10 Amazing Actors Yet To Realise Their True Potential

8. Paul Dano

Paul Dano's career can be characterized by an affinity for roles which demand a nervous disposition with a strong undercurrent of social awkwardness. His breakthrough film L.I.E. saw him playing a teenager struggling to overcome the death of his mother who is drawn into the life of a sex offender, while in Little Miss Sunshine he embodied the idea of nihilistic teen angst, refusing to talk while reading copies of Nietzsche. Dano is equally adept at roles which demand more intensity, including a wonderfully manic performance alongside Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. in which he played a cunning, manipulative religious con-man. This year's starring role in Love And Mercy as The Beach Boys front man Brian Wilson was perhaps his best yet, a virtuoso portrait of an artist's fracturing mental landscape. The fact that Paul Dano is highly unlikely to ever play a traditional male Hollywood lead is what makes him stand out as a versatile actor with the potential to do something truly singular and memorable. His nervous energy and ability to capture the schizophrenic nature of his characters make for a potentially awesome iconic performance.