16 Times Surprising Actors Were Cast As The Comic Relief - And Nailed It

Dave Bautista is one tough dude. There's no doubt about it. He was a professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, capable of taking a beating just as severe as the ones he doled out. In those sports, having a gritty, hostile persona is kind of a requirement. After all, who's going to take a big old goofball seriously in the MMA ring? 

Of course, the everyday Dave Bautista is not quite the same as the fighter. He's got a fantastic sense of humor, as the Guardians of the Galaxy movies show. Playing Drax, the actor can utilize his muscular, hard-brawling side, yet he also gets to temper it with healthy doses of comedy. Bautista's strength is in saying Drax's often absurd lines in a totally straight, aggressive manner. In other words, there's a hilarious disconnect between what the character says and how he says it. For this reason, Bautista consistently gets the biggest laughs in the two films. 

Andre the Giant was a unique presence. He had a hormonal disorder called acromegaly that caused him to grow to more than 7 feet tall and weigh more than 500 pounds. Of course, that made him a natural for the world of professional wrestling, where he quickly became a star. He even defeated Hulk Hogan in the 1998 WWF championship. His whole carefully crafted persona was of a menacing hulk, presumably capable of crushing his enemies like flies. 

The Princess Bride plays with that idea. Andre has a supporting role as Fezzik, a giant who is friends with one of the main characters, Inigo Montoya. Although intimidating in size, he's almost childlike in some respects, playing silly rhyming games with Inigo. The character works because Andre the Giant cheerfully subverts his own image. His way of speaking dialogue may be a little halting at times, but he intentionally - and charmingly - plays against the way people see him based on outward appearances.

Maybe it's just a coincidence that J.K. Simmons looks like the comic book character J. Jonah Jameson. Or maybe the cosmos spent decades aligning everything just right so that the actor could play the character for the first time in 2002's Spider-Man. On the page, Jameson is a blustery, impatient newspaper editor, perpetually yelling at Peter Parker. His dialogue is notable for the frequent use of bold print and exclamation points. Lots and lots of exclamation points.

What makes Simmons's performance so funny is that he does exactly what's on the page. His Jameson is blustery and impatient, and he's forever yelling at Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man. Many actors would have tried to “interpret” the character. Not Simmons. He seems to recognize how perfect he is for the role, so he leans into it. Between his physical resemblance and the specialty in playing characters who are cantankerous, the casting could not be more spot-on. 

Tropic Thunder is a masterful spoof of Hollywood filmmaking and egotistical actors. In it, a group of stars are making a Vietnam War epic in an actual jungle. They soon find themselves coming face-to-face with a gang that manufactures and exports illegal drugs. After being kidnapped by that gang, they have to give the performances of their lives, becoming actual action heroes in order to survive. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr. have the lead roles.

The scene-stealer is Tom Cruise, who, buried under a bald wig and a fat suit, is virtually unrecognizable as Les Grossman, the expletive-spewing studio executive producing the movie. Yes, Tropic Thunder is already a comedy, but Cruise is brought in periodically to add a very different flavor of humor. The way he spits out profane rants is riotous, as are the hip-hop dance moves he breaks out in the final scene. Cruise is a talented actor, but no one knew he was capable of this kind of comedy. That many people didn't even realize it was him until the end credits just makes it even funnier.

Sean Connery was the original James Bond. He won an Academy Award for the crime drama The Untouchables. He had that distinctly Scottish quality of being charming while still making it perfectly clear that he could smack some sense into you if he so desired. Many of his best-known roles took advantage of that. Actually, so did many of least-known roles. The man didn't make flat-out comedies. 

However, when that charming side was brought all the way to the forefront, Connery could be quite funny. Case in point: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which he plays Indy's sarcastic father, Henry Jones. He and co-star Harrison Ford - another actor whose dry wit is often mistaken for humorlessness - work up a delightfully cranky chemistry together. The Jones men like to bust each other's humps at every turn. The blunt way Connery delivers dialogue like “I named the dog Indiana” infuses the action-heavy movie with little moments that make you cackle. 

John Gielgud was one of those consummate actors with an exquisite resume. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed in Shakespearean productions. He worked both in London's West End and on Broadway. He is one of the few people to have an EGOT - an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Everything about him radiated dignity and class. As if that wasn't enough, he was knighted in 1953.

The “O” in that EGOT came from 1981's Arthur. Dudley Moore stars as the title character, an alcoholic playboy trapped in an uncomfortable predicament. In order to keep his fortune, he'll have to marry a woman he doesn't love. That might be okay, except he's fallen in love for real, with a Queens waitress played by Liza Minnelli. Gielgud co-stars as Arthur's butler, Hobson. He's the kind of man who always has the perfect, and perfectly hilarious, blunt response to his boss's dilemmas. The actor expertly shows how this proper English servant sees right through Arthur's neurosis and silly antics, puncturing them like a balloon. Only someone of Gielgud's stature could have pulled the role off this well.