10 Blatant Paycheck Movie Roles (That Were AWESOME)
5. Anthony Hopkins - Transformers: The Last Knight
Michael Bay's Transformers franchise has granted obvious paycheck roles to a number of esteemed actors over the years such as John Turturro, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, and Stanley Tucci, but none quite so unexpectedly as Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Hopkins, a giant of stage and screen with five Oscar nominations (and one win) to his name, is a credit to any production he's cast in, and despite basically being hired to spout exposition with class in the fifth Transformers movie, The Last Knight, he sure seemed like he was having the time of his life.
It was an unmistakable payday part for the ageing vet, but as Sir Edmund Burton, an historian who knows the history of the Transformers, his performance is the easy highlight of the entire 149-minute cacophony of a film.
Beyond laying out the plot, Hopkins gets to hang out with his C-3PO-esque robot butler Cogman (Jim Carter), call a police officer a "d**khead," and talk about how "bitchin'" one of the Transformers is.
In fairness, Hopkins expressed a genuine enthusiasm about working with Bay in interviews, calling him a "genius" and comparing him favourably to the likes of Oliver Stone, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese.
Even so, the reason that actors like Hopkins gravitate towards these impossibly huge tentpoles is very clearly the fat stacks of cash that come with them. And why the hell not?