There are sure function that make you rethink an histrion , whether it ’s because they bend out a carrying out you had no idea they were capable of or because they wreak against case , turning their accepted image on its mind . Certain actors have made career out of doing this   nearly every time they make a movie , whereas others rest on their honour or get typecast . Stepping out of their comfort zone –   whether physically , stylistically , or deciding to strain a new genre –   can be one of the best thing an role player does . However , not everyone regain victory in the cognitive process .

Not every player is successful in their attempts to break out of the box ; some people are better left wager to their strong point as opposed to examine to determine new ones . But others are able to make fresh heights , adding change to their calling and enthrall audiences with their unexpected abilities .

Here are12 Times Actors step Out of Their Comfort Zones !

Collage of Willow and Clash of the Titans

12. Keanu Reeves – Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

The early ' 90s found Keanu Reeves trying to break away hisBill and Ted(1989 and 1991 respectively ) success with more artistic and often more serious films , to mixed results ( rememberLittle Buddha ? ) . One standout failure wasMuch Ado About Nothing , which imply Reeves trying his hand at Shakespearian funniness alongside such veterans of the genre as Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh ( who also directed ) .

Reeves actually had a footling bit of false - Shakespearian succeeder in 1991’sMy Own Private Idaho , which was instigate by a few Shakespeare plays , but it was a pastiche of genres and the part relied on Reeves ' particular brand of dull - eyed good looks . Much Ado About Nothingwas another story entirely . In addition to the difficultness of the handwriting , it was also a point piece , and Reeves was cast as the scoundrel , his petulant Don John the evil brother of Denzel Washington ’s good - natured prince . It ’s a funny film , but reef ' could n’t accomplish villainous menaceoractual bodily fluid .

It managed to be a good picture despite his execution , and garnered good reviews for every aspect except Reeves . He was even nominated for a Golden Raspberry for his work in the film , that highest of bad acting honor . Keanu Reeves perfectly has his own form of appeal , but he should by all odds stick to what he knows : less let the cat out of the bag , more activeness .

Tom Cruise hanging off a plane in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

11. Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There (2007)

It ’s no secret that Cate Blanchett is an actress who transmute herself for roles , though prior to 2007’sI’m Not There , all of her portion had been clearly glamorous : the Queen of England , a Russian dancer , an American inheritress , a mystical Elf . " Glamour " is n’t needfully the word one would use to describe her turn as Jude Quinn , though it ’s not a character without dash .

I ’m Not Thereis the work of visionary director Todd Haynes ( who worked with Blanchett again in late vital hitCarol ) ; it ’s a unknown , nonlinear , and occasionally metaphoric film that focuses on several fractured scene of melodious icon Bob Dylan , all portrayed by different actors . Blanchett takes on Dylan at his most iconic : the scruffy - haired , skinny , sunglass - wearing Dylan of the mid-60s who was at the height of his celebrity , famously captured in the 1967 documentaryDon’t Look Back . It ’s a film of o.k. performances , but Blanchett puts them all to disgrace . It is n’t just that she ’s playing a valet de chambre , or that the part was the opposite of what she had been doing so far : she was able to capture Dylan pitch - dead while at the same time not turning her interpretation into a prostrate out impression .

It was the role that really proved Blanchett to be a Chamaeleon capable of nearly anything . Who knew all it would take was trading in a glittering gown for a brace of skinny black gasp and colored glasses ?

Shanola Hampton as Gabi in Found season 2, talking to a witness

10. Emma Watson – The Bling Ring (2013)

Most famous for playing fan favorite Hermione Granger in theHarry Potterfilms , Emma Watson could not have buy the farm further in the diametrical charge than in her function as Nicki Moore inThe Bling Ring . Based on a substantial crime spree – a bunch of teenagers jubilantly steal from fame nursing home without detection for calendar month – and localise in vapid , sunshine - y Los Angeles , it was a moving picture nothing like the British boarding schooltime illusion Watson was known for .

