What's a performance so good it made you forget you were watching an actor?

Leonardo DiCaprio in what’s eating Gilbert grape. It was my first time seeing him acting and I thought he was a real disabled person in the movie.

Meryl Streep in “Only Murders in the Building.” She is playing a struggling actor, and we see her struggle, forget lines, and fumble through performances. Then her character starts to gain confidence and has a really good scene.  I remember thinking “oh hooray, she can actually act,” before remembering that it’s Meryl fuckin Streep. Of course she can act. She can act enough to make me think she CAN’T act. 

Vincent D’Onofrio in MIB.

Every single orc performer in Lord of the Rings. What those guys did was incredible.

Antony Starr as Homelander

Gary Oldman in literally anything but especially as Sirius Black - I was rewatching Prisoner of Azkaban last weekend and completely forgot it was the same dude who played Churchill and Dracula. The range is just insane Also Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter still gives me chills, like that wasnt even acting that was just pure menace captured on film

Andrew Garfield in Tick, Tick, Boom.

Jesse Plemons in Bugonia

Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest.

Edward Norton in Primal Fear

Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder. There were several points in the movie I had to remind myself that he was not, in fact, a black man.

Kathy Bates in Misery.

Daniel Day Lewis in 'There Will Be Blood'.

I really like David Jonsson in Alien:Romulus

This is a tough one to answer, but most recently: Emile Hirsch in Into The Wild By the end of that movie, the last scene he was in felt like it completely took me out of my body all together.

Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb.

Raul Julia as Gomez Addams. I 100% believed he was f****** insane and in love with Morticia.

James McAvoy in split. His performance was amazing.

Jack Gleason who played Goffrey in Game of Thrones makes you hate his character so much that you forget it’s a kid acting

heath ledger as the joker literally made me forget he was the same guy from 10 things i hate about you.. like my brain couldn't process it was the same person.

Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea.

Lee Byung Hun - I Saw the Devil Just raw emotion and sheer intensity Song Kang Ho - A Taxi Driver The same intensity and humanity Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting You just lose yourself in the scene whenever he's on screen. Phenomenal actor. Christopher Reeve - Superman Whilst it may seem silly, I just saw Superman. Still do.

Denzel in Training Day.

for me, it was definitely heath ledger as the joker. every time he was on screen, it felt like he just became that character, so wild and unhinged that i couldn’t think of him as an actor. absolute legend.

Sir Anthony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs".

Basically anything with Daniel Day Lewis lol

Cillian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer felt like I was watching Oppenheimer himself living his own story, man Murphy killed it.

Toni Collette in basically anything but especially United States of Tara

[Leland Orser in Saving Private Ryan](https://youtu.be/g1xtiuqWFCc?si=tgiJZcoU1-Ip8p2o). His small role always stuck with me. I could also say the same for his performance in “Seven,” where he cranks his portrayal of trauma up to 11.

Claire Danes as Temple Grandin in ‘Temple Grandin’.

Ralph Fiennes in almost anything; in The Dig he's playing against Carey Mulligan and a bunch of other solid actors and just disappears into his part. Or there's Amon Goeth or Count Almasy or countless other examples.

Robert Shaw, Quint Jaws

David Thewlis in Naked

Peter Weller - Robocop 1

Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel in Eastern Promises

Matthew Lillard in SLC Punk

Gary Oldman

Billy Bob Thornton in A Simple Plan

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector. Robert Shaw as Quinf

Russel Crowe surprised me in the Nuremberg movie.

Chris Evans was known to me as a dumbass teen movie kid And now he fought Thanos 

I thought Robert Downey, Jr. was perfect as Charlie Chaplin. He looked exactlyish like him.

Sam Rockwell in moon. Also Sam Rockwell in 3 billboards. He is such an underrated actor in my opinion.

Heath Ledger as Joker.

Ralph Fiennes in The Menu as Chef. The contempt he had for his patrons was palpable, the hate he had for his craft, and that last scene with Anya Taylor Joy was just brilliant. 

