15 Actors Who Portrayed Real People Perfectly

It's definitely super hard for an actor to play a real person convincingly. This is even more true if the audience is familiar with that person already. The following 15 actors not only took on the challenge of portraying real life figures, but they totally aced it! It's hard enough to take on the role of a person who lived long before any modern audience member was born, but playing people who we all knew is another matter entirely, and the actors and actresses not only have to deliver a great performance in their own right, but they have to deal with all the comparisons the world will throw their way. Not to mention the actors tasked with portraying people who are still alive and watching themselves being played on the big screen! The actors and actresses on our list should be commended for basically bringing to life clones of famous musicians, long-dead royals, and deadly criminals.

15 Jesse Eisenberg

The role of Mark Zuckerberg in 2010's The Social Network is hugely important. This is the man that brought us Facebook, of course! In the film, Jesse Eisenberg plays the role of Mark, and although there were some mixed reviews for sure, the general consensus is that Jesse did an awesome job of bringing Mark to life. The film is about Mark joining up with his friend Eduardo Saverin to create the social media site that ended up totally and completely changing the world. The audience gets to see all the highs and lows that come with that kind of success, including the unraveling of their friendship and a whole bunch of legal battles. When Mark saw The Social Network, he claimed that the plot has been heavily dramatized, but he does believe they got other things right and commented that every single shirt worn by Jesse is one that he actually owns!

14 Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock's portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy in 2010's The Blind Side impressed both Leigh Anne herself and a global audience, too. In fact, Sandra even earned an Oscar for her performance! In the film, Sandra recreates an important period in Leigh Anne's life where she took in a young homeless boy named Michael Oher who went to school with her daughter. Leigh Anne raised him in her nurturing and caring way and Michael eventually became a football player and first-round NFL draft pick. Pretty inspiring stuff! Interviews with Leigh Anne show that although she's caring with a big heart, she isn't to be messed around with, and Sandra was able to totally capture her inner strength and confidence contained within a collected demeanor. She also totally nailed the Memphis accent! Her performance and Leigh Anne's story together helped to promote the power of adoption around the world, which is pretty awesome.

13 Eddie Redmayne

The role of Stephen Hawking is no doubt important! He's arguably one of the most well-known physicists in the world who has made contributions to the fields of quantum gravity, general relativity, and cosmology (and of course, we had to look up what those words even mean!). So it was obviously a huge challenge when actor Eddie Redmayne took on the role in the 2014 biographical drama, The Theory of Everything, but he definitely lived up to the part. The film closely follows the relationship between Stephen and his wife, and this personal side of the plot means that Eddie had to get to know a whole other side of Stephen, one that the world isn't used to seeing. Eddie also had the added complexity of portraying the effects of Stephen's motor neuron disease with authenticity. We also think it would have been totally anxiety-inducing to know that Stephen himself would be watching the performance!

12 Reese Witherspoon

We know that the southern accent is in Reese Witherspoon's blood, but the way she pulled off country singer June Carter in the 2005 biopic Walk the Line is nothing short of amazing! June Carter was the wife of iconic country singer Johnny Cash, and the film focused on the blossoming of their relationship and the merging of their families through Johnny's meteoric rise to fame in the 1950s and his substance abuse problems of the 1960s. Reese actually earned herself an Oscar in 2006 for her portrayal of June, which June herself didn't get to see as she sadly passed away just before the film was released. Reese not only mastered June's mannerisms and a strong chemistry with Joaquin Phoenix in order to bring this love story to life on screen, but she also had to learn to sing like June, play the autoharp, and record the songs for the soundtrack!

11 Jamie Foxx

While some actors don't exactly rise to the challenge when they have to sing in their roles, it's clear that some were just born to do it! Jamie Foxx portrayed Ray Charles in the 2004 film Ray and did a mighty fine job of it too. Ray's story is iconic and inspirational-he's a soul singer who managed to cross over to rock during the 1960s. Jamie's performance was so phenomenal that he was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor in 2005. Although the film received mostly positive reviews from the critics, some stated that the screenplay wasn't quite up to scratch, but nobody could deny Jamie's exquisite portrayal of Ray. Music critics had this to say about Jamie's Ray: "Foxx does the impossible-radiates something approaching the charisma of the artist he's portraying… that's the only time an actor has ever brought a pop icon fully to life on-screen.” Ain't that the truth!

10 Julia Roberts

Released in 2000, Erin Brockovich is the incredible true story of a legal clerk who took down a utility company in California for polluting the city's water supply. Who better to play the proactive and persistent single mother than Julia Roberts? Julia won more than one award for her role as Erin, and the film met mostly positive reviews. Erin herself has said that it was around 98% accurate, although there are a few discrepancies between the events taking place in the plot of the film and those which actually happened in real life. In the film, Erin is seen as deliberately using the old cleavage trick to manipulate the men around her, whereas in real life she maintains that it didn't quite happen that way. But other than those little inaccuracies, the film got a thumbs up from Erin, which no doubt had something to do with Julia's epic performance!

9 Bruno Ganz

Swiss actor Bruno Ganz took on the Everest-like challenge of playing the role of Adolf Hitler in 2004's Downfall, and his performance still has critics commending him for a job well done. Adolf Hitler is one of the most (if not the most!) hated real-life villains of our time, but remarkably, Bruno managed to bring out the humanity in a man who the world has always seen as a one-dimensional walking representation of evil. The film follows the final ten days of Hitler's rule over Nazi Germany in 1945. Bruno was commended for his performance, with some critics labeling it as “not just astounding” but “rather moving”. It's also been said that Bruno “made the dictator into a plausible human being”, which is quite an achievement! Bruno was reportedly given secret audio footage of Hitler having a private conversation in order to grasp how the man really spoke when he wasn't addressing millions.

