Superhero Actors best non-superhero role.

There are many actors who have played superhero's in films, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johannsson etc..

But what are your favourite non-superhero roles from any actor that has played a superhero?
You can also do the same for people who played the villains too like Gene Hackman, Ian McKellen etc..

Michael Keaton was excellent in The Founder

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Ami-Scythe

Christipher Reeve, Somewhere in Time

Christian Bale is good in most of his stuff, but I still believe his performance in Empire of the Sun was his best.

Mark Ruffalo was amazing in a below par Reservation Road.

Bradley Cooper in The Place Beyond The Pines was brilliant.

1. Jack Nicholson in the Shining, or Five Easy Pieces or Cuckoos nest.
2. Hugh Jackman - The Fountain
3. Edward Norton - Fight Club / Primal Fear
4. Christian Bale - The Machinist
5. Michael Keaton - Birdman

Two performances popped into my head when I saw the title of this thread:


Michael Keaton in Birdman

Christopher Reeve in Deathtrap

Under the Skin for Scarlett Johansson.

Christopher Reeve's an interesting one because I think his performance as Superman/Clark Kent might be his best performance. I could say the same about Michael Fassbender playing Magneto. Really excellent, and of the small amount of films I've seen of his it's still the best acting I've seen.

Fassbender's good in Shame.

Eilizbeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene

I believe so. Ironically he's able to do what Ian McKellen says he can't do, which is emote in close-ups.

Patrick Stewart, Jean Luc Picard.

Two great films there. I like Above Suspicion with Reeve more, but Deathtrap is a close second.

Robert Downey Jr - Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang.
Scarlett Johansson - Under The Skin.
Val Kilmer - Tombstone.
Jack Nicholson - The Shining.
Hugo Weaving - The Matrix
Ian McKellen - Gods and Monsters.
Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland.
Guy Pearce - Memento.

Although you could perhaps argue a good casting partly for that reason, Fassbender plays an emotionally repressed man very well.

You could also argue I spose that's something a lot of actors cast as superhero's have in common as the characters are often emotionally repressed.

It seems to me that the First Class line about "between rage and serenity" is key to how Michael Fassbender plays Erik. To control his powers he has to be in the middle of those emotions, and often looks locked in concentration and almost in a world of his own, not feeling one way or the other.

Don Cheadle & Hugh Jackman: Swordfish

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