A Salute to the Sad Clown
9 notoriously funny folks who’ve successfully taken on serious roles
The line between silliness and sadness may be subtle, but a good comedian knows precisely where it lies — and they can prove it.
Case in point? These 9 actors, known primarily for comedies, whose sometimes surprising dramatic turns revealed them to be capable of much more than a laugh a minute. (Though we’ll always take those, too.)
Mary Tyler Moore: ‘Ordinary People’
Mary Tyler Moore may have famously turned the world on with her smile as the iconic, influential Mary Richards and sartorially fought sexism with capri pants on The Dick Van Dyke Show, but it was her dramatic role in Robert Redford’s directorial debut, Ordinary People, which broke the actress away from her sitcom roots and in turn earned her an Academy Award nomination (and Golden Globe win) for Best Actress.
“At first, my desire to cast Mary was purely instinctive,” Redford told Rolling Stone at the time of the film’s initial 1980 release. “She was the first person who came to mind, visually, when I read the book in galleys … As to the question of whether Mary could act the part, that was up in the air. I just banked on it.” And we all know now that his gamble paid off in spades.
“I really had no idea she was as talented as she is,” Redford told the magazine of her out-of-character performance as an oft unsympathetic mother. “There’s a bravery in Mary that’s extraordinary.”
For Mary herself, however, the appeal of the now landmark role was all about realistic family dynamics. “I think, like all actors, I was open to taking on new challenges, including those outside my comfort zone,” she told Entertainment Weekly in an oral history of the project. “But this was not why I took the role. The appeal was the powerful story with its vivid characterizations ― including a family dynamic I could relate to.”
Robin Williams: ‘Good Will Hunting’
Robins Williams first introduced himself to the world as Mork, that wacky 1970s alien sent from the planet Ork, and endeared himself to us time and time again with his over-the-top comedic performances in films as varied as Good Morning Vietnam, Mrs. Doubtfire, Aladdin, and The Birdcage. But throughout the course of his almost 40-year career that was, still, cut tragically short, he also gifted us with a plethora of work showcasing his dramatic chops.
‘Robin Williams, dramatic actor’ made his debut with an oft-quoted turn as the inspiring teacher of your dreams in Dead Poet’s Society and followed it up with numerous immersive performances, including a completely creepy stint in pre-Batman-franchise Christopher Nolan’s psychological thriller, Insomnia and a total physical transformation for One Hour Photo. His deluded homeless man playing off Jeff Bridge’s shock jock turned vigilante in The Fisher King and his equally heartwarming and heartbreaking turn alongside Robert DeNiro in Penny Marshall’s Awakenings deserve a shout out as well, but despite all these impressive entries of his in the serious actor canon, it is his understated performance as the tough-love therapist that finally “breaks” Matt Damon’s character in Good Will Hunting that just might top them all.
I’d even argue (ahem, I have even argued) that his nuanced depiction of the therapist/father figure we’ve all dreamed of having is a major part of why the film that introduced us to Damon and the brothers Affleck still resonates today.
Bill Murray: ‘The Razor’s Edge’
Bill Murray is no stranger to playing it straight these days, thanks in large part to a late-career renaissance as the oft-melancholic muse of directors like Wes Anderson, Sophia Coppola, and Jim Jarmusch. But once upon a time, the idea of the SNL alum getting serious was shocking, indeed.
Enter, The Razor’s Edge, a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel of the same name that sadly became the biggest flop of Murray’s career, despite being his passion project: the actor wrote a screenplay for the novel with director John Byrum and convinced Columbia to greenlight the project in exchange for his agreeing to do a little movie called Ghostbusters. When it tanked, however, he was so distraught that he took a four-year break from acting, moving to Paris to instead read philosophy at the Sorbonne in a self-imposed hiatus he would later deem “the best thing I ever did.”
Almost 20 years later, he would again tap into that wry detachment for the aforementioned Coppola’s Lost in Translation, as Bob Harris, the aging movie star at war with ennui in Tokyo who finds surprising connection with a fellow disillusioned American, a young, rather lonely wife played by Scarlett Johansson. But the blueprint for his now notorious world-weariness can be found in Razor’s Edge’s American pilot, Larry Darrell, who also finds himself abroad and in search of meaning. Only this time, the setting is post-World War I Europe.
Jim Carrey: ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’
We first met Jim Carrey as “the white guy” on the Wayans brothers sketch-comedy show In Living Color — that little gem of the ’90s that also introduced us to “Fly Girl” Jennifer Lopez — and he quickly went on to dominate the decade’s comedy box office with starring roles in Ace Ventura, Dumb And Dumber, and The Mask.
