10 Supporting Movie Characters Who Should've Been The Lead
8. Sergeant Dignam (The Departed)
This rough and gritty neo-noir set in Boston has a fantastic cast of characters, all of whom are played by a murderers row of the best talent you can find out there right now. Leonardo Dicaprio, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Anthony Anderson, and so many more. But the one we consider to be the true star of the movie is Mark Wahlberg.
Wahlberg plays the short-tempered, loud mouthed Sergeant Dignam, who is in charge of organizing and maintaining the deep cover identity of Leo DiCaprio's Billy Costigan. With a job like that, you can imagine he's under a bit of stress. But Wahlberg plays him with such an anger and intensity that's so hard to not find compelling, you'll find yourself wishing he was the lead just so you'd know that much more about what goes on in his insane head.
Unlike the previous entries, this isn't a case of the actual lead character being bad, but Dignam is such a fascinatingly awful presence that you can't help but want to explore him more. Also, it definitely helps that he has all the best lines in the movie.