10 Non-Action Movies From Popular Action Movie Stars, Ranked By IMDb

The world of Hollywood acting is a competitive one, and not everyone is built for every kind of role. The range of an actor or actress, how they adapt to the requirements of the parts they play, is a measure of how good they are at their job. While it is important to have range, specializing in a specific genre is no easy feat either.

Names like Steve Carell and Jim Carrey are commonly associated with comedic roles, while Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio can be called dramatic actors for the many movies they have appeared in over the years. In the same way, there are many popular action stars as well whose names have become synonymous with the genre. It’s not that they don’t do or haven’t done any other types of films, but generally, it’s their action blockbusters that everyone knows them for.

10 Arnold Schwarzenegger: Jingle All The Way (1996) – 5.7/10

With a physique that would put even modern bodybuilders to shame, it’s not difficult to see why Arnold Schwarzenegger got into (and for the most part stayed in) the action movie business. But what separated him from every other muscle head was that he was successfully able to carry over the charm of a fantastic body to even more fantastic action films.

This 1996 Christmas movie finds him and actor Sinbad as two fathers competing against each other and everyone else to get their hands on a Turbo Man action figure for their children.

9 Dwayne Johnson: The Game Plan (2007) – 6.1/10

Part of multiple billion-dollar franchises and with a box-office track record as impressive as it comes, Dwayne Johnson is the quintessential Hollywood leading man right now. What very few non-action roles he has come from the earlier period of his career, back when he was still finding his feet.

The Game Plan stars The Rock as a popular NFL quarterback who suddenly discovers that he has a young daughter, and now must deal with the struggles of parenting as a single father while also handling his sports life.

8 Jason Statham: Mean Machine (2001) – 6.5/10

Mean Machine is about a former pro footballer Danny Meehan (played by Vinnie Jones, a retired footballer himself) who is sent to prison after a series of misconducts, where he starts a football team consisting of prisoners.

Alongside a handful of other eccentric characters, Jason Statham appears as “The Monk”, a convict who is recruited into the team of inmates to play against the prison guards in this British adaptation of the 1974 American film The Longest Yard.

7 Harrison Ford: American Graffiti (1973) – 7.4/10

The first Star Wars film of 1977 made its cast and director George Lucas superstars overnight, but before it came the coming of age drama American Graffiti. The film was Lucas’s first noteworthy hit (grossing $140 million against a budget of less than $1 million) and more importantly, it marked the first collaboration between him and Harrison Ford.

Ford plays one of the many youngsters in this film about a group of teenagers and their exploits on the last day of summer vacation in 1960s California.

6 Charlize Theron: Monster (2003) – 7.3/10

From Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins in her directorial debut, Monster chronicles the life of serial killer Aileen Wuornos who murdered seven people in 1989, and explores what drove her to do the things she did.

Charlize Theron has shown dedication to her roles many times in the past such as in Mad Max Fury Road where she shaved her head, and brings that same devotion to Monster where she is practically unrecognizable. The performance earned her the first Oscar nomination and win of her career.

5 Tom Cruise: Rain Man (1988) – 7.4/10

The 21st century has seen Tom Cruise star in some truly awesome action films, but the dramatic roles he did back in the 90s were something totally unique. In 1994’s Interview with the Vampire, he plays a vampire alongside Brad Pitt and in the 1999 erotica’s Eyes Wide Shut, he is a doctor infiltrating a sex cult.

Rain Man remains his highest-rated non-action movie, about a selfish young man discovering that he has a brother with autism to whom his father left all his inheritance. As Tom Cruise films tend to do, it was a box office hit, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year and winning 4 Oscars.

4 Keanu Reeves: The Devil’s Advocate (1997) – 7.5/10

First with 1999’s The Matrix and then again recently with the John Wick franchise, few actors have reinvented the action genre in the same way Keanu Reeves has. In The Devil’s Advocate, Reeves’s character Kevin Lomax, an undefeated lawyer is invited to New York to work under a man named John Milton at a renowned law firm.

Brought to life by Al Pacino’s daring performance, Milton is eventually revealed to be the Devil in disguise, trying to manipulate Lomax (actually his son) into giving birth to the Antichrist. Heavy stuff.

3 Milla Jovovich: Dazed and Confused (1993) – 7.6/10

Films based on video games have a reputation for being bad, and although none of the Resident Evil films have received rave reviews from critics, the fact that it has thrived with strong box-office numbers for nearly 20 years speaks to its strength. Although she has left it now, Milla Jovovich was at the heart of this horror-action franchise, kicking zombie ass from the first film to the sixth.

A cult classic featuring some of Hollywood’s biggest stars before they became famous like Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey, and Jovovich, Dazed and Confused is a coming-of-age drama about a group of teenagers fooling around on their last day of school.

2 Daniel Craig: Knives Out (2019) – 7.9/10

Daniel Craig’s long tenure as the world’s most famous spy will be coming to an end soon, and it can be expected that he’ll take on more dramatic roles such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the recent Knives Out. 

Directed and written by The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, it revolves around the lively Thrombey family when their eldest member dies and is suspected of being murdered. Sporting a ridiculous yet entertaining accent, Craig plays private investigator Benoit Blanc alongside many other popular actors such as Chris Evans and Ana de Armas.

1 Liam Neeson: Schindler’s List (1993) – 8.9/10

The Holocaust remains a historical event that will be unforgotten for its significance and tragic nature for countless years to come, and nowhere is it represented in all of its horrifying glory as in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List.

Not just a great WWII film but considered one of the best films ever made, it tells the real-life story of a man Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson), a businessman who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. The film earned Neeson the first and as of yet only Oscar nomination of his life.

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