These now comedy classics that made him famous feature the incredibly physical, utterly over-the-top, stylized performances with which Carrey is still most readily associated — and that is precisely why his understated appearance in Michel Gondry’s philosophical Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is so emotionally impactful. He had already tried his hand at drama as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon, and as the eponymous character in that terrific take on reality television from the days before reality television dominated every screen, The Truman Show, but even there, his wide, ear-to-ear comedian’s grin and exaggerated mannerisms made multiple, character-appropriate appearances.
Only playing opposite the unquestionably talented Kate Winslet, to a script penned by auteur screenwriter Charlie Kaufmann, does Carrey manage to completely tone down the sweeping physicality that so defined his comedic performances in favor of the quiet movements and subtle facial expressions of the everyman… making us undeniably glad that Nicolas Cage turned down the role.
Will Ferrell: ‘Everything Must Go’
Will Ferrell is practically a one-man laugh factory, between multiple movies like Old School, Zoolander (one and two), Anchorman (again, one and two), Blades of Glory, Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, legendary presidential impressions, and the veritable online empire that is Funny or Die.
But as an alcoholic salesman whose life is turned inside-out when he is fired from his job and left by his wife on the same day in Everything Must Go, he gives a quietly powerful performance that proves his more serious efforts are themselves to be taken just as seriously as his comedic ones.
“I found myself thinking during Everything Must Go that Will Ferrell is a gifted dramatic actor,” Roger Ebert wrote after viewing the 2011 movie, which is based on the Raymond Carver short story “Why Don’t You Dance?” Playing opposite Rebecca Hall and Laura Dern, Ferrell’s subtle performance smartly steers clear of quirk in favor of a pitch-perfect depiction of a suburban man spiraling out of control. And sure, there are a few laughs, but they’re of a slightly sardonic nature.
Adam Sandler: ‘Punch Drunk Love’
Adam Sandler sang to us on Saturday Night Live and made his particular brand of comedy stylings essentially a genre of their own thanks to films like Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, and Grown Ups, among many others. But that doesn’t mean he can’t tone the comedy down and turn the drama up, if needed.
As in Punch Drunk Love, where Sandler ditches his bro-centric comedy persona to play it [mostly] straight for Paul Thomas Anderson, and still manages to embody his character, Barry Egan, a spectacularly odd, rage-prone novelty bathroom supply salesman whose burgeoning love affair is threatened by a random call to a phone-sex operator gone horribly wrong, with the same subtle sweetness that infuses his most famous comedic roles.
“I wanted to work with Sandler so much because, if I’ve ever been kinda sad or down or whatever, I just wanna pop in an Adam Sandler movie,” Anderson told Roger Ebert after the movies Toronto Film Festival premier. Punch Drunk Love, he said, is “like an art-house Adam Sandler movie.” And there are many, many worse things than that.
Patton Oswalt: ‘Big Fan’
Funnyman Patton Oswalt was best known for stand-up and a long supporting stint on King of Queens when he turned his sitcom persona upside-down in Big Fan, a surprisingly thought-provoking sports movie about the darker side of celebrity worship.
“This was the first time that someone trusted me to be the lead in a movie, and a dramatic one at that. ‘You mean you have this great script, and you want me to play this part — and you think I will not fuck things up? Really?!?’” he told Rolling Stone of landing the role. “I’d been on movie sets before, but this was the first time I really got to see how a scrappy, independent movie got made … It opened my eyes not only to what I might be able to do as an actor, but about modern movies in general.”
Kristin Wiig and Bill Hader: ‘The Skeleton Twins’
Technically, The Skeleton Twins features not one, not two, but three comedians trying their hands at drama: Kristin Wiig and Bill Hader star as the titular twins of the movie’s title, while Modern Family’s Ty Burrell appears as the still-not-quite-above-board ex of Hader’s character, Milo. But it’s Wiig and Hader whose alternately toned-down and over-the-top transformations into a suicidal set of siblings will manage to make you empathize with characters that are at times rather unlikable.
Yes, there’s rampant depression, self-destructive behavior aplenty, and extramarital affairs for all, but there’s also an absolutely uproarious lip-syncing duet of Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” Because even in the most maudlin of movies, a good laugh is often quite called for.
Click to watch Punch Drunk Love & Everything Must Go right now on Tribeca Shortlist!
You can also check out a more comedy films now streaming — ones you won’t find on Netflix or Hulu.
