< Large Ham

Large Ham/Film

PERFECT shot! She's mine; ALL mine!

No scenery is left intact with these guys!

Note: Merely quoting a line in ALL CAPS and/or in bold does not constitute proof of hamminess. Descriptions of the performance, character, and scene are, as are links to clips of the performance.

Disney Animated Canon

Let's see if we can't refresh that rusty old memory of yours. Is she on SATAN'S RIDGE? Or NIGHTMARE CANYON? What do you think Joanna? Yeah that's it. Right smack dab in the MIDDLE, at CROC FALLS!

  • The Wicked Queen in Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is the first in that canon and a particularly wonderfully nightmarish example. (This may have a lot to do with her being voiced by Lucille LaVerne, a stage and silent film actress. She's also visually based on Kate Hepburn.)
    • Actually, although she has a few drips of ham, the Queen is one of the more subtle villains out there. When she turns herself into the hag on the other hand, all bets are off, and she chews the scenery wonderfully.
  • Scar, from The Lion King.
  • Cruella de Vil is another example. Specially as played by Glenn Close in the Live Action Adaptation.
  • Who can forget the enormous ham from hell, Hades?
  • No one hams like Gaston. It helps that he bears an uncanny resemblance to Bruce Campbell.
  • Except maybe Pat Carroll's Ursula the Sea-Witch from The Little Mermaid, who actually turns herself into a very large...octopus...for the finale. She may be the first and only Disney villain to actually shake her moneymakers for the camera.
    • "And don't underestimate the importance of...BODY LANGUAGE!"
    • Well, the only one until Alameda Slim, who not only dances, but can "YODEL ADLE ELDE IDLE OOOOOO!" No ham is complete without a Las Vegas performer-esque shiny outfit.
    • In poker terms, Marina Del Rey from Ariel's Beginning will see you that outfit, and raise you a time-space wormhole from Bob Mackie's warehouse that leads directly into her underwater armoire.
  • All we gotta do is build an act. Make ya a star. A headliner! Dumbo the Great!
    • Timothy Mouse from Dumbo is a non-villainous example of a Large Ham. Who knew a circus mouse impersonating Nosferatu in one scene would take hamminess to extremes!
  • For pure, unadulterated, lean Grade A ham, nothing beats a thick, juicy slab of Jafar.
  • Let's not forget Mechanicles, "THE GREATEST OF THE GREAT GREEK GENIUSES!"
  • Clayton from Tarzan, as played by Brian Blessed.
  • Kazar the wildebeest from The Wild, voiced by William Shatner. Also Nigel to some extent.
  • Maleficent. Even the name screams "Ham!"
  • Zurg from Toy Story 2. Even more hammy in the spinoff series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
  • Behold the shadowy ham that is The Phantom Blot.

"MUHUHUHUHAHAHAHAHA! I'M MEAN!"

Timon: "When he was a young warthog..."
Pumbaa: "WHEN I WAS A YOUNG WARTHOOOOOOG!"
Timon: [cleaning his ear] "Very nice."
Pumbaa: "Thanks!"

    • And of course, who could forget Banzai's biggest mistake...

Pumbaa: Are you talkin' to me?

Timon: (to Shenzi) Uh-oh, he called him a pig...

Pumbaa: Are you talking to ME?

Timon: Ya shouldn't have done that!

Pumbaa: ARE YOU TALKING TO ME!?

Timon: NOW they're in for it!

Pumbaa: They CALL me, MIIIIIISTERRRR PIIIIIG!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH--
—*insert one hellacious off-screen thrashing here, with the normally goofballed Ed staring on in absolute terror*
      • And of course, his partner Timon is voiced by scenery connoisseur Nathan Lane.
  • Jumba. "I prefer to be called... EEVIL GEN-EE-OUS!!"
  • The Queen of Hearts: OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!
  • AND WHEN IT ARRIVES, (AH HA HA HA!) I'LL SMASH IT WIF A HAMMAH!! You can tell Eartha Kitt had fun playing the aptly named Yzma!
  • Who else but Shere Khan could eclipse every other song in a film with Just. One. Line.
  • Besides Zurg, Toy Story has Jessie ("YEE-HAW") and an obvious one in Hamm the piggy bank ("PIG PILE!"). Buzz dabbles in it sometimes, specially in the third film when he's reset and starts speaking in Spanish.
  • Does Chernabog from Fantasia count? He manages to be a Large Ham without ever even SPEAKING A WORD.
  • Bolt has both Bolt the dog and Rhino the hamster as somewhat hammy characters, but the director of the Show Within a Show as easily the hammiest character in the movie.

The Director: Let me ask you, Mindy from the network, what do you see here?
Mindy Parker: Uhh... the dog?
The Director: "The dog" she says. Oh, Mindy. Poor, poor Mindy.
Mindy Parker: ... am I missing something?
The Director: You're missing everything, Mindy. You see a dog. I see an animal that believes, with every fiber of his being; EVERY FIBER; that the girl he loves is in mortal danger! I see a depth of emotion on the face of that canine, the likes of which has never been captured on screen before. NEVER, Mindy from the network. We jump through hoops to make sure Bolt believes everything is real. It's why we don't miss marks. It's why we don't reshoot. It's CERTAINLY why we do NOT allow the dog to see BOOM MIKES... because, Mindy from the network... if "the dog" believes it... then "the audience" believes it.


Jim Carrey

  • Liar Liar has such gems as: "I HOLD MYSELF IN CONTEMPT! WHY SHOULD YOU BE ANY DIFFERENT?!" and this outtake:

Swoosie Kurtz: Your Honor, I object!
Carrey: You would!
Kurtz: Overactor!
Carrey: Jezeb--! (collapses in laughter as the entire "courtroom" bursts out)
Kurtz: He [indicating the director?] put me up to it! It wasn't my idea! He told me to do it!
Carrey: (mugging for the camera even though it's clearly not getting into the movie) ...oh no! They're onto me!

  • Count Olaf from the movie version of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was a Master of Disguise, but also a Large Ham - not just because Carrey played him that way, but because within the story itself Olaf is supposed to be a Large Ham. There's also this outtake: "But enough of recent history, let's go back in a TIME machine! [high voice] TIIIME machine, TIIIME machine..."
    • Actually if you read the books, Count Olaf doesn't actually become a proper ham until the books that came out after the film. Beforehand, his evil was more withheld.
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas: The Grinch.
  • As Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber: "We've got no food! We've got no jobs! Our pets' HEADS ARE FALLIN' OFF!!!!"
  • Ace Ventura. "ALLLLL RIGHTY THEN!"
  • The Mask was a shy guy who got turned into a Large Ham by Applied Phlebotinum. "Sssssssmokin'!"
  • Carrey's acting in Batman Forever was once described as "transcend[ing] considerations of good or bad acting into sheer weirdness". "Weird", in this case, means... well... ham.

"If knowledge is power, then A GOD... AM... IIIIIIIIIIII! (Beat) Was that over the top? I can never tell!"

"I AM BRUCE ALMIGHTY!!!!! MY WILL BE DONE!!!!!"


