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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

  • r/Letterboxd - Favorite examples of directors acting outside their own movies?
  • r/Letterboxd - Favorite examples of directors acting outside their own movies?
  • r/Letterboxd - Favorite examples of directors acting outside their own movies?
  • r/Letterboxd - Favorite examples of directors acting outside their own 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

u/Ccaves0127 avatar

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

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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.

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u/uncultured_swine2099 avatar

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.

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u/PoThePandaIsVeryEpic avatar

Martin Scorsese in Shark Tale of course 😊.

u/frightenedbabiespoo avatar

/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

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I love Takashi Miike in Hostel

u/-FriON avatar

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

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Sydney Pollack in Eyes Wide Shut or Michael Clayton

Edited

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.

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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

u/EmpPaulpatine avatar

Not a movie but he was good in the small role he had in the Sopranos

u/ryanreigns avatar

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.

u/crunchwrapesq avatar

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

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Cassavetes in Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen.

Mikey and Nicky

u/crunchwrapesq avatar

He acted to make money to make his own movies

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u/thesandisyellow avatar

It's brief, but Peter Jackson as Santa in Hot Fuzz

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u/SambG98 avatar

I never knew this, that's amazing.

Peter Jackson might be the king of director cameos, now that I think about it.

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u/_SpanishInquisition avatar

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).

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u/Lanark26 avatar

I was looking for this. It was my first thought.

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u/impossible_apostle avatar

David Lynch was the best thing about The Fabelmans.

Lynch is also in Lucky, with Harry Dean Stanton.

u/hellkingbat avatar

Remember him in an episode of Louie too. Guy sure did some side quests, so to speak.

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u/thesandisyellow avatar

And the Cleveland Show

u/DM_me_UR_B00BZ_plz avatar

Lynch is actually a really good actor

u/RandomCalamity avatar

One scene heater.

u/JW_Stillwater avatar

Dude, freaking underrated movie

And you're right

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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!!!!

u/dgapa avatar

Cronenberg in Last Night.

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John Huston in Chinatown

Warner Herzog in Jack Reacher

Also Herzog in Star Wars for some reason

u/klatopathian01 avatar

Also Herzog in Penguins of Madagascar for some reason

u/absolutepon avatar

Herzog in Mister Lonely showing he has comedic chops.

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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

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u/smiertspionam15 avatar

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

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Fritz Lang in Contempt (1963)

Takeshi Kitano in Battle Royale (2000)

And Takeshi Kitano in Takeshis Castle!

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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

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u/akahermione avatar

“I decided to move to Orlando to be closer to Disney World”

Fucking sends me every time 🤣

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Kevin Smith in Daredevil

Clive Barker in Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers

David Cronenberg in Clive Baker's Nightbreed

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Orson Welles in The Third Man.

This is the answer right here

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u/Reckoner-INRANBWS avatar

Spike Jonze as a german director in Babylon, he was hilarious!

u/maddennate1 avatar

His cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street was funny as well

u/Reckoner-INRANBWS avatar

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...

u/CorduroyIntheLotion avatar

maybe similar in ambition... not quite in execution...

u/Reckoner-INRANBWS avatar

I think they're similar in terms of themes like excess and profanity

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In Moneyball too.

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u/loserys avatar

Is he playing a character based on Erich von Stroheim?

There’s another great performance by a director

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u/SpideyFan914 avatar

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!

u/Reckoner-INRANBWS avatar

i have no idea

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Spike Jonze is pretty memorable in the Jackass movies too, even if that one might stretch the definition of "acting."

u/zarathustranu avatar

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!

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and a soldier in Three Kings!

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u/mt1074 avatar

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.

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u/HerbalCoast avatar

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

u/robophile-ta avatar

John Waters also has a cameo in Excision.

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Roger Corman checking a pay phone’s coin return for loose change in The Howling.

u/DM_me_UR_B00BZ_plz avatar

Quentin Tarantino in From dusk til dawn

u/Confusionopolis avatar

Living his feet fantasies lmao

u/robophile-ta avatar

yep, his character was...memorable

Tarantino blowing himself up in Django tho

u/RiversideAviator avatar

Doesn’t count. I’m sure they mean directors in other people’s work.