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The 2025 film awards season is in full swing. As in most years, some good performances will get loads of buzz, while others will be overlooked. People will argue about who deserved which award and who had no business even being nominated.
Online, people are getting into a conversation about films, too, but from a different angle. Recently, one netizen wanted to know which actors people think are way too underrated. So, they asked: “Who is such a gifted actor who was absolutely wasted in their acting role?”
And folks had a lot of names to share—from well-known actors who didn’t quite fit one role or another to thespians who might’ve disappeared into obscurity after one convincing but unpopular role. See people’s opinions below, and don’t forget to share the talented actors you’d like to see in more roles!
Bored Panda also got in touch with the netizen who posted this thread, u/sheerduckinghubris. We chatted about why some actors get pigeonholed into certain roles and discussed the actors who managed to get out of this curse. The Redditor also shared which recent performance by an actor surprised him with its range. Read our conversation below!
Henry caval was so wasted in the Witcher series. Man was born to play that role but the stupid writers who thought they knew better wasted him.
I wish Henry Cavill had been allowed to play Superman in any other live-action continuity that wasn’t the DCEU.
The fact that Alyson Hannigan never did drama after Buffy is truly wild. I think it was her choice, as she much preferred working on sitcoms, but she was a devastatingly incredible serious actor. NO ONE can cry like Alyson Hannigan can cry.
It can be hard to be an actor. A lot can depend on the way you look, or how your voice sounds. Your past work also often defines you: some people can’t imagine an actor outside of the one role they’ve seen them in once. That’s how they get typecast – that’s the bane of any ambitious actor’s career.
The author of this thread, u/sheerduckinghubris, believes that no actor wants that. “I think in most cases, actors choose roles they’re passionate [about], only for the project to change in one way or another to a point that it no longer resembles what was initially marketed to them.”
“Or, in the case of actors like John Boyega, who was amazing in the Star Wars sequels and had such a good character arc, only to end up sidelined by poor writing and direction in The Rise of Skywalker,” the Redditor told Bored Panda. “It’s just an unfortunate reality that we will eventually see talented actors pushed to the wayside in favour of more recognisable stars.”
John Leguizamo as Tybalt in Romeo + Juliet (1996). He outshone every other actor in any scene he was in. And compared to the utterly wooden performances of DiCaprio and Danes, it was a stark contrast.
Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor are actually two very good actors who tried their very best during the Star Wards prequel trilogy but were given scripts so bad that it felt like it was written by a an 8 year old going through dementia lol.
Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man.
So many bad creative decisions in those movies, but Andrew Garfield is an amazing actor.
He was my favorite of the three Spider-Men in No Way Home.
Luckily, not all movie stars get stuck acting one type of role their whole careers. u/sheerduckinghubris thinks that Wedding Crashers actor Vince Vaughn is a good example. “Vince Vaughn brought life back into his career with more serious movies like Hacksaw Ridge and Brawl in Cell Block 99 and showed how ranged he truly is, able to prove he can command any scene he’s in.”
“Though, “I have liked a lot of his comedy movies like Dodgeball and Wedding Crashers,” the netizen admits. “Like [with] Adam Sandler, I prefer his more serious roles where he’s able to add more gravitas and immersion,” the Redditor tells Bored Panda.
Christian Slater was on his way to greatness. And then he decided that Jack Nicholson was the greatest actor ever, and from that point on, all he did was Jack Nicholson impersonations.
I’d say many of the A-list actors in *Cats*. Judy Dench, Ian McKellen, Idris Elba just to name a few.
I feel bad that Sean Williams Scott played Stiffler ***so f*****g well*** that he was only ever allowed to play that role with another name.
We also wanted to know if any recent films showcased an actor’s talent in a new light for u/sheerduckinghubris. The Redditor points to Hugh Grant in the 2024 movie Heretic. “[It] was most definitely a surprise for me, though he has been taking a wider range of roles in recent times,” the author says.
“Seeing him in a darker role than what I’ve seen him in was honestly a thrill and he was utterly great in Heretic. I also loved seeing Brendan Fraser back in The Whale,” the Redditor adds. “Though I’ve been a Fraser fan for a while, The Whale became my favourite movie of all time because of his emotional performance,” the netizen praises the actor.
Alexander Siddig as Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne in Game of Thrones
Utterly wasted in one stupid plot line and then disrespectfully [ended] by another character butchered by horrible writing in another stupid plot line.
Matt Smith can act, it’s just that every-time he tries to become a bigger name by being in a blockbuster movie he’s gotten stuck with roles where he can’t really do his thing or is barely present to do anything, and it’s mostly in movies with no hype behind them or they end up being forgettable.
Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who
Jodie Whittaker in Doctor Who
Both were *fantastic* at their craft and both were enormously let down by writing and direction. Both manage to take some of the dreck they were given and actually make a meal out of it but if they had gotten better scripts those performances would be as iconic as Tenants.
A lot of international actors get typecast in typically villainous or stereotypical roles. I think of Mads Mikkelsen or Antonio Banderas or Hiroyuki Sanada or Marion Cotillard. When you see the work they do and the kinds of roles they get in their native languages, you realize just how much Hollywood wastes them.
My number one actor for this kind of thing is always Hong Chau. Chameolonic, tremendously talented and she’s always in like 5 minutes of a movie. Drives me crazy.
Adam Sandler was great in the few serious roles I’ve seen him in, but the general public doesn’t want serious Adam Sandler so he just gets paid $20 million to film movies in exotic locations with his best friends. I would do the same.
Richard Burton, albeit his wasted talent was down more to his chronic alcoholism.
Bela Lugosi was a very talented actor who got typecasted in horror roles and abused by the studios
Harry H Corbett was considered Britain’s Marlon Brando, yet after Steptoe was typecast as Steptoe like characters.
