Celebrities

Standard Of Review: It’s Time For These 5 Actors To Suit Up As Attorneys

Many of the most accomplished actors of the last thirty years have, at one time or another, taken a role as a lawyer.

By Harry Graff on July 06, 2017 11:48 am

Shailene Woodley (by Mingle Media TV via Flickr)

It is not a particularly insightful statement to note that many of the most accomplished actors of the last thirty years have, at one time or another, taken a role as a lawyer. Tom Cruise was in A Few Good Men. Both Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington were in Philadelphia. George Clooney was in Michael Clayton and Intolerable Cruelty. Matthew McConaughey was in The Lincoln Lawyer and A Time To Kill. Daniel Day-Lewis was in The Age of Innocence. Harrison Ford was in Presumed Innocent. Robert De Niro was in Night and the City (a movie that I had never heard of until researching this piece). Reese Witherspoon was in Legally Blonde. Julia Roberts was a law student in The Pelican Brief and a legal clerk in Erin Brockovich (not technically an attorney but close enough), and she will play a lawyer in the upcoming Train Man. Even Bryan Cranston played an attorney in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (seriously, this really happened).

But there are plenty of actors and actresses that have never pretended that they use Lexis and review documents. Below are some who have never been attorneys in a television show or film, and lawyerly roles that would fit them.

Three disclaimers: first, while I have engaged in extensive research for this piece, it is possible that I screwed up and one of the below actors has indeed been an attorney. Sorry in advance. Second, I am not counting actors who are supposedly signed on to play an attorney in the future (namely, Michael B. Jordan, who is scheduled to star in an upcoming biopic of Bryan Stevenson). Third, I am counting only movies and television shows. For logistical reasons, I had difficulty ascertaining whether any of these actors ever played an attorney in a play, a commercial, a video game, or a theme park ride.

Shailene Woodley – The 25-year-old actress certainly knows a thing or two about the legal system, as she was recently arrested for criminal trespassing in North Dakota while protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. I applaud that Woodley seems to actually care about something, so she should take that advocacy to the silver screen! Woodley is the perfect age for a young attorney straight out of law school who eschews the Biglaw life and instead decides to join an environmental group planning a major lawsuit against a large corporate behemoth, in turn going up against her best friends from law school, who are first-years at the law firm defending the corporation. Frankly, if John Grisham’s Gray Mountain is ever adapted into a film (which would be a terrible idea, for essentially the reasons I articulated in my review, Woodley would be a good choice to star.

Warren Beatty – The legendary octogenarian actor needs a win after being part of the bungled Academy Awards Best Picture announcement earlier this year, even if it was mostly not his fault. Furthermore, his big comeback film released last Fall, Rules Don’t Apply, was a commercial failure. So who would be better than Beatty at playing an imperious head of a failing law firm in a legal thriller, or a respected judge in a courtroom drama?

Rami Malek – I first noticed Malek in the indie film Short Term 12 (which is the movie equivalent of the University of Michigan’s precocious “Fab Five” basketball team – the film has Malek, Brie Larson (Room), John Gallagher, Jr. (10 Cloverfield Lane), Keith Stanfield (Atlanta), and Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn 9-9) at the beginning of their careers), but he really broke out in Mr. Robot, one of my favorite television shows (and I will even defend the divisive second season). On Mr. Robot, Malek perfectly portrays hacktivist Elliot Alderson, who becomes increasingly paranoid as Elliot and the audience start to question Elliot’s reality. I have heard speculation that the Trump presidency could lead to an influx of conspiracy theory-type thrillers, the way the JFK assassination and Watergate spawned films such as Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View. Malek’s twitchy acting style would be ideal for such a thriller – perhaps a young associate attorney who stumbles across a conspiracy involving a law firm.

Carrie Coon – HBO’s drama The Leftovers turned into one of the best shows on television in its second and third season, and a lot of that improvement is thanks to Coon, who imbued Nora Durst with spunk despite her imperfections and deep sadness. Coon’s performance in The Leftovers proves that she can give life to a character no matters how many terrible things are happening to her. Accordingly, she would excel playing a small-time attorney who goes up against a massive firm in a tort case. As an example, she would be a perfect choice to team up with Billy McBride on Amazon’s Goliath.

Tatiana Maslany – BBC America’s Orphan Black has sort of lost itself in its jumble of a plot; every season seemingly reveals that some other shadowy organization is really the one behind the conspiracy. Despite this, Maslany continues to give nuance to the many many clones she plays. My favorite clone is Alison Hendrix, the fussy, high-strung soccer mom who reluctantly aligns with her fellow clones in their fight against the shadowy organizations and figures that created them. Maslany should take Alison’s spirit to play a type-A attorney at a law firm, perhaps a senior associate gunning for partner, overworking herself, and terrorizing a young associate (maybe the one played by Rami Malek in the fake movie I proposed above).

Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at [email protected]. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.