Harry Potter films

  • Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter, another character actually required by the story to be a Large Ham. His performance is summed up beautifully by Mike Nelson in the Riff Trax commentary as Kenneth first appears; "Yes, treat your family and friends to the flavor of traditional Northern Irish HAM."
  • Rumor has it Branagh, Alan Rickman (Snape), and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) had a friendly competition on the set to see who could ham it up the most. ... Ooooooh my.
  • Strangely, Voldemort, particularly in Goblet of Fire. It's easy to see the fun Ralph Fiennes is having. Fiennes has said that he tried not to go over the top with Voldemort, but then he realized there's no other way to play him. For example, the bit with: DON'T YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON ME HARRY POTTER!!!! I WANT YOU TO LOOK AT ME WHEN I KILL YOU!!! I WANT TO SEE THE LIGHT LEAVE YOUR EYES!!!! Or, what about the infamous, "CRRRRUUUCCCCCCCC-io!" Even after calming down in each following film, his infamous "NYEEEEAAAAHHH HEH HEH" from Deathly Hallows has become quite popular.
    • For context: This is the scene after Harry is apparently dead in Hagrid's arms. Voldemort and the Death Eaters take the body back to Hogwarts to gloat at the defenders. After announcing Harry's apparent demise, the Death Eaters burst into laughter, cuing one of the most awkward laughs from Voldemort one will hear. He even seems to dance in place for a second. Coupled with one of the weirdest hugs ever done a few minutes later, this troper put it as "And now, Ralph Fiennes decides to gobble up as much scenery as possible before his inevitable death." The fact that the entire audience burst into laughter when Voldemort laughed affirmed this assertion.
    • AAAAAAAAVADA KEDAVRA!
      • So incredibly over-hammed it sounded more like "UUUUUUUhvudu Kuduvru!"
    • NYYEEAAAAH!
  • Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. He doesn't chew the scenery; he devours it whole, spits it out, and then devours it again. At least in Goblet of Fire.

"SIIIIIIILEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNCEEEEEEE!"
"DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE!" (Did joo putyer name in'a gobletaFIYA!)

which is said while he has Harry by his shirt collar and pressed against a wall.
    • That bit was the result of Did Not Do the Research, as Mr. Gambon hadn't read the book. Still pretty darn hammy, though.
    • At least he made up for it in subsequent films.
  • Shirley Henderson as the hammiest Ghost in Hogwarts, Moaning Myrtle.

Moaning Myrtle: I'm Moaning Myrtle! I wouldn't expect you to know me! Who would ever want to talk about ugly, miserable, moping, Moaning Myrtle? AHHHHHHHHHH!
Hermione: She's a little sensitive.

  • It's a small role, but Miriam Margolyes is nearly intolerable as Professor Sprout.
  • Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody, between character voice, exaggerated motions, and mentoring role, fits the bill perfectly.
  • He has only a small role in Goblet of Fire but David Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr fills every moment with ham, with wild eyes and that weird flicking tongue thing - sheer craziness.
  • Not to mention Gary Oldman's somewhat hamtastic turn as Sirius Black. "I would have DIED, Peter! I would have DIED rather than BETRAY MY FRIENDS!!!!!" He calmed down considerably in the fifth movie.
    • Oh, and the scene where Lupin transforms into a werewolf. How could we forget "You know the man you TRULY ARE, Remus!" and "THIS FLESH IS ONLY FLESH!"
  • Professor Trelawney: In THIS room, YOU shall discover if YOU possess THE SIGHT![1]
  • Both Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint get to be this during two particularly funny scenes of Half-blood Prince—first when Ron accidentally drinks a love potion and then when Harry deliberately drinks a luck potion.
  • Emma Watson's first scene as Hermione in Sorcerer's Stone gets pretty hammy. In fact most of the scenes in the first movie for the kid actors are very overly done simply because of inexperience.
  • Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter in Goblet of Fire. She has very few lines compared to the book but she makes every one memorable. Witness her interview with Harry in a broom closet.
  • Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. She made the character way more rabid and insane than described in the books. Her first scene in Order of the Phoenix she's licking the dark mark on her arm. She takes it further with each subsequent film until in Deathly Hallows, each line she says is a thick slice of ham.
  • Jessie Cave looked at the description of Lavender Brown as a ditzy Smitten Teenage Girl who is Sickeningly Sweethearts with Ron, and charged in full ham ahead. Witness the hospital scene.
  • According to Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy) much of the overacting was revenge for having their subplots cut.
    • Speaking of Malfoys, Jason Isaacs was more than able to bring out the porks. "You cost me MY SERVANT!"
      • Perhaps he had listened to the audiobooks, where Stephen Fry practically howls that line: "YOU COST ME MY SERVANT...BOYEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"


Kenneth Branagh

"Mr. West, ah am not an animal! Ah am a visionary, ah am a genius, and now AH AM 'AGREH! And I promise that when I kill you, ah will have your body boiled down for ax-ell grease!

    • His performance in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, playing the titular character. His mother dies and he feels compelled to look up the ceiling shrieking "THIS MUST NOT HAPPENNNNNNN!"
    • Though in the 1996 film adaptation of Othello, he's actually very subtle and restrained as Iago. Knowing how hammy he usually gets when he does Shakespeare, this makes his performance incredibly effective.
      • No so much Ham, but some TRIFLES!
  • He even hams it up playing an American private eye in Dead Again.
  • And chews the scenery as an uptight government official in The Boat That Rocked.
  • Averted in some of his more recent dramatic roles, such as Wallander, Valkyrie and Shackleton.


Michael Keaton


John Goodman

"IT'S AAAAAAAALLL ABOUT THE MONEY BOYS!"


John Rhys-Davies


Superman

  • Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor in Superman Returns.
  • Gene Hackman's Luthor in Superman II also serves, even if the next example is the biggest ham in the movie.
  • Superman nemesis Zod. One has to almost kneel before him in respect of his vast arsenal of over-the-top bluster, which of course he can back up on Earth with tremendous power only the Man of Steel can challenge. Whole websites have been devoted to the glorious OTTness of Terrence Stamp's portrayal of Zod as a vain, short-tempered and sometimes rather bored aristocratic psycho. So indelible was Stamp's rendition (which bore little resemblance to the comic character on whom it was based) that most subsequent comic versions of Zod have been negatively received due to their lack of similarity to Stamp's characterization. Recently they just gave up and reintroduced the "real" Zod in the direct likeness of Stamp's persona.


Batman and The Dark Knight Saga


James Bond villains

"Names is for tombstones, baby! You take this honky out and waste him!

  • Exception: Sean Bean played a low-key villain in GoldenEye.
    • Fortunately, the hamjitsu was conserved by the impressively loud Boris (played by the INVINCIBLE! Alan Cumming).
  • Don't forget Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, who was low-key most of the time, except when he corrects Bond's statement that he won't be safe if he tortures Bond to death.

Le Chiffre: YOU! ARE SOOO WRONG!!! *point*


Will Ferrell

Megamind: Oh, you're a villain alright. Just not a super one.
Titan: Oh yeah? What's the difference?
Megamind: PRESENTATION! HAM!


Star Wars

  • Emperor Palpatine was like this in Return of the Jedi, but substantially more subdued in the first two prequels. Then he was in Revenge of the Sith, where any given line he says after the second act is pure, unadulterated ham. And he's still a fairly effective bad guy. I guess he stopped caring about self-restraint once he conquered the entire galaxy.

ONCE MOAAAARRR the Sith will RUUUUUULE the GALAXYYYYY... and... we shall have... peace.

Darth Vader: Where are those transmissions you intercepted? WWWHHHHAAAT have you DONE with those PLANS????
Darth Vader: Commander, TEAR THIS SHIP APART UNTIL YOU FIND THOSE PLANS! And BRING me the passengers, I WANT THEM ALIVE!
Darth Vader: You are PART of the REBEL AllIANce and a traitor! TAKE HER AWAY!

