Developing the main character is the basis of any good film. As a rule, their emotions, personal growth, and relationship with other characters exist to help move the plot forward. However, sometimes minor characters overshadow the big stars, thanks to their enormous charisma and maybe a more interesting, niche image.
Naturally, there are dozens if not hundreds of movies where a secondary character outright steals the show, but today we’ll take a look at the seven most prominent ones.
1. “The Silence of the Lambs” — Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins)
Did any of you know that Lecter had only like 20 minutes of screen time in the “Lambs”? I sure didn’t. He immediately captivates and attracts the audience’s attention with his cold yet polite psycho vibe. And he’s just a tiny man in a grey cell!
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past — Quicksilver (Evans Peters)
Pietro Maximoff, nicknamed “Quicksilver,” only had a couple of scenes in “X-Men: DoFP,” but now every single fan wants him to migrate to the MCU. All that thanks to a two-minute-long scene, where he saves the heroes from the Pentagon guards, gracefully pushing bullets away and pointing pistols in different directions in super slow-motion. Quicksilver singlehandedly diluted the serious and gloomy plot with his appearance, brought a bit of humor to the growing drama.
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. All — Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin)
Throughout the entire movie, Scott is accompanied by his friend and room-mate Wallace, played by Kieran Culkin. With his matter-of-fact demeanor and deadpan line delivery, Wallace is the highlight of the movie, constantly giving funny but effective advice to Scott, teasing him in every possible way throughout the entire film.
4. Thor, The Avengers — Loki (Tom Hiddleston)
The mischievous Scandinavian god of deceit has broken the hearts of many Marvel fans. Tom Hiddleston admits that while working on the role, the most difficult thing was to understand the character’s motivation. It must have been quite exciting to delve into it and try to realize it, especially if the character is this “dark.” Part of it is self-loathing. The world may forget Odin, Lady Sif, and many other support chars but not Loki.
5. Black Panther — Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis)
Usually, the best movies have incredible support cast, and Marvel’s Black Panther is not an exception. Andy Serkis has embodied an extremely charismatic villain Ulysses Klau who steals every scene he is in. The rest of the characters simply pale in comparison. He easily breaks down the boring superhero pathos with his badass outlaw attitude.
6 Fifth Element -— Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker)
In Luc Besson’s action hit, the Fifth Element, Chris Tucker, played perhaps the most memorable supporting character of the 90s — Ruby Rhod. He starts out as a self-confident “macho” type, with his own fanbase, but as soon as the stuff goes down, he starts screaming and panicking like a little girl. As good as Bruce Willis was in this movie, Tucker stole his spotlight quite a few times.
7. Star Wars -— Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
Did you know that Ford got into Star Wars by pure luck? He was hired to read the script while listening to other actors. Luckily, Lucas loved Ford’s performance so much that he offered him the role of a certain space smuggler, and the rest is history. At one point, Ford even asked the writers to kill his character, but as we all know, his popularity made it impossible. As a result, Han Solo stayed until the end of the original trilogy and eclipsed most of the other characters with his charisma.