Juliette Binoche in everything. Especially the English patient. She has the gift

Christian Bale in Vice.

Eddie Murphy is so damn good you forget how good he is. He could have won multiple Oscars for Coming to America. He plays a whole family in The Nutty Professor. I just watched Trading Places and trying to watch his whole repertoire

DDL in everything basically

Tom Hanks as...well, a lot of characters. But when he played Mr. Rogers, in.*A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood*, it felt like Rogers was back. Same with Jim Carrey playing Andy Kaufman in *Man on the Moon*

Bryan Cranston. I don’t even need to say the role, you know his name. “Say my name. You’re Heisenberg. You’re goddamn right. “

Amanda Seyfried in The Housemaid.

Danny McBride's characters feel like they must be an extension of the man himself, but I believe he based them on people he grew up around and despised, and has a knack for layered-yet-despicable characters.

I felt Michael Fassbender *was* Bobby Sands (“Hunger” (2008)) And David Threlfall *was* Smike in “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” (1980)

Al Pacino Dog Day Afternoon

Renee Zellweger in Judy. Pretty good movie, but her performance in it was outstanding.

Daniel Day Louis in There Will Be Blood

how has no one said Jamie Fox in Ray? literally embodies Ray Charles to the point where you think your seeing Ray Charles

Sasha grey, backdoor s****

John Hurt in literally everything. Ian Holm too. First time I saw them was together in Alien.

Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder

Emily Watson in "Breaking the Waves" - you just want to save that poor woman!

William Macy in Fargo was absorbing. You could feel his acting. 

DDL in *My Left Foot.*

All the actors who have played Hannibal Lecter. This is a role excellently cast each time: Bryan Cox, Anthony Hopkins, & Mads Mikkelson.

Tom Cruise as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire makes me forget I’m watching Tom Cruise every time I watch it. In my personal opinion it’s his best acting performance, he killed it. Honestly, child Kirsten Dunst in this movie as well.

In Anatomy of a Fall, Sandra Hüller is in a scene where I get that uncomfortable feeling like I shouldn't be in the same room with them while they argue about private stuff.

John Hurt as John Merrick, The Elephant Man. The scene where he's on the boat, being chased, and having his hood taken from him had me so angry that I didn't realize I had curled up my toes and my fists were so tight that I left impressions on my nails in the palms of my hands. I was enraged. I'm not a fan of David Lynch, but THIS film was a punch in the gut. I saw this in it's initial release at my local theatre.

Johnathan Bailey in Bridgerton Season 2! His chemistry with Simone Ashley is electric!

Everyone casted in Zero Day(2002), I think because they just found random people off the street and gave the characters the actors real names they just kind of fell into the roles. It sort of feels like watching real found footage.

Patrick Swayze: Roadhouse Daniel Day-Lewis: Gangs of New York

I was wondering recently what separates movies where you feel like you're watching actors play a scene from movies where you feel like you're watching a realistic performance. Is it the quality of the actors, the genre, the dialogue? It's easy to distinguish between the two, but I'm not sure why.

Heath ledger joker, Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now

Danny Glover as Mister. I think he has spoken about how he is still hated for that role

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight

Gene Jones as the clerk in No Country For Old Men. The “call it” scene. Bardem himself has said he’s only as good as he is because he gets to play off Gene’s incredibly realized performance. In general, Coens are fantastic at getting people for small parts who just disappear into their roles. But Gene stands out to me above all others.

Jeremy Strong in Succession

Josh O'Connor in History of Sound. I had watched Wake Up Dead Man only a few weeks before and it wasn't until I was reading more about the movie after I watched it that I realized it was the same guy. History of Sound also had me sobbing on my kitchen floor, so maybe I didn't know it was him cuz I couldn't see through my tears 🥲

I dont know if this counts but all the actors in The Florida Project, Prince of Broadway, and Take Out. I swear these all feel like documentaries.