    • Vader still had a few traces of ham left in his system, most notably in his We Can Rule Together speech to Luke in Empire:

Darth Vader: Luuuuke, you do not yet realize your impPORtance. You have only begun to discover your POWAH. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our COMBINED STRENGTH, we can END this destrOOCTive conflict and bring ORDAH to the GALAXYYY.
Luke: I'll NEVER join you!
Darth Vader: IF YOU ONLY KNEW THE POWAH OF THE DAHK SIDE.

  • No mention of General Grievous yet? What he lacks in evilness he makes up for with hamminess.

Grievous: You FOOL! I have been trrrained in yourrr Jedi arrrts by Count... DOO-ku!

    • His hamminess probably comes from the fact that he's based a bit on Dracula.
  • What about Count Dooku?

Count Dooku: You MUST JOIN ME, Obi-Wan, and together WE WILL DESTROY THE SITH!

  • Watto. "YOU'LL-A FIND-AWHAT-A-YA NEED!"


Star Trek

  • Christopher Plummer as General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. His Crowning Moment of Ham-osity has to be the bit near the end where his ship is pummeling the crap out of Enterprise, and he's having total blast, bellowing Shakespeare, while twirling around in his motorized Captain's chair. Hamtacular.

"Cry HAVOC!!! And let slip the dogs of war!!"

    • The ham is noted in-universe by Dr. McCoy, who states "I'd pay real money if he'd shut up."
    • Noted in Shatner's book Star Trek Movie Memories, where a photo of him and Plummer laughing at a flub in the courtroom scene has a caption describing the two as "Hamosauruses".
  • And how can we forget Ricardo Montalban as KHAAAAAN!!! Interestingly enough, his first take on the character was even hammier, and the director asked him to dial it down to make the times he did rant and rave feel more powerful.

"He tasks me! He tasks me and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares maelstrom and 'round perdition's flame before I give him up!"

Time They say Ham is the fire in which we burn.

Sarek: Do you deny these facts?
John Schuck: We denyyyyyy nothing. We have the RIGHT to preSERVE our HAM!! RACE!!

GET OUUUUT!! GET OUT OF THERE!!
GLORIOUS, isn't it?!

    • Apparently, Christopher Lloyd was a barely containable ham in one scene. Kruge was supposed to call to be beamed up over his handheld communicator, but they could never get him to talk into the prop—he'd always spread his arms wide, throw his head back, and bellow "BEAM ME UP!" to the heavens. Epic ham.
  • F. Murray AbraHAM as the face-stretching, scenery-chewing, Smug Snake Ru'afo in Star Trek: Insurrection.
    • He wasn't much less hammy as Salieri in Amadeus, which got him an Oscar.
  • Eric Bana: Shitty Hulk, but great Star Trek villain:

IT HAPPENED! I SAW IT HAPPEN! DON'T TELL ME IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!!!
FIRE EVERYTHIANNG!!!!
SPAAAAWWWWK!!!

    • That first gets extra points because during one take Bana literally passed out after yelling it all.
  • Of course, who could forget Picard's rant in First Contact. Normally, Patrick Stewart keeps it mellow and classy, but when his crew suggests they run from the Borg, he has a Heroic BSOD complete with a couple of Big Nos and a thick side of ham. (Apparently he took a few lessons from Shatner in between takes of their previous movie.)

Picard: The line must be drawn Heeyah! This far, no further. And IIIIIII... will make them pay, for what they've done!


Daniel Day-Lewis

"I'll paint Paradise Square with his blood. TWO COATS! I'll festoon my bedchamber with his guts. And if you ever show yourself in the Five Points again, Mr. Tammany-fucking-hall, you will be dispatched by mine own hand. Help yourself to some decent meat on your way out."

"BECAUSE IT IS MY NAAAAAAAAME!! BECAUSE I CANNOT HAVE ANOTHER IN MY LIIIIIIIIIFE! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; LEAVE ME MY NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!!!!!!!!!
"I say-- I say-- GOD IS DEEEEEEEAAD!!!"


Tim Curry

  • For a perfect example, watch him having far too much fun playing evil wizard Trymon in The Colour of Magic.
  • I'm just a sweet transvestite... From Transexual, Transylvaniaaaaa...
  • Totally enjoying himself, even under the tons of brilliant make-up and prosthetics, as the quite literal Evil incarnate in Legend: "Oh, Mother Night! Fold your dark arms about me. Protect me in your black embrace. I sit alone, an impotent exile, whilst this form, this presence, returns to torment me!" And what's more, he also manages to remain genuinely imposing and scary all through the whole hamned thing, to boot! "Every wolf suffers fleas. 'Tis easy enough to scratch!"
  • As Cardinal Richelieu (what's up with Cardinals being such awesome characters?) in The Three Musketeers 1993, is what Tim Curry's all about:

Queen: I would rather die!
Richelieu: THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!!

Richelieu: One for all ... and more for meeee!

Wadsworth: That's what we're TRYING to figure out! We're trying to figure out who killed who, WHERE AND WITH WHAT!
Professor Plum: There's no need to shout.
Wadsworth: I'M NOT SHOUTING!" (pause) "All right I am! I'm SHOUTING, I'M SHOUTING, I'M SHOUT--

  • His performance as Pennywise the Dancing Ham in IT freely mixes this trope with Nightmare Fuel.

"Aww...come on, BUCKO! Don't ya want a ba-LOON?"
"They all FLOOOOOAT down here!"
"I am the eater of worlds...And of CHILDREN!"
"KISS ME, FATBOY!"
"Don'tcha want it? Don'tcha WANT IT? Don'tcha ya WANT IT? DON'TCHA WANT IT?"
"Beep Beep Richie!"

    • His Evil Laugh in particular touches both bases.
      • Except at one point where it becomes intentionally hilarious:

"Excuse me, Sir!! Do you have Prince Albert in a can?? You do?? Well, ya better let the poor guy out!! WA-HA! WA-HA! WA-HA!


Malcolm McDowell


Samuel L Jackson

Nick Fury: I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.


George C. Scott

  • He was a master at saving the ham for just the right moment, for maximum effect.
  • In the desert battle in Patton, he spends most of it just watching, calmly p the whole thing. Then when it's clear his troops are winning, comes the immortal, "Rommel, you Magnificent Bastard, I read your BOOOK!"
    • Interestingly enough, George Patton's daughters said that Scott nailed Patton's personality so perfectly, they felt like they were actually watching their father on the movie screen. Does that make George Patton a ham? (especially in light of the fact that the movie actually DOWNPLAYS some of the more crude and vulgar catchphrases that he was famous for).
    • Maybe the real-life Patton was a hammier ham than George C. Scott? After all, those pearl-handled revolvers were not exactly army regulation.
    • They're ivory-handled. Only a New Orleans pimp would carry pearl-handles.
    • That jingoistic speech at the beginning of the movie? It's actually fairly closely paraphrased from an even more over the top speech that Patton actually gave.
  • Also in The Hustler, "You owe me MONEY!"
  • Similarly, The Rescuers Down Under. "I didn't make it all the way through third grade for NOTHING!"
    • "Home, home on the range! Where critters are tied up in chains! I cut through their sides and rip off their hides, and the next day I do it again! EVERYBODDAY!!!!"
  • He also, at Kubrick's urging, made quite the snack of Dr. Strangelove.
    • The overacted scenes were supposed to be practice takes. Mr. Scott was not happy to see himself hamming it up on the big screen.
  • Hardcore. TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!
  • The Exorcist III. I BELIEVE speech was off the charts, even for Scott.

