Leslie Nielsen Syndrome: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:leslienielsentake2 7545.jpg|link=Leslie Nielsen|frame|There has to be a perfectly rational explanation. Maybe there's more than one Leslie Nielsen in Hollywood!<ref>Top: ''[[Night Train to Paris]]'', ''[[Snatched]]'', ''[[Project Kill|Project: Kill!]]''; Bottom: ''[[Surf Ninjas]]'', ''[[Spy Hard]]'', ''[[Scary Movie|Scary Movie 3]]''.</ref>]]

 

 

The casting opposite of [[Tom Hanks Syndrome]]. With this trope, a successful actor with a history of dramatic roles plays against type and stars in a comedy, [[Played for Laughs|playing it for laughs]] and generally acting silly. And it works. Unlike [[Tom Hanks Syndrome]], the change will rarely be permanent: the actor will still dip into serious roles, and may even bounce back and forth from comedy to drama like a rubber ball. But sometimes, the actor finds a new niche (and a new career) as a comedic performer.

* Mark Hamill got his start playing heroic Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker in the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy. While he still revisits that role from time to time (in films like ''[[The Last Jedi]]'' and ''[[The Rise of Skywalker]]''), these days he tends to be VA for [[The Joker]] in, well, ''any'' [[Batman]] adaptation where the Joker needs a VA. Clearly, the two characters are as different as night and day.

* John Lithgow was known for his dramatic villains before ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]''.

** He breathed new life into ''[[Dexter]]'' in the fourth season, after two seasons of misery, with his awesome performance as a serial killer.

*** And it wasn't the first time he'd played a serial killer, he was also the title character in ''[[Raising Cain]]''.