Pretty much the entire cast of "The Exorcist" - I've seen it more times than I can recall but am still amazed at how increasingly horriffying it becomes, scene after scene, mostly due to the actors' performances.

Viola Davis in Air, and others

Pat Carroll in Freedom Writers.

patrick stewart falling asleep

George C. Scott in [Patton.](https://youtu.be/sv9XNFpRdhg?si=DHATpzTh_hKRHjvy)

Martin Freeman in "the Responder". F****** amazing.

John Travolta in "Fanatic"

Robin Williams One Hour Photo

Leo Decaprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape". I really thought he was mentally challenged, so I was impressed he could be an actor, too.

I mean, almost all of them?

For me- there’s an episode of The Sopranos where Tony watches his Psychiatrist break down and the absolutely masterful acting still sticks with me 15 years after seeing it. I think it’s Episode 30 in season 3 “Employee of the Month” according to google. Just the brutal and raw emotions of two incredible actors really showcases when less is more.

Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York.

Michelle Williams in Wendy and Lucy.

All British actors. You see them very often everywhere because industry is small but they just... blend. They are so good at taking on the characters, it's something I just don't see happening in Hollywood.

Richard Farnsworth in “The Straight Story”

Russell Crowe in the Insider

Jamie Foxx in Ray.

Never happened

Dafoe Lighthouse

Reading over the answers, I wonder if I'm just very different from people who would answer the question. For me, almost every performance on TV or movies is good enough for me to forget I'm watching an actor, and it's only the really bad performances that remind me I'm watching an actor. I'm used to suspending disbelief in events or premises for the sake of enjoying the entertainment, so I may be less critical than most, maybe? I'm more thrown off by bad fight choreography or stunts than by acting. If people are noticeably pulling punches or taking hits when they clearly weren't hit, or when a car or motorcycle does something terribly unrealistic, that pulls me out of the fiction much more easily.

Damien Lillard as Shaggy.

Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. Scariest performance I've ever seen.

The character of Albie Kinsella (played by Robert Carlyle) in C****** was genuinely terrifying how realistic his descent into madness felt.

I will bring this up every opportunity I get: Tatiana Maslany takes Orphan Black, a show where the entire gimmick is that she plays several different characters, and regularly causes you to forget that she is an actor playing several different characters

Sorry, my pick is a from a tv show: Jamie Hector in The Wire. I 100% believed the actor must be a phyco after this role. He plays deadeyed that well.

Ray Liotta in goodfellas, it’s like he’s actually Henry Hill

Alan Rickman in everything.

Cate Blanchett in Tar.

Rose Byrne in last year’s If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You.

Everyone in Place Beyond The Pines.

Train spotting

Jim Carry as Andy Kaufman

John Lithgow as Churchill in the Crown. He’s in I think four episodes but one is an out his portrait and I literally was staring at the television with my mouth open. He is an amazing actor.

Underrated performance: Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid.  Come on, is there a single second of that movie where you thought you weren't watching a smart-alecky kid from Jersey?  He's just completely on.  No seams.

Literally almost every movie

DDL in Lincoln.  I felt like I was actually watching Abraham Lincoln. 

Perhaps not so common today because the boundaries between TV and Film have never been blurrier. But I recall in several instances, whenever there was a “guest star” on a tv show and such a star was a film renowned actor/actress one could feel the difference in quality, between tv and film actors. Either the guest star shined or made the rest of the cast pale in comparison.

Frances Mcdormand — nomadland

The last bit of Pulp Fiction when Travolta and Samuel L Jackson are having a conversation at the diner and are not either shouting or throwing quips at each other makes me think of that. In that specific part I am 100% sold that these guys are Vincent and Jules.

There’s a scene in Captain Phillips, where Tom Hanks is rescued, after a sniper takes out the pirate that is holding him at gun point that really made me appreciate Hank’s’ acting. While I’ve always known he was a great actor, that moment has always stuck out to me as one of his best.