10 Unusual Movie Cameos

Marilyn Manson’s Cameo in Wrong Cops

Last night I was watching Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong Cops movie on Netflix, not only did it feature some of Quentin’s brilliantly bombastic music as Mr. Oizo (Yes, he’s the fellow behind Flat Beat with the yellow puppet named Flat Eric), it also featured Marilyn Manson playing a gay teenage prostitute… weird, right? Wrong Cops had a strong focus on Quentin’s house music, people listening to the genre, people being saved from death by it and people hating it.

The movie was great overall if a little surreal and is a suitable follow-up to Quentin’s Rubber and Wrong movies, it got me thinking about Marilyn Manson’s acting career as a whole and other cameos he’s had over the years, but do beware some spoilers! One of the first cameos that sprang to mind was Manson’s cameo appearance in Eastbound & Down as a waiter at a roller-rink, most people are rather shocked by how normal he can look when they’re told it is him, otherwise you probably wouldn’t notice him in the role with his brown hair and polo shirt.

Johnny Depp’s Cameo in Happily Ever After

Johnny Depp makes a cameo in the French movie Happily Ever After (Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d’enfants) whilst listening to Radiohead in a record store, not only is Radiohead one of my favorite bands, this scene combines a great piece of storytelling with one of the best actors of recent years. Something that may surprise movie-goers is that Johnny Depp is actually fluent in French after owning a home there for many years.

Redline Cameo

Gus Hansen makes a cameo appearance in Redline playing Texas holdem poker, interestingly he loses the hand three aces to the flush, I found it a nice touch to include one of the Full Tilt Professionals though, definitely adds to the realism.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Cameo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgXJY7tY-fo

Despite having a name that sounds like “blank check”, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Les Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec) is one of these films that you have to see before you die, not only is it directed by Luc Besson, but if the idea of a pterodactyl on the loose in Paris combined with a strong female lead and some Indiana Jones levels of history meets action-adventure sounds like your cup of tea then it is definitely a movie worth watching, fortunately it is currently on Netflix so you don’t even have to part with any money if you think that it might be a little too weird for your tastes. There is a great cameo in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec; it is Mathieu Amalric, yes that’s right, the Bond villain from Quantum of Solace, again playing a villain, this time called Dieuleveult.

Airheads Cameo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXwBJMvyfT0
One of my favorite movies, though many will laugh at it, is actually Airheads thanks to the great performances of Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler and Steve Buscemi as a band called The Lone Rangers who take over a rock radio station with firearms to get their music played, definitely worth watching as it is on Netflix, but the cameo that really surprised me was Rob Zombie of the band White Zombie playing at The Whiskey A Go Go, this is one of Hale and I’s favorite artists.

Asterix at the Olympic Games Cameos

Noticing a trend between myself and French cinema? Another fun cameo is Michael Schumacher and Jean Todt making an appearance together in Asterix at the Olympic Games in which he plays Schumix.

Cars 2 Cameos

Dan is going to love me for knowing these cameos of motor-sports stars whilst we’re on the subject of motor-sports cameos; though Cars and Cars 2 are films that I’ve only recently gotten round to watching (I figured they might be boring so gave them a miss when they were released in movie theaters), Cars 2 features Lewis Hamilton and Jeff Gordon, though interestingly Fernando Alonso, Vitaly Petrov and Sebastian Vettel also make cameo appearances in the dubs of the movie featuring their mother tongues.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Rick Bobby Cameos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwsp6A4WUbU

I’ve admittedly got a bit of a love for movies featuring cars as I have a love of all things mechanical, it was the original version of The Italian Job that sparked my love of movies featuring cars, one of the movies that Alyssa and I often quote to each other when we’re having a conflict of opinion is Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with the line “Chip, I’m gonna come at you like a spider monkey!”, but what you might not have realized is just how many cameos are made in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby by real-life NASCAR personnel; Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jamie McMurray are both drivers, and then there’s all the associated personnel from the various commentators and field reporters, and of course Mos Def and Elvis Costello making cameo appearances at the party.

Randy Savage Cameo in Spider-Man

Though there are quite a number of cameos in the original Spider-Man movie directed by Sam Raimi from Stan Lee to Lucy Lawless, my favourite has got to be Bone-Saw McGraw who fights against Spider-Man in his first costume at the wrestling ring, he’s played professional wrestler Randy Savage, but interestingly he began his career being called “The Spider”, so this is a very appropriate choice for the movie.

MouseHunt Cameo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZMRvZF_ZME

I couldn’t choose a favorite unusual cameo, but a cameo in my favorite movie really stands out for a lot of reasons in MouseHunt, that’s a film that my aunt introduced my father and I to at a very young age through a VHS at Christmas time not long after it was initially released on VHS, my father and I have watched it dozens and dozens of times since then, it never ceases to put a smile on our faces and we always spot something we’ve never noticed before and find something new to appreciate about it. Ernie Sabella is at the pound when Nathan Lane and Lee Evans are there looking for “one mean pussy” to catch the mouse that has been plaguing them with problems throughout the film, Ernie Sabella is in charge of the pound and is the voice of Pumbaa from The Lion King, he happily gives them Catzilla after trying to pacify it with a cattle prod! Very amusing to see him working on something else cat related!

So there we have it, people are always surprised by unusual movie cameos I know about although I don’t consider myself to be a cinema buff, there’s a lot of other weird and wonderful movie cameos I could write about, but do you have any particular favorites? Let us know in the comments!