Here's Why Officer Le Flore From Meet The Fockers Looks So Familiar
Following the success of 2000's Meet the Parents, director Jay Roach tapped the likes of Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro to return for Meet the Fockers. The first film chronicles the trials and tribulations that come with meeting a significant other's parents (as the title would imply). The sequel is all about introducing both parties' parents to each other. Needless to say, the affair doesn't go as smoothly as anyone in either family hoped — stress for them, comedy for viewers.
Near the film's end, Greg (Stiller) and his father Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) are arrested by one Officer Vern Le Flore for speeding. The policeman is perhaps a bit too enthusiastic about the Taser he's equipped with, using it on both Greg and Jack (De Niro), who was only trying to talk things through. Under the shades and sun hat, Le Flore actor Tim Blake Nelson may seem a familiar face. Here's where you may have seen him before.
Tim Blake Nelson smiled through the Depression in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
When most people think of the Odyssey, their minds probably return to high school English class, where they may have studied Homer's epic poem and its prequel The Iliad. But the ancient Greek work has influenced more stories than anyone could possibly imagine, including filmmaking brothers Joel and Ethan Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou? The connections are loose — after all, the film is set in 1937 in Mississippi, not Bronze Age Greece — but they're there.
The story centers around three convicts who've fled from a chain gang: Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro), and Delmar O'Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson). Delmar is the affable dimwit of the group and says some of the film's best lines ("Well, the two of us was fixin' to fornicate!"). It's hard to imagine why a man like him would have been arrested in the first place, but his relationships with Everett and Pete are what's important, so it doesn't really matter.
As a fun side note, the songs the trio sings as spur-of-the-moment band The Soggy Bottom Boys are all lip-synched by the actors, but Nelson really sings "In the Jailhouse Now."
Tim Blake Nelson played a lawman once again on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Over ten years after playing a cop in Meet the Fockers, Tim Blake Nelson donned the uniform once again in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — though a different story and character called for a different approach. The series follows the titular Kimmy (Ellie Kemper), rescued from a doomsday cult that held her captive for 15 years, and her journey to live a normal life despite what happened. Of course, life has a funny way of preventing things from ever being 100% normal.
Regardless, part of catching up to speed is meeting new members of the family — including her half-sister Kymmi (Kiernan Shipka) and her stepfather Randy Peterson (Nelson). Randy is a state trooper, among the people who tried (and failed) to find Kimmy while the cult held her in its clutches. The search did lead him to Kimmy's mother, though, and the rest is history. History aside, Randy is ... a klutz: He has a bad habit of losing things and doesn't exactly inspire confidence as an officer of the law. Forging bonds with a stepdaughter he barely knows isn't easy, but it is worth it. It's a recurring role, but Nelson makes the most of the few episodes he's in.
Tim Blake Nelson was in the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot
Ten years after the Tim Story-directed Fantastic Four released in theaters, Marvel rebooted its First Family under the direction of Josh Trank. Neither version (nor the movie that came between: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) was well-received by audiences or critics, but that doesn't mean they don't have upsides. In the case of Trank's Fantastic Four, Tim Blake Nelson's performance as Dr. Harvey Allen is a bright spot in a dark film.
After the disaster of the Quantum Gate, Allen hires Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), Sue Storm (Kate Mara), and her brother Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) to work on government assignments using their newfound powers. He eventually sends Ben to find Reed Richards (Miles Teller), who fled after the incident and is thus responsible for creating the Fantastic Four in the first place. It could've been just another stuffy suit-and-tie role, but Nelson injects it with life to keep the character as interesting as possible.
Equally as interesting is the fact that, in the original script, Nelson's character was named Harvey Elder — alias of the classic Fantastic Four villain the Mole Man (via The Hollywood Reporter). The Trank franchise is moot now, but maybe Disney will tap Nelson to return as the subterranean baddie?
Tim Blake Nelson sang his way through the Wild West in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Nearly two decades after stumbling around Mississippi in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Tim Blake Nelson reunited with the Coen brothers for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a Western. Though he stars in the title role, the film is broken up like an anthology of sorts, with Nelson only appearing in the first of six vignettes. They're all enjoyable for different reasons, and Nelson's performance as the titular cowboy is by far the main draw of his section.
Buster isn't your typical gruff, stubbly-faced lone rider but a rather jolly soul who's as quick to sing a song as he is on the draw. Just as he does for "In the Jailhouse Now" in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Nelson sings his heart out in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, performing the Oscar-nominated "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" alongside The Kid (Willie Watson). It's one of his most endearing and highly praised roles to date, and we'd like to think Buster and Delmar would get along if they ever met.
Tim Blake Nelson reflected on Watchmen
In 1986, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created a comic book series well-regarded enough to eventually make TIME's list of the 100 best novels ever: Watchmen. The premise is simple: a retired superhero named The Comedian is murdered, and his former teammates are jarred out of their own retirements as a result. What makes it so complex is the execution — the way the initial direction of the story twists and turns and the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the characters. It was developed into a film in 2009 and spun off into a sequel of sorts with the prematurely canceled TV series Watchmen.
Tim Blake Nelson portrays Wade Tillman, a.k.a. Looking Glass, a detective traumatized by an interdimensional invasion he lived through over 30 years beforehand. He develops a number of strange traits due to the experience, including an aversion to squids and a tendency to wear reflective headgear (thus his alias) that he believes will guard him from psychic assaults. He's a unique character to be sure, and he's uniquely played by Nelson, who received a number of nominations and much praise for the role.
Nelson has several upcoming projects lined up, but how soon we'll see any of them is up to COVID-19. Here's to hoping the talented actor appears on screen once again sooner rather than later.