10 Actors Who Have Become Badass Directors

10. Edward Norton

It's rare that an actor manages an Oscar nomination for their first film, but Edward Norton pulled it off. His 1996 big screen debut, Primal Fear, earned him his first of three bids at an Academy Award.

Norton has been acting ever since to somewhat mixed results. He's appeared in some future classics, such as Fight Club or Birdman, but just as many duds, like The Incredible Hulk, which was so bad that the studio recast him for The Avengers. His reputation for being somewhat difficult to work with hasn't helped either, resulting in some gaps between projects on his IMDb page.

However, Norton has recently made somewhat of a comeback behind the camera. He directed and starred in 2019's Motherless Brooklyn, based on the Jonathan Lethem novel of the same name. Norton has described Motherless Brooklyn as a passion project. Hopefully, it will lead to more directing work for the American History X star.