11 Actors That Totally Stole Movies From Their Co-Stars

 11 Actors That Totally Stole Movies From Their Co-Stars

For the most part, everyone knows who a film's protagonist is; either they’re in the opening scene or the beginning ties heavily into their backstory, yadda yadda yadda. When you see a lead actor on screen, something clicks. Then again, sometimes supporting actors do more than sharing the stage. How do actors steal scenes? Well, by somehow transcending the more limited role for which they are intended and dramatically standing out from the crowd - even overwhelming the presumptive leads.

These actors - typically built around the lead - overshadow the hero to such an extent that it becomes their movie instead. Think Jack Sparrow sailing in on a sinking ship and completely stealing William Turner’s show in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl or Furiosa being the real road warrior in Mad Max: Fury Road. This list will take a look at supporting actors who stole the movie. Vote up the actors and supporting players who contributed much more than an assist.

 

Johnny Depp Stole ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ From Orlando Bloom

Photo: Buena Vista Pictures

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was intended to be an Orlando Bloom vehicle. Thanks to the Lord of the Rings franchise, Bloom was considered a rising star at the time - the kind of young heartthrob studios might want to build a franchise around. Depp, meanwhile, primarily had a niche audience.
From the moment Elizabeth Swann, Joshamee Gibbs, and James Norrington recover a young, shipwrecked William Turner (Bloom), he becomes a surrogate for the audience. The supposed blacksmith, unaware of his pirate origins, is introduced to pirating through Depp’s eccentric Jack Sparrow. As the life of "yo ho, yo ho" absorbs Will, Depp's Sparrow confuses and captivates us. The screenplay may give Will Turner the grand romance and the self-discovery arc, but it's Captain Jack's show. Following that first film, which yielded Depp an Oscar nomination for best actor, Pirates of the Caribbean officially became Sparrow’s franchise, with Bloom relegated to supporting duty.

 

Chloe Moretz And Nicolas Cage Stole ‘Kick-Ass’ From Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Photo: Lionsgate

Kick-Ass follows comic book enthusiast Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as he reinvents himself as a real-life superhero. With no actual superpowers or combat training, Dave befriends the father/daughter vigilante team of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz).
While Kick-Ass is Dave’s story and Cage unsurprisingly steals scenes as the former cop turned Batman-Esque crusader, it’s Big Daddy’s expertly trained 11-year-old daughter that takes center stage. Maybe there’s just something ridiculously entertaining about watching the young Moretz violently dismantle men twice her size, or maybe Hit Girl’s status as a child thrust into an unforgiving world (comic books/reality) makes her the definitive superhero in the Kick-Ass universe.

 

Zach Galifianakis Stole 'The Hangover' From Bradley Cooper

Photo: Warner Bros.

The Hangover sees four men drive to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. When the groomsmen wake up in the morning, they can’t remember the events of the night before, nor can they find the groom. One of those groomsmen, the bride’s brother Alan (Zach Galifianakis), is quite the character (to say the least). Going into The Hangover, the most recognizable actor was Bradley Cooper as Phil, the cool teacher Alan admires (to say the least). He's also the obvious alpha of this wolf pack - the only bona fide "leading man" in the bunch.
However, as Galifianakis straps a baby to his chest gets tasered in the face, and admits to giving the pack roofies to make their night more fun, Alan becomes the true star of The Hangover. The film not only made Galifianakis an international superstar but also set the character up as an inimitable force in the Hangover sequels.

 

Harrison Ford Stole ‘Star Wars’ From Mark Hamill

Photo: 20th Century Fox

George Lucas looked to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces when creating Star Wars. That book explores the archetypal “Hero’s Journey” seen in stories told for hundreds of years. With this in mind, Lucas built "a galaxy far, far away" around Luke Skywalker. Luke’s journey from farm boy to the hero of the rebel alliance is the story the original trilogy hinges upon.
Enter Harrison Ford’s, Han Solo. Whether he's blasting Greedo or spitting quotable dialogue, Ford’s smuggler epitomizes the swashbuckling/gunslinger aspect of Star Wars: A New Hope. Han Solo has gone on to become perhaps the most iconic character in Star Wars, warranting a solo film in 2016 (albeit without Ford). While Hamill did more than an adequate job as Luke, it’s damn near impossible to compete with Ford’s swagger. His role as Han was the catalyst for his decades-long leading-man stardom.

 

Peter Sellers Stole ‘The Pink Panther’ From David Niven

Photo: United Artists

Due to its many sequels/spinoffs/remakes, when people think of The Pink Panther franchise, they think of an animated panther or inspector Jacques Clouseau. However, the original film was led by David Niven’s European thief, Sir Charles Lytton. Lytton plans to swipe a diamond known as the “Pink Panther.” His nephew also plans to pocket the gem while framing his uncle for the offense. Hot on their tail is the bumbling French police inspector, played by Peter Sellers.
Although his character doesn’t appear until the film’s second half, once Sellers appears, his performance steals the show. He was so hilarious in his supporting role during filming that they changed the story to feature more of his character. Sellers took the idea of a flustered policeman and made it his own. Jacques Clouseau subsequently became the central character in the Pink Panther franchise.