Kinderman: Yes, I believe... I believe in death. I believe in disease'. I believe in injustice and inhumanity and torture and anger and hate... I believe in murder. I BELIEVE IN PAIN. I believe in cruelty and infidelity. I believe in slime and stink and every crawling, putrid thing... every possible ugliness and corruption, YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH! I BELIEVE... in you.
"There is a carp in my bathtub, father. Swimming. Up. And down. Up. And down. And I hate it."


Richard O'Brien

Xilus: I'LL NEVER TOLERATE IT WHEN MAGES TRESPASS in MYYYYYYYYYY GUILD!!!!


Udo Kier


Al Pacino

  • Al Pacino has been delivering Large Ham performances for, oh, the past decade or two. Some particular gems:
  • Scent of a Woman ("If I were the man I was five years ago I'd take a FLAME-THROWER to this place!" "HOO-AH! I'm just getting warmed up!") - after being passed over for numerous Oscars, he finally got one for this movie due to the hammy speech at the end. He's stuck with the formula since.
  • Heat ("cause she's got a... GREAT ASS! And you got your head... ALL THE WAY UP IT!" "I had COFFEE with McCauley... HALF AN HOUR AGO!")
  • I saw the trailer for a movie called City Hall and chose not to watch it because the trailer showed me all I needed. "I choose to FIGHT BACK!!!!!1111one... until this city is a palace again!"
  • Pacino as Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy is a ham large enough to choke Godzilla.

"I'm looking for generals ... and what do I get? foot soldiers!"

  • As the Devil in The Devils Advocate, Pacino would only take the part if he got to do a ten minute rant in the film's climax. Upon hearing that, the producers must have looked at each other, shrugged, and said; "Do whatever the hell you want, Al!" Cue Satan Breaking The Fourth Wall as he dips a finger into holy water, boiling it.
    • GOD!! IS AN ABSENTEE LANDLORD!!
  • How can we discuss Pacino's legendary Hammy acting without bringing up Scarface? Practically every line of spoken dialog by Tony Montana is Ham, and the movie wouldn't have been half as good without it (though that probably goes for all of Pacino's roles)
    • "SAAAAAAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEEEEEEND"
  • And Justice for All - Al ends the movie with an epic bit of courtroom haminess: "My client, the Honorable Henry T. Flemming should GO RIGHT TO FUCKING JAIL!!! THE SON OF A BITCH IS GUILTY!" (lots of ranting then follows)
  • Any Given Sunday definitely lets him ham his way. Special moment at the end : WE CLAAAAW WITH OUR FINGERNAAAIIILS FOR THAT INCH


John Turturro


Nicolas Cage

NO!! I don't need anybody's damn permission!! I'm gonna search every inch of this town in the next three hours and anybody who interferes will be brought up on murder charges, you got that!? And you have my permission to stay outta the FUCKING WAY!!!


Steve Buscemi


Harvey Keitel


Benicio Del Toro


Johnathan Harris

  • The late, truly great Johnathan Harris, who built his reputation on hamming it up. Who is he you ask? You know him best as Dr. Smith from Lost in Space and that's really all you need to know. Although you should also know him pretty well as Manny, the praying mantis, in Pixar's A Bugs Life. I dare you, no really, I. DARE. YOU. to come up with a better actor who has taken the Large Ham and honed it, perfected it, nay! taken it to the pinnacle of the art form! Seriously, he was such a master of it because he could take any role and imbue it with such over-the-topness, without making it silly, until it was unforgettable. You love him and you know it.


Quentin Tarantino


Cecil B. Demented

Honey Whitlock: What do I get if I win? (referring to the Honey Whitlock costume contest)
Ticket Seller: A big ham! What else?


Antonio Banderas

  • How can you classify his work on Four Rooms?
    • "Did they misbehave?"
    • And don't forget the elevator scene.
  • Also his portrayal of Zorro is quite hammy. In particular, he gleefully chews the scenario whenever Alejandro gets drunk in The Legend of Zorro.
  • In Spy Kids 2: "These are my children. And I will find them MY WAY!!"
  • And who can forget Puss-in-Boots in Shrek?!
    • "PUSS! In boots...
    • From movie numero quatro: "Feed me... if you dare!"(yes, he actually says that.)
  • It's almost impossible to beat him as Miguel, the Ax Crazy killer in Assassins. Just look at this! This is one of the biggest Chewing the Scenery scenes in cinema history.

Miguel: YOU BLEW IT! I AM STILL ALIVE!!! HAHAHA!!!

    • He's undeniably the most fun thing about the movie.
    • Probably it's because he's a Badass Spaniard.


Sin City

  • Recognize my VOICE, Hartigan? Recognize my voice, you piece-of-shit cop? I look different, but I bet you can recognize my voice!
  • This is a career-ending wound, WHORE!
  • This is blood for blood and by the GALLON. These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're BACK! There's no choice left. And I'm ready for war.


Pirates Of The Caribbean

"Dearrly beloved, we be gathered here today, to nail your gizzards to the mast, you poxy cur!"

    • Also, this:

Elizabeth: Captain Barbossa! We need you at the helm!
Barbossa: ...Aye, that be true!

    • And then there's the scene where the Pearl is sailing around the malestrom and Barbossa is at the helm, laughing his head off and generally having the time of his life.
    • Of course, as mentioned above, Captain Jack Sparrow. It gets even worse when he is Talking to Himself in the third movie.
    • Don't forget Davy Jones, specially with that weird accent. DAMN YOU, TV TROPEEEEESSSS!
      • HARRIDAN! YOU'LL SEE NO MERCY FROM ME!
    • In the second and third movies, Keira Knightley is clearly enjoying herself as Elizabeth ("I just wanted the pleasure of doing that myself!").


Gary Oldman

  • Gary Oldman certainly showed potential in Sid and Nancy, but he wouldn't come into his own as a real ham until Dracula, where he served up an intense, hissing slice of Romanian pork product. We got a second course in True Romance, with Drexl the dreadlocked pimp ("It ain't white boy day is it?"). But his peak was undeniably Léon: The Professional:

Stansfield: Bring me everyone.
Benny: What?
Stansfield: EEEEEVERYYYYONEEE!


Other Hams On The Menu

"Change the scheme! Alter the mood! Electrify the boys and girls, if you'd be so kind."

"Greetings, programs! Oh, what an occasion we have here before us. Because your rumors are true! We do indeed have in our midst... A USER! A user! So, what to do? What does this user deserve? Might I suggest, perhaps... the challenge of the grid?! (crowd cheers) And who best to battle this singular opponent? Perhaps one who has some experience in these matters... oh yes indeed, programs! Your liberator! Your luminary! Your leader and beacon! The one who vanquished the tyranny of the user those many cycles before! CLU!!!!"

Loki: Father...
Odin: HAEEERGH!

    • Although Odin's son Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth) gives Hopkins a run for his money, what with all the intense gazes and grandiloquent declarations.
    • Tom Hiddleston as Loki probably takes the prize pig in a family of hams, though, leaving most of the ham for when he strikes Earth in The Avengers. Seriously, the speech he gave to the crowd in Germany was spectacularly theatrical:

Loki: Kneel before me. I said... KNEEL! Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.