Her theatrical role was also based on a substantial person : Alexis Neiers , star of reality television and one - clip   cellmate of the substantial Bling Ring dupe Lindsay Lohan . With so much footage available of Watson ’s existent life counterpart , it would be all too easy to directly compare the actress to the girl she was playing . She did n’t seem an obvious alternative for the part either , considering she was n’t American and her persona as a scented , smart schoolgirl was more than grain in audience ’s mind .

However , Watson proved capable to pull it off . near acting was n’t exactly a necessity for the satire of the film to body of work , but she still acquitted herself well , totally scrubbing Hermione from the minds of anyone watching . sure scenes in the film are almost straight lifted from Neier ’s reality television set showPretty Wildand the impression is uncanny , down to the valley   girl accent mark . Hermione who ?

Emma Watson sticking out her tongue in The Bling Ring

9. Meg Ryan – In the Cut (2003)

Meg Ryan ’s functioning in Jane Campion’sIn the Cutis an example of hazard - taking not quite working out for the actor in question . Ryan made a life history out of being America ’s Sweetheart , lighting up every rom - com she step foot in with her innocent magic spell and flippy blond hair style . Her role in this film was essentially the pivotal inverse of every valued leading lady part she ’d ever meet .

Ryan play Frannie Avery , a instructor who gets see up in an affair with a detective ( Mark Ruffalo ) who is inquire a series of murders that seem to be happening suspiciously close to Frannie . The matter is by twist dangerous and uncertain , with Frannie surmise her detective is the orca but ineffective to resist him anyway .

All mousey brown fuzz and moony moodiness , Ryan is certainlydifferentin the movie , though whether that was a ripe matter is up for argument . It was a strange , sexually explicit thriller that never really delivered on the thrills , so the intact system of weights of its underperformance ca n’t be placed on Ryan ’s shoulder . finally , the film became better screw for the novelty of seeing Meg Ryan acting out of type as opposed to the tone of the film or execution .

Monster

8. Charlize Theron – Monster (2003)

Though she has since become known for star performances and dare roles , Monsterwas the first role to really showcase the breadth of Charlize Theron ’s gift . In the film , she plays material living serial killer Aileen Wuornos , a complicated cleaning lady plagued by numerous demons who was all at odds with Theron ’s pretty lady friend paradigm up until that point .

Theron was physically transformed by make-up and prosthetics to wait like Wuornos , but the transmutation was not just superficial . Wuornos was a fair sex who had suffered a peachy deal of ill-usage in her life and struggled with mental illness , a fact exacerbated by the severe life she led as a lady of pleasure –   which she needed to do to subsist , despite the fact that it only heap more woe on the heap . Theron was capable to capture that intimate difference and Wuornos ' hungriness for endurance at all costs , even managing to make the char sympathetic despite the horrible acts she commit . It was a career - construct execution for Theron , even winning her an Academy Award , and could be credit with transfer the course of her intact career .

7. Marlon Brando – The Men (1950)

The Menwas Marlon Brando ’s first on - filmdom role , but his reputation was cemented long before he ever step understructure in front of a photographic camera . He was known on stage at the metre for his volatile twist as Stanley Kowalski inA Streetcar Named Desire(a role he would ultimately twin on film ) and for distract theatergoers so much inTruckline Caféthat audiences thought he was tolerate actual on - stage ictus . He would go on to play similarly vibrant , scene - steal characters throughout his career , but his performance inThe Menstands out for a different reason .

The moving-picture show itself is mediocre and didactic . It concerns the rehabilitation of WWII soldiers in an army infirmary , with the majority of the plaster cast being made up by real paraplegic soldier . Brando plays one such soldier who resists physical therapy and spends a great deal of the movie miserable until he is at long last convinced to take natural process . It ’s a vastly different role from anything Brando had done before and most of the work he did since , very self - contained as opposed to his usual highly charged passion . Brando draws the optic as much as he ever did with a performance charismatic in its stillness and secrecy .

It was also a very strong-arm performance , which became Brando ’s trademark , though his physicality is again research in a unlike way . There ’s none of the violence , the prowling , the taking over the outer space ; instead Brando exhibits pure control over his body by limiting himself . Restraint is what makes this celluloid a singular experience in the Brando oeuvre .

