They say that every actor secretly wants to direct. Many of them have tried over the years. A few have found massive success. Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, and Clint Eastwood have all won Oscars in the best director category. Barbra Streisand, Greta Gerwig, and Jon Favreau are others who have famously worked on both sides of the camera.
Other actors have tried, yet failed to get the same kind of recognition. These famous names, which are among the biggest in Hollywood, only did it once or twice, tops. In fact, many of their fans may not even realize they directed a movie. That's how unfamiliar these films are to the general public. Some of their efforts are good, others not so much. Regardless of outcome, their directorial debuts are definitely on the obscure side. Vote up the most surprising movies you didn't know were directed by famous actors.
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Keanu Reeves has more than proven his action credentials. From Point Break to The Matrix to the John Wick series, he has firmly established himself as one of the genre's most gifted - and, just as importantly, most popular - stars. Offscreen, he is a learned student in the martial arts, having studied Judo, Karate, Jiu Jitsu, and Krav Maga. He knows his stuff.
Those skills came in handy when he decided to direct 2013's Man of Tai Chi. The story follows a preternaturally talented young fighter in desperate need of money. To earn some, he joins an underground fighting ring, where he must take on a series of opponents. Reeves not only directed, he also has a supporting role as the film's resident bad guy. Man of Tai Chi oddly didn't get a wide theatrical release, despite its director-star's involvement and largely positive reviews. Nevertheless, it contains more than enough stylish fighting sequences to satisfy fans of martial arts movies.
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Nothing could be more unexpected than Arnold Schwarzenegger directing a made-for-television Christmas rom-com. And yet, that's exactly what he did with Christmas in Connecticut. This 1992 film, which aired on the TNT cable channel, stars Dyan Cannon as Elizabeth Blane, the star of a popular televised cooking show. Her producer, Alexander (Tony Curtis), gets the bright idea to have her do a live episode in which she cooks a meal for forest ranger Jefferson (Kris Kristofferson) as a thank-you for his heroic actions. The problem is that Elizabeth can't actually cook, a fact she must hide from both Jefferson and the viewing audience.
Christmas in Connecticut is a loose remake of a 1945 Barbara Stanwyk/Dennis Morgan comedy bearing the same name. Schwarzenegger was apparently a fan and figured doing something seemingly outside his wheelhouse would make a great kickoff to a directorial career. He may have been the biggest star in the world at the time, but he didn't fare as well behind the camera. The movie got poor reviews, although it garnered decent-enough ratings for TNT. An ambitious romantic-comedy with farcical elements was simply a pretty big reach for his first - and thus far only - time out as director.
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Drew Barrymore rose to fame thanks to her role in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. It would seem she must have paid great attention to director Steven Spielberg, learning a few things about filmmaking. Her one and only movie as a director, 2009's Whip It, is a slick, consistently entertaining comedy that plunges viewers into the world of a unique sport.
Elliot Page stars as Bliss, a young Texan bored with small-town life and craving excitement. That wish is granted in the form of an invitation to join a local roller derby team. Aside from giving Whip It a lively pace and a sharp comedic edge, Barrymore takes roller derby seriously, allowing viewers to feel as though they understand and appreciate the skills that go into playing the game, as well as the colorful personalities of the athletes. She hasn't directed another film since, which is a real shame, because the movie shows great promise.
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Michael Keaton wasn't supposed to direct The Merry Gentleman, and based on what happened afterward, he possibly wishes he never had. This 2009 movie is about an abused woman named Kate Frazier (Kelly Macdonald) who leaves her husband and flees to Chicago, hoping to start a new life. She befriends Frank Logan (Keaton), not realizing he's a professional hitman. Bobby Cannavale co-stars as Michael, Kate's husband who shows up looking for her.
Initially, Keaton was only supposed to act in the movie, but when the original director had to step down at the last minute due to health issues, he took over the reins in order to keep the project from shutting down. The production company that put up $5.5 million to make The Merry Gentleman went on to sue Keaton when the film flopped, earning just $347,000. They accused him of violating his contract by turning in the movie late and failing to sufficiently promote it. He won that lawsuit, but it got ugly for a while. It was a lot of drama for a picture that almost no one saw.
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Chris Evans became a household name thanks to his work as Captain America in the Marvel movies. Although he'd had plenty of screen credits before that, playing Cap broke him out of the “handsome guy” mold Hollywood forced him into, showing that he could handle a big, showy role with skill. That opened the door to other great roles, most notably the scoundrel Ransom Drysdale in Knives Out.
Perhaps because he was typecast early in his career, Evans wanted to show what he could do behind the camera. That led him to make the 2014 romance Before We Go. He and Alice Eve play strangers who meet in Grand Central Station and go on to spend a night getting to know each other in the Big Apple. The movie was clearly aiming for the same kind of vibe Richard Linklater achieved with his Before… trilogy. (Even the titles are similar.) It didn't quite work out. Poor reviews and a minimal theatrical release caused Before We Go to stall out with a $37,000 domestic gross. Not exactly Marvel money.
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You have to give Woody Harrelson credit for ambition. In 2017, he directed a film called Lost in London. He plays himself in this wild story that was inspired by true events. He comes offstage from a London theater performance and only wants to get back to his hotel so he can get some rest and take his kids to visit the set of a Harry Potter movie the next day. Instead, he endures a series of events that end with him fighting with his wife, fleeing paparazzi, and getting arrested.
The semi-autobiographical plot isn't the most ambitious thing about Lost in London - that would be the way it was filmed. The movie was planned as special “alternative content” programming, beamed into theaters across the country by Fathom Events. But instead of shooting it first and then exhibiting it, Harrelson and his cast - including Owen Wilson, Daniel Radcliffe, and Willie Nelson - performed it live. In other words, audiences who saw Lost in London during that one-night showing not only saw the film, they also saw the film being made before their eyes. Reviews were largely positive for this technically challenging production.
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