Adam Driver as Kylo Ren is the most obvious one I can think of.
Absolutely brilliant actor, f*****g horrible directing and screenwriting.
Raul Julia in Street Fighter, he had just been diagnosed with cancer when he was offered the role, and since his children loved the game, he accepted as a last gift for them. So far so good, but the problem is he was the only person treating the movie and his role with any respect. He was bending over with pain between takes, and still playing his role like it was Shakespeare, while Jean Claude Van Damme was snorting coke and arriving 8 hours late for filming, and nobody confronted him about it cause he was the “big name” attached to the movie.
Christian Bale in “Thor: Love and Thunder”.
Demon4SL: The mood whiplash was ridiculous. One scene played by Christian Bale in a super tragic and dramatic tone, followed up by screaming goats in the next scene.
They tried too hard and couldn’t get the right balance of drama and lighthearted that Ragnarok had.
John C. Reilly in basically every project he’s ever done with Will Ferrell. He’s basically a case study in being too good but not taking yourself seriously about it.
Cate Blanchett in Borderlands. She’s won multiple Oscars for drama and now at 55 they want her to be an action star??? WTF.
I’m consistently amazed at the number of s**t movies that Sir Ben Kingsley signs on to.
Rufus Sewell in Man in the High Castle. He was exquisite in his role, but the show as a whole was pretty bad.
James McAvoy has been largely wasted in his career, I think. I was impressed by his performance in SciFi’s *Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune* miniseries, and he’s gone a good job playing Professor Xavier, but that role didn’t utilize him fully.
I always feel bad watching Teri Garr playing such a nothing role in Dumb and Dumber. You’re talking about one of the biggest and most talented stars of the 80s, and she plays the old stepmom who has like two throwaway lines.
Sarah Michelle Gellar in everything that’s not Buffy. Someone give her a good role in a continuing show! (I know she’s in the Dexter prequel right now, but haven’t heard anything positive about the show).
Antonio Banderas in the last Indiana Jones. I thought it was just a guy who looked like him.
Gary Oldman in The Hitman’s Bodyguard
He is given like 1 good scene to really portray his character and its great but then he’s just a background piece the rest of the movie
Complete waste of Gary Oldman right there.
I was really looking forward to seeing Wes Chatham in Ahsoka because he was so good in The Expanse and then he was not only barely in it, he was stuck inside a helmet.
Lee Jung Jae in The Acolyte.
The guy tries his hardest but if you get a trash script, there is not much you can do. Still can’t believe they had this Squid Game superstar on hand and didn’t do anything with him, just randomly [ended him].
Coleman Domingo in Fear the Walking Dead. Honestly, everyone in FTWD after S3 was wasted. Garrett Dillahunt, Kim Dickens, Jenna Elfman, Mo Collins, Lenny James…
Tatiana Maslany in She-Hulk. Without exaggeration one of the greatest actors to have ever lived and she did *that*.
Gary Oldman was absolutely wasted as Commissioner Gordon. He did a great job at it, but that role with that writing could have been done just as well by hundreds of other actors. Gary Oldman is a crazy over the top scenery chewing mentalist, not a boring cop.
Nicholas Cage. They keep putting him into a role as himself rather than an actual actor.
They really didn’t use Christoph Waltz properly as Blofeld in Spectre imo.
Will Smith is a very expressive actor with a distinct charming personality and wide range of emotional variance. Lets cast him as the lead in our sci fi thriller, a hardened war hero who trained for years to display no emotions at all and have him deliver every single one of his lines like he’s been waiting for three hours at the DMV and just was told that the form he brought expired yesterday.
Jeffrey Wright. He so undervalued. He is versatile like a MF. I thought he was hilarious in Shaft. Then he goes on to do other roles and I didn’t believe it was the same person.
Might be controversial but possibly Ariana Grande.
TLDR during the Wicked press tour she all but said she had wanted to do stuff like this her whole career but nickelodeon and I guess “the powers that be” forced her into her over synthesized music pop princess role.
I say possibly because it sounds like she never really got a chance to show people if she’s a powerhouse songstress, based on interviews during the tour it sounds like they wanted another miley cyrus cash cow and shoved her into this role with the promise that if she did that she could do what she wanted later. So her exact capabilities have yet to be seen.
It makes sense in theory; she’s always had an amazing voice, her breakout role was on broadway at 14 but so much of her music was generic and technologically altered which seemed weird for someone who could honestly sing. In Wicked there was this moment where she’s upset that elphaba is leaving and her face REALLY shows some authentic emotion that’s made me go “whoah, now THAT’S acting”.
That could also not apply at all and it’s all some made up BS for the press tour. At the very least her voice has certainly been wasted for decades.
I also know Jessica Alba talked about how she wanted to give a real authentic performance on fantastic 4 silver surfer and she was SPECIFICALLY told to prioritize looking aesthetically pleasing while crying instead of like, actual emotion.
She never seemed like oscar winner material in her roles but you’ve got to wonder, was she told c**p like that all her career? Was she never given a chance to really act and was regulated to just being “Hot”? If so, no wonder her acting was hollow and never developed.
Makes you wonder how many of these subpar actress are only subpar because they’ve been directed that way. How many of these people are amazing actors that we will never get the chance to see because hollywood will only let them be hot eye candy?
Scott adkins? Maybe not wasted in his roles but his material arts and stunts are on top and amazing, the guy should get more recognition.
Josh hartnett , dude had such a wide range and could have done so many roles instead he just kinda disappeared and when he does show up he’s just a side character that dies for no reason.
Shia Lebouf – guy is so underrated and goes 100% in every role. Little wacky too.
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