Dracula: I have charrrrtered a ship to take us to Eengland. Ve vill be leeeaving....tomorrow....eeeee-ven-inng.
Dracula: Excellent, Mis-ter...Ren-field...
Dracula: I neeever drink.......wine.
Dracula: (swings a sword at Keanu) Eet iz no laughing ma-TTAH!

    • And taken to parodistic extremes by Richard Roxburgh's turn as the Count in Van Helsing.

Dracula: Nooo!!! I HAVE NO HEART! I feeeel no pain! No love! No...sorrow...I...am...HOLLOW...and I vill liive....forever!

It's a bad sign when the Big Bad opens his mouth, and all you can think of is how many Linkin Park albums he owns.
      • Then there's Moulin Rouge, where Roxburgh's villainous Duke is the largest ham in a movie stuffed with them (although Jim Broadbent gives him a fair run for the money).
        • The fact the two of them got to sing "Like A Virgin" together absolutely cements their oversized porcine status.
  • Ray Winstone in Beowulf, although that's pretty clearly part of the character. A little more creepily, Crispin Glover as Grendel.
  • And who could forget the most succulent ham of them all, Robert Newton in Treasure Island?
  • James Robertson Justice. A Ham so Large, he was Brian Blessed and John Rhys-Davies combined, in virtually every single role he performed (including the cheese commercials!).
  • Charlton Heston in every movie he was in, especially as Moses.
  • Do not let the golden ham that is Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments eclipse the cured Eastern ham that is Yul Brynner in that film.
    • "The city he built ... shall BEAR MY NAME. The woman he loves ... shall BEAR MY CHILD."
    • "Farewell! ... my ONE TIME brother."
    • "Does FEAR rule Egypt ... or do IIIIIIII?" * sweep your cape around*
      • Unfortunately, constant repetition and Memetic Mutation has also invested Brynner's postmortem exhortation for people not to smoke with a degree of ham.
  • ANY movie John Agar is in. And watching him is like getting hit in the face OVER AND OVER by a large ham.
  • Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime in Transformers. BEFORE TIME BEGAN, THERE WAS A LARGE HAM!

I am... MEGATRON!!!

JOIN them in EXTINCTION!

You STILL fight for the WEAK! THAT is why YOU LOSE!

"LEEEETTTTT THEEEIRRRR BLOOODDDD RAIIINNNN FRRROOMMM THE SKKKYYYY!"
"You don't like that, do you? GOOOOOOD! I could USE every OOOOUNCE of your RAAAGE! Hathathathathata!"

    • He was also pretty hammy in Eragon, probably for the same reason, though he was still the best actor in the movie.

"Mind the little bones. Hate to see you choke."

      • And while we're on Eragon, special mention for John Malkovich, the ham's ham. "I suffer without my stone. DO NOT prolong my suffering..." Malkovich really is a ham all over, though (see Burn After Reading)
    • Irons and DeVito both hammed it up on Sesame Street in cameos during the song Put Down The Duckie
    • From Roger Ebert's review of the 2002 version of The Time Machine: "[Guy] Pearce, as the hero, makes the mistake of trying to give a good and realistic performance. Irons at least knows what kind of movie he's in, and hams it up accordingly."
  • Those of us with young children can take some relief in the fact that ManHAMdy Patinkin saw fit to have fun with his role as the villain in Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland.

Who said that? Who dares challenge my evil ways?

  • Marlon Brando in some of his films.
    • Marlon Brando started dishing out large servings of ham almost as soon as he started getting lead roles.
    • Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
    • And if he wasn't hammy, it's likely because he simply didn't give a damn (the Superman movies)
      • A role for which he didn't even bother memorizing his lines. He had cue cards taped all over the set so that every time he's on-screen, he is literally just reading lines.
  • Willem Dafoe. The Green Goblin. "THINK ABOUT IT, HERO!" and "Sleeeeeep!" come to mind. The performance can charitably be described as "operatic".
    • "FINISH IT!"
    • "WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDAH-MAAAAAAAAAAN!" And don't forget Doc Ock in the second film. "You have a train to catch."
    • Don't forget J. Jonah JamHAMeson, played with gusto by J.K. Simmons. I guess that batch of "Christmas meat" was ham...
    • And further proving villains are a fun role, Eddie Brock/Venom. "I like being bad. It makes me happy."
    • Willem Dafoe. Everything Else. "THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!"
  • Virtually anybody in Speed Racer, but in particular Pops ("Terrible what passes for a ninja these days"), Royalton ("Do you want to become a real race car driver?! Then SIGN that contract!"), and impressively, eight-year-old Spritle.
  • A new age is dawning. An age of HAM, and ALL THE WORLD WILL KNOW that SPARTAN KING LEONIDAS chewed EVERY LAST INCH OF SCENERY TO DEFEND IT!
    • Ephialtes and Xerxes were pretty hammy, too. (A particular scene of the latter's earned a "Ham alert! Ham alert" in 300's Riff Trax)
  • Let's not give Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. "The Rock" a free pass. From The Rundown to Doom, hammy till the cows come home. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's pretty hilarious in every single case (the best being Be Cool, specially his "acting showoff").

Can you SMEEEEEELL what The Rock is COOOOKIIIIING?!

    • Yes, and it's a big thick ham steak, wrapped in bacon and stuffed into a suckling pig with a can of Spam in its mouth. Served on a plate of porkchops.
    • The Rock's mother didn't like him using the word "ass" (during his general promo about "turn[ing] that sumbitch sideways and sticking it straight up your candy ass!")... so one time, he changed it to "straight up... your RECTUM."
    • Let's not forget his work in the masterful Southland Tales. "I'm a pimp... and pimps... don't. Commit. Suicide."
    • This troper's personal favourite cut of Ham from the Rock was in The Scorpion King where he proves you can ham up gestures.
  • Oliver Reed in Gladiator. I can't think of any ham-related puns based on his name.
    • YOU SOLD ME...QUEER GIRAFFES.
  • Both the villains of Space Mutiny. One of them is extremely easy to amuse ("Remember Carl's blond joke?") and seems to think that acting is entirely based on scrunching up your forehead ("Come on, skull, pop out of my skin!"). The other is unnaturally intense and always hisses.

"I'm surrounded by INCOMPETENCE! I'm being undermined by my own disciples!"

"He sitssss up there, in those melancholy hills. Some say he SLUMBERS DEEP, like the KRAKEN! The troopers will never catch him! So... I... wait, Mr. Murphy. I wait."

