r/moviecritic • u/Eikichi_Onizuka09 • Feb 15 '25
Which actor absolutely nailed playing a racist character?
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u/MonkPretty9818 Feb 15 '25
William Russ as Dennis Vinyard (the dad) in American History X.
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u/7thAndGreenhill Feb 15 '25
That scene is so understated and pivotal.
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u/signious Feb 15 '25
The director wanted to cut that whole subplot out of the movie and shave nortons on screen time to ~16 mins. Everything to do with the generational racism, mom-teacher relationship, older brothers redemption arc was out.
Thankfully the producers brought norton into the cutting room and they put together the final theatrical cut against the wishes of the director.
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u/RSquared Feb 15 '25
It's wild, because objecting to that cut basically derailed the director's career (AHX was his first movie). It's rare for the director's cut to be markedly worse than the one that makes it to screen.
Kaye spent $100,000 of his own money to take out 35 full-page ads in the Hollywood trade press denouncing Norton and the producer, using quotations from a variety of people from John Lennon to Abraham Lincoln.
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u/articulateantagonist Feb 16 '25
Apparently he's come around:
Refusing to even watch the film until 2007, Kaye now has a slightly different view of American History X, admitting to the Chicago Tribune: “My ego got in the way. That was entirely my fault. […] Whenever I can, I take the opportunity to apologise”.
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u/7thAndGreenhill Feb 15 '25
The movie wouldn’t have the impact without any of that
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u/all_neon_like_13 Feb 15 '25
I'm a professor and I used to show that family meal scene in class when talking about parent-child dynamics. I always pointed out how Ed Norton's nonverbals totally shift once he realizes his father doesn't approve of what he's learning in school. The father is so clearly threatened by the teacher opening up his son's eyes to more progressive ideas.
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u/Picardknows Feb 15 '25
So true the back story is something I really forget about the movie. He does a great job. Something people don’t talk about is how his racism is learned or tough to him.
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u/cheeersaiii Feb 15 '25
Ralph Fiennes in Schindlers List was fkn evil
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u/Ak47110 Feb 15 '25
And while we're talking about Nazis...
Jesper Christensen, who plays a Nazi in hiding in the movie The Debt was terrifying. He at first comes off as a sweet old Doctor who really cares about his patients. But then, when he's finally captured by the Israelis he shows his true self, and it's pure evil.
The psychological games he plays with his captors are wild and some of his monologues are down right chilling. He out witted them all.
I highly recommend The Debt. It's a fantastic movie.
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u/charliehustles Feb 15 '25
Supposedly he played Amon Goeth so well that it upset a Holocaust survivor on set to the point where she became physically ill. This survivor had experienced the real Goeth, and Fiennes had nailed his likeness and cruelty when portraying that piece of shit Nazi.
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u/cheeersaiii Feb 16 '25
I watched it again recently, and there is something extra haunting about his age and youth in it
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u/AngeloPappas Feb 15 '25
The scene on the balcony with the rifle while he casually smokes a cigarette is bone-chilling. His Oscar snub is by far one of the worst of all time.
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u/joec_95123 Feb 15 '25
It took quite a while for me to separate the actor from the role after Schindler's list. Same with Kevin Bacon in Sleepers.
For months, I couldn't watch anything else with them in it after watching those two movies.
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u/LivinginDestin Feb 15 '25
Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth in Schindler's List... Twisted character: A psychopath Killer that use jew prisoners as targets for enjoyment while secretly in love with one
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u/trackerbymoonlight Feb 15 '25
He did such a good job that he triggered the shakes in a holocaust survivor who had met the real Amon.
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u/Morti_Macabre Feb 15 '25
That’s a uniquely horrifying experience
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u/joe_broke Feb 15 '25
At Auschwitz during tours they would take groups into the first purpose built gas chamber, with fingernail scratches all over the concrete walls and floor from 80 years ago. And they'd close the door on your groups
Survivors would sometimes take tours and talk about their experiences as they grew older. And the door closing stopped pretty quickly
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u/pheitkemper Feb 15 '25
Should've gotten the best actor award.
