Everyone knows a That Guy when they see them in a movie. It’s the actor — or actress — that automatically triggers a “oh hey, I know them” from the viewer. They are generally recognizable, but not always A-list, and most of the time you kind of remember the name. It’s the actor that you realize has been in five of your favorite shows or movies in a role that was small, but pivotal.
In Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, there is a plentiful bounty of Those Guys.
MORE: A smiling Oppenheimer meme shows what he’d look like if he invented something else
While stars like Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and Emily Blunt likely earned themselves consideration for Oscar nominations, the rest of the cast knocks it out of the park, even with very limited screen time in some cases.
It’s a brilliant move by Nolan to utilize guys like Gary Oldman, Rami Malek and Casey Affleck — all three of whom have won an Academy Award for Best Actor since 2017 — in small, but important roles. At three hours, the epic biopic is filled to the brim with men talking about physics, morals, security procedures, war and more. It could have easily gotten confusing for viewers trying to keep characters straight.
But when you have That Guy in these small but crucial roles — like Josh Peck of Nickelodeon’s Josh & Drake fame — it becomes so much easier to keep them all straight. You remember their role because you’re so used to having their face stand out.
In Oppenheimer, Nolan uses a That Guy to tell the viewer “remember this moment”. It becomes instantly clear how important they are to the story.
So here are some of our favorite actors we’re counting as That Guy from Oppenheimer.
Gary Oldman
Character: President Harry Truman
What You Know Him From: The Fifth Element, the Harry Potter series, Darkest Hour, The Dark Knight
Josh Hartnett
Character: Ernest Lawrence
What You Know Him From: Lucky Number Slevin, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Pearl Harbor, Black Mirror
Josh Peck
Character: Kenneth Bainbridge
What You Know Him From: Drake & Josh, How I Met Your Father
Alden Ehrenreich
Character: Senate Aide
What You Know Him From: Solo: A Star Wars Story
Tony Goldwyn
Character: Gordon Gray
What You Know Him From: Scandal
Tim DeKay
Character: Senator Pastore
What You Know Him From: White Collar
David Krumholtz
Character: Isidor Rabi
What You Know Him From: 10 Things I Hate About You, The Santa Clause, Numb3rs
Matthew Modine
Character: Vannevar Bush
What You Know Him From: Stranger Things, Full Metal Jacket, The Dark Knight Rises
David Dastmalchian
Character: William Borden
What You Know Him From: The Dark Knight, the Ant-Man trilogy, Dune, The Suicide Squad
Dane DeHaan
Character: Kenneth Nichols
What You Know Him From: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Staircase
Jack Quaid
Character: Richard Feynman
What You Know Him From: The Boys, The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Scream (2022)
Benny Safdie
Character: Edward Teller
What You Know Him From: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., Licorice Pizza
Rami Malek
Character: David Hill
What You Know Him From: Bohemian Rhapsody, No Time To Die, Mr. Robot, The Pacific
Casey Affleck
Character: Boris Pash
What You Know Him From: Gone Baby Gone, Good Will Hunting, Interstellar, American Pie, Ocean’s Eleven, Manchester By the Sea
James Remar
Character: Henry Stimson
What You Know Him From: Dexter, Sex and the City, Django Unchained, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Jason Clarke
Character: Roger Robb
What You Know Him From: Zero Dark Thirty, First Man, Everest
