Hollywood history is chock full of award-winning performances that completely blew everyone away, from Louise Fletcher and Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest to Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. However, sometimes a performance is simply so good that it unintentionally overshadows a co-star who's quietly giving an amazing performance of their own but to much less fanfare.
There have been several recent Oscar winners who inadvertently stole the spotlight and their unsung co-stars who deserve a little more recognition. For the purpose of this list, any co-stars who were Oscar-nominated themselves for their performance will not be considered.
Angelina Jolie & Winona Ryder
1999's Girl, Interrupted features Angelina Jolie in a mesmerizing performance that finally earned her a ticket into the Hollywood elite. Overshadowed by Jolie's career-making turn, however, is Winona Ryder's performance as Susanna Kaysen, which was supposed to be her big return to the limelight.
Ryder nails the role, however, as she was able to apply some of her own experiences to help her slip into Kaysen's shoes. She was also instrumental behind the scenes, serving as a producer and helping to secure director James Mangold for the project. Jolie's charismatic and wild performance may have taken some of the spectacle away from Ryder's less bombastic character, but it doesn't diminish the amazing performance Ryder gives overall.
Joe Pesci & Ray Liotta
Martin Scorsese's crime epic Goodfellas had a bevy of amazing talent on board, including Lorraine Bracco and Joe Pesci. Both would go on to garner Academy Award nominations as Pesci won Best Supporting Actor for his scene-stealing turn as Tommy Devito.
Pesci's performance has become so immortalized that it's easy to overlook the other great performances in the movie, especially Ray Liotta's portrayal of mobster-turned-informant Henry Hill. While Bracco, Pesci and Robert DeNiro are great, Liotta ultimately pulls the audience in and makes them invested in Hill's story with a manic and endearing performance that actually makes viewers care about people who are doing some pretty awful things.
Charlize Theron & Christina Ricci
2003's Monster is an incredible movie with an even more incredible lead performance by Charlize Theron. Theron is the definition of a chameleon as she's nearly unrecognizable as the serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
Anybody thrust into the supporting role of Selby Wall was going to have a tough job but Christina Ricci takes it on bravely. Contrasting Aileen's aggressive and brash behavior, Ricci's performance is subtle and reserved, happily tagging along as her impressionable lover until Aileen's actions cause her to begin questioning everything. The movie is undoubtedly Theron's, but in her Oscar acceptance speech, she made sure to acknowledge her co-star Ricci as the movie's "unsung hero."
Heath Ledger & Aaron Eckhart
When Christopher Nolan set out to produce his take on the Joker in The Dark Knight, he unleashed a shark-like performance by the late, great, Heath Ledger. In the spirit of other devilish supporting characters like Pesci's Tommy Devito or even the actual shark from Jaws, Ledger swoops in to own the movie in every scene he appears.
As iconic as Ledger's performance was, too little was written about Aaron Eckhart's quietly brilliant portrayal of arguably the movie's most pivotal character, Harvey Dent. Unlike the Joker, Harvey is sympathetic and complex, wanting to eradicate crime so badly that moral boundaries become mere stepping stones. Eckhart's final monologue about the frailty of chance is devastatingly tragic and some of his finest work to date.
Natalie Portman & Mila Kunis
Ever since her breakout portrayal as the 12-year old Mathilda in Leon: The Professional, Natalie Portman seemed like a future Oscar-winner in waiting. Her win finally came in 2011 when she took home Best Actress for Black Swan, which co-starred Mila Kunis as the enigmatic and seductive Lily.
Black Swan is an intensely disturbing look at the effects of competition and the depths performers will go to compete. Kunis' portrayal of the uninhibited Lily next to Portman's reserved Nina perfectly embodies her character's sense of self and passion. Over time, she slowly causes Nina to lose control of her own self, resulting in Nina's descent into hallucinatory madness as the Swan Lake premiere nears.
Christoph Waltz & Mélanie Laurent
Christoph Waltz seemingly came out of nowhere to steal Inglourious Basterds as the terrifying German SS officer Hans Landa. From the first scene he appears in, he manages to overshadow the likes of Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger on his way to winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Less advertised but just as excellent is Mélanie Laurent's performance as Shosanna Dreyfus, a Jewish French woman seeking revenge for Landa's murder of her family. In one of the most emotionally tense scenes in recent memory, Shosanna, under an alias, is unexpectedly forced to dine with Landa. The conversation extends until the tension becomes unbearable as Landa's aloof nature disguises whether he suspects Shosanna's true identity. The breakdown Shosanna experiences after Landa's exit is sheer acting at its best.
Tommy Lee Jones & Harrison Ford
During a highlight sequence of The Fugitive, Tommy Lee Jones' Federal Marshall Sam Gerard tracks Harrison Ford's Richard Kimble through a sewer until Richard manages to take Gerard's gun. Aiming the weapon, Richard declares he didn't kill his wife, and Jones so memorably replies, "I don't care."
Jones' award-winning role in one of the '90s greatest thrillers was so beloved that a sequel was developed around his character. Yet, it's impossible to ignore Ford's vulnerable performance as a man so desperately clinging to the hope that he can somehow prove his innocence. That Ford was not nominated for an Oscar is more criminal than the one-armed murderer Fredrick Sykes.
Allison Janney & Sebastian Stan & Paul Walter Hauser
Both Margot Robbie and Allison Janney garnered critical acclaim for their performances in the 2017 drama, I, Tonya, with Janney walking away with the award for Best Supporting Actress. Yet, what helps make I, Tonya the excellent piece of hilarious melodrama that it is is the complete supporting cast, including Sebastian Stan and Paul Walter Hauser.
Stan's portrayal of Jeff Gillooly is layered, combining humorously unreliable narration with alternating expositions of compassion and anger. Paul Walter Hauser's character Shawn Eckardt almost feels like he couldn't possibly be a real person (at least until audiences get a look at the actual interviews), which is attributable to Hauser's excellent performance. Hauser's breakout role would help him later star in movies such as 2019's Richard Jewell.
Javier Bardem & Kelly Macdonald
Similar to Ledger, Javier Bardem carries such an immense presence in No Country For Old Men that there's never a minute the audience doesn't want to see his bowl-cut hairstyle on screen. The movie also features rugged veterans such as Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Woody Harrelson, as well as a stellar performance from Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald.
Macdonald's career began in 1996 with Trainspotting and continued with other dramas such as Gosford Park and Finding Neverland. In No Country For Old Men, Macdonald is tasked with portraying a rare ray of sunlight and the character of reason in such a bleak story. In her final confrontation with Bardem's Anton Chigurh, Macdonald beautifully conveys Carla's strength when she refuses to adhere to Anton's coin flip, which seems to confuse him. Instead, she defiantly declares "the coin don't have no say. It's just you."
Jodie Foster/Anthony Hopkins & Ted Levine
One would be hard-pressed to find another actor who had a more thankless job than Ted Levine in The Silence of the Lambs. The movie famously went on to sweep the 1992 Academy Awards ceremony as seemingly everyone on the production took home honors except Levine, including co-stars Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.
Levine plays Jame Gumb, the controversial serial killer known in the movie as "Buffalo Bill." Though Gumb's character garnered a fair amount of criticism after the film's release, Levine absolutely disappears into and gives his all to the character in a complex performance. This is perhaps best seen in his interactions with Catherine Martin as he attempts to remain calm while becoming increasingly frustrated with her stubbornness. It's more subtly portrayed when Clarice arrives at his front door, as his facial cues and mannerisms reflect a man doing everything in his power to act normal when he so clearly isn't.