12 Actors Who Won Oscars For Completely The Wrong Role

Won For... The Fighter

Should Have Won For... American Psycho

There is no sense trying to diminish what Christian Bale did for his performance in The Fighter: it was another of his incredible bodily transformations made even more impressive by the proximity to his turn in The Dark Knight trilogy. But you shouldn't win Oscars for losing weight so quickly it will have lasting effects for the rest of your life.

The performance is a lot more than just that transformation, of course, but taking away the physicality, it's not even close to being as good as Bale was in American Psycho.

In that explosive performance he was a ball of barely repressed rage, narcissistic to an incalculable degree, swaggering, disaffected and whip-sharp beneath a vacuous exterior. There has never been a better portrait of a monster since then in cinema, and it's a performance that seems to be ignored next to his others because of the controversial nature of the material. But that is a major disservice to what Bale did.

Which other actors do you think deserved to win Oscars for different roles? Share your reactions below in the comments thread.