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There are a lot of great action stars out there, and the genre itself could support an actor’s entire career if they wanted to. But while it’s fun to see some of our well-known favorites, it’s really exciting to see an actor deliver a top-notch fight scene that we never thought we’d see. Some of the stars on this list are household names now, but there was a time when fans hardly expected to see intense gunfights and bloody brawls in their filmographies. Whether they left the genre after a few great movies or rarely made anything other than action after that, these 18 actors delivered some unexpectedly great action performances.
Bruce Willis
Before he was John McClane, Willis was a comedic TV star and a fairly successful recording artist (really!), but his breakthrough action role combined solid stunt work and friendly, down-home charm that was essential to making Die Hard a classic all these years later.
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Michelle Yeoh was already a superstar in action movies, but her Everything Everywhere All at Once co-star, Ke Huy Quan, was a pleasant surprise, delivering an equally impressive performance. During a hiatus from acting in the ’90s, Quan worked behind the camera as an assistant director and stunt choreographer.
Quan put this experience to good use in EEAAO, playing the role of Weimond Wang (and his many incarnations across the multiverse) so well that he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role.
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Scarlett Johansson
Johansson’s casting as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in 2010’s Iron Man 2 was a departure from her best-known TV roles like Girl with a Pearl Earring and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but from that first hallway fight scene onwards, Johansson has become the definitive Black Widow on the silver screen, and she’s managed to pull off some of the MCU’s most incredible stunts while surrounded by superheroes.
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Michael Keaton
Keaton had primarily starred in comedy roles before taking on the caped warrior in Tim Burton’s Batman films, and while some questioned the wisdom of the casting, Keaton was brilliant as Batman and also captivating as Bruce Wayne.
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Matt Damon
When Will Hunting took on the moniker Jason Bourne, who would have thought he’d be as badass as Matt Damon? The early 2000s saw the pairing of The Bourne Identity and Ocean’s Eleven cement Damon’s place in the genre. Damon’s been keeping himself busy across all genres lately (both in front of and behind the camera), and we’re excited to see him jump back into the action.
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Liam Neeson
While lead actor Neeson had been making great action films before Taken was released (check out Sam Raimi’s Darkman if you haven’t seen it yet), he was more known for playing historical figures, romantic leads, and other dramatic productions before Turning Point in 2008. After Taken, Neeson starred in a ton of great action films, including sequels, the survival film The Grey, and the action thriller Non-Stop, so even if he were to retire today, he’d still have hours of great action movies for us to enjoy.
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Michael Cera
Michael Cera was perfectly cast in this film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s classic Scott Pilgrim graphic novel, starting out as a timid bassist dating a high schooler and slowly evolving into a warrior as he takes on seven of Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends. While vivid visuals are what sell Scott Pilgrim vs. the Ex-Boyfriends, the movie would have been a total flop if Cera’s performance hadn’t made the audience root for Scott.
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Uma Thurman
Thurman had already established impressive acting range by the time she played the Bride in Quentin Tarantino’s astounding two-part martial arts revenge drama, but when Kill Bill was released she delivered a performance that truly defies expectations: the intense rage she displays in every shot elevates the first volume to all-time great status, and volume two adds even more depth to her character and picks up the pace in fascinating ways.
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Nicolas Cage
While we all know Cage can do it all these days, his switch to the action genre from his previous film roles in Moonstruck, Raising Arizona and Leaving Las Vegas came as a pleasant surprise to fans around the world. It’s clear that Cage (and audiences) have had a blast with his roles in action classics like Con Air, Face Off and The Rock, as well as some great recent work like the ultra-violent thriller Mandy.
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Eli Roth
If you know Eli Roth from his violent directorial work, you can probably guess what he’s up to when given the right role. Roth often stars in his own films, and after a cameo in Death Proof, he landed the role of Sergeant Donnie Donawitz (aka Bear Jew) in Quentin Tarantino’s excellent alternate history war drama Inglourious Basterds. Fun fact: the role was originally intended for Adam Sandler, but Roth nailed it (pun intended).
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Daniel Day-Lewis
Did you know that one of the most acclaimed dramatic actors of all time also made an awesome war movie, co-starring none other than Heat’s director Michael Mann? If you didn’t, this is the movie for you at your next movie night. Easy.
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Bob Odenkirk
Yes, Saul Goodman has a knack for action. Known as a hilarious comedic writer and long-established as a dramatic actor, Odenkirk surprised audiences by producing and starring in a fantastic action movie in 2021, Nobody. Odenkirk plays a retired assassin who becomes the target of a crime lord when he beats a group of drunken hooligans with ties to the Russian mafia with a bus. You’ll feel every punch in this amazing bus fight, and that’s just the beginning.
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Emily Blunt
Blunt’s performance in 2014’s All You Need Is Kill was a big break for the actress, making her seem just as at home in the genre as her much more experienced co-star Tom Cruise. The following year, Blunt landed the lead role in the fantastic thriller Sicario, an incredible one-two punch of very different but equally great action movies.
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Dev Patel
Patel has appeared in a few thrillers and even played the (infamous) Prince Zuko in the film adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but his directorial debut, Monkey Man, has left us with high hopes for his future filmography. It’s a shame that no director gave Patel a chance to show off his action chops before making his own films, but he made the wait worth it with Monkey Man.
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It’s hard to believe now, but when Daniel Craig was first cast as James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, the reaction from fans and press was largely negative, with Craig being compared unfavourably to previous Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. Craig’s take on Bond quickly silenced fans’ doubts, and Casino Royale stands today as one of the best James Bond films of all time. Right from the opening scene, where Bond doggedly pursues his parkour target through a construction site, Craig gives the super spy an intimidating physique.
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Charlize Theron
Theron has no qualms about the action genre, having played a fantastic role in the American version of The Italian Job back in 2003, but it’s fair to say that she reached action superstar status in the 2010s with roles in films like Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, and even the Fast and Furious series.
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Will Smith
What would the world be like if Will Smith had continued making music instead of starring in Bad Boys and Men in Black in the mid-’90s? While Smith still plays roles across a variety of genres, he’s still a bankable action star, so the Bad Boys franchise continues to this day, and we couldn’t be more excited.
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Chris Pratt
Pratt became known for playing a lovable comedic idiot in Parks and Recreation before perfectly blending action and comedy as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy, which still stands as one of the MCU’s best films. Given his Marvel experience and subsequent work on films like The Magnificent Seven and Jurassic World, it seems like Pratt was born for action blockbusters.
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