12 Awesome Supporting Actors Who Need Their Own Movies

Hollywood's sleeping on all this talent.

Eva Green Dark Shadows
Warner Bros.

As much as we all love certifiable movie stars, often our favourite actors might not be the most impossibly rich and famous A-listers, but rather those reliably brilliant performers who have made a career working as supporting players (or "character actors").

Supporting actors often don't get the credit they deserve, because it takes an extraordinary amount of skill to elevate the leads without drawing too much attention to yourself.

And yet, talented character actors often can't help but steal the show away from the "star", and once they've done it in a few separate movies, you start to wonder why Hollywood hasn't pulled the trigger on them as leads in their own right.

12. Ben Mendelsohn

Star Wars Rogue One Ben Mendelsohn
Lucasfilm

Our list kicks off with an actor who has carved out a niche for himself as Hollywood's go-to villain as of late.

After winning praise for his performance in 2010's Oscar-nominated Aussie thriller Animal Kingdom, Ben Mendelsohn became a hot commodity in blockbuster fare, playing antagonist roles in the likes of The Dark Knight Rises, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Ready Player One, Robin Hood, and most recently Captain Marvel.

As reliably smarmy and intimidating as Mendelsohn has proven himself in these roles, he has so much more to offer the film community, as evidenced by his front-and-centre performance in 2015 drama Mississippi Grind, and also his widely-acclaimed, show-stealing turn in Netflix's show Bloodline.

He's just waiting for Hollywood to cast him as the likeable yet grizzled, morally ambiguous lead in a gritty crime drama. Granted, he's fantastic at what he does, but he's certainly capable of carrying a larger-scale genre film on his shoulders.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.