Single scene characters that totally steal their movies

This month we receive a valuable lesson in scene stealing from Michael Shannon in the award-nominated race drama ‘Loving’. Even though the larger than life actor only appears in a couple of scenes as a photographer, Shannon almost walks off with the movie.

He’s in good company: here are 10 more actors who can steal your movie with just one good scene…

Blake (Alec Baldwin) – ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ (1992)

There is no greater single-serving character than Baldwin’s abrupt businessman Blake, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo so blistering and brief you don’t even realise you never officially find out his name (it is most definitely not “F*** you”, as he claims).

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Baldwin’s straight-shooter is shipped in to shake up Jack Lemmon and the rest of his realtor colleagues by teaching them the basics (“ABC, Always Be Closing”) and essentially threatening to fire them if they fail to perform (“First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired”). And then, no sooner had he arrived, he vanished. Now that’s how you make an impression.

Jesus Quintana (John Turturro) – ‘The Big Lebowski’ (1998)

All we know about Jesus Quintana we learn from Walter, who is not the most reliable narrator, but that’s all we’ve got. He likes bowling. Correction: he loves bowling (he quite literally French kisses his bowling ball). He clearly loves the colour purple. Oh, and he is an alleged pederast (“Eight year-olds, dude,” intones Walter, sombrely). Jesus is a typical Coen caricature: a wildly distinctive and memorable cat who burns up his limited screen time – his method of drying a bowling ball by hanging it low in a towel between his legs has become the stuff of animated gif legend. Prepare for the second coming of Jesus in forthcoming spinoff ‘Going Places’, written and directed by Turturro.

Garth Volbeck (Charlie Sheen) – ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ (1986)

You wouldn’t think a man like Charlie Sheen would need to do too much acting to play a strung-out bad boy, but that’s our man Sheen: ever a professional. Charlie put in a heroic stint and stayed awake for 48 hours ahead of his brief role as junkie Garth, the bad boy who sways good girl Jeanie, although it’s unclear if the marathon two-day sesh was for the part or just an unrelated bender. Anyhoo, the desired effect was achieved: Sheen wore the exact look of the last person you would ever want your sweet daughter to bring home. Fun fact: Sheen actually reprised the role of Garth for ABC sitcom ‘The Goldbergs’ in 2014.

David Bowie as Himself – ‘Zoolander’ (2001)

“If nobody has any objections, I might be of service?” The Thin White Duke didn’t need more than his single scene to make an impression: in presiding over the male model walk-off between Derek Zoolander and his rival Hansel, Bowie sashayed away with the entire movie. The Starman, who was surprisingly well-versed in the rules of walk-offs, sets the scene: “Now, this’ll be a straight walk-off, old school rules. First model walks; second model duplicates, then elaborates. Okay, boys – let’s go to work!” Can you imagine any other musical legend of Bowie’s calibre appearing in a scene like this? There’s a reason all the best directors wanted to work with Bowie, and not, say, Bono. Sheer cool personified.

Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) – ‘Scream’ (1996)

We were all prepared for Drew Barrymore to be the star of Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’: her name was at the top of the poster, her face was the size of bus stops and entire buildings. But, in the same way Alfred Hitchcock shocked audiences by offing ‘Psycho’ star Janet Leigh so early in the movie, Barrymore didn’t even survive the first scene, becoming the first victim of masked killer Ghostface (okay, the second victim, after her poor, gutted boyfriend Steve). It was a masterpiece of misdirection, a move that said ‘no one is safe’, and Barrymore played her moment to perfection. Scream Queen status verified.

Captain Koons (Christopher Walken) – ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)

You don’t pass up an opportunity to work on a Quentin Tarantino, even if you’ve only been offered a single scene. The template was set by Christopher Walken, who was gifted a four-minute monologue in ‘Pulp Fiction’ – about hiding a watch where the sun don’t shine, of all things – and managed to make it the centerpiece of the movie thanks to his sheer screen magnetism. Tarantino dialogue is like manna from Heaven for an actor like Walken, but man can he hold the attention: when the scene ends and Walken utters his last line to a young Butch Coolidge (“And now, little man, I give this watch to you”), it’s like we’ve been sat right there, dumbstruck, listening to storytime with him.

Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) – ‘Iron Man’ (2008)

It almost didn’t happen. The single scene that launched a billion-dollar franchise. Legend has it that Jon Favreau threw together the Nick Fury ‘stinger’ scene at the last minute, where the eyepatch-wearing leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. casually mentions the formation of “the Avengers Initiative” like it was a cool book club or something. Jackson – a natural fit for the role of Fury, given he’d already leant his likeness to a comic-book iteration of the character – grasped the nettle with both hands and turned a simple minute-long scene on a couch into a nine-picture deal. ‘Iron Man’ was the movie that showed just how much fun the Marvel Cinematic Universe could be, but it was Jackson’s short scene that really got people buzzing about its potential.

Chazz Reinhold (Will Ferrell) – ‘Wedding Crashers’ (2005)

We don’t meet Chazz for much of the movie, but we hear about him in hushed tones, spoken of with quiet awe (although to be fair, that is just how Owen Wilson usually talks). We know he’s the man who imparted unto Vince Vaughn the legendary rules of wedding crashing. He is the man, the myth, the legend. He also, as it turns out, still lives with his mother. Chazz Reinhold should have stayed the man behind the curtain; in the flesh, he’s much less impressive, yelling at his mother for meat loaf on demand and failing to adequately wear a dressing gown to the basic standards of decency. It’s the kind of man-child role that Ferrell can play in his sleep, but he leaves an indelible mark on the movie.

The Mattress Man (Philip Seymour Hoffman) – ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ (2002)

How we miss Philip Seymour Hoffman: the actor who could play anything. Hoffman was always at his best when working with directors who’d let him off the leash, and under the direction of Paul Thomas Anderson in this oddball 2002 classic – an anti-Adam Sandler comedy, if there is such a thing – he birthed a monster. Dean Trumbell aka the Mattress Man is a hideous creation: a mattress entrepeneur-slash-phone scam operator who is stupid and foul-mouthed enough to get on the wrong side of Sandler’s raging id. His phone scene, where he acts incredulously after being told to “go f***” himself – despite doing exactly the same thing to Sandler several times – is as dark a comic portrait as you’ll find in a two minute sequence.

Bob Barker as Himself – ‘Happy Gilmore’ (1996)

Another Adam Sandler comedy, but this one a little broader, it nonetheless features a single scene cameo that brings the house down. Sandler’s scrappy golfer Happy finds himself on the Pro Celebrity circuit with ‘The Price Is Right’ host Bob Barker as his partner, but the relationship is far from a productive one. Sick of his barbs, Happy pushes the elderly Barker down a hill (“The price is wrong, bitch!”), only to find that Bob has still got some gas in the tank. Not only does Barker fight back, punching Sandler repeatedly in the face (something we’ve all dreamed of doing at some point), he wins the fight by triumphantly knocking out Gilmore with a kick to the face: “Now you’ve had enough. Bitch.”

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