Twenty Most Unbelievable Transformations
AMC Movie List

Twenty Most Unbelievable Transformations

Impressed by a skinny star who gets fat? Or a man dressed as a woman? Who isn't? Which of these twenty transformations is most shocking?

rank title points votes your vote
1 Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (2008)
<p>This Joker manages to make people forget all about Nicholson (and Romero) by bringing an even scarier smirk to the Batman franchise.</p> 563 795
2 Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder (2008)
<p>Downey earned an Oscar nod for playing an Australian actor playing an African-American G.I. in a Vietnam War movie.</p> 240 694
3 Christian Bale in The Machinist (2003)
<p>Bale was intense even before becoming Batman. He starved himself for four months to play a chronic insomniac.</p> 239 607
4 Jack Nicholson in Batman (1989)
<p>In Tim Burton's Batman, Nicholson made people forget Cesar Romero's campy Joker by dancing around to Prince in a pimp suit.</p> 188 668
5 Edward Norton in American History X (1998)
<p>Norton went from buff tattooed Neo-Nazi to slightly less buff, tattooed ex-Neo-Nazi trying to make amends.</p> 186 570
6 Tom Hanks in Castaway (2000)
<p>From Fedex exec to rugged, ragged survivalist, Hanks maintains his sanity during his change with the help of a friend: Wilson the volleyball.</p> 169 605
7 Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
<p>Pretending to be an old British woman is a small price to pay for a devoted dad hoping to spend some time with his kids.</p> 157 625
8 John Hurt in The Elephant Man (1980)
<p>As a man with a head so large he could've been a modern news anchor, Hurt famously tells the world, "I am not an animal!"</p> 118 486
9 Jeff Goldblum in The Fly (1986)
<p>The upside to becoming The Fly? He could have sex for hours on end. The downside? He had to regularly eat his own vomit!</p> 96 486
10 Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
The old man in diapers who became the old baby in diapers is a preview of what Hollywood's most beautiful man will look like years from now. 91 587
11 Jim Carey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
<p>In real life, he stole Jenny McCarthy's heart. In this movie, he become the titular green grouch and takes Christmas away from Whoville.</p> 87 593
12 Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (1982)
<p>The method actor tricks everyone into believing he's a soap star, even though he looks like a menopausal hobbit.</p> 58 508
13 Billy Crystal in The Princess Bride (1987)
<p>Is that you under there Billy? As the healer Miracle Max, Crystal dons so much makeup he's indistinguishable from his hideous wife.&nbsp;</p> 56 518
14 Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor (1996)
<p>Murphy liked donning a fat suit so much in The Nutty Professor that he went back and did it again a decade later in Norbit (2007).</p> 27 543
15 John Travolta in Hairspray (2007)
<p>In Grease he sings and dances. In Hairspray, he does all that and dresses up as an obese agoraphobic woman. What's next?</p> -33 537
16 Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot (1959)
<p>Before he was a Grumpy Old Man, Lemmon was an ugly woman on the run, putting on his skirt one leg at a time.</p> -54 438
17 Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game (1992)
<p>Davidson's female gender-bender is so fetching, the hero eventually gets over the realization that she is a he!</p> -117 413
18 Jared Leto in Chapter 27 (2006)
<p>Leto did what he had to do to play John Lennon's portly assassin. Namely, gaining almost 70 lbs by drinking microwaved ice cream.</p> -143 409
19 Mike Myers in The Cat in the Hat (2003)
<p>Unlike the Grinch, another beloved Seuss character, this rhyming cat in the hat will never, ever be back.</p> -172 480
20 John Travolta in Battlefield Earth (2000)
<p>It's hard to believe that the star of Pulp Fiction would get so lost in space, but this Scientology-tinged turkey nearly spun him out of orbit.</p> -277 483