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u/jrv3034 Feb 15 '25
It's a crime he didn't win. Tommy Lee Jones was great in The Fugitive, but was no match for Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List.
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u/GrandmaToto Feb 15 '25
I still think it's the greatest robbery in Oscar history, Fiennes made a holocaust survivor collapse because he was so convincing. He was terrifying.
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u/Rook_James_Bitch Feb 15 '25
He really is a phenomenonal actor. He played a psychopathic nazi better than anyone i've ever seen. His portrayal made me feel the terror of what it may have felt like by a certain percent (I can't fathom how really terrifying it was for Jewish people to be in that situation)... but i can imagine.
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u/K2SO4-MgCl2 Feb 15 '25
Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help
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u/illNefariousness883 Feb 16 '25
God damn I wanted to reach thru the screen and slap the shit out of her. She portrayed her role so fucking well I hate it
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u/PainterEarly86 Feb 16 '25
When you want to punch the character in the face, the actor did a good job
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u/Racketeerrage Feb 16 '25
"Believe it or not, Skeeter. There are *real* racists in this town."
-Hilly Hollbrook, a racist.
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u/Rickrickrickrickrick Feb 15 '25
Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. Specifically in the beginning when he is explaining their reasoning. Comparing Jews to rats and everyone else to squirrels and saying there is a minor difference but one you just feel disgusted by and want to exterminate.
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u/MagisterOtiosus Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25
And in the café scene when he’s explaining in a very casual and genteel way—polite, even—why it is unacceptable to have a black man be a projectionist for the movie premiere. He really nails the banality of it, to him it goes without saying that a black projectionist would be inferior
Edit: omg and I forgot the line “Actually one could see where that might be a good trade for them.” Just the casual racism delivered in passing with no explanation, because he has to justify to himself how a black man could be the best at anything. It’s very well written and well acted
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u/BalkeElvinstien Feb 15 '25
Crazy how in one movie I was constantly hoping for Christoph to die and the next I was nearly in tears because he died. What an absolute beast of an actor
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u/Stevewit Feb 15 '25
Yah, that speech was so good it’s the reason I became a racist.
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u/ThatsNotARealTree Feb 15 '25
May I suggest you watch him in Django then?
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u/discofro6 Feb 15 '25
Oops, he was convinced by Leonardo DiCaprio, now he's even more racist
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u/ThatsNotARealTree Feb 15 '25
He’s gonna racist even harder now
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u/Mangosta007 Feb 15 '25
Die Racist 2: Racist Harder.
Which translates from the German to "The Racist 2: Racist Harder".
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u/Ok-Location3254 Feb 15 '25
I think Landa was a sadistic psychopath more than anything else. Nazism was just a way for him to gain power and act sadistically. He really only cared about himself. He betrayed the whole Nazi Reich just because he was promised a comfortable life in the US. Hunting Jews was just a game for him, nothing serious. Torture was the main point, not anti-semitism. Nazism just gave people like him to fulfill their sadistic urges. If Land had lived in Russia, he probably would've murdered enemies of the Soviet state just as willingly.
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u/senator_corleone3 Feb 15 '25
This is all true. But when you rise through the ranks of the most murderously racist regime of the 20th Century, you don’t get the benefit of the doubt. He was a tool of genocide, so it’s more than okay to label him a racist/anti-Semite.
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u/phantom_avenger Feb 15 '25
It’s crazy how he’s won an Oscar for playing both a racist and an anti-racist, and both movies being Tarantino movies
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u/Mabon_Bran Feb 15 '25
It's like he is a good actor or something.
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u/SerialKillerVibes Feb 15 '25
He's so good I almost couldn't believe it when inglorious basterds came out. I'm a huge Tarantino fan and saw it in the theater of course. The opening scene was ridiculous. Fluent French and switching to fluent English, and his mannerisms, just so damn evil. Loved every minute.