    • Or his even more delightful line, which is censored not because it's a spoiler, but because of how offensive it is,. "What is an Irishman... but a nigger turned inside out?"
  • Faye Dunaway, burying herself in the character and a very Large Ham, as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. "NO. MORE. WIRE. HANGERS!!!"
  • Creeeeeeeeeedence Léonore Guilgud from Troll 2, incapable of not extending a word to epic proportions, and playing up the creepy witch Depraved Bisexual angle for everything it's worth. As Rifftrax so memorably put it: "This is community college draaaaaaaaama class!".
  • Dorothy Lamour commenting on making the Road To... pictures with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope: "I felt like a wonderful sandwich, a slice of white bread between two slices of ham."
  • Vincent Price is another classic example. For a particularly thick slice, check out one of his own particular favorites: Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective.
    • Justified in Theater of Blood, where his character is a murderous actor. A HAMMY murderous actor.
    • His monologue at the beginning of the song Black Widow by Alice Cooper is nothing short of hamtastic. Same goes for his rap in Michael Jackson's Thriller.
    • Another amazing example is The Abominable Dr. Phibes, where Price chews the scenery without even opening his mouth.
    • Price was always the right side of ham though, as his passion for acting and captivating voice and mannerisms helped him stop becoming cheesy.
    • Bear in mind he also played Egghead in the 60's Batman series, delivering a fine meal of ham and eggs.
    • In His Kind Of Woman, Price plays an Errol Flynn-style movie star who, when confronted with real mortal danger from mobsters, gets a huge rush from it, and leaps into the fray shouting out Shakespeare with extra ham - he even wears a thespian cape!
  • Just about everybody with a name from Super Mario Bros gets to ham it up now and again (Toad's guitar playing for one), but Dennis Hopper as King Koopa stands out above all the rest. "Bobomb..."
    • Given that the two leads have said they only got through the film due to large amounts of alcohol, it stands to reason.
  • Joan Cusack in School of Rock, although Jack Black outhams her in that film.
    • But can you name a role where Jack Black isn't being hammy? (only Shallow Hal comes to my mind)
      • He was also remarkably subdued on his guest spot in The X-Files, despite playing himself again.
      • Also subdued in King Kong and The Holiday.
      • Ironically, Black's liberal use of ecstasy while filming King Kong was likely a great contributor to his down-to-earth performance.
    • Also, Joan Cusack as the nanny in The Addams Family second move. Don't I deserve love... and jewelry?

"That's not what I wanted! That's not who I was! I was a ballerina! GRACEFUL! DELICATE!"

Dr. Terwilliker: We shall play the most beautiful piece ever written. I wrote it.
Dr. Terwilliker: I want him disintegrated. ATOM... by ATOM!!!!!"

  • "Inconceivable!"
  • To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar was the proverbial feast of a thousand hams. Every lead actor was salted, cured, and hickory-smoked. And it was delicious.
  • Jack Palance could go from quiet, breathy ham to loud, bombastic ham in the blink of an eye.
  • Half the cast of Oceans Eleven and its sequels, with special mention going to Elliot Gould as Reuben Tishkoff and Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr.
  • Meet the Fockers has a tag team of Large Hams in the form of Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman, both shamelessly mugging for the cameras and having a blast doing it. Amazingly, they manage to pull off the feat of being Large Kosher Hams.
  • Apparently directorial advice to Forest Whitaker for playing Cpt. Jack Wander in Street Kings was something like "speak very VERY loudly half the time, act like you're hitting on Keanu Reeves for the other half" - with a wikked Baw-stahn accent all the while. Yum yum, good ham.
  • Michael "Basil Exposition" York as the Antichrist in The Omega Code 2: Megiddo probably tops every single example on this page, to the point that the movie should have been called The Omega Ham. His performance single-handedly elevates this movie to So Bad It's Good status. See for yourself.
  • Nathan Lane, in nearly everything, but especially The Birdcage.
    • The whole movie was a hamming competition between Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
      • In The Birdcage, Williams and Lane were hamming it up so much they had to promise to do at least one 'straight' (term used loosely) take for every scene.
  • Austin Powers has quite a few including the main character and Dr. Evil (both played by Mike Myers). "OH BEHAVE!"
    • Don't forget Fat Bastard and Goldmember (Myers again x2)!

Fat Bastard: First theings first! Where's yer shitter?! I got a CRAP on deck that could choke a donkey!!
Goldmember: I love goooooooooooooooooollldddd!!!

  • Listen up you primitive screwheads! Bruce Campbell is a LARGEHAM! He starts off as a Deadpan Snarker, top-of-the-line. You can find this in lines like "Groovy". That's right, then this sweet actor from Royal Oak, Michigan gets 110 bucks worth of ham. He's got a hyperactive jawline, walnut brown eyes and a hair ham trigger. So when shopping for ham, Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart. GOT THAT?
    • Also, the only Sci Fi original movies that are even close to bearable are the ones with Bruce Campbell in them, specifically for this reason.
    • His performance as an elderly Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep is a slightly subdued version.
    • Sort of lampshaded in Army Of Darkness, where one character asks if everyone in the future is as much of a loudmouthed braggart as he is.
    • Sam Raimi gave him cameos in all three Spider-Man films. The first two (a wrestling announcer and a theater usher) are short and constrained. But as a French maître d' in the third, he chews scenery and easily steals the scene.
  • The delightful Sir Ian McKellen.

FOR I TELL YE THIS! THERE'LL BE NO HAM IN HELL!!!!!!!!!

"In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Ham! Not dark but beautiful and hammy as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!"

  • Another female example: Hermione Gingold.
  • Sean Connery's mentor role in Highlander - bonus marks for a velvet pimp outfit with peacock cloak - see here
    • The Kurgan (played by Clancy Brown) in the same movie sometimes becomes hammy as well (turning him even more creepy).
    • Not to mention his performance as Sir August de Wynter in The Avengers 1998. Includes his bombastic address to the Council of Ministers, his "Rain or shine, all is MINE!", and his over-the-top insults to Steed.
  • John Travolta's backing of and appearance in Battlefield Earth would be damning enough, but his performance... wow.
    • "While you were still learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME!...I...was being trained...to conquer GALAXIES!"
    • "If you RATBRAINS knew AN-Y-THING about FIREARMS, you'd know you never store LOADED WEAPONS!"
      • The main hero of the film isn't much better. "A demon! A monster! A BEAST! RAAAAAAH!"
  • "I aM TorGo. I tAke caRe oF tHe PlaCe wHilE thE MastEr iS aWay."
    • The actor was actually dubbed by someone else, as the camera they used couldn't record sound. Although, Torgo's constant mugging and twitching suggests that he was perfectly capable of hamming it up in mime. Even his walk is over the top.
    • "MANOS! As thou hast decreed, so have I done. The Hands of Fate have doomed this man! Thy... will...is...done."
  • Ann-Margret in Ken Russell's Tommy. Fine ham abounds. And your ham has to be pretty damned fine to stand out in that freakfest (see Tina Turner as the Acid Queen and Keith Moon as Uncle Ernie just for starters). She even got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
    • Ann-Margret is no stranger to ham. A decade before Tommy she stole the show as juvenile delinquent Jody in the silly potboiler Kitten With a Whip.
  • Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith in The Matrix is so hammy he doesn't need a ham-related pun! "Humans...are a virussss...a disease...and we are the cure!"
    • Even more in the sequels ("Missster Anderson! Surprised to see me?" and of course, "Smith will suffice").
    • Not to mention, "This is MY WORLD! MY WORLD!
    • As Elrond in Lord of the Rings: "Evil was allowed to enduuuuuuuuh."
    • They had their money's worth with him as Red Skull: YOU ARE FAILIIIINGGGG!!!
  • Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent in Fright Night and its sequel. Also Chris Sarandon's character Jerry Dandridge counts too. Oh yeah, and Evil Ed. "You're so cool Brewster!".
  • Mystery Men has quite a few most notably Casanova Frankenstein and Tony P.
    • Both Tonies, actually: "Hey, shovel man! Dig this!"
  • Obadiah Stane.
  • The Wizard played by Mako in Conan the Barbarian is a humming ball of ham in a seaweed outfit, while Thulsa Doom manages to be completely mesmerising, yet hammy as well. "Steel isn't strong, boy...flesssh is stronger."

