Watching a film in the present day isn’t as simple as just following the story; it has become more than that. Many have become fascinated by the stories and processes involved in filmmaking. While some audience members choose to spot continuity errors in films, others look out for exciting cameo appearances - whether it be from a celebrity or the film director themselves.
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There are directors such asMartin ScorseseorEdgar Wrightwho habitually choose to play smaller roles in their films, but other film directors who are also excellent actors, such asWoody AllenorClint Eastwood,decided to direct their films and play the leading roles.
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantinois perhaps among the most notorious directors to appear in their films. Tarantino has appeared in many of his own films, includingReservoir Dogs,From Dusk Til Dawn, and most famously,Pulp Fiction. He plays a bigger role inReservoir Dogs, his directorial and acting debut, as Mr. Brown, who is part of a group who go by colors as their aliases.
Though Tarantino didn’t directFrom Dusk Til Dawn, he wrote the screenplay and had a leading role alongsideGeorge Clooney. InPulp Fiction, he had a brief appearance as Jules’ (Samuel L. Jackson) friend, Jimmie, who helps them to hide a dead body. Tarantino has also made brief appearances in his other films,Inglourious Basterds,Django Unchained,Kill Bill: Volume 1,Death Proof,andOnce Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Alfred Hitchcock
There is no denying thatAlfred Hitchcockis considered one of the greatest filmmakers ever. Hitchcock has directed many cinematic classics such asRear Window,Psycho,Vertigo,The Birds,North by Northwest, and many more that are still widely loved and studied today. He is known to make brief appearances in his films. And unlike Tarantino, his appearances usually have no dialogue, and he serves as a film extra.
InDial M for Murder, for instance, Hitchcock is seen on the left side of the class-reunion photo sitting on the same table asGrace KellyandAnthony Dawson’s characters. InNorth by Northwest, he misses a bus just after we see his credit in the opening title sequence. In bothStrangers on a TrainandVertigo, he carries instrument cases; a double bass case and a trumpet case. He makes cameo appearances in forty of his films, so much so that many stillrefer to similar brief appearancesin films as a “Hitchcock cameo.”
Woody Allen
Woody Allen has been a multitalented film director, actor, writer, and comedian for over six decades. He has written and directed all of his films, with only three films in his early days not directed by Allen himself, namelyWhat’s New Pussycat?,Don’t Drink the Water, andPlay It Again, Sam.
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Allen stars as the protagonist in many of his award-winning films, such asAnnie Hall,Manhattan,Midnight in Paris, andHannah and Her Sisters. His most notable awards include four Academy Awards, ten BAFTA awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for theAnnie Hallin 1977.
Francis Ford Coppola
Apocalypse Nowis the only film in whichFrancis Ford Coppolamakes a cameo appearance. Despite a brief appearance, Coppola’s cameo is considered one of the greatest and most effective director cameos in film history. Coppola plays the role of an army television director shouting orders at a confused Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), “It’s for television! Don’t look at the camera…just go by like you’re fighting!”
It plays into a bigrunning theme inApocalypse Now: “the brutal exploitation of war and violence for entertainment.” Another lesser-known fact is that thecinematographer seen alongside Coppola in this particular scene isVittorio Storraro, who is the actual cinematographer ofApocalypse Now.
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood is a man of many talents. He has been in the filming and entertainment industry since the 1950s and has appeared in over 60 films throughout his career. He made his directorial debut, and also starred in a film calledPlay Misty for Me, which was released in 1971. Since his debut as a director, he has starred in many of his own films, with some of his prominent works includingUnforgiven,Space Cowboys,Million Dollar Baby,andCry Macho.
Eastwood’s role in the filming industry is rare in that he excels as both an actor, director, producer, and composer. Other films he has starred in but didn’t direct areA Fistful of Dollars,The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,andThe Mule.
Edgar Wright
British filmmaker Edgar Wright has directed many iconic films since the 1990s and has starred in eight of them. The first film feature film he directed and starred in wasA Fistful of Fingersin 1995. After this, Wright made cameo appearances inShaun of the DeadandHot Fuzz. He appears as a zombie on the news ‘remembering Z-Day’ onShaun of the Deadand as the guy pushing a trolley whenSimon Pegg’s character storms through the supermarket onHot Fuzz. But his face is never clearly seen in these cameos.
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InThe World’s End, Wright appears as a construction worker. And in 2018, funnily enough, he made an unintentional cameo inBaby Driver. When Baby (Ansel Elgort) imitates playing the trumpet in a music shop, Wright’s reflection is visible in the music shop window. Despite it being a mistake, Wright decided to keep his unintentional cameo butrequired the help of VFX company DNEGto remove the monitor (used for actual filming) next to Wright so that he would look like a pedestrian. Fun fact: he also made a cameo as a Resistance Trooper onStar Wars: The Last Jedi (Episode VIII).
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplinis one of the most famous actors and comedians in the world. Those who have never seen a Charlie Chaplin film will still know who he is. A one-of-a-kind entertainer is a man of many talents; an actor, director, comedian, producer, and composer, and that is the kind of entertainer Chaplin was. His first film as an actor/writer/director was the 1914 film calledTwenty Minutes of Love. He maintained these roles in every film he was involved in until 1916, when he started to take on another role - producer.
In 1918,A Dog’s Lifebecame the first film produced by his own production company, where he played five different roles: actor, writer, director, producer, and composer. AfterA Dog’s Life, he performed the same roles in an additional twenty films; some of these films includeThe Gold Rush,The Circus,Modern Times, andThe Great Dictator.
‘Martin Scorsese’
Martin Scorsese has made a habit of making cameo appearances in his own films. Some of his cameos are more noticeable and at a larger scale, such as his role as a chilling cab passenger inTaxi Driver.Scorsese’s role, credited as “Passenger Watching Silhouette.” tells Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) to linger around outside an apartment building and tells Bickle how he will kill his wife with a .44 Magnum. It is Scorsese’s most significant cameo to date, but he only made the cameo to replace the actor whocanceled last minute due to an injury.
Other films Scorsese has appeared in includeThe King of Comedy,New York Stories,Gangs of New York,Hugo,and many more. InGangs of New York, for instance, Scorsese appears as a wealthy landowner who becomes one of the targets of the pickpocket-main-character Jenny (Cameron Diaz). And inHugo, he briefly played the role of a photographer who took pictures of a youngGeorges Méliès.
