They played historical figures: Do the actors really look like them?
If you play a historical figure, and you do it well, then your chances as an actor or actress to win an Oscar increase significantly. Out of the twenty nominees for the 2022 Oscars, over four categories, eight played a real person in a biopic, and two ended up winning: Will Smith for 'King Richard' and Jessica Chastain for 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye.'
In June 2022, another promising biopic appears in cinemas, with Austin Butler playing Elvis Presley.
Do you remember the following actors and their roles as kings, queens, athletes, swindlers and classic Hollywood stars? Do they look like the real person?
(Image: still from the 2019 biopic 'Judy' in which Renée Zellweger played Judy Garland, for which she would win an Oscar)
Michelle Williams played Marilyn Monroe in 'My Week with Marilyn' (2011).
Sir Ben Kingsley played Mahatma Gandhi in 'Gandhi' (1982).
Robert Downey Jr. played Charles Chaplin in 'Chaplin' (1992).
Salma Hayek played Frida Kahlo in 'Frida' (2002).
Colin Firth played King George VI in 'The King's Speech' (2010).
Leonardo DiCaprio played stockbroker Jordan Belfort in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013).
Michelle Yeoh played Birmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi in 'The Lady' (2011).
Daniel Day-Lewis played Abraham Lincoln in 'Lincoln' (2012).
Marion Cotillard played Edith Piaf in 'La Vie En Rose' (2007).
Robert De Niro played Jake LaMotta in 'Raging Bull' (1980).
Ashton Kutcher played Steve Jobs in 'Jobs' (2013).
Angela Bassett played Tina Turner in 'What's Love Got to Do with It?' (1993).
Denzel Washington played Malcolm X in 'Malcolm X' (1992).
Bill Murray played U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 'Hyde Park on Hudson' (2012).
Nicole Kidman played author Virginia Woolf in 'The Hours' (2002)
Frank Langella played U.S. President Richard Nixon in 'Frost/Nixon' (2008).
Rupert Everett played author Oscar Wilde in 'The Happy Prince' (2018).
Jesse Eisenberg played Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 'The Social Network' (2010).
Michael Douglas played pianist Liberace in 'Behind the Candelabra' (2013).
Naomi Watts played Diana, the Princess of Wales in 'Diana' (2013).
Adrien Brody played pianist Władysław Szpilman in 'The Pianist' (2002).
Philip Seymour Hoffman played author Truman Capote in 'Capote' (2005).
Dame Helen Mirren played Queen Elizabeth II in 'The Queen' (2006).
Leonardo DiCaprio played FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 'J.Edgar' (2011).
Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in 'Ali' (2001).
Javier Bardem played Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas in 'Before Night Falls' (2000)
Helena Bonham Carter played Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 'The King's Speech' (2010).
Russel Crowe played mathematician John Nash in 'A Beautiful Mind' (2001).
Michael Sheen played the British journalist, Sir David Frost, in 'Frost/Nixon' (2008).
Meryl Streep played Margaret Thatcher in 'The Iron Lady' (2011).
Brad Pitt played baseball manager Billy Beane in 'Moneyball' (2011).
Sir Anthony Hopkins played U.S. President Richard Nixon in 'Nixon' (1995).
Kate Winslet played author Iris Murdoch in 'Iris' (2001).
Kenneth Branagh played the actor Sir Laurence Olivier in 'My Week with Marilyn' (2011).
Anthony Hopkins played director Alfred Hitchcock in 'Hitchcock' (2012).
Julianne Moore played Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 'Game Change' (2012).
Alan Rickman played U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 'The Butler' (2013).
Viggo Mortensen played Sigmund Freud in 'A Dangerous Method' (2011).
Lindsay Lohan played Elizabeth Taylor in 'Liz and Di**' (2012).
Antonio Banderas played Pablo Picasso in the anthology series 'Genius' (2017).
James Franco played Hugh Hefner in 'Lovelace' (2013).
Jennifer Hudson played the young Winnie Mandela in 'Winnie Mandela' (2011).
Terrence Howard played a young Nelson Mandela in 'Winnie Mandela' (2011).
Al Pacino played convicted music producer Phil Spector in 'Phil Spector' (2013).
Jane Fonda played Nancy Reagan in 'The Butler' (2013)
Eddie Redmayne played astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in 'The Theory of Everything' (2014).
Scarlett Johansson played actress Janet Leigh in 'Hitchcock' (2012).
David Oyelowo played Martin Luther King in 'Selma' (2014).
Nicole Kidman played Grace Kelly in 'Grace of Monaco' (2014).
Emma Thompson played Queen Elizabeth II in 'Walking the Dogs' (2012).
Zoe Saldana played Nina Simone in 'Nina' (2016).
Amanda Seyfried played exotic actress Linda Lovelace in 'Lovelace' (2013).
Reeve Carney will play musician Jeff Buckley in the upcoming film 'Everybody Here Wants You.'
Sarah Jessica Parker played Gloria Steinem in 'Lovelace' (2013).
Rupert Grint played punk rocker Cheetah Chrome in 'CBGB' (2013).
James D'Arcy played Anthony Perkins in 'Hitchcock' (2012).
Paul Dano played Beach Boy Brian Wilson in 'Love & Mercy' (2014).
Jessica Biel played actress Vera Miles in 'Hitchcock' (2012).
Yaya DaCosta played Whitney Houston in 'Whitney' (2015).
Chadwick Boseman played James Brown in 'Get on Up' (2014).
Queen Latifa played 1920s' blues singer Bessie Smith in 'Bessie' (2015).
Taylor Swift was to play Joni Mitchell in a film based on the book 'Girls like us,' but according to several media, including Rolling Stone, Mitchell did not agree with Swift playing her. The cast of the new movie is still up in the air.
Tony winner Nina Arianda was reportedly selected to play Janis Joplin in the film 'Janis' (2022), but eventually she was replaced by Michelle Williams.
Michelle Williams plays Janis Joplin in 'Janis' (2022). Who resembles the iconic blues singer most, Williams or Arianda?