1. Courtney Love The People vs. Larry Flint (1996)
Perhaps one of the most surprisingly sensational performances on this entire list, made more so by just how completely unexpected it actually was, is Courtney Loves turn as Althea Leasure in Milos Formans controversial biopic of Americas original pornographer. Love brings something incredible to the table here; a raw, soulful power that just cant be faked, cant be acted, and we can undoubtedly thank her tragic and often self-destructive real life for that. Its a performance that pangs with subtle nuance too, which can be acted, and perhaps thats the most surprising part of this incredible performance: she can actually act. Maybe shes not polished, but shes certainly powerful, and if you ask me, I dont think the role of Althea Leasure could have been played by anyone else, I dont care how many accolades they might have under their belt. Modern film performance often lacks this raw emotional power, and for that Loves performance has rightly gone down in history as maybe one of the biggest where the f*ck did that come from moments in cinema history.
So there you are; ten performances that completely surprised us with how awesome they were. Did we miss anything youd like to discuss? You know where the comments are