One of the biggest and the most important reasons which play an important role in a movie’s success is its cast, the makers are quite cautious while casting actors for different roles especially for the lead roles. However, there are times when the supporting actors have made such a big impact in the movie that people tend to remember them more than the lead character.
Here are some Hollywood movies in which supporting actors overshadowed the lead actors:
1. Johnny Depp – Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl):
After the huge success of “The Lord of the Rings”, Orlando Bloom was one of the rising stars of Hollywood and in the script of “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”, Orlando Bloom was given the lead role of a Blacksmith. However, Johnny Deep performed so beautifully that he completely stole the show. This movie got released in 2003 and was the first one in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, till date 5 movies have released in this series.
2. Harrison Ford – Mark Hamill (Star Wars):
In the American space opera “Star Wars”, Mark Hamill played the lead character of Luke and he did a great job but still it wasn’t enough to match the swag of Harrison Ford who played the character of Han.
3. Neil Patrick Harris – Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother):
The show was based on the love life of Ted Mosby, a character played by Josh Radnor and his group of friends but many feel that the show achieved huge success because of Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris). Neil Patrick Harris made a great impact on the audiences as he played the character of a playboy/womanizer in the show.
4. Anne Hathaway – Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables):
Anne Hathaway is certainly one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of Hollywood and she managed to make not only her presence felt but she even overshadowed the acting of other great actors such as Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe. We are talking about 2012 released movie “Les Miserables” which was based on novel of the same name, written by Victor Hugo. Anne Hathaway also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her acting performance in this movie.
5. Heath Ledger – Christian Bale (The Dark Knight):
The performance of Heath Ledger as Joker in the movie was one of the best acting performances that we have ever seen and he also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. “The Dark Knight”Z was a superhero movie in which Christian Bale played the character of Batman and Heath Ledger played the character of Joker, a psychopath murderer.
6. Will Smith – Martin Lawrence (Bad Boys):
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence played the character of two Narcotics Detectives in the movie but Will Smith was far more influential than Martin.
7. Zach Galifianakis – Bradley Cooper (The Hangover):
The movie was based on the story of four men who went to Las Vegas for a bachelor party but things took a wild turn. Bradley Cooper was the most famous actor in “The Hangover” but after the movie released, Zach Galifianakis was the one who got more attention and praises because of his superb acting.
We may have missed some names and we will try to cover them some other time.