6 Counterintuitive Fav Roles Of Famous Actors

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Johnny Depp's "Proudest Achievement" Was A Cameo In A British Sketch Show

You can call Johnny Depp many things (drug addict, wife beater, box office poison), but "obscure" isn't one of them. He's been doing iconic turns from the time he was a teenage heartthrob to the time he was a middle-aged man still trying to be a teenage heartthrob. But out of all his roles, nothing comes close to the honor he felt being cast as "some American guy" in a tiny British comedy.

The Fast Show was a niche sketch show co-created and starring Paul Whitehouse, which ran from 1994 to 1997 for 40 episodes -- making it the longest-running British show by about 32 episodes. But its biggest claim to fame has to be that it's #1 fan was none other than Depp, something even the Wikipedia page dedicates an entire section to. So when the show reached out to Depp to do a walk-on role in its final episode, he jumped at the chance. He appears in the last sketch of the series as an "American" who gets asked a bunch of inappropriately sexual questions by Whitehouse's saucy tailor. Depp still recalls this as "absolutely one of my proudest achievements."

Depp's love for The Fast Show seems to be undying. In 2003, he managed to sneak one of the show's catchphrases into Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl (which then evolved into the cannibal plot in Dead Man's Chest). Meanwhile, the only reason he missed the show's reunion special in 2014 was that he was too busy making his "vanity project" Mortdecai, in which he plays a slapstick British character that critics have compared to the Fast Show's "very very drunk man."

And to show his gratitude for all the laughs, Depp has put Whitehouse, whom he considers "the greatest actor of all time," into several of his British-flavored movies, like Mortdecai, Finding Neverland, and Alice In Wonderland. So there is a way for sketch comedians to get movie work. All you have to do is make People's Sexiest Man Alive giggle a bit.

Related: 21 Famous Characters That Actors Wish They'd Never Played

5

Viola Davis Enjoyed Playing A Very Undignified Murderer In Law & Order

Hollywood has a long history of racial insensitivity. But despite the recent Melaissance, the industry is learning (sort of), and men and women of color have a lot more robust, heroic, and dignified roles for the taking. But if you ask Viola Davis, that's nothing compared to playing reprehensible human garbage.

4

Keanu Reeves Loved John Constantine For His Strong Emotions

Keanu Reeves had been raring to play a comic book hero since he started acting, but aside from a cattle call to play Superman, the laidback actor never got a serious chance. Then came 2005's Constantine, a free-ballin' adaptation of DC's Hellblazer, about a guy who sends rogue demons back where they came from in the hopes of un-punching his own one-way ticket to Hell.

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).

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.

Related: 7 Famous Actors In Hit Movies (That Were A Personal Hell)

3

Badass Samuel L. Jackson's Favorite Role Was Being A Loser Detective

Asking Samuel L. Jackson about his favorite role is like asking a toddler about their favorite animal. He's starred in over 100 movies (and that's in 2018 alone), with no signs of slowing down. He has been a Jedi, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and motherlovin' Shaft. But despite playing a dozen of the coolest characters to ever saunter onto our screens, he will always have time to reminisce about when he got to play a big ol' nobody.

When asked to name his favorite characters by human BuzzFeed quiz Jimmy Fallon, Jackson picked Mitch Hennessy from 1996's forgettable B-movie The Long Kiss Goodnight. So what makes Mitch more awesome than Nick Fury or any of his Tarantino badasses? Nothing whatsoever. A loser P.I. hired by Geena Davis' amnesiac assassin, Mitch plays an in-over-his-head doormat who mostly winds up beaten and bloody while his partner does all the butt-kicking. And It couldn't have been a fun shoot for Jackson either, since he seems to spend most of his time having to contemplate his life while lying naked in a basement ...

2

Frank Langella Loved Hamming It Up As Skeletor

If you ask Dolph Lundgren, action star of such direct-to-video classics as Icarus and Kindergarten Cop 2, being in the 1987 live-action adaptation of Masters Of The Universe was the low point of his career. But if you ask Frank Langella, award-winning thespian of both stage and screen, being in that critical and financial bomb was an absolute privilege.

1

Arnold Schwarzenegger Prefers Doing Goofball Comedies To Action Films

Toward the end of the '80s, when action stars ruled the world like beefy gods, there wasn't any bigger name than Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose characters spewed more bullets than lines of dialog. But secretly, Arnie had always dreamt of doing more witty comedy, like his Bond heroes Sean Connery and Roger Moore.

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.