10 Actors Who Can't Help But Play Themselves

9. Danny Trejo

Everyone's favourite machete-wielding Mexican has made a 20+ year career of playing an uncompromising badass. When it all comes down to it, there's various reasons for Trejo's realistic portrayals. Having grown up in a childhood littered with drug use and criminal misdemeanours, the young Daniel Trejo found himself locked up for various drug charges and armed robbery. Spending his time in prison to better himself, Trejo gave further evidence to being a genuine badass by winning several boxing titles in San Quentin. Upon successfully completing a 12-step rehabilitation program, Trejo's look and reputation earned him some of his earlier roles.From there on out, especially after teaming with Robert Rodriguez, Trejo has never looked back, often playing a clinical, charming badass who likes to play with knifes. With 2014 now upon us, Trejo will shortly be 70-years-old, and he shows no signs of changing his ways any time soon. Exception To The Rule: In Rob Zombie's 2007 Halloween, Trejo played a quiet, thoughtful, well-meaning janitor in the prison that housed the troubled Michael Myers. Despite his friendly demeanour towards Michael for years, The Shape thought nothing of dropping a TV set on the head of Trejo's Ismael Cruz. One can only imagine how that fight would've played out if Trejo was in his full Machete gear.
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.