Contemplate this... on the tree of woe.
Mako: "BETWEEEEEN THE TIME WHEN THE OCEANS DRAANK ATLAAANTIS... AAAND the rise of the sons of Aryas... there was an age undreamed-of. AND ONTO THIS, CONAN! Destined to bear the jeweled cwown of Kahlifonia Aquilonia UP...PON A TROUB...BLED...BROW. It is I, his KWONICLER who ALONE can tell thee of his saga. LET ME TELL YOU OF THE DAYS OF HIIIIIIIGH AD-VEN-TUUUUREE!!!!"

"I'll get you my pretty! And your large ham too!"

I'm me-eeelting, I'm me-eeelting!!! What a world, what a world, oh!

  • Speaking of witches, The White Witch in The BBC adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In every damn scene.
    • "Then how DAAARE you come ALOOONE?!"
  • John Candy sometimes played roles like this. In the 1986 film version of Little Shop of Horrors he had a cameo as an over-the-top radio DJ named Weird Wink Wilkinson. Weirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd stuff!
  • Steve Martin as the evil dentist in Little Shop of Horrors.
  • Dan Aykroyd as JP Valkanheiser in Nothing but Trouble. Boola boola boola!.
  • Peter Sellers knew a thing or two about being this in many of his films. Prime cuts of ham include the title character in Dr. Strangelove and Dr. Fritz Fassbender in What's New Pussycat (arguing with his wife: "Is she prettier than you? I'M prettier than you!"). And Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau was good for five films' worth of this, especially as he drove Herbert Lom's hapless Dreyfus to the (hammy) edge of sanity.
    • Stanley Kubrick, making Lolita, gave Sellers plenty of room to improvise, so his part as Claire Quilty grew much larger than planned, apparently bothering star James Mason in the process.
  • Half the cast members of Enchanted are practically required by the situation (cartoon fairy tale characters thrown into the real world) to do this. James Marsden and Susan Sarandon are especially generous with the ham.
  • George Pickett is played this way in Gettysburg. In his first appearance, he comes riding into Longstreet's camp shouting "HELLO MY BOYS, VIRGINIA HAS ARRIVED!".
  • In Gods and Generals, Jeff Daniels hams it up HUGE with his recitation of Marcus Lucanus's poem about Caesar crossing the Rubicon. Tops it off with "HAIL, CAESAR! WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE, SALUTE YOU!" [dead link]
  • The Baron Harkonnen of David Lynch's film of Dune is an enormous bucket of ham. His nephews Rabban and Feyd are definitely on their way to full ham-hood, Piter de Vries even proves you can give sign language a pork content, and Gurney Halleck is hammy as ever.

Gurney (Patrick Stewart) MOOD?! Mood is for cattle and loveplay!

    • Seems he and Freddie Jones had a scene-chewing competition going on.

Thufir Hawat: (Wait, what?) THOSE SOUNDS ...(smack your lips, wiggle your jowls) COULD. BE. IM-IT-TAYT-TED.

    • Ian McNeice chews up immense amounts of scenery as the Baron in the Sci-Fi miniseries. Possibly lampshaded when Paul suggests renaming House Harkonnen to "House Hog". Though it's probably just the Atreides having a laugh at the Harkonnens' expense.
      • To be fair, half the dialogue they had to work with had distinct pork content to begin with.
  • Kyle Reese in every line of Terminator.
    • Speaking of Michael Biehn, he actually plays the soft-spoken badass in Aliens, letting Bill Paxton take charge as the memorably large Ham of that movie ("Game over, man! GAME OVER!").
    • As mentioned in the Batman entry, Christian Bale as John Connor in Terminator Salvation.
  • John Belushi in the criminally under-rated war comedy Nineteen Forty One.
    • Not to mention the entirety of The Blues Brothers. Take the scene where Belushi finally comes face to face with Carrie Fisher (aka the Chick With the Flamethrower) and throws himself on his knees to apologize:

Jake: Oh, please, don't kill us! Please, please don't kill us! You know I love you baby. I wouldn't leave ya. It wasn't my fault!
Mystery Woman: You miserable slug! You think you can talk your way out of this? You betrayed me.
Jake: No, I didn't! Honest! I ran out of gas! I, I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE! A TERRIBLE FLOOD! LOCUSTS! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!

      • How could we mention the good Mr. Belushi without talking about his most ludicrously over-the-top role ever: Bluto Blutarsky!

TOGA! TOGA!

Mr. Humberfloob: Fired.
Jim McFinnigan: I beg your pardon?
Mr. Humberfloob: Fired.
Jim McFinnigan: But I...
Mr. Humberfloob: FIIIIIIRRRRRRREEEEEEDDDDDD-UH!

    • Soon after:

Mr. Humberfloob: [speaking to Joan] If your house is as messy as last time, YOU'RE FIIIIIIRRRRRRREEEEEEDDDDDD-UH!

  • No specific lines come to this editor's mind at the moment but Dolph Lundgren reeeally hammed it up as a villain in Universal Soldier.
  • Zero Mostel. Estragon in Waiting for Godot. Max Bialystock in The Producers. Abe in The Hot Rock. Pseudolus in 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. John in Rhinocerous. He wasn't always a ham, but when he was, he was the biggest, best, hammiest ham ever.
    • He was also the voice of Kehaar, a Large Ham seagull.
    • The one human being who can out Ham The Muppets. Don't believe me?
      • In the second clip even his index finger overacts.
        • Subverted in The Front, in which he plays an actor who plays Large Ham, but is generally low key save one drunk scene. His suicide is quiet, dignified, and depressing.
  • Peter Lorre on some occasions.
  • Peter Ustinov steals the spotlight in every movie he appears in. Special mention goes to his performance of Nero in Quo Vadis, where he makes being the emperor of Rome look so fun that it's just about impossible to hate him even as he makes living torches out of Christians.
    • "Oh! Is this the untimely end of Nero?" Declare it in your most florid voice; it's fun!
    • KILL! KIIIILLLLLLLL THE NEWBORN!!
  • A good chaser to Tim Curry's Pass the Ammo performance is the barely-released Marty Feldman comedy In God We Tru$t (1980), which brought the world Andy Kaufman as a Deep South televangelist. The character's name, Armageddon T. Thunderbird, is just the tip of the ham hock here.
  • Supporting performer Scott Paulin, in the beat-'em-up Knights. The leads are either capable only of Dull Surprise (Kathy Long), or clearly thinking mainly of their pay-cheques (Kris Kristofferson, Lance Henrikson); Paulin appears to have been the only one on the set who realized he was playing a vampire ninja cyborg named after an apostle and decided to just go with it! The resulting exuberant, gleeful bombast that embues 'Simon's' seven screen-minutes almost hauls the movie up into the 'cheesy-fun' bracket.
  • Ciaran Hinds in the 1997 version of Jane Eyre. Just look at this.
  • Mamma Mia! consists of Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski switching between hamming it up for all they're worth and giving a heartbreakingly genuine performance. Sometimes they do both at once.
  • Jon Voight as Paul Sarone in Anaconda.
  • Christopher Walken playing an outsized version of himself in Balls of Fury.
  • The best part of Steven Spielberg's Hook was undoubtedly Dustin Hoffman as the titular character.