6. Michael Keaton – Clean and Sober (1988)

BeforeClean and Sober , Michael Keaton was stringently a comedic histrion – his popular twist inBeetlejuiceeven amount out the same twelvemonth . Night ShiftandMr . Momhad been bounteous hit for Keaton , career - get to picture that cemented him as a gifted comedic actor . Beetlejuicewould end up bringing it to another grade . But in the midst of that succeeder , Keaton take another path , pick out to play the part of an addict struggling to sobriety .

Keaton ’s character is a cocaine - hook real acres salesman whose issues spiral out of control in staggering ways . He embezzles G of dollars , and one morning he wakes   to determine a char has overdose next to him overnight . He finally settle to seek handling and it ’s in the rehabilitation centre that he is finally capable to come out rebuilding his life from the topsy-turvyness .

It ’s an doubtless sour movie about a hard subject , and it showcased an totally fresh side of Keaton . Just watching his last spoken language in the movie – a three moment stab where the tv camera never get out his side once – one can see his character ’s integral journey in his saying . It was a outstanding operation that signaled not bad thing to come .

5. Frank Sinatra – The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)

The Man with the Golden Armis also the story of an addict , and one of the first major Hollywood productions to narrate such a dark story in an honest manner ; it was noReefer Madness(1936 ) . Sinatra , already a famous crooner and actor in musicals , had been on a career downswing until the previous year’sFrom Here to Eternity , which netted him a Supporting Actor Oscar , butThe Man with the Golden Armwould be the movie to try out the real deepness of his acting talent .

Though it was a serious film wherein his character faced serious upshot , Sinatra ’s character reference inFrom Here to Eternitystill leaned on his silver screen paradigm as a adept Italian boy quick with the quips . He was also third lead , so the film did n’t rest entirely on him . The Man with the Golden Armwas a unlike story and its power to follow or run out was totally dependant upon Sinatra being capable to enchant the depth and darkness of heroin addiction .

The film certainly depict Sinatra as he had never been seen before . Guys and Dollswas released the same year , and the contrast between the two is startling : one a full scale , full color musical in which Sinatra is doing his full as witching , non - menacing street tough , and the other a serious disastrous and blanched moving-picture show featuring Sinatra as a mussy and despairing . Anyone who doubted his act talent need look no further .

4. Daniel Day-Lewis – Nine (2009)

In a career marked by longsighted absences between incredible carrying out , Daniel Day - Lewis had a return to form with 2007 ’s intenseThere Will Be Bloodand even won an Oscar for his purpose . Why he chose to keep up up that functioning with a Rob Marshall musical is really anyone ’s guess .

A melodic certainly seemed an funny pick for such a serious doer , especially considering he had never done anything particularly musical before , not even dabbling in bands as worker often do . Perhaps it was the subject matter that pull out Day - Lewis to the part : Nineis a melodious adaption of Federico Fellini’s8½,and focuses on an Italian director interacting with all the many women in his living .

The celluloid ended up being a boxwood office bomb . Day - Lewis is n’t exactlybadin it ( it ’s probably impossible for him to be really regretful in a film ) , but it ’s manifestly not the ripe part for him . The movie itself is n’t much good , coming off both confused and rather empty . It would probably be best to bury this first appearance on his filmography ; most people have .

3. George Clooney – From Dusk till Dawn (1996)

Most of George Clooney ’s early winner was on television and he had succeeded for playing a very specific character of casually handsome , charmingly charismatic men . It would be an archetype he would return to time and clip again throughout his career ( probably best delineate byOcean ’s Eleven ’s Danny Ocean ) but for his first starring picture show office he did something entirely different .

A modest success and cult classic that has since engender several sequels and a television serial publication , From Dusk till Dawnstars Clooney and Quentin Tarantino as brothers Seth and Richie Gecko . The two are on a crime spree that eventually land them in a lamia ’s den with all the subsequent legal action and violence one can expect from a Robert Rodriguez flick .

Clooney , as Seth Gecko , is unlike most of the characters he ’d played before or since . " Threatening " is n’t really a Christian Bible usually associated with Clooney , but he pulls off antihero regretful boy surprisingly well , bringing his customary cool to the office but twist it into something darker .