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Celebrities Shared Their Favorite Movies and Some of Them Are Not What You’d Expect

Photo Credit: Daniele Venturelli/ WireImage/ Getty Images, Jamie McCarthy/ Getty Images for Tribeca Festival, and Chris Hyde/ Getty Images
Photo Credit: Daniele Venturelli/ WireImage/ Getty Images, Jamie McCarthy/ Getty Images for Tribeca Festival, and Chris Hyde/ Getty Images

Some people seem pretty predictable and it’s easy to guess the type of movies they’d like, whether romance, comedy, or action. The following celebrities, however, all have favorite movies that are the opposite of predictable. Whether it’s a newer star who prefers classic films or a long-established celeb with an appreciation for newer movies, here are some unexpected favorites from our favorite actors.

Morgan Freeman

Colored photo of Morgan Freeman in a grey suit beside a movie still of Nicole Kidman in a white dress and Ewan McGregor in a white shirt and vest signing in Moulin Rouge.
Morgan Freeman beside a movie still of Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor as Satine and Christian in Moulin Rouge. (Photo Credits: Amy Sussman/ Getty Images, and michaella92/ MoviestillsDB)

Morgan Freeman had a lot to say about his favorite movie, Moulin Rouge!. In an interview with ING, he said “I just think that movie is fabulous. What Baz Luhrmann did is really amazing…the dancing, the wardrobe, the music. People tend to fall on either side of that movie.”

He then went on to praise it even further: “Some people really like it and some people just don’t. I think when you have divided opinions like that, that’s the sign of art. It’s a work of art. It’s impressionable, and I think people tend to fall one way or the other because of that. I like the way Moulin Rouge! is edited. It has frantic energy to it.”

Emily Blunt

Colored photos side by side of Emily Blunt in a pink and purple dress smiling at the camera, and three characters from Jaws looking through a shark jaw.
Emily Blunt alongside a movie still from Jaws of characters Quint, Police Chief Martin Brody, and Matt Hooper. (Photo Credits: Noam Galai/ Getty Images and Pineapples101/ Universal Studios/ MoviestillsDB)

Actress Emily Blunt, known for her roles in Mary Poppins Returns, The Devil Wears Prada, The Girl on the Train, and A Quiet Place, picked a classic thriller movie as her favorite. She said that the Steven Spielberg movie Jaws is her “favorite film of all time.”

“I’ve seen it about 30 times. Even though it has a ludicrous backdrop of them trying to find this Great White shark, I think it’s a film about people and relationships and I just think the performances are fantastic,” she said about her favorite film. She even went so far as to add that she thinks it’s the perfect movie.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Colored photo of Lin Manuel Miranda in a black suit beside a movie still of David Bowie holding a baby in Labyrinth.
Lin-Manuel Miranda beside a still from one of his favorite movies, Labyrinth. (Photo Credits: Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions, and MoviePics1001/ TriStar Pictures/ MoviestillsDB)

Perhaps it shouldn’t be such a surprise that the mastermind behind Hamilton had no difficulties listing off his five favorite musical movies when he was asked to do so by The New York Times. His list included classic favorites like Singin’ in the Rain, Chicago, and The Little Mermaid. One of his favorites, however, isn’t typically seen as a musical but Miranda argues that Labyrinth “is totally a David Bowie movie musical.”

He went on to share that it “wields a strange power in my life and in our house growing up,” including that his sister told him she wouldn’t go into the Labyrinth to save him. Miranda even paid homage to David Bowie with one of the songs he wrote for Moana.

Tom Hanks

Colored photo of Tom Hanks in a suit smiling, beside a movie still of Kier Dullea in a space suit.
Tom Hanks alongside a movie still from 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of his favorite films. (Photo Credits: Pascal Le Segretain/ Getty Images, and andrewz/ Warner Brothers, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/ MoviestillsDB)

Like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Hanks is another actor who can’t settle on a single favorite movie. One of his top favorites, however, is 2001: A Space Odyssey. In an interview with the German newspaper Bild, he said, ”I just can’t see enough of 2001: A Space Odyssey.”

As well as 2001: A Space Odyssey, his top five list also includes both the first and second Godfather movies, Fargo, and Elephant. He thinks that the best films are the ones that give the audience a chance to think about what they would do if they were faced with the same situation as the protagonist.

