Submitted by frightened_inmate_2_ t3_10dh89c in movies
The first name that comes to mind is Robert Pattinson. From what I've heard, Robert Pattinson was quite disliked during and after "The Twilight Saga" franchise. But when he did the movie "Good Time" with the Safdie Brothers, it was like Robert Pattinson was resurrected from the dead like Jesus Christ or something. And after that he just kept on giving one great movies after another with some jaw dropping performances (in my opinion). Few years later, Safdie Brothers did the same with Uncut Gems when he cast Adam Sandler for that lead role. I always thought of Adam Sandler as a kind of goofy, funny, idiot type guy who does comedy movie and that's that (no offense to comedy movies btw) and in Uncut Gems he had all those traits and also so very serious too. He was a completely different guy and still Adam Sandler. He was so perfectly cast for that film. I think more filmmaker so do experiments with random actors like Safdies and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Another name that I can think off the top of my head are John Goodman (The Big Lebowski and 10 Cloverfield Lane). These are so much different roles and John Goodman nails them both and I never thought of him that way before. And pretty much any Steve Buscemi role. Also Mark Wahlberg and John C Reily in Boogie Nights. I always think of them like blockbuster and comedy actors but they are on a different scale on that movie.
I know there are a lot of overlooked actors in surprising movies. I'm just wondering what actors did you find in the most unlikely of movies that just gave you a totally different perspective of them.