started out in either sketch comedy, or stand-up. Yes, Williams went to Juilliard, but he really became well-known as a popular comedian, whereas Hanks was more of a modestly well-liked comic actor. It feels more like trying something else when you do silly SNL sketches or release comedy albums for a few years before taking serious roles, even though Williams probably “went serious” faster than Hanks did. (It’s also a tribute to Hanks’ standing in the movie world that he’s made so, so many classic non-comedies that it effectively rewrites his history, and now the comedy stuff is just where he started, not seemingly what he was there to do.)
Steve Carell was phenomenal as Donald Rumsfeld in Vice. This is a mountain I am willing to die on.
Maybe this is too long ago, but Steve Martin was the biggest comedian in the world (by a lot) for about 5-10 years in the 70’s and 80’s and was basically a cast member of SNL. On no scale is he NOT a comedy giant. Not sure why his various dramatic/dramedy roles don’t qualify him for this article. Your audience just too young?
Well, the fact that this piece includes seven people, rather than 200, might tip you off to the fact that it’s not meant to be comprehensive. As to why Steve Martin was not one of the seven chosen for this taxonomy: Mainly, because he hasn’t done *that* much drama. I’d categorize him alongside Bill Murray and Robin Williams, in that his broader comedies feel of a piece with his stand-up/sketch comedy material, and then his later work usually retains some kind of humor while introducing more grounded/serious elements (Parenthood, to name one of the most successful examples). But compared to Williams, who really cranked out a lot of Oscar-bait-style dramas (and some interesting experiments), or Murray, who has become such a fixture of a certain type of Wes Anderson or Sofia Coppola role even when not working at a furious pace, Martin hasn’t done *that* many movies that would be broadly classified as drama. The Spanish Prisoner and A Simple Twist of Fate… a small part in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk where I quite enjoyed him… but it’s something that feels like a smaller-scale version of Murray or Williams. Hell, the last time he was the lead in a movie was 2011. Williams has several more recent lead credits despite being dead for the majority of the past decade!
As the wonderful Erik Adams pointed out on Twitter, it feels in some ways like Martin’s outlet for those less comedy-centric instincts is less serious acting, and more his other interests: his novels, his plays, his art collecting. (Although his plays, at least, are also very funny, and his books tend to have funny moments, too, much like his dramedy-style movies.) But yeah, I mean, with infinite space, I’d love to do write-ups for everyone who’s tried it. Kristen Wiig is an interesting case; as is Martin (who I’ve loved since I was a kid); as is Melissa McCarthy (though I suspect the full story of her non-comedy acting is still developing).
This comment fills that gap for me, Thanks!! ALthough I’d add that his interest in making movies like ShopGirl, and his period of self reflection that manifested “Born Standing Up” kind of put his whole career in a bit of a holding pattern, unitl his recent collabs with Martin Short (the “A Night You Will Forget” tour and “Only Murders in the Building”), which seem to confirm he’s quite happy to be that dramedy hybrid as long as people pay to see it.
Always loved The Spanish Prisoner. Also, I’ve never considered his role in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles to be that comedic. Yes, there were sight gags like him freezing in the back of the pickup, but for the most part he played it pretty straight.
Bravo for replying in such a thorough and cromulent manner.
Woody Harrelson would be another interesting addition to this list. Gah – This could be a 200 name article!
it feels in some ways like Martin’s outlet for those less comedy-centric instincts is less serious acting, and more his other interests: his novels, his plays, his art collecting.You left out his banjo-playing:
Two movies in a 40 year career (the Spanish Prisoner and Shopgirl) where he plays questionable types isn’t really a reason to include him…Carrey has more titles in the drama category in the time between those two films and has 20 more years of starring or supporting roles in front of him. I’m with Jesse on this, he didn’t do enough drama to be considered at all.
Related, but not entirely fitting the metric: I always love it when an actor primarily known for comedy is cast in a small, against type, scene stealing supporting part. Not full blown career stream shifts, just super little bits of stunt-casting that are small enough to not wear out their welcome but still weaponize the comic persona to great effect. Oliver Stone is particularly great at this, with John Candy in JFK and Rodney Dangerfield in Natural Born Killers being two prime examples.
Not quite what you’re referring to but I loved Mike Myers’ turn in Inglorious Basterds.
Martin Short in Damages as well.