8 Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her generation, so it's no surprise that her performance of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady obtained a huge thumbs up in general. Margaret Thatcher was the first and only female Prime Minister of England and made significant and controversial decisions during her three terms, including cutting social welfare and trade union power and privatizing a number of industries. The film shows an elderly Margaret who is struggling to accept the death of her recently deceased husband. Imagining him there beside her, she talks to him about the events of her life, ranging from girlhood to being a politician. While the film did receive mixed reviews and was criticized for a number of reasons, most critics agreed that Meryl's performance was pretty darn accurate! "Awards should be coming Streep's way, yet her brilliance rather overshadows the film itself,” said one critic.

7 Colin Firth

As we said, playing somebody who is no longer alive is different to playing somebody who is still here. For one thing, the actor might feel less pressure about having their performance critiqued by the character themselves. In Colin Firth's case, King George Vl passed away in 1952, so he didn't have to worry about impressing the King himself. By the same token, trying to play somebody of such great importance (we're talking about the King here!) would be difficult enough, and getting the chance to spend time with them and get to know their mannerisms through first-hand experience would probably be immensely useful! Still, though, Colin managed to pull off the role of the King perfectly, who suffered from speech problems. The film centers on his ascension to the throne and the work he does with a speech therapist in order to prepare him for his new royal role.

6 Tom Hanks

You don't even need to listen to the critics to know that this performance was fit for royalty! If you watch any old footage of Walt Disney talking, you won't be able to watch Tom Hanks's performance of the icon without cracking a smile at the total resemblance! Tom plays Walt in the 2013 drama Saving Mr. Banks, which is the story of how the classic film Mary Poppins came to be in Disney's hands in the first place. He doesn't miss a thing when it comes to recreating the genius behind the Disney empire, and you feel as though the man has come back to life and is right there on the screen as you watch him! Walt was a three pack a day smoker, and Tom chuffs down one cigarette after the other in the film as he tries to convince P.L. Travers to let him turn her novel into a film.

5 Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren is perhaps Britain's most acclaimed female actress, so it seemed like the natural choice when she was cast as Queen Elizabeth ll in the 2006 drama The Queen. Playing somebody like Queen Elizabeth, who is still alive today, had to have been tough! She's had an exciting life packed with significant experiences, and is one of the most interesting and talked-about people on the planet, so the pressure was really on for Helen. The film is set in the period directly after the death of Princess Diana and focuses on the Queen's reaction and methods in coping with the tragic events. But to say that Helen rose to the challenge is putting it lightly. The actress was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress before the film was even released, and at the Venice Film Festival, she received a five-minute-long standing ovation! Do yourself a favor and see this movie ASAP!

4 Hilary Swank

Hilary Swank's performance as Brandon Teena is heartbreaking, but she definitely proved the extent of her acting chops once and for all with this role! The 1999 romantic drama Boys Don't Cry is the story of Teena Brandon who is born a female and then assumes the male identity of Brandon Teena. In the film, Brandon is looking for love in Nebraska but then suffers a tragic hate crime. Purely because of the nature of the film, the role would have been tough for Hilary to take on, but her performance was widely acclaimed. Not only did she win Best Actress at the Academy Awards, but critics also labeled Hilary's performance as “the best-acted film of the year.” It's also been said that Hilary's performance instills a new sense of hope into an old tragedy, which is a positive thing for anybody personally connected to the content of the story!

3 Joaquin Phoenix

We mentioned earlier that Walk the Line was heavily praised for the acting of Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, but Joaquin Phoenix's performance as Johnny Cash himself totally deserves credit all by itself. Like Reese, Joaquin had to learn to sing and play the guitar from scratch. He also had to accurately pull off that Arkansas accent without overdoing it. Joaquin was hand-picked by Johnny Cash himself to star in the film, though sadly he too passed away before it was completed and didn't get to see Joaquin's amazing work. Singing like a real figure is a whole new level of challenging, but Joaquin managed to rock Johnny's vocals, and the only way he could have done it better is if he had the singer's vocal cords implanted into his own body! Everything in the film from Johnny's laugh to his gentle stare is so strikingly reminiscent of the real thing, it's hard to believe.

2 Forest Whitaker

If you're looking for an absolutely stellar performance of a real figure, look no further than The Last King of Scotland, in which Forest Whitaker stars as Idi Amin, the dictator of Uganda. The film is set in the 1970s and looks closely at the horrible events of Idi's regime through the eyes of a young physician, played by James McEvoy. As we've seen, there's a certain trick to playing villains effectively, but whatever it is, Forest had it down in this film! He won about 23 major awards for his excellent portrayal, including Best Actor at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA. Now, that's what you call success! While some of the events in the film have been dramatized and aren't really historically accurate, few people would argue against Forest's amazing performance, which again brings humanity to a widely hated figure.

1 Charlize Theron

When we're talking about a performance that shows the humanity within a hated person, we can't not mention Charlize Theron's impeccable performance of serial killer Aileen Wournos in 2005's Monster. Charlize's Aileen has earned her a place at the top of our list due to her ability to completely let the character take her over. We swear, when you watch this film, you aren't looking at Charlize anymore, but at Aileen herself! The actress had to physically change her body to fit the role, and we can't leave out praise for the hair and makeup team who made Charlize disappear and brought out a desperate and troubled murderer instead. Charlize not only gets Aileen's mannerisms and personal habits down (seriously, compare her performance to the footage of Aileen being interviewed in prison-it's nuts!) but also gets the audience to empathize with this killer. Some scenes are hard to watch, but Charlize's performance make them totally worth it.