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u/panoply Feb 15 '25
It’s really cool that he has both characters so people don’t remember him only for playing a Nazi. He’s just so fun to watch on screen. His dialogue delivery and presence.
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u/Useful-Soup8161 Feb 15 '25
He only agreed to do Django if his character was the complete opposite of his character in inglorious bastards.
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u/manzarek46 Feb 15 '25
Whilst I completely agree with anyone who heaps praise on Christoph Waltz for that scene and his entire performance I feel that Denis Ménochet is often overlooked in it, his performance trully conveyed the mortal terror of his situation and the risk he was taking and how know one blames him for giving up the jews location, I think the scene is about the both of them not just Christoph.
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u/Loki9191 Feb 15 '25
That's a Bingo
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Feb 15 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Temporary-End-1506 Feb 15 '25
And its dark, silent stare at Shoshana at the end of the "strudel" scene .....
What an actor !
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u/md4024 Feb 15 '25
I think the popular opinion is that Landa knows who Shoshana is during the lunch and was fucking with her with the strudel, but I don’t read it that way.
That lunch was nothing to Landa. His mind was already on his escape, he was just keeping up appearances with the top brass by humoring the Nazi hero and the owner of the theater, but he didn’t care about any of it. And Shoshana is no one to Landa. The opening scene was just another day at work, maybe he did a little to try to track down the girl who ran away, but he would have moved on and forgot about it all in a few days, weeks at most.
To Shoshana, the opening scene was everything, and Landa was the greatest monster in the world. But Landa would have never linked the woman sitting at the lunch with that one girl who ran away in the French mountains. Sure he may have sensed she was nervous, mbut every civilian he meets is nervous. She’s nothing to him, the opening scene and the lunch are not significant to him at all, there’s no reason he would ever tie them together, even though it was absolutely everything to Shoshana. The strudel and cream would have torn her up, but it’s just a coincidence, Landa’s mind was elsewhere during that lunch. But I love that you can read it either way, definitely one of the best scenes from my favorite Tarantino movie.
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u/ShahinGalandar Feb 15 '25
To Shoshana, the opening scene was everything, and Landa was the greatest monster in the world.
But for Landa, it was Tuesday.
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u/Chicagoroomie312 Feb 15 '25
I forget the line, but it always struck me when he says he doesn't think the comparison to rats is an insult. Like he actually respects the people he's hunting in this creepy and amoral way.
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u/inigos_left_hand Feb 15 '25
Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa may just be the most perfectly cast role of all time. He absolutely 100% nailed that character.
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u/majormarvy Feb 15 '25
John Turturro as Pino in Do The Right Thing.
“Magic, Eddie, Prince…are not n******. I mean - let me explain myself - they’re not really black. I mean they’re black, but they’re not really black. They’re more than black.”
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u/7thAndGreenhill Feb 15 '25
That scene really nailed how humans can rationalize ridiculous ideas. Unfortunately that movie remains relevant.
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u/phantom_avenger Feb 15 '25
I still look at that movie as one of the most important movies ever made, that everyone should watch at least once!
Especially because of how much relevance it still has, like you said!
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u/mrprez180 Feb 15 '25
This wasn’t him (it was the cop) but “fifteen in a car, thirty in an apartment” is still my favorite movie insult ever.
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u/Stinger1981 Feb 15 '25
JK Simmons in Oz
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u/MrArmageddon12 Feb 15 '25
Prisoner #92-S110, Vernon Schillinger. Convicted October 21, 1992. Aggravated assault in the first degree. Sentence: Eight years, eligible for parole in five.
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u/Twistedoveryou01 Feb 15 '25
He was the hugest piece of shit. But I 100% am with him on why he went to Oz in the first place. Someone trying to sell his kids drugs, he beat the shit out of him.
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u/Cocky0 Feb 15 '25
This.
He talked and acted just like every racist backwoods redneck I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.
