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Some directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino love to make cameos in their own movies, but they mostly leave the acting to the professionals.
But sometimes, actors make a serious career move to sit in the director’s chair.
While some actor-turned-director movies reek of transparent, laughable vanity, others are sincere creative segues that showcase a new skill set for a celebrity that the public has never seen.
This week, Watch With Us recommends our favorite movies directed by actors who decided to try something new — and to occasional award-winning results.
‘Get Out’ (2017)
After dating for a year, interracial couple Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and Rose (Allison Williams) decide that it’s finally time for the “meeting the parents” stage of their relationship. So, Alison invites Chris to a weekend away at her parents’ house upstate. Once there, Chris is instantly uncomfortable around Rose’s family, with her parents, Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener), coming across as a little too nice and accommodating. As the weekend progresses, a series of strange events occurs that leads Chris to uncover a disturbing secret about his girlfriend’s family.
In addition to being nominated for several Academy Awards — including Best Picture and Best Director for former Key & Peele comedian Jordan Peele — Get Out topped many lists of “best films of the year” back in 2017. It was also seen as a major game-changer for explorations of social themes in modern horror movies, with praise given for Peele’s razor-sharp screenwriting, atmospheric tension and build-up to a genuinely effective reveal. Modern horror movies that are “actually about something” have now been riding Get Out’s coattails for almost a decade.
‘The Bridges of Madison County’ (1995)
Adult siblings Michael (Victor Slezak) and Carolyn (Annie Corley) arrive at the Iowa farmhouse that belonged to their recently deceased mother, Francesca (Meryl Streep), to settle her estate, where they find the remnants of the memories of a passionate love affair she had with a photojournalist named Robert (Clint Eastwood). As the siblings read through Francesca’s notebooks and letters, they learn of the intense romance between her and Robert that occurred while they were away with their father on a trip as kids. The brief, ill-fated romance ties into Francesca’s final wishes, which she hoped her children would do her the dignity of honoring — but the discovery leaves them conflicted.
While Eastwood is famous for his gritty dramas and Westerns, The Bridges of Madison County shows the macho director is right at home with a story better suited for The Hallmark Channel. This saccharine love story is a romance for the ages that rivals the likes of Titanic. Anchored by riveting, aching chemistry between Streep and Eastwood, the movie is a gorgeous fable of two soulmates who find each other too late. It’s passionate, mature, erotic and obsessed with all the little details that mark two people falling in love.
‘The Town’ (2010)
Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) leads a vicious gang of robbers, which includes his hot-tempered brother James (Jeremy Renner) and their lifelong friends Albert (Slaine) and Desmond (Owen Burke). The gang does what they do best by holding no emotional attachments to anything and anyone, but this changes for Doug when he takes a bank employee named Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage. After letting her go, Doug seeks her out in the neighborhood to see what she’s revealed to authorities, but he ends up doing something else: falling in love with her. As their romance progresses, Doug realizes he wants out of his life of crime — but escape won’t come easily.
Between The Town, Argo, Gone Baby Gone and Air, Affleck has proven himself to be quite a skilled filmmaker, but The Town is regarded by some as his very best. Affleck directs this character-driven drama with verve and artistry, working from a script he co-wrote that may surprise you in how much of an emotional punch it packs. The heist action sequences are exhilarating and intense, the atmosphere is authentic and the performances (particularly Renner’s) bring rich complexity to the characters.
‘A Star Is Born’ (2018)
The Hangover’s Bradley Cooper came out of the directing gate swinging with a fourth adaptation of an Old Hollywood classic: A Star Is Born. Cooper took the story of a rising singer and her doomed mentor-slash-lover and gave it a modern pop country flavor, with Cooper in the role as seasoned country artist Jackson Maine. Jackson discovers and falls in love with a young singer named Ally Campana (Lady Gaga), but as her career takes off and her spotlight grows, their relationship begins to splinter. Meanwhile, Jackson wages a losing battle with his own internal demons.
A Star Is Born was a major moment for both Cooper and Gaga, with Cooper proving that he is an exceedingly capable director, and Gaga — though having acted in the past — proving that she has the talent, charisma and screen presence to be a serious Hollywood actor. Stripped of her outrageous meat dresses and “Bad Romance” pop songs, Gaga is a shockingly grounded performer, and her talent shines by playing off against Cooper’s troubled Jackson Maine. Ultimately, A Star Is Born is a moving and human portrait of addiction and fame.
‘Lady Bird’ (2017)
Opinionated, strong-willed teenager Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) would be reluctant to admit that she is the same as her mother (Laurie Metcalf), since the two weather a particularly turbulent dynamic during Lady Bird’s senior year at her Catholic high school. Despite her family’s struggling financial situation, Lady Bird longs to leave Sacramento and attend a prestigious college in New York City, and she ignores her mother’s insistence that these dreams are unrealistic. Throughout her final year, Lady Bird experiences the ups and downs of school, friendship and family as she struggles to come of age.
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Greta Gerwig made her mark in indie classics like Frances Ha, Hannah Takes the Stairs and 20th Century Women, and while she does still occasionally lend her acting talents to movies like White Noise and Jay Kelly, Gerwig has largely transitioned to the director’s chair. Her debut directorial effort, Lady Bird, was an instant triumph and Best Picture nominee; a blisteringly emotional and poignant portrait of teen angst, family dysfunction and the search for identity. The movie’s exceptional cast also includes Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein and Lucas Hedges.