Oh, I hate being disappointed, Smee. And I hate living in this flawed body. And I hate living in Neverland. And I hate... I hate... I hate Peter Pan!
Peter. I swear to you wherever you go, wherever you are, I vow there will always be daggers buried in notes signed James Hook. They will be flung into doors of your children's children's children, do you hear me?
"I. HATE. PETER. PAAAAAAAAN!"

"Why didn't anyone ever tell me my ass HAM was SO BIG!!"
"This ship is too long! If I walk, da movie'll be over!!"

If I don’t get out of here, I’ll die! If I don’t get out of here, I hope I die!

  • Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate in The Great Race. His character is a parody of Mad Scientist villains, thus he overacts as much as it's possible.

PUSH THE BUTTON, MAX!

Merlin: BeHOOOOOLLLLlllddd! The sword of POWahhhh! ExxxxCALibahhh!
Merlin: CHHHAAAAaaaange! TRANS! FORM! NOWWW!
Merlin: Oh, I have sleeept. For nine moOOns. What I did for eeeewe wasn't easy.
Merlin: Do nothing. Sleep! Rest in the arms of the dragonnnn. DREEEEAAAAMMM.
Merlin: A dream ham. To some. A NIGHTMARE!!! TO OTHERS!!!

    • Gabriel Byrne chews up a pig's worth of Ham even though he's only in the movie's first act:

Uther: Merlin! I am the STRONGEST! I am the ONE!!

Uther: They were hasty words Merlin! This is FLESH! and BLOOD! HAM! and CHEESE!

"I'm not the Vindicator or the Victimizer or the Vaporizer or the Vibrator! I'm... The Violator!"

Kneel! Kneel to your god!

  • The Court Jester. Half the budget was apparently spent repairing the scenery Danny Kaye ate. Get it?
    • Got it.
      • Good.
  • The Duke of Buckingham in Paul W. S. Anderson's re-imagining of The Three Musketeers 2011 is a scenery-chewing, tantrum-chucking hunk of smoke-cured goodness. And he's played by Orlando Bloom, believe it or not. And it's glorious.
  • It's not all that often you see Tim Roth embracing the ham. Fortunately, he does so to great effect in Hoodlum.
    • And don't forget Planet of the Apes, where the hammy performance transcends the heavy make-up (and makes General Thade even more chilling).
  • Jared Leto along with a head of cornrows in Panic Room.
  • Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger is practically ham personified...especially in Freddy vs. Jason

"OH THAT'S RIGHT! They all forgot! That's why I needed Jason to kill for me to get them to remember! But now, he JUST WON'T STOP! That. Hockey. Punk!"

"Are yew flirtin' with me?"
"How sexy hammy am I now, you fuck?!?"

"FUCK, THOSE ANIMALS STINK!"
"Then we should COUNT on that, Mr. McGruder! Forrest Taft is the patron saint of the impossible. And if you had only done your job like you're supposed to, it wouldn't have COME TO THIS!"
" You're a bunch of GUTLESS PRICKS! ALL OF YOU!"

Wallace Wells: "FFFIIIIIIIIGGGHHHTTT!!!!!"
Lucas Lee: "Now you listen close, and you listen hard, bucko. The next click you hear is me hanging up. The one after that... IS ME PULLING THE TRIGGER!!"
Roxy Richter: "Give it a rest, Ramona! This is a LEAGUE game... meaning your precious Scott must DEFEAT ME WITH HIS OWN FISTS!!!"
Matthew Patel: "MISTER PILGRIM!!!!"
Todd Ingram: "Because you'll be pulverized in two seconds, and the cleaning lady? She cleans up... dust. SHE DUSTS."
Gideon Graves: "You made me swallow my gum... it's gonna be in my digestive tract for SEVEN YEARS!!!"

  • Joe Clark as portrayed by Morgan Freeman in Lean on Me.
  • Edward James Olmos as Selena's father in Selena, don't start him on how Hispanic-Americans get treated he won't stop. And also there's the scene where Selena starts dancing in a skimpy clothing and Olmos' character nearly has a meltdown, and of course yelling "YOU'RE FIRED" at Selena's boyfriend/band member either when he trashes a hotel room or he makes it clear he has a thing for his daughter. There are times where he's calm and subtle and there's other scenes where Olmos completely loses it and goes completely over the top. Though Stand and Deliver was pretty hammy in the performance department too, though a little more subtle than Selena.
  • Morgan Freeman as a pimp named Fast Black in Street Smart, not only is it against type casting even for its time, Freeman gives a pretty frightening over the top performance. The most frightening the bathroom beatdown on Christopher Reeve, that probably made him piss his pants.
  • Joe Spinell in Maniac and to a greater degree The Last Horror Film complete with whining, crying and general disturbing behavior which is natural considering one was a serial killer and another was a crazed stalker fan.
  • Most of the characters, hell even the atmosphere in John Woo's HK movies (Sometimes in his American movies but to a lesser extent), to a glorious level. Chow Yun Fat is the winner of hamminess in Woo's movies though,with the most hammy being the rice scene in A Better Tomorrow 2 where Fat nearly force feeds an American Gangster rice at gun point. Hard Boiled is built of ham, which just makes it more awesome. The villains in nearly all of Woo's films, even his American films with the exception of Windtalkers, are great giant hams (best example being Face Off where Nicolas Cage becomes John Travolta and vice versa, and the results are copious amounts of Ham-to-Ham Combat).
  • THAT WAS AN ORDER! STEINER'S ATTACK WAS AN ORDER! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, TO DISOBEY AN ORDER THAT I GIVE! THE GENERALS HAVE BEEN LYING TO ME, EVERYONE HAS BEEN LYING TO ME, EVEN THE SS!
    • In fairness, this is a pretty accurate portrayal.
  • Syndrome from The Incredibles flip-flops between Dangerously Genre Savvy understated and hammier than a Honeybaked warehouse, especially when he's enjoying himself. In fact, he gets so hammy that he actually loses Mr. Incredible.

Syndrome: [with Mr. Incredible in his tractor beam] I am Syndrome! [wild hand gestures] I am your nemesis! I-- [Syndrome's hand gestures accidentally turn off the tractor beam and Mr. Incredible goes flying.] Oh, brilliant.

  • Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
    • Jack Skellington can be pretty hammy too. Seriously: "I AM THE PUMPKIN KING!!!"
  • Ludmilla from Bartok the Magnificent.
  • Igor has quite a few, including the mad scientists.
  • Lampshaded in Shrek the Third. When Arty starts guilt tripping Merlin to help Shrek, Donkey, and Puss back to Far Far Away, little Arty starts hamming it up to a fairly respectable degree. After his little guilt-trip is over, Shrek, obviously impressed, asks "Would you like some eggs with that ham?" Granted, little Arty has nothing on Shatner, but still...
  • BOB in Monsters vs. Aliens. Also Stephen Colbert as the president, and to a lesser extent, Kiefer Sutherland as a General Ripper.
  • Brian Thompson in Mortal Kombat Annihilation:

The merger has begun! Earth is under attack! And IT! IS! GLORIOUS!

  • Piper Laurie as Margaret White, the fanatically religious mother of the title character, in the 1976 version of Carrie. Her performance was so over-the-top that she thought that the film was meant to be a comedy... before she saw the finished product, of course. She wound up getting an Oscar nomination for it.
Back to Large Ham
  1. ↑ This is a central trait of her character. Naturally, as she's a faux psychic (most of the time, anyway).
  2. ↑ - a character points out "Nokia's from Finland." and another reminds "Yes, but he's, you know, a little strange."
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.