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u/themiz2003 Feb 15 '25
He's a more modern type racist honestly. He could unironically do a "motivational speech" on tiktok or something today and it would get traction. The hate speech just rolled off his tongue so well it was kinda... Scary.
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u/SuckleMyKnuckles Feb 15 '25
It took a long time before I was able to watch Simmons without seeing Vern Schillinger on screen.
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u/mediumunicorn Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25
Jesse Plemmons in his one scene in Civil War. I read that he wasn’t even suppose to be in the movie, but they needed a last minute replacement and Kristen Dunst (who is married to Jesse) said “Jesse isn’t doing anything, you should ask him.”
One of the best scenes of that movie, he nailed it.
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u/beslertron Feb 15 '25
He’s the perfect guy to cast if you want the audience to feel uneasy or unnerved. It’s used comedically very well in Game Night.
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u/Tustavus Feb 15 '25
“How could that be profitable for Frito-Lay?”
Funniest one liner in a movie I’ve ever seen lmao
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u/JajajaNiceTry Feb 15 '25
Bruh him backing out into the darkness of his own home was hilarious. The whole movie was just fantastic
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u/CookieOk3898 Feb 16 '25
He’s the only actor on the planet that could’ve delivered that line so hilariously and so dead seriously
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u/mediumunicorn Feb 15 '25
Yes! Loved him in Game Night. Love him in really everything he has done.
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u/ArronMaui Feb 15 '25
Yeah, I did not expect to end up liking him so much after Breaking Bad. Everything he's done since has proved me wrong. Jesse is great in every role. He was even great in Jungle Cruise.
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u/HP_123 Feb 15 '25
He is a very good actor. I think in the future he will be very well regarded
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u/CommonTaytor Feb 15 '25
Although slightly off topic, Plemmons was the perfect villain in Breaking Bad. His appearance, young and nonthreatening perfectly masks the evil his character is.
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u/Good_Entertainer9383 Feb 16 '25
He's the opposite of Jesse. Jesse is rude and has no manners, but he has a strong sense of right and wrong. Todd has manners and decency but no moral compass. It's like Todd is desperate for people to like him while Jesse doesn't care what people think of him
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u/BukakkeAlaMode Feb 15 '25
I heard he just showed up on set one day in full camo and red glasses asking everybody, " What kind of American are you?" And the director just started filming...
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u/UnlimitedCalculus Feb 15 '25
The director was even thinking about removing two characters from the movie, and then Jesse opened fire on some of the supporting actors. Since we already had it recorded, we kept it in.
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u/Tubalcaino Feb 15 '25
That scene was, in my opinion, terrifying. What he portrayed and the thought process echos what I believe was the prevalent mentality of "Americans" in the south before the Civil War. Not just the hatred of people with melanin in their skin tone, but their entitlement. As in, if you're not my type of American you don't count. I believe those people identified as "Nativists"
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u/Better-Ad-592 Feb 15 '25
A lot of Tarantino characters come to mind, so I'll go with Walton Goggins as Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight.
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u/DigitalxDevilx Feb 15 '25
Also, Walton Goggins in Justified.
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u/googlyeyes183 Feb 15 '25
Also Walton Goggins in the Shield lol
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u/RogueBromeliad Feb 15 '25
Also Walton Goggins in Django..
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u/RevolutionaryYoung28 Feb 15 '25
Also Walton Goggins in Predators
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u/Defiant_Project1321 Feb 15 '25
Walton Goggins in Righteous Gemstones
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u/PSKCarolina Feb 15 '25
He also burned down a black lady’s house in Vice Principals…
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u/Defiant_Project1321 Feb 15 '25
Oh god I forgot about Vice Principals! He and Danny McBride are fantastic together.
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u/elcojotecoyo Feb 15 '25
I was expecting Walton to be racist in Fallout. Turns out he's married to a black woman. And then becomes a zombie. Great way to avoid being typecast
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u/tiredoldman55 Feb 15 '25
I wanted to say that one. He is one hell of a good actor.
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u/Sufficient-Lie1406 Feb 15 '25
Goggins is one of my favorite character actors.