Vin Diesel

Colored photo of Vin Diesel wearing a jacket and sunglasses beside a movie still from Gone with the Wind of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler
Vin Diesel beside a publicity still from Gone with the Wind, with characters Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. (Photo Credits: Jon Kopaloff/ Getty Images, and michaella92/ Warner Brothers, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/ MoviestillsDB)

Best known for his role as Dominic Toretto in the Fast and Furious movie franchise, Vin Diesel’s favorite movie is anything but fast and furious. In Cindy Pearlman’s book You Gotta See This, he listed his favorite movie as Gone with the Wind, saying, “Gone with the Wind really is the first action movie…This was also shot way before the days of computer-generated effects. You can still watch the burning of Atlanta today and marvel at the technical brilliance of this film.”

In an interview with ELLE, he also said that Clark Gable was a character he identified with romantically: “Here’s this guy saying, ‘I may be rough around the edges, but I’m the better man for you, and you’re still locked over there with pretty boy.'”

Jennifer Lopez

Colored photos of Jennifer Lopez holding an award in front of a microphone beside a photo of Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer singing in West Side Story.
Jennifer Lopez accepting an award at the 2022 MTV Movie and TV Awards alongside a photo of two characters from West Side Story, Maria and Tony. (Photo Credits: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images, and zloben/ United Artists/ MoviestillsDB)

Jennifer Lopez, or J.Lo, has a movie that is undeniably her favorite of all time. West Side Story was a movie that she watched constantly and even had a favorite character: “I never wanted to be that wimpy Maria, who sits around pining for her guy. I wanted to be Anita, who danced her way to the top.”

In an interview with Vanity Fair, she confessed that she watched the movie an impressive 37 times when she was a kid. She explained part of her love for the movie was because it was “proof that my people could sing, dance, and act. I saw the movie about a million times on the big screen and especially when I felt sad about my life.”

Al Pacino

Black and white photo of Al Pacino smiling at the camera beside a colored movie still of Gene Kelly dancing on a lamp post in Singin' in the Rain
Al Pacino in 1979 alongside Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain. (Photo Credits: Jack Mitchell/ Getty Images, and MoviePics1001/ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/ MoviestillsDB)

Starring in The Godfather movie franchise, which made its way onto many celebrities’ favorite film lists, Al Pacino has a few favorite movies of his own. Although he kept them close to his chest for a long time, he eventually revealed that there are two movies, in particular, that stand out to him.

The first is a lesser-known Italian movie called The Tree of Wooden Clogs which was released in 1978. The second is much more popular, as Pacino enjoys Singin’ in the Rain. In an interview with The American Film Institute, he admitted that he thought the film was quite good.

Johnny Depp

Colored photo of Johnny Depp wearing a tan jacket, sunglasses and a hat beside a movie still of Judy Garland as Dorothy in a blue dress holding Toto.
Johnny Depp beside a movie still from the Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland as Dorothy holding Toto the dog. (Photo Credits: Stefania M. D’Alessandro/ Getty Images, and zs93/ Warner Brothers, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/ MoviestillsDB)

Like Vin Deisel, Johnny Depp’s film selection was also featured in You Gotta See This. He has a special attachment to The Wizard of Oz, which he felt was an escape for him when he was a child.

More from us: Al Pacino Opens Up About ‘The Godfather’ 50 Years On

“I grew up loving The Wizard of Oz,” he said. “I wanted to have a tornado sweep me up and take me away from the life I was living as a teenager. I didn’t have many friends and thought if only I could meet a Tin Man or a Scarecrow that maybe I wouldn’t feel alone.”

Rosemary Giles

Rosemary Giles is a history content writer with Hive Media. She received both her bachelor of arts degree in history, and her master of arts degree in history from Western University. Her research focused on military, environmental, and Canadian history with a specific focus on the Second World War. As a student, she worked in a variety of research positions, including as an archivist. She also worked as a teaching assistant in the History Department.

Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. With a passion for historical learning and historical education, her writing interests include social history, and war history, especially researching obscure facts about the Second World War. In her spare time, Rosemary enjoys spending time with her partner, her cats, and her horse, or sitting down to read a good book.

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