32 Times Actors Played Professional Athletes (And Whether Or Not They Were Believable)

You know what all of the best sports movies have in common? Well, besides featuring stories centered around football, baseball, and even roller derby? They all include tremendous performances by actors that are believable and help the audience suspend disbelief, if only for a couple of hours. However, there are also movies where the actors, despite trying their best, are a little bit outside. 

Here are 32 times actors played professional athletes and whether or not they were believable.

Burt Reynolds (The Longest Yard)

Considered to be one of the best football movies of all time, The Longest Yard (the 1974 version) features a tremendous performance by the late Burt Reynolds as Paul Crewe, a former pro quarterback who ends up in prison and leads a group of prisoners against the guards in the annual football game. At the top of his game, Reynolds is a lights-out QB and play-caller in this iconic comedy.

Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)

Margot Robbie is to die for in the 2017 sports biopic, I, Tonya, which sees her take on the role of Tonya Harding, the talented and raw figure skater who made a mark on the sport before being tied up in its most notorious controversy. While Robbie’s off-the-ice scenes are superb, her figure skating was just as impressive, which should come as no surprise.

Jamie Foxx (Any Given Sunday)

Oliver Stone’s 1999 satirical sports dramedy, Any Given Sunday, sees Jamie Foxx portray Willie “Steamin” Beamen, the third-string quarterback for the fictional Miami Sharks football team. Foxx is outstanding in his take on the young QB and does a wonderful job of showcasing the character’s on-field talents and off-the-field escapades.

Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby)

Hilary Swank won an Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret “Maggie” Fitzgerald in Best Picture winner, Million Dollar Baby, and rightfully so. The talented actress told CBS News she spent three months training at a Brooklyn boxing gym before filming Clint Eastwood’s 2004 sports drama, and it shows.

Sylvester Stallone (Rocky)

Rocky is without a doubt the most well-known boxing movie of all time, and that’s mostly due to Sylvester Stallone’s commitment to the role of Rocky Balboa. Though not as bulked up as he was in later films in the franchise, Stallone has a great physical presence and ring awareness in his breakout role.

Kevin Costner (Tin Cup)

If Kevin Costner isn’t believable as a down-on-his-luck and washed-up golf pro looking for a shot at redemption and to settle an old score in Tin Cup, then I don’t know what will sell it to you. Sure, Costner seems more comfortable in baseball movies like Bull Durham and For Love of the Game, but his take on Roy McAvoy is top-notch. 

Emma Stone (Battle Of The Sexes) 

Emma Stone played tennis trailblazer Bille Jean King in the 2017 sports biopic, Battle of the Sexes, which saw her take on Steve Carell’s Bobby Riggs in the famous 1973 match of the same name. The Oscar winner does a great job when it comes to every aspect of the role, including those tense tennis scenes.

Geena Davis (A League Of Their Own)

Geena Davis looks, feels, and acts like a professional baseball player in A League of Their Own. There’s no need to suspend your disbelief when watching Davis’ Dottie Hinson lead the Rockford Peaches to one victory after another. The physicality, the presence, the believability are all there.

Chadwick Boseman (42)

Chadwick Boseman became a massive star in 2013 thanks to his celebrated portrayal of Jackie Robinson, the Professional Baseball Hall of Famer who broke the color barrier more than a half-century earlier. Boseman, who died in August 2020, was phenomenal in his performance and made the film’s various baseball sequences incredibly realistic.

Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire)

Okay, Cuba Gooding Jr.’s take on Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire is killer, even when you take out the classic “Show me the money” scene. He’s cocky, brash, and hard to deal with, but he can back it up and makes the big catch to earn his team a playoff berth. We’ll let the off-field antics slide…

Tim Robbins (Bull Durham)

Bull Durham, one of the best baseball movies of all time, sees Tim Robbins play Ebby “Nuke” LaLoosh, a hot-shot young pitcher with a “million-dollar arm, but a five-cent head.” And the six-foot-five-inch Robbins very much looked and acted like a talented yet undisciplined ball player. 

Wesley Snipes (Major League)

Wesley Snipes’ Wille Mays Hayes, who could run like Hayes but not hit like Mays in Major League, was a convincing ball player in the 1989 sports classic. Yeah, he had trouble hitting the ball (part of his character), but he had unmatched speed. The scene where he runs in his pajamas in spring training is still the stuff of legend.

Charlie Sheen (Major League)

If you were to build the ultimate baseball movie team, Charlie Sheen’s Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn from Major League would have a permanent spot as the closer. To pull off the dominant pitcher’s fastball, Sheen took it to the extreme and tried out steroids, as he later told Sports Illustrated. 

Damon Wayans (The Last Boy Scout)

Tony Scott’s The Last Boy Scout is an all-time great buddy action movie, one that also features a former professional football player, or at least an actor playing one. Though we don’t see his character in action on the field, Damon Wayans just gives off the energy of a pro quarterback who lost it all. 

Carl Weathers (Rocky)

Carl Weathers’ Apollo Creed was one of the linchpins of the Rocky franchise and served as one of Sylvester Stallone’s best on-screen opponents. Weathers not only looked like a boxer with that ridiculous physique of his (especially in the later movies), but he also had that “it” factor needed to play such a flashy character.

