Actors With On-Screen Habits That Show Up In Almost Every Film

When looking at certain patterns in film, you'll find that there seem to be two types of actors in the entertainment industry. There are the character actors, who are most often seen in supporting roles. They have the ability to mold themselves so completely into their characters that you forget about the actor behind the role, like Gary Oldman or Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Then there are the actors on the other end of the spectrum, whom you often see in leading roles. These are the performers who need to be recognizable to viewers no matter what, since oftentimes, the entire movie is sold on the basis of their names and star power. A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio, Hugh Jackman, and Brad Pitt belong to this list. While lead actors can and do often win praise for their performances, they can also sometimes fall into a rut of having the same easily identifiable mannerisms or character types in their movies. 

For example, Benedict Cumberbatch seems to have made a habit of playing brilliant but emotionally distant men with a superiority complex. Or there's Arnold Schwarzenegger sporting his thick Austrian accent while playing an American, Russian, or a machine from the future. So, here are some actors, who have made a strange practice of doing the same thing in most of their movies.  

The 2000s marked a new era for Hollywood stardom. Whereas in the past, actors usually had to climb the ranks through well-received roles in smaller movies before moving on to bigger projects, the 2000s brought a boom in franchises (via The Financial Times). This meant that relatively unknown actors could be catapulted into the big leagues overnight, all thanks to a major franchise role.

Kristen Stewart is a prime example of a somewhat unknown actress, who went from middling roles in indie projects to becoming the face of the super successful "Twilight" series as Bella Swan. The young actress was suddenly in the critical glare of the spotlight, which meant that all of her habits and mannerisms were examined carefully.

Audiences noticed that Stewart tends to bring the same "awkward" persona to many of her roles, which can make these different characters appear the same. Her habits include gasping or sighing in the middle of a scene, nervously running her hand through her hair, and opening and closing her mouth for no reason. However, Stewart seems to have broken some of these habits once she moved on from "Twilight" and started taking on more complex roles based on real people.

Few supporting actors have managed to create as memorable a legacy of roles as Samuel L. Jackson. From "Pulp Fiction" to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actor has played a number of noteworthy characters, who all have one thing in common: They are hardened no-nonsense dudes, who will always tell you the honest truth with liberal doses of swearing. 

Thanks to his previous work in movies like "Menace II Society" and "True Romance," Jackson had already made a name for himself prior to "Pulp Fiction," but it was his role as the Bible-loving hitman Jules Winnfield in that Quentin Tarantino film that really put the actor on the map. Ever since then, Jackson has been asked to play some variation of a foul-mouthed man of action in a number of blockbusters. Even the squeaky clean MCU made a reference to Jackson's fondness for cursing at the end of "Avengers: Infinity War." 

With Jackson's long and distinguished history of being a potty mouth, it might surprise fans to learn that he comes in third place on the list of actors who have said the most swear words in movies, following Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill. "That's some bulls**t!" Jackson declared to Jimmy Fallon upon learning the news, before adding, "I don't believe that. Somebody has miscounted." 

Meryl Streep is one of the greatest actors the world has ever known. Not surprisingly, being such an institution in her field of work means that Streep's every move gets examined and dissected. In all of her roles, Streep has managed to bring genuine drama and pathos, and fans have noticed that one major way she accomplishes this is by crying in most — if not all — of her movies.

Seriously, the venerated actress turns on the waterworks every chance she gets. Streep is so committed to the task that she even managed to find a scene to cry in while playing Margaret Thatcher, a woman known as "The Iron Lady." Crying on cue is a difficult thing for most actors to be able to pull off effectively across several roles. However, Streep has made an art form out of it because part of her job as an actor is to help audiences "understand different emotions and realities," as she told students during a talk at The University of Texas at Austin.

Ultimately, what saves Streep's crying from becoming repetitive or predictable is her ability to bring a fresh angle to all of her crying scenes. Sometimes it's only her eyes that fill up with tears, as in "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979). Sometimes its a full-on sobbing like at the end of "Doubt" (2008). Sometimes it's a loud scream-cry hybrid that is more scary than pitiful, as seen in "Big Little Lies" (2019). But no matter the way she does it, Streep's crying scenes always affect the audience at an intimate level. 

Paul Dano had a relatively low-key start to his career with a supporting role in the 2004 teen rom-com "The Girl Next Door." The part did not require too much from Dano physically, but it also did not provide him much room to showcase his acting chops in a way that made him stand out. 

After that, Dano got the opportunity to dedicate himself to more serious roles in critically acclaimed movies. And that somehow translated into playing characters that just keep on getting absolutely wrecked by the hero of the movie. Dano got the chance to star opposite one of the greatest living actors in "There Will Be Blood." For him, that means getting slapped silly by Daniel Day-Lewis in a public setting.

In 2013, Dano starred opposite imposing talents like Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Prisoners." For Dano, this means having not one, but three separate scenes of getting brutally assaulted by Jackman and others. Ironically, one of the movies where Dano's character received the least amount of beating was 2022's "The Batman." Despite playing the main villain against a superhero known for leaving his enemies in hospitals, Dano's Riddler does not get into a physical altercation with the Dark Knight personally. He does get a bit manhandled by the police, but considering the star's long history of being tossed around, we can imagine it was a bit of a relief to find himself outside of the sights of the Caped Crusader.