 

Michael Fassbender Stole ‘Prometheus’ From Noomi Rapace And Her Crew

Photo: 20th Century Fox

Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, Prometheus, follows a group of explorers searching for humanity’s forerunners, AKA the “Engineers.” The expedition is funded by Weyland Corporation’s CEO, Peter Weyland. Weyland's surrogate son/personal android, David (Michael Fassbender), is sent to monitor the voyage. The film itself deals heavily with religious and existential themes, i.e., the created and creators. David provides a non-human perspective; unlike Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and the crew, David already knows his creator and, in turn, becomes obsessed with creating life himself.
Once Weyland perishes, David stops working with humanity. Instead, he actively opposes them. Fassbender characterizes David's motives beautifully - you don't hate him, you're fascinated by him. The Alien franchise is very much concerned with the idea that humanity will destroy itself, and David is an agent of that destruction. Not only has Fassbender received critical acclaim for his performance, but David is considered to be one of the best characters in the Alien franchise. That says a lot considering that Prometheus and its sequel, Alien: Covenant, aren’t all that beloved overall.
While David was clearly intended to be an important figure in the film, the ostensible lead is Rapace - a sort of next-generation Ellen Ripley, at least on paper. It's her emotional journey - and her exploratory one, for that matter. And yet the impact of David's arc (and Fassbender's performance) tilted the direction of the franchise so profoundly that Rapace was written out of the sequel altogether.

 

Christoph Waltz Stole 'Django Unchained' From Jamie Foxx

Photo: The Weinstein Company

Christoph Waltz earned himself his second Oscar - the other being for Inglourious Basterds (another Quentin Tarantino film) - for his role as German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained. On a mission to capture the Brittle brothers, Schultz encounters Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave whose beloved wife resides on the plantation of the vile Calvin Candie.
Moved by his plight, Schultz trains Django to be a bounty hunter and the two set off to retrieve Django’s, lost love. Foxx does a stellar job as the title character, but Waltz’s performance mesmerizes, a potent mixture of self-regarding intellect, good manners, moral fortitude, and brutality. In scenes featuring Waltz and Foxx, it's Waltz who does most of the talking - he almost can't help but dominate those scenes. As a standout in the film (spoiler alert), Schultz helps Django get his wife back and then takes out the main villain, saying, “Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” and getting gunned down himself. His final act prompts a climactic massacre that gives both the protagonist and the audience a well-earned catharsis.

Will Smith Stole 'Bad Boys' From Martin Lawrence 

Photo: Columbia Pictures

Bad Boys pits Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as equals. The pair play Miami detectives (and life-long friends) investigating seized heroin taken from a police vault. At the time, both Smith and Lawrence were coming off successful sitcoms, their comedic talents and popularity prompting a rise in star power. As history shows, Smith’s star power turned out to be monumental compared to that of Lawrence. His Mike Lowrey, as opposed to Lawrence's Marcus Burnett, steals Bad Boys; in much the same way that Lowrey is a ladies’ man and Burnett is a married man, Smith is central to the action.
Through their partnership is the key to all three films in the franchise, in 1995, it wasn't yet clear that Smith was going to be one of the biggest movie stars of his generation. After all, this was before Independence Day and Men in Black. At that point, he was the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Structurally, Lawrence's character is the protagonist of Bad Boys; once the dust settled, it was clear Smith was the bigger of the bad boys.

 

Jeff Goldblum Stole ‘Jurassic Park’ From Sam Neill

Photo: Universal Pictures

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park follows a team of genetic scientists who are invited to John Hammond’s wildlife park hosting once-extinct dinosaurs. As a paleontologist, Sam Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant is at the center of the proceedings, immediately skeptical yet mesmerized by Hammond’s accomplishment.
Obviously, the park’s security precautions all fail and those proceedings become very dangerous. And despite the importance of Grant's point of view as the film's ostensible protagonist, it’s the supporting player, Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm (specializing in chaos theory), who predicts things going awry from the jump. Before everything goes to hell in a handbasket, Malcolm repeatedly preaches about how “life finds a way.” The aforementioned quote has become the series’ most memorable, and Goldblum’s charismatic character is easily the franchise's most popular. In fact, the sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (which was written by Crichton after the first movie), sees Goldblum’s Malcolm front and center while Neill’s Grant is nowhere to be found.

 

Charlize Theron Stole ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ From Tom Hardy

Photo: Warner Bros.

Thirty years after the release of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, George Miller revitalized the franchise with Mad Mad: Fury Road. As a fourth installment/soft reboot, Fury Road replaced Mel Gibson in the title role with Tom Hardy. As a rising star in blockbusters like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, Hardy was poised to become a superstar as Max Rockatansky. All eyes were on him.
In this installment of Miller's epic series, Max becomes a captive of Immortan Joe’s Citadel before escaping with the one-armed Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and Joe’s five wives. While Hardy is great in the film, Theron shines as Furiosa, leading her group, and ultimately the Citadel, to a newfound sense of freedom. Max assists the Citadel’s liberator, not the other way around. Mad Max: Fury Road is so much of Furiosa’s film that it’s not surprising it inspired an upcoming Furiosa prequel.

 

Colin Farrell, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, And Ezra Miller Stole 'Fantastic Beasts' From Eddie Redmayne 

Photo: Warner Bros.

The Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’s title references a textbook studied at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the original films. Flashback to the year 1926, and that book’s author, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is documenting an array of magical creatures.
Like the Boy Who Lived, the ostensible hero of Fantastic Beasts is surrounded by a large cast of characters. Unlike the Boy Who Lived (sometimes), Newt is largely outshined by the film’s surprisingly stellar ensemble. Whether it be Katherine Waterston’s Tina Goldstein, Alison Sudol’s Queenie Goldstein, Ezra Miller’s Credence Barebone, Colin Farrell’s “Graves,” or Dan Fogler’s Jacob Kowalski (just trying to start a bakery), everyone steals the movie from Redmayne for one or more scenes at a time. This could be due to Newt’s mild-mannered/soft persona fading into the background, making him more of a charming centerpiece than a star.