Tom Berenger (Major League)

It’s hard to imagine anyone besides Tom Berenger playing Jake Taylor, the veteran catcher with bad knees and just enough gas left in the tank, in Major League. Throughout the movie, it feels like the Cleveland Indians’ senior slugger has been through the wringer multiple times, and that’s thanks to the incredible work of Berenger.

Chris Hemsworth (Rush)

Ron Howard’s 2013 sports biopic, Rush, features top-notch performances by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl as James Hunt and Niki Lauda, respectively. While Brühl is great with his cool and collected demeanor, it’s Hemsworth who steals the show with his take on the self-confident and talented Formula One driver, thanks in part to the actor’s electric personality and physicality.

Paul Newman (Slap Shot)

There was no way we weren’t going to talk about Paul Newman in Slap Shot. Seriously, try to think about this beloved hockey movie with anyone else taking on Charlestown Chiefs player/coach Reggie Dunlop. Is he the most talented skater on the ice? No. But is believable in his portrayal of good, old-fashioned hockey? You bet! 

James Caan (Brian’s Song)

Though James Caan was mostly recognized for his work in the latter half of Brian’s Song, this shouldn’t discount his portrayal of Brian Piccolo before he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. His take on the Chicago Bears halfback, along with Billie Dee Williams’ Gale Sayers, is phenomenal, to say the least.

Denzel Washington (The Hurricane)

Denzel Washington gave a commanding performance in the 1999 sports biopic, The Hurricane, which saw him take on the role of middleweight boxer Rubin “The Hurricane” Carter, who spent nearly 20 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder. Washington, once again proving he’s one of the greatest to do it, excels in the ring.

Keanu Reeves (The Replacements)

Audiences never got to see Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Utah throw a pass in Point Break, but we did get to watch the actor play another left-handed quarterback from Ohio State with his portrayal of Shane Falco in The Replacements. This is a “whatever” movie if there’s ever been one, but Reeves looks at home leading the Washington Sentinels after the regular players go on strike.

John Goodman (The Babe)

John Goodman looks like Babe Ruth in the 1992 sports biopic, The Babe, but he doesn’t really play like the Great Bambino. This isn’t a knock on Goodman’s talents as an actor, it’s just that it’s impossible to accurately imitate the unmatched talents of one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore)

Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore will probably always be considered one of the best sports comedies of all time. The movie is heavy on both humor and sports (especially if you include the hockey scenes), and Sandler pulls off both things really well. 

Raquel Welch (Kansas City Bomber)

In the 1972 sports drama, Kansas City Bomber, the late Raquel Welch played K.C. Carr, a recently retired roller games star who returns to sport to settle an old score. No surprise, Welch was great in the movie and was a dominant physical force on skates.

Robert De Niro (Raging Bull)

One of Robert De Niro’s best movies, Raging Bull, sees the Oscar winner take on the role of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta at various stages in his life and career. De Niro, who went through a physical transformation for the part, could hold his own in the movie’s various boxing sequences and never looked out of place.

Robert Redford (The Natural)

Would saying Robert Redford looked natural in his take on Roy Hobbs in The Natural be too on the nose? Who cares! Redford’s boyish charm and remarkable swing of his trusty bat, “Wonderboy,” helped make Barry Levinson’s 1972 sports drama an all-time classic. 

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Not only was Mickey Rourke outstanding in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, but the actor’s portrayal of a washed-up Randy Robinson was also incredibly realistic. Whether he was in the ring or trying to fix the broken pieces of his life in the real world, Rourke bled, cried, and sweated like someone who had been in the squared circle for decades, not months.  

Tom Selleck (Mr. Baseball)

Mr. Baseball is one of those movies that feels like it should have been a much bigger deal, but here we are 30-plus years later with a baseball comedy that never really gets talked about anywhere besides the MLB Network. Despite this, Tom Selleck’s take on Jack Elliot, a New York Yankee who joins the Nagoya Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League, is both fun and believable. Come on, the Blood Bloods star even took an at-bat in an MLB spring training game a year before the film’s release.

Dwayne Johnson (The Tooth Fairy)

Dwayne Johnson, one of the greatest WWE Champions of all time, and a former college football player for the Miami Hurricanes, played a hockey player in the 2010 Disney movie, The Tooth Fairy. The Rock is great in just about anything, but not so much on the ice.

Will Smith (Ali)

Will Smith received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Muhammad Ali in Michael Mann’s 2001 epic sports biopic, Ali, and he did a decent enough job. The major problem with Smith’s performance doesn’t really have much to do with the actor, but instead, the man he was playing. Smith is great in the boxing sequences, but it’s hard to believe that he’s the greatest of all time and not an actor playing the iconic sports figure.

Dennis Quaid (The Rookie)

Dennis Quaid’s portrayal of Jim Morris in The Rookie is nothing short of magical. The way Quaid plays the high school chemistry teacher who becomes a major league pitcher more than a decade after his baseball dreams died is a lot of fun and believable. He has the heart and determination of the real-life Tamp Bay Devil Rays pitcher, which really carries the film.

Steve McQueen (Le Mans)

If there was a movie where Steve McQueen drives a car at a high rate of speed, you can guarantee the legendary actor looked natural doing so. That’s the case with the 1971 film, Le Mans, in which McQueen played Michael Delaney, a racer with a guilty conscience following a tragic accident. McQueen, who had experience as a race driver, looked like a natural.

Playing a professional sport is no easy task and takes years of training and dedication, but these actors did a fine job of playing athletes on the big screen. While some were better than others, each gave all they had.