In order to tell a story, actors transform themselves into a different person. The hope is that they’re convincing enough to captivate an audience.
That job gets more difficult when your audience already has an idea of what the role should look and sound like. That is the case in almost all biographical films. Skilled actors may not have to look the part, but a terrible actor could be the spitting image of the person they’re portraying and still fall flat. How do you these these stars measured up in other people’s shoes?
1.) Angela Bassett as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It
2.) Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh in Hitchcock
3.) Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line
4.) Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line
5.) Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire
6.) Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There
7.) Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr. in The Rat Pack
8.) Joe Mantega as Dean Martin in The Rat Pack
9.) Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice in W
10.) Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí in Midnight in Paris
11.) Michael Douglas as Liberace in Behind the Candelabra
12.) Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn
13.) Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in Game Change
14.) Kirk Douglas as Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life
15.) James Franco as James Dean in James Dean
16.) Salma Hayek as Frida Khalo in Frida
17.) Brad Pitt as Jesse James in The Assassination of Jesse James
18.) Jennifer Lopez as Selena Quintanilla in Selena
19.) Al Pacino as Phil Spector in Phil Spector
20.) Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock
21.) Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy
22.) Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett in The Runaways
23.) James Franco as Allen Ginsberg in Howl
24.) Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde in Wilde
25.) Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon
26.) Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in The Doors
27.) Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland
28.) Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in Milk
29.) Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln
30.) Andre 3000 as Jimi Hendrix in All Is By My Side
31.) George C. Scott as General George Patton in Patton
32.) Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray
33.) Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate
34.) Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs in Jobs
35.) Josh Brolin as George W. Bush in W
36.) Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar
37.) Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel in Coco Before Chanel
38.) Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady
39.) Aaron Taylor-Johnson as John Lennon in Nowhere Boy
40.) Jonathan Rhys as Elvis in Elvis
41.) Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin
42.) Johnny Depp as Ed Wood in Ed Wood
Pretty close, right? With enough talent and perfect makeup, these actors were dead ringers for their historical counterparts.
