What's Your Favourite Movie Performance By An Actor You Usually Can't Stand?

As film fans, we tend to watch a lot of, well, films. That's sort of the point, really. One of the natural consequences of seeing a lot of films is seeing a lot of bad films, not to mention bad performances. But we must suffer for our passion.

Eventually, we come to automatically equate the appearance of certain terrible actors with a movie's inevitable badness, building up a sort of cinema blacklist that guides our judgement on whether a flick is worth our time or not. Is that cheeky East-end chappie Danny Dyer's gurning countenance beaming from the poster? Probably best to give it a miss (though it really is stretching the definition somewhat to describe Danny Dyer as an 'actor'). Does the trailer feature Mark Wahlberg, perpetually squinting as though he's just emerged from a ten year stretch in a nuclear bunker, delivering dialogue with all the panache of a cricket bat? If so, no thanks.

Then there'rethose actors who we know aren't fundamentally dreadful, yet they still incite a burning hatred within for no more rational reason than 'their face'. Paul Dano, I'm looking at you (though not directly). Even though their appearance by no means heralds a stinker of a film, we still can't bring ourselves to suffer them for two hours (the seven plus hours of There Will Be Blood was basically torture).

Yet there are those times, either through a misunderstanding over the cast listing ("I thought you said Christian Bale, not Kristen Bell!") or sheer unadulterated masochism, that we expose ourselves to these shunned stars. It usually ends in disappointment, albeit with the satisfaction that we were right to avoid them all those other times. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Occasionally - and only very occasionally - they surprise us. Not Danny Dyer, obviously, but the rest. Suddenly there's a whole host of troubling questions to ponder over. Did Mark Wahlberg in fact actually excel in The Departed rather than his stupid arched potato face ruining every scene? Has Jim Carey been able to restrain his usual rubbish rubbery performances in other films besides Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Have I been wrong all this time to outcast these people from my preferred movie menu? What else have I been wrong about in life?! What does it all mean?!

These questions soon fade and the natural default state of cynicism quickly and comfortingly returns. Just because Colin Farrell was able to play himself so well in In Bruges doesn't mean I'll be jumping at the chance to see him in a Mary Poppins docufilm anytime soon (justifiably so). Likewise, it'd take a catastrophic accident for me to inadvertently endure another Christian Slater movie. But these accidents still happen from time to time.

It takes a lot of pride to admit one is wrong about something. Far more than I possess, which is why I still refuse to acknowledge Jim Carey's obvious talents despite enjoying his work in The Truman Show (yes, there was another film of his I could tolerate). There are plenty of other examples of actors for whom I've expressed nothing but utter opprobrium, who force humility upon me with an unexpectedly outstanding turn (and which I embrace with all the grace of Robert Mugabe losing an election). Never Paul Dano, though. Watching his films with my eyes closed doesn't improve them. Makes them worse, funnily enough.

So tell us: which actor you otherwise can't stand has caught you unawares with a suddenly great performance? Who are the undeniably great thespians you find it impossible to stomach, yet have to begrudgingly give credit for one particular movie? Is there a performer you refused to watch until they won you over in one outstanding role? Was it Danny Dyer? Tell us in the comments below!