8 Actors Who Unexpectedly And Brilliantly Played Against Type
2. Marlon Wayans As Tyrone C. Love (Requiem For A Dream)
When youre casting for a film that intends to show the gritty, depressing nature of drug addiction in terrifying relief, theres a certain pool of actors who it seems appropriate to pick from. Jennifer Connelly? A child star, yes, but shes got chops. Ellen Burstyn? With a career spanning more than forty years at the time of casting, youre on to a winner. Marlon Wayans? Er What? However, when beginning work on Requiem For A Dream, director Darren Aronofsky obviously saw something in the star of Dont Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood - a wacky parody of the many hood movies that were so popular at the time (and serious contender for Longest Film Title Ever). Casting him as Tyrone C. Love, a man who falls into drug-dealing only out of desperation to escape lifelong poverty but who ultimately finds himself incarcerated, sentenced to hard labour and utterly without hope, Aronofsky took a chance that paid off big time. Wayans performance, alongside every other actors in that film, was heartbreakingly raw. Yes, Marlon went straight back to writing and starring in parody films alongside most notably, Scary Movie and its seemingly endless sequels but no one whod seen his performance in Requiem for a Dream would ever forget it.
