1. Christoph Waltz Inglorious Basterds
In the movie business, big names tend to sell big films. Though one might say that this doesnt apply to Quentin Tarantino to the same degree after all, the man does make a concerted point out off resurrecting dead careers his films have always come stacked with big names. Reservoir Dogs had Harvey Keitel, Pulp Fiction had Bruce Willis, Jackie Brown had Robert Di Nero, Kill Bill had Lucy Liu (and Uma Thurman again, I guess), Death Proof had Kurt Russell, Inglorious Basterds had Brad Pitt and Django Unchained had Leonardo Di Caprio, proving that while Quentin does stack his deck with genre actors, he still keeps aces in the pack. But what was remarkable about Inglorious Basterds was that though it had the pull of Pitt, the pivot around which the whole plot was based was a different character entirely Hans Landa. Tarantino has said that Landa represented the most impossible part hes ever cast a suave German, French, Italian and English speaker capable of great menace and charm, the specifications trimmed down the CV herd to a practically non-existent level. After Leonardo DiCaprio (who Tarantino originally had in mind for the part) couldnt take the role, even coming-into-form Michael Fassbender was rejected for not being f**kin German enough (technically untrue, the mans half-German). It looked like he might have to scrap the juicy part, but then, enter Christoph Waltz. Amazingly, the guy was only starring in Austrian soaps before picking the role as the lynchpin of a Tarantino film, a rise to prominence both amazing and staggering. Yet what was even more insane was that Waltz wasnt just good in the part, he
killed in it (metaphorically and literally(. The man picked up an Oscar, thus proving that perhaps when the next British blockbuster roles around, perhaps we should eschew the A-List and go straight to Eastenders. Agree or disagree? Can you think of any more? Feel free to comment!