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Favorite examples of directors acting outside their own movies?
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I always think it’s super cute when directors put their director friends and idols into their movies
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François Truffaut in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Spielberg likes doing this, apparently.
David Lynch as [spoiler] in The Fabelmans too
As filmmakers they couldn't be more different but their careers started at pretty much the same time (JAWS 1975, Eraserhead 1977) so it's kind of wholesome to think about the camraderie and respect they have for each other
Was about to comment the same. Truffaut's performance and character are so great
I remember when I first saw that movie as a teenager thinking who’s this French guy he’s fantastic and then blew my mind that he was acclaimed filmmaker in his own right.
Spielberg had a nice little cameo in Austin Powers: Goldmember, too. Did an awesome frontflip.
And at the end of The Blues Brothers he took their money for the orphanage.
Martin Scorsese in Shark Tale of course 😊.
/uj Scorsese as Van Gogh in Kurosawa's Dreams
Werner Herzog, Star Wars and other films.
And Quiz Show.
But mostly Shark Tale.
I knew I would find this one down here
I love Takashi Miike in Hostel
I watched Sukiyaki Western Django last week, this is perfect opportunity to mention this hidden (only 13k views on letterboxd) gem (Tarantino as Piringo)
Good call! I forgot Tarantino is in that. Then of course you have Eli Roth in Inglorious Basterds to bring it full circle.
Speaking of full circle, I love that Lee Donowitz in True Romance is the son of Donny Donowitz in Inglorious Basterds
Sydney Pollack in Eyes Wide Shut or Michael Clayton
i LOVE pollack in eyes wide shut. i really gotta check out Michael clayton. i have the blu ray but i just haven't carved out the time to watch it
apparently he replaced Harvey Keitel in Eyes Wide Shut. I think Pollack's more unassuming appearance benefited the role.
Pollack was genuinely good character actor. Very memorable in the supporting parts he played.
Not from a movie, but I love his guest appearance in The Sopranos. He has such a great naturalistic acting style that's perfect for the character he played
Not a movie but he was good in the small role he had in the Sopranos
Also Todd Field in Eyes Wide Shut, although he became a director afterwards
Or Death Becomes Her
Perfect roles for him. He plays the perfect high up executive.
Keitel was supposed to play that role in EWS but lost his mind with Kubrick, so Pollack was a last minute fill in, and he was great
Cassavetes in Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen.
Mikey and Nicky
He acted to make money to make his own movies
It's brief, but Peter Jackson as Santa in Hot Fuzz
I never knew this, that's amazing.
Peter Jackson might be the king of director cameos, now that I think about it.
nah that’s still hitchcock
Nope. I love PJ, but his cameos are just a pale imitation of Hitchcock’s. No one will ever top Hitchcock in that regard (or any for that matter).
I was looking for this. It was my first thought.
David Lynch was the best thing about The Fabelmans.
Lynch is also in Lucky, with Harry Dean Stanton.
Remember him in an episode of Louie too. Guy sure did some side quests, so to speak.
And the Cleveland Show
Lynch is actually a really good actor
One scene heater.
Dude, freaking underrated movie
And you're right
Cronenberg in Jason X
Not a film, but Cronenberg has a reoccurring character in at least three seasons of Star Trek Discovery ( no doubt because it shoots in Toronto).
Cronenberg in Nightbreed!!!!
Cronenberg in Last Night.
John Huston in Chinatown
Warner Herzog in Jack Reacher
Also Herzog in Star Wars for some reason
Also Herzog in Penguins of Madagascar for some reason
Herzog in Mister Lonely showing he has comedic chops.
Huston also made a cameo along side his father in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Apologies it just dawned on me the question was outside their own movies
Huston in Chinatown and Pollack in Eyes Wide Shut are two of my favorite performances ever, and the characters are honestly eerily similar
Herzog is pretty much an actor and a director at this point.
Ooooh John Huston is a genius one
Also, Huston as Gandalf the Grey in the Rankin-Bass Hobbit, and reprising the role (though as Gandalf the White) in the Rankin-Bass Return of the King.
Warner Herzog in anything tbh
Fritz Lang in Contempt (1963)
Takeshi Kitano in Battle Royale (2000)
And Takeshi Kitano in Takeshis Castle!
Werner Herzog in Parks and Recreation
David Lynch in The Fabelmans
Can I include Kenneth Branagh in Tenet? He's a mix of actor/director but I think it's one of his best ever performances as Sator.
Werner Herzog in Mandalorian
Show me the baby
“I decided to move to Orlando to be closer to Disney World”
Fucking sends me every time 🤣
Kevin Smith in Daredevil
Clive Barker in Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers
David Cronenberg in Clive Baker's Nightbreed
Orson Welles in The Third Man.
This is the answer right here
Spike Jonze as a german director in Babylon, he was hilarious!
His cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street was funny as well
Yessss how could i forget? its interesting though, because Babylon is kinda similar to The Wolf Of Wall Street, its even more interesting considering Margot Robbie starred in both films...
maybe similar in ambition... not quite in execution...
I think they're similar in terms of themes like excess and profanity
In Moneyball too.
Is he playing a character based on Erich von Stroheim?
There’s another great performance by a director
Von Stroheim is the best answer for sure, especially since they show a clip from a movie he directed starring Gloria Swanson, saying it's a Norma Desmond performance directed by Max.
In the same movie, they also have Cecil B. DeMille... and Buster Keaton!
i have no idea
Spike Jonze is pretty memorable in the Jackass movies too, even if that one might stretch the definition of "acting."
And in Moneyball! Honestly if you look at just the films he has appeared in as an actor, they’re all 4+ stars. Elite choices.
Three Kings!
and a soldier in Three Kings!
Sydney Pollack and Todd Field in Eyes Wide Shut
Also has a short appearance in American Werewolf in London.
Frank Oz also had cameo appearances in Knives Out and The Blues Brothers
Not sure this counts as he was well and truly established as a puppet performer before he was a director.
John Waters in Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Road Chip is really jarring but that’s more a cameo so not sure if it counts
John Waters also has a cameo in Excision.
Roger Corman checking a pay phone’s coin return for loose change in The Howling.
Quentin Tarantino in From dusk til dawn
Living his feet fantasies lmao
yep, his character was...memorable
Tarantino blowing himself up in Django tho
Doesn’t count. I’m sure they mean directors in other people’s work.