YES! That would be a great sequel list, as would what a lot of people are secretly asking for without realizing it: the sitcom actors who became serious movie stars (Hanks and Woody Harrelson both fit this moreso than “comedians who turned serious,” IMHO).
Mary Tyler Moore!
She’s a woman. Women aren’t funny. So, doesn’t count.Just ask the male comics.(I’m kidding. Her ORDINARY PEOPLE role killed her comic career, it was TOO GOOD. She’s like two careers and both are iconic, unlike some others mentioned in these comments).
Marlon Wayans, Requiem for a Dream
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Michael Palin, Brazil
Sarah Silverman, Star Trek Voyager, Future’s End I and II
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of The Chicago 7
Lily Tomlin in Nashville. So there.
Surprised to not see Everything Must Go mentioned for Ferrell. It’s based on a great Raymond Carver short story (not that there’s any other kind), and it works better stretched to feature length than I expected it to, owing at least in part to Ferrell’s performance.Also, “Bowfinger is an underrated masterpiece” is a hill I will die on.
Is it underrated? It’s a masterpiece!
> Carell has avoided comedy primarily by signing up for supporting roles
in the types of movies that Hollywood makes with vexing infrequency:
character-driven dramas
You’re aware that he’s starring in a sitcom that has a second season dropping soon, right?
13-episode Netflix sitcom seasons don’t really feel as dominant on an actor’s schedule as the old 22-episodes-aired-weekly-on-a-network model. He’s also on The Morning Show, which is pretty much a straight-up serious role!
Michael Keaton belongs in the conversation for sure. I mean, not only did he start out as a comedy guy on film, but people don’t seem to remember he was a stand up coming up. And now, well… he’s Michael fucking Keaton. One of the best living actors.
He doesn’t pop into mind because you’re right, very few people remember him as a stand-up—and while he started out doing comedies, he’s not as immediately identified with his comedy career as Williams or Ferrell or those other guys. Love him, though, and I especially loved hearing a bit about his stand-up days on Norm MacDonald’s Netflix show! I don’t remember the joke, but there was some famous joke Norm says another comic ripped off from Keaton! And Keaton was obviously trying to be cool about it but also didn’t contradict it, ha. So glad he’s doing more movies again.
He doesn’t pop into mind because you’re right, very few people remember him as a stand-up—and while he started out doing comedies, he’s not as immediately identified with his comedy career as Williams or Ferrell or those other guys. Love him, though, and I especially loved hearing a bit about his stand-up days on Norm MacDonald’s Netflix show! I don’t remember the joke, but there was some famous joke Norm says another comic ripped off from Keaton! And Keaton was obviously trying to be cool about it but also didn’t contradict it, ha. So glad he’s doing more movies again.
Tom Hanks?
I know I’m late to the discussion, and this is a niche answer nobody is interested in, but a few obvious suggestions came to mind from this side of the pond:- The legendary Billy Connolly, reputedly the funniest man in history, turned to drama later in his career, most famously for Mrs Brown, for which he was BAFTA-nominated- Hugh Laurie, famous for his sketch and sitcom comedy (Fry & Laurie, Jeeves & Wooster, Blackadder, etc) went to America for a semi-comedic turn in ‘House’, and has since done more serious roles like ‘The Night Manager’, for which he won a Golden Globe.
– Olivia Colman, best known for her collaborations with Mitchell & Webb (their sketch shows, plus Peep Show), has more recently turned to some very serious roles (and has an Oscar now).- Eddie Izzard has had a reasonably successful career in serious roles in the US- Judi Dench has had a continually-mutating career, starting in plays and musicals, but certainly for a generation she was best known for her sitcom career (As Time Goes By), before turning up in some serious roles more recently- Dylan Moran (of Black Books and his standup) had a serious role in ‘Calvary’- Simon Pegg was in Star Trek! And Mission Impossible!
[I think this sort of crossover – and the opposite, like Nigel Hawthorne suddenly becoming a comedic god in ‘Yes Minister’ – is more common over here, because our comedy is often more naturalistic, or at least smaller, so the skills are more transferrable…]
It’d be interesting to hear your take on Jim Carrey’s role in “Kidding”. So strange, and fantastic, I think. Certainly comedic and absurd, but sometimes so thoroughly serious, sober, and truly sad.