8. Daniel Day-Lewis There Will Be Blood
Proof that overacting can occasionally be award-winning, Daniel Day-Lewis balances on that fine line between completely nuts and outrageously talented. Luckily for him and his awards cabinet, he tends to fall on the good side of the line more often than not. But still, it doesnt mean his crazy doesnt come out occasionally. As is well-documented by now, Day-Lewis is a tour-de-force almost all the time, and chooses to bring his roles into everyday life just so he can get into character. Quite frankly, we enjoy the completely bonkers side you dont get to be top of your game without being almost completely insane, so more power to him. And when he just gets to cut loose in his roles and let the jack out of the box, we get scenes like Daniel Plainviews finale in There Will Be Blood. Weve been through two-and-a-bit-hours (its a long film) watching the trials and tribulations of Plainview and his quietly bubbling seething rage. It comes out occasionally, like when he shoots a man or when he attempts to drown priest Eli Sunday in oil, but he usually keeps it under check even if it does give him the aura of a man who desperately wants to slap you. Yet at the end of the film, we get the whole shebang Plainview is already clearly insane by this point, and when hes confronted by a now-older Sunday begging him to buy a patch of oil land to cover his Depression debt he just utterly snaps. When I say utterly, its in the most amazing way possible the man references milkshakes, for gods sake. Weve been treated to a very measured performance up until now and then this scene just drops onto you like a ton of slurping bricks. If you dont know what I mean by slurping, please watch. The best bit is that it just drops out of nowhere hes midway through delivering a pretty intense line when boom, drainage and milkshakes. Its like being ambushed by hilarity.