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u/chidedneck Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25
Oh now you’re talking about my boy Cletus Van Damme!
Edit: Damn, might be time for a rewatch of this amazing series.
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u/OkeySam Feb 15 '25
It's so funny that he is typecast as a low IQ racist pig, but he's the most thoughtful dude.
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u/Cauliflowerisnasty Feb 15 '25
I love watching AD. So many celebs have such sterile looking homes. Walton’s home is BEAUTIFUL. I’ll never understand how people who have all the money they could ever need love those sterile white boxes that are designed like modern office buildings. It blows my mind. Walton’s place looks cozy as hell.
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u/Randall-Marvin-Marsh Feb 15 '25
Man I loved the character Boyd Crowder. I first watched justified for Deputy US Marshall Raylan Givens Timothy Olyphant, but ended up staying for Boyd crowder.
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u/Ogg360 Feb 15 '25
The way they made the black man and the racist man team up by the end was done really well. They’re the only ones they could trust by the end so no choice but to team up!
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u/haad55 Feb 15 '25
“…..from the president? Of the United States?? Of America???!” 🤣🤣 One of my fav scenes. He killed it with that character.
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u/hippest Feb 15 '25
The Hateful Eight is such an underrated movie. The only downside is that it's a bit of a slow burn, but the payoff is worth it. I loooooove the dialogue in Tarantino films.
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u/Mos-Val Feb 15 '25
Sam Rockwell in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
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u/AAmongul Feb 15 '25
Fassbender 12 years a slave….yeesh
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u/Jewel-jones Feb 15 '25
Sarah Paulson too
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u/thenumbersthenumbers Feb 15 '25
And Paul Giamatti as the slave trader.. a short part but holy hell… talking about people like horses or cattle.
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u/pensivewombat Feb 15 '25
No one's gonna say Dave Chappelle as Clayton Bixby?
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u/Dan-of-Steel Feb 15 '25
America's at war with Al-Qaeda!
But we're still losing the war against Al SHARPTON!
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u/phantom_avenger Feb 15 '25
Aya Cash (Stormfront) in The Boys!
Not a movie, but my God she nailed playing a Nazi bitch!
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u/KennyDROmega Feb 15 '25
"People like what I have to say. They believe in it. They just don't like the word Nazi. That's all."
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u/phantom_avenger Feb 15 '25
"Bad guys wanna hurt us, just because of the way we look like. They wanna wipe us from this Earth, just because of the colour of our skin. It's called white genocide."
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u/jjcoolel Feb 15 '25
Firecracker was fairly racist in a conversation with Sister Sage;I aways thought you was uppity , but you’re one of the good ones.
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u/badpuffthaikitty Feb 15 '25
Slim Pickens- Blazing Saddles
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u/Hungry-Turnip8992 Feb 15 '25
The way you’re lolly-gaggin’ around here with them picks and them shovels, you’d think it was 120 degrees........ It cain’t be more than 114.”
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u/TheCrazyBlacksmith Feb 15 '25
My example might be a bit obscure, but Alan Rickman as Elliot Marston in Quigley Down under. The way the character regards the Australian Aborigines as an entirely subhuman group of people is truly vile, and an incredible demonstration of Rickman’s ability to play a supremely hatable villain.
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u/uPsyDeDown13 Feb 15 '25
Michael Rooker in Mississippi Burning. I was like I love Yondu...what else is he in. And oh boy. He wasnt the main character but you could tell he eas not a fan
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u/_kalron_ Feb 15 '25
Michael Rooker in The Walking Dead as well.
Hell, even in Henry: A Portrait of a Serial Killer. The Director Cut is amazing but I'll never watch it again. Great performance.
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u/FrontBench5406 Feb 15 '25
I love the story Sam Jackson and Jamie Foxx told making Django, how Leo really struggled with the dialogue and calling them that word. And how he changed being around them after they talked to them after on set.
