6 Actors Whose Favorite Roles Aren't What You'd Guess

During an actor roundtable in 2011, Davis pointed out that black women in movies are "are always overly sanctified. Overly nurturing, overly sympathetic. And to find that place where you're messy is very difficult." Instead of her "dignified" portrayal of a strong black woman in The Help, she wanted to talk about the role as "Terry." Which strong, black woman was Terry? The kind strong enough to beat an entire family to death with a baseball bat.

NBCUniversal Television DistributionWe assume you need to be strong for that. We've haven't really committed enough bat murder to get an idea of its physical demands.

In a 2002 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (the third most successful series in the franchise), Davis plays villain of the week Terry Randolph, a corrupt, drug-dealing retired cop who murders a city comptroller's family after he threatens to take away her pension. Davis' episode, "Badge," is so bad and forgettable that the writers later asked her to come back for a recurring role in Special Victims Unit, safe in the knowledge no one would remember Terry.

But Davis remembers her fondly, admitting "I appreciated killing a whole family with a baseball bat" -- something black actresses don't get to do very often. We're left to conclude that years later, when she randomly killed a room full of her underlings as Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad, that wasn't in the script. That was merely Davis living her dream.

Reeves jumped at the chance to play ecclesiastic ICE enforcer John Constantine. Sadly, critics panned the movie, particularly Reeves' deadpan, with one calling him a "wooden icon" (and not in the good Jesus way).

Warner Bros. Pictures"In this scene, you're getting beaten up by magic gravity powers, so try to emote accordingly."
"Got it. Blank-faced indifference it is."

Yet Reeves considers Constantine the best character he's ever played. He just loved the guy's anger and relentless drive. In fact, Reeves is still such a fan that he wouldn't mind dusting off the old rosary for a sequel.

... lying on asphalt after being yelled at by Davis ...

New Line Cinema

... or lying in the snow after being getting blown up:

New Line CinemaHis opinion of the movie might have been different if he'd had to do his own stunts.

So why Mitch? Unlike his lightsaber-wielding, snakes-off-plane-kicking heroes, Mitch is an average guy who still manages to "suck it up" and sticks with his partner, despite being way out of his league. Jackson also happily recalls that while his character died in the original cut, audiences loved Mitch so much that director Shane Black decided to let him live. And for a guy whose characters die so often that his supercuts rival those of Sean Bean, Mitch being allowed to live must mean he's something special.

From Dracula to Richard Nixon, Langella has tackled a lot of complicated monsters, but one of his favorite antagonists -- nay, characters in general -- was He-Man's nemesis Skeletor. What made the fleshless scourge of Eternia such a big get for the esteemed actor? Pure love. As he explains, "I played him because my son was four years old and walked around with a sword yelling, 'I [have] the power!' And he loved, loved, loved Skeletor. I didn't even blink [when I was offered the role]. I couldn't wait to play him."

But aside from getting himself nominated for the Raddest Dad Oscar, Langella cherishes his time on Masters Of The Universe because he was free to ham it up. Delivering his lines with Nic-Cage-worthy gusto was clearly as much fun for him as was for the kids in the theaters to cheer at -- when they weren't shaking their heads in confusion at the otherwise bizarre and unwieldy adaptation.

His big break came while cracking wise at a movie party, when filmmaker Ivan Reitman approached him to tell him he was surprised he never saw his comedy chops on screen. To which the secret comedy nerd replied, "Well, what's holding you back? Write something for me!" (we'll assume while holding Reitman in some sort of headlock). The result was Twins, the wildly unexpected comedy in which Schwarzenegger plays an Ubermensch brother to Danny DeVito's genetic runoff.

Naturally, producers weren't too keen on the heavily accented Austrian mountain doing a dialog-heavy movie, but Schwarzenegger was so gung-ho for it that he even waved his usual massive fee because he believed he could make it a hit. And he did. The movie was a massive success, and cemented Schwarzenegger as someone who could do more than have well-oiled pecs. "It was something people hadn't seen from me before: the shy Arnold, the softer-spoken Arnold, the humorous Arnold," he recalls fondly.

It also allowed him to finally do the sort of action comedies he had loved since being a kid. To this day, his two favorite roles are the very low-body-count Twins and, amazingly, Kindergarten Cop. And to prove that he can still flex his comedy muscles just as well as all the other ones, he's currently working on a sequel to Twins called Triplets, with Eddie Murphy cast as the third brother. So between that and the Constantine sequel, please try to control your hype.

Follow Ryan Menezes on Twitter for bits cut from this article and other stuff no one should see. E. Reid Ross has a book called BIZARRE WORLD that's due to be released in September. He's practically on his knees begging that you pre order it now from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and leave a scathing/glowing review.

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