5 Comedic Actors Who Overcommitted to the Bit

From Chris Farley to Melissa McCarthy to Sam Kinison, an entire genre of comedians delivers their material in the loudest, most obnoxious way imaginable. Even among comedians, there’s full devotion and “jumping-off-the-top-rope, veins-bulging-from-the-neck” commitment to the piece.

When is it too much to give everything you’ve got? Here are five humorous performers that don’t simply throw their balls against the wall; they smash through the bricks and keep going.

5. Jim Carrey, ‘Man on the Moon’

It’s one legendary comedian portraying another legendary comedian — or was it just becoming one? Carrey’s dedication to playing Andy Kaufman nearly cost him his sanity, as shown in the documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. Because Carrey was Kaufman, he didn’t pay much attention to the filmmaking process. “You have to give me a chance to make a movie!” exclaimed director Milos Foreman, who admired Carrey’s commitment but not his discipline. The film company took 20 years to disclose the behind-the-scenes video. What’s the deal with that? “Universal decided at the time that they didn’t want any of that to come to light so that people wouldn’t think I was a jerk.”

4. Nicolas Cage, ‘Vampire’s Kiss’

The horror-comedy came to characterize the over-the-top Nicolas Cage that we refer to when we raise our eyebrows and murmur Nicolas Cage. “I always saw the movie as a story of a man whose loneliness and inability to find love literally drives him insane,” Cage says in the film’s DVD commentary — and we think Cage is going insane himself. “I was getting a lot of outside pressure from my agent and people representing me that this was not a good move after Moonstruck, to make a movie of this nature with vampire fangs and going off like that,” Cage says in the commentary. “I gave in to the pressure, and I broke.”

3. Chris Tucker, ‘The Fifth Element’

The Fifth Element isn’t a full-fledged comedy, but Chris Tucker seemed determined to make it one. His character as talk-show presenter Ruby Rhod was initially created for Prince, but His Royal Badness couldn’t have pushed it as far as Tucker does. Depending on your point of view, his performance either makes or breaks the film.

2. George C. Scott, ‘Dr. Strangelove’

In Kubrick’s black comedy, dramatic actor George C. Scott finds another gear, throwing forth more bug-eyed hysterics than Rodney Dangerfield on a bender. Scott had intended to play the character with greater solemnity, but Kubrick urged Scott to entertain him by playing things in an unnecessarily broad, humorous style during “rehearsals” that would not make the final cut. (In the end, Kubrick broke his word and used the inflated versions.)

1. Tom Cruise, ‘Tropic Thunder’

When Cruise agreed to play bombastic movie mogul Les Grossman, he only had two conditions, he told Conan O’Brien in 2019. He desired “fat hands” and the ability to dance. While spectators found Cruise amusing, The New York Times had some reservations about an excessively passionate performance that was “heavily and heavy-handedly coded as Jewish.” From his bloated fingers to the massive gold dollar sign nestling on his yeti-furred breast, the persona is deadly, repulsive, and seductive.”