13 Celebrities Who Sacrificed Their Appearances in the Credits for the Good of the Movie

The moment of recognition for an actor doesn’t just happen when his face appears on the movie or television screen, it also happens when his name is credited, whether in promotional material or in the closing credits. However, in some cases actors choose to remain anonymous, sometimes as a favor to the director and sometimes for the sake of the film itself.

Thinking about it, the awesome.club separated some cases in which the actors decided that their names would not be disclosed. Check out which movies these are and see why they decided to act that way.

1. Edward Norton in Crusade

In Crusade, Edward Norton plays a mysterious character who hides behind a mask. The film also features Orlando Bloom, Eva Green and Liam Neeson. Edward thought that not appearing in the credits and not having his participation announced was a way of giving even more mystery to the character, which to some extent also occurs with the character played by Orlando Bloom.

2. Gary Oldman in Hannibal

Hannibal debuted in 2001 and once again featured Anthony Hopkins in the lead role. However, the big surprise of the film was the participation of Gary Oldman. In an interview, the actor said that he considers himself a man of a thousand faces, and after so many prominent roles, including Dracula and Beethoven, he felt that the time had come to do something different: playing a faceless man. To play with the situation, he thought it best that his name not appear in the credits.

Chris Evans has not given very precise statements about the reasons for not having his name included in the credits of Don’t Look Up. However, he said in an interview that he doesn’t like to always do the same thing, that is, he likes to follow his intuition and do what he wants, without worrying about the opinion of others.

His participation in Free Guy — Assuming Control happened because of an invitation made by his friend Ryan Reynolds, who knew that he was recording a film in Boston at the same time. Ryan asked if his friend could quickly stop by the set, and he did. “Chris drove up to the set and there was a camera waiting for him; the recording took no more than 5 minutes and then he was gone”.

Sean Connery was very successful as the first 007 agent and therefore it was not easy to get him to participate in any project. However, the actor’s agent negotiated with the producer of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves so that he appeared on screen for a few minutes in the role of Richard the Lionheart, King of England.

However, the actor’s agent asked that his name not appear in the credits, so as not to spoil the surprise of his participation. For the role, the actor received 250 thousand dollars, an amount that ended up being donated.

Not everyone realized that the person hiding behind the blue mask is the famous actress Cate Blanchett. According to Edgar Wright, director of the film, the two met in Los Angeles and during the meeting she confessed that she was a fan of Everybody Almost Dead, another film by Edgar.

The role in Chumbo Grosso came about as a joke: “We are going to put an Oscar winner in the film, but we are not going to reveal who”. Cate simply loved the idea, participated in the film and, according to the director, decided to donate all the salary received.

In the scene where Dr. Harvey looks in the mirror and his face changes several times, the first to appear is that of actor Clint Eastwood. That small appearance wasn’t enough to make his name appear in the credits, but it was enough for fans to recognize him.

The Expendables was a bet by Sylvester Stallone that paid off and became a classic. The film tells the story of a group of mercenaries hired by the mysterious Mr. Chapelle, but the Chief’s role was kept secret until the film’s release. Fans were very excited and were pleasantly surprised when his name was revealed: Bruce Willis.

In the second part of The Expendables, the actor’s name was included in the credits, but he ended up not entering the last part, apparently because he and Stallone did not reach an agreement.

Although many fans don’t know it, Carrie Fisher’s importance to the cinema is not only in the fact that she brought Princess Leia to life in Star Wars, she also worked as a script consultant on some films. That is, even though she does not appear in the credits, she helped write the screenplay for Hook.

The actress was so involved that director Steven Spielberg asked her to make a small appearance with her friend George Lucas – they are the couple who kiss on the bridge.

As you can see, Hook — Captain Hook Returns featured many guest appearances, and Glenn Close is one of them. However, the funniest thing about his participation is that it happened by chance.

In an interview, Glenn said that he went to the set to visit his friend Robin Williams; when he arrived, the director asked, “Would you like to be a pirate?” And that’s how Glenn got into the movie. As the participation was very fast, his name did not appear in the final credits.

Many actors have already worked alongside the famous director Christopher Nolan, and most respect his work a lot and therefore comply with most of his requests. When Christopher decided to contact Matt Damon, he knew that the actor’s name and face would make an impact on audiences. However, he knew that if Matt agreed to participate, everything would end well. To avoid speculation – and for the sake of the plot – Nolan and Damon kept the actor’s involvement in the project a secret, and thus created a certain amount of suspense among his fans.

Bill Murray became famous in 1982, mainly after participating in the television program Saturday Night Live. However, when he received an offer to work on the feature film Tootsie alongside Dustin Hoffman, he explicitly asked not to appear in the promotional credits, and requested that his contract specify that he would not be paid a dime.

Some time later Bill explained that he did it because he thought the surprise would be funny for both the fans and his colleagues.

Tom Cruise is barely recognizable in Tropic Thunder. In addition to being bald, he wears glasses and is visibly fatter. That’s precisely why Ben Stiller, the film’s director, decided that his participation would be a surprise, and that’s why his name was left out of the film’s promotional material.

However, as soon as the film was released to the press, his role was discovered, and his performance was one of the most praised in the feature film.

The reason Henry Winkler’s name doesn’t appear in the Scream credits is sheer generosity. At the time, Drew Barrymore and Courteney Cox were just beginning their careers, and Henry Winkler believed he could give them a bigger break if his name was left out. That is, he did this to give more space to young actresses.

Do you know of other cases where this happens? I mean, have you ever seen an actor on screen and then realized his name wasn’t in the end credits?