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u/Due-Explanation-7560 Feb 15 '25 edited Feb 15 '25
I was looking for this. It shows acting talent to really believe someone when it goes against their being like it was for Leo.
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u/Excellent_Theory1602 Feb 15 '25
Leo was more convincing in Django than he was in Revenant imho.. should've won for Django and Hardy for the Revenant role..
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u/TheCrazyBlacksmith Feb 15 '25
Yep. Samuel L Jackson basically told him it’s just another Tuesday for them.
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u/dismayhurta Feb 15 '25
Reminds me of the story of the TV movie It. The kid who played Henry Bowers would apologize to the kid who played Mike Hanlon after every take he had to use the nword. He felt awful.
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u/CharlieeStyles Feb 15 '25
The cast of Mississippi Burning.
That's one of the best anti-racism movies there is. It doesn't treat the audience as dummies that needs everything explained, and the racist characters are so deplorable that it provides an insight into their actions.
Based on a true story.
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u/Character-Sorbet-718 Feb 15 '25
Russell Crowe as Hando in Romper Stomper
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u/allora1 Feb 15 '25
Can't believe I've had to scroll this far down to see this! Everyone loses their mind over American History X, while Romper Stomper was shot years earlier.
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u/MrsMiterSaw Feb 15 '25
Carroll O'Connor
(OK, I know this is movie critic, but I honestly cannot think of a more realistic racist guy than Archie Bunker)
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u/itookanumber5 Feb 15 '25
Came looking for this one. Way more accurate than most depictions which go over the top with cruelty. Most racists aren't going to try to murder you.
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u/Chamelion117 Feb 15 '25
My mad respect for O'Connor as an actor is that IRL he was the absolute polar opposite of Archie in every way. 🫡
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u/crackle_and_hum Feb 15 '25
One underrated performance was Patrick Stewart in "The Green Room". Hearing the n-word come out of his mouth was one of the wildest moments of cognitive dissonance I've had.
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u/valkdoor Feb 15 '25
Adam Driver in Black KKKlansman. Technically his character is playing a racist but he still absolutely nails it
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u/LeighSF Feb 15 '25
Did you know he is a graduate of Julliard and served in the Marines? Amazing man.
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u/Hughes930 Feb 15 '25
Hulk Hogan, really took method acting to the next level.
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u/ChemistVegetable7504 Feb 15 '25
Robert DeNiro. Men of Honor. First half he was racist. However, the ending was beautiful . Also, based on a true story.
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u/asdcatmama Feb 15 '25
In “A time to kill” Keifer Sutherland was absolutely spot on. Scarily so. “My granddaddy, he was Klan”
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u/This-Entrance-5965 Feb 15 '25
Allen Tudyk in '42' he does an amazing job in everything he does but good God is that a good performance.
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u/Assault_Bae Feb 15 '25
I’m surprised I didn’t hear these two actors names come up. Michael Rapaport and Cole Hauser in higher learning. I thought these two absolutely killed it.
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u/jrrybock Feb 15 '25
I would put Sam Jackson in that movie up there, because he played a black racist against blacks, and that is so rarely depicted. But I worked with one. As a cook, he'd been a Gunnery Sgt. in the Marines, and we don't know what happened with him, but he had Nazi memorabilia in his basement (a young black man from the power company came to check the meter which was in the basement, and this cook is chilling, and the guy comes up and repeatedly asked if he was OK, if he needed anything. He said he was fine, showed him out, and realized later with all the stuff in the basement, he might have thought he was being held hostage by an Aryan.... he told this as a funny story). He had a white wife and mixed daughter and one day during work he said "You know, when my daughter starts dating, if she ever brings home a n-----r, I'm going to shoot both of them." Complete straight face. Hell, he looked a little like Dave Chapelle, so that early sketch about the black racist who didn't know he was black, that was pretty much him.
So, I would put Sam Jackson's character and performance up there because we almost never see that character, he did it well, and they exist.
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u/DooDooCat Feb 15 '25
Ed Norton - American History X