Few actors have as classy an image as George Clooney. If Brad Pitt is the rough-around-the-edges heartthrob, Clooney is the suave, elegant man, who can carry a role based on the strength of his charm alone. What the actor also frequently throws into the mix for some strange reason, however, is a head wobble that you can't help but focus on once you start noticing it.

The patented "George Clooney head wobble" is most noticeable when he plays the Dark Knight in 1997's "Batman & Robin." The tight-fitting mask of the superhero with its unmoving neck part means that every time Clooney has to turn his face, he ends up doing both a weird body swivel and the head wobble. Add in the inexplicable nipples on the bat suit and it is no surprise that Clooney's Batman gets so much grief from fans of the franchise.  

In other movies as well, whenever he has to show extreme emotion in a heated moment, Clooney's go-to acting technique is to wobble his head from the neck upwards, as if the strength of his emotions is threatening to unseat his skull from its base. The trait was so pronounced that according to The New Yorker, Steven Spielberg told Clooney when he was still an up-and-coming television actor, "If you stop moving your head around, you'll be a movie star."

Modern action stars are spoiled for choice. They have unlimited studio resources, an army of expert stuntmen and choreographers, and a green screen setting that can make it look like they are pulling off impossible stunts with ease. Earlier action stars did not have it so easy, and so they had to figure out a way to make an impression on the audience using only personal skills.

For '80s and '90s action star Jean-Claude Van Damm, that meant making use of his martial arts and gymnastics background. One trick from Van Damme's repertoire that quickly caught the attention of the public was his ability to do a complete leg split on any available surface. Soon, it became a tradition for the action star to do the splits at some point in all his movies, which would initiate rapturous applause from fans.

Never mind if the splits don't strictly make sense in the scene, the sight of Van Damme stretching his legs apart to impossible extremes has become so iconic that it was the centerpiece of a viral ad campaign for Volvo. It may be a bit gratuitous, but the Van Damme splits are one of the most fondly remembered parts of Hollywood action scenes in the era before CGI and green screens took over the process of crafting epic fight sequences. 

Even if you have never seen a movie starring Clint Eastwood, chances are you are aware of the actor's famous eye squint from his days of playing cowboys in some of the most iconic westerns of all time. That squint, along with the cigar in his mouth and the six-shooter strapped to his hip came to define the shoot-'em-up genre for several generations of audiences. 

Many fans dream up all manners of backstory for the squint. Maybe it was a way for Eastwood to make his characters look like eagle-eyed sharp shooters. Maybe they tell the story of an old injury the character suffered from before he became the best gunman in the old west. The actual reason behind the squint is quite simple: Eastwood had vision problems while making his cowboy movies, which caused him to narrow his eyes to look at things.

According to a report by Independent.ie, the squint was a result of "the glare of the Spanish sun and [director Sergio] Leone's high-wattage arc lamps." What started out as a character mannerism caused by necessity ended up becoming one of the most iconic parts of the entire western genre. Eastwood continued to showcase his famous squint in later roles, while providing impressionists with an easy way to mimic his acting style.

Few actors owe as much to the superhero genre as Ryan Reynolds. Back in the early 2010s, Reynolds was best known for his good looks, his love life, and his middling success as a leading man in rom-coms, which was marked by an occasional attempt to become a blockbuster hero or a serious dramatic actor in films like "Green Lantern" (2011) or "Buried" (2010). 

The problem was, Reynolds could not turn off his razor sharp comedic timing, no matter what type of character he took on. So, all of his roles turned into that of the quippy, mouthy guy. That curse turned into a blessing after Reynolds finally got the green light to make his dream project, 2016's "Deadpool." The actor starred as Wade Wilson, a ... quippy, self-aware action hero with a dark sense of humor. It was a role that seemed tailor-made for him.

"Deadpool" was a huge success, as the first film and its sequel made a whopping combined total of $1.5 billion at the global box office (via The Numbers). Rather than run away from the Wade Wilson persona in his later films, Reynolds instead embraced the identity of the jokingly self-aware hero. All of his roles after "Deadpool" feature him playing some version of Wade Wilson, as he cracks jokes that constantly wink at the fourth wall. Reynolds himself seems perfectly aware of the criticism regarding his habit of playing the same type of character, since that became part of the marketing strategy behind the release of his Netflix movie "The Adam Project."

For a long time in the '90s, Julia Roberts was America's sweetheart thanks to a series of starring roles in rom-coms, back when rom-coms were still a major force at the box office (via The A.V. Club). Roberts became known for playing peppy, upbeat women, whose wide smile often hid a sharper edge underneath.

The romantic films that made Roberts famous not only followed a similar pattern of the genre's beats, but also had something else in common: Roberts' laugh. Roberts burst onto the scene as a rom-com queen in "Pretty Woman" (1990), which included the iconic moment of her character Vivian guffawing when Edward (Richard Gere) snaps a jewelry box shut on her fingers. Director Garry Marshall told the American Film Institute that the scene was improvised and meant for the gag reel (via The Sun), but Roberts' explosive laugh proved so infectious that it made it to the film's final cut. Following this, Roberts managed to include a scene in many of her movies where her character lets out this type of big laugh.

The "Julia Roberts laugh" has been studied and puzzled over by fans for years. It naturally pops up more on the rom-com side of Roberts' resume, but also can be witnessed in her dramatic roles, like in "Steel Magnolias" (1989) and "Mystic Pizza" (1988). As far as onscreen habits go, a joyous laugh seems like a pretty good acting choice, as it's part of what's sustained Julia Roberts' charm for decades.