10 Underrated Performances in Spike Lee Movies, Ranked

Each of Spike Lee‘s movies features memorable performances from its cast, yet some underrated actors fail to receive the same level of praise as others. Known primarily for their thought-provoking themes regarding race, class, socio-economics, and Black love, Lee’s joints tend to employ a reliable stable of actors to help him realize his vision on the screen. This has resulted in some of the best performances in Spike Lee movies. However, a handful of excellent performances in Lee’s work have gone unnoticed throughout the years, often because they were overshadowed by the film’s lead actor.

Lee’s movies employ New York’s finest talent to play quirky, dramatic, and memorable characters. Furthermore, the writer-director has a knack for penning some of the most engaging and provocative dialogue committed to film. This has also resulted in many of his actors completely disappearing into their roles, reinforcing the quality of work Lee typically produces. From character actors in their debut roles to an Academy Award-nominated star in a three-hour biographical epic to 15 men on a bus headed to Washington D.C., Lee has directed many underrated yet noteworthy performances.

10 Adrien Brody In Summer of Sam (1999)

Brody plays Ritchie in Spike Lee’s true crime-inspired thriller

Summer of Sam is based on the real-life 1977 killing spree that occurred in a predominantly Italian-American neighborhood of New York City, and its effects on the targeted and neighboring communities. Adrien Brody plays Ritchie, one of the locals from the neighborhood who is interested in punk fashion and British culture. Brody’s performance as Ritchie evolves from that of an immature man mostly concerned with pulling pranks and sleeping around to a man whom many of the residents can rely on. Despite being the film’s supporting character, Brody steals many of the scenes he’s in with his larger-than-life performance.

Summer of Sam presents themes of trust and loyalty to its audience as the central characters work tirelessly to uncover the identity of the titular killer. Everyone suspects that Ritchie is the culprit, and Brody’s convincingly suave and mysterious performance justifies the characters’ suspicions. However, Brody also plays Ritchie with a vulnerability that makes it impossible to completely trust he’s responsible for the killings, even though the evidence points to him. When it is revealed that Ritchie is not the killer, despite his physical similarity to the culprit, Brody’s emotional farewell to his former friends endears the audience in a way few Spike Lee movie performances have.

9 Laurence Fishburne In School Daze (1988)

Fishburne plays Vaughn “Dap” Dunlap in Spike Lee’s musical comedy

School Daze centers around the students at a historically Black college and the challenges they face regarding class, race, school hazing, colorism, and social mobility. Laurence Fishburne’s Vaughn is a senior at the fictitious Mission College navigating the film’s issues while leading an anti-apartheid demonstration. The actor is known for his more composed characters, but Fishburne’s intensity displayed throughout School Daze commands viewers’ attention, as Vaughn constantly finds himself at odds with virtually everyone. Vaughn is one of Fishburne’s more comedic roles, and considering his successful track record in dramas, he stands out in the actor’s resume as it showcases his range.

However, the role is complex enough for Fishburne to display his dramatic chops in a way that does not take away from the comedic nature of his performance. Scenes that revolve around Vaughn attempting to unify the student body are cleverly juxtaposed with imagery of Vaughn and his friends goofing around. However, Fishburne’s performance prevents the character from ever feeling out of place in a given scenario. Furthermore, the actor delivers his lines with a fervor that makes the complex nature of the character compelling from beginning to end, and Fishburne’s “wake up” scene is the highlight of his underrated performance.

8 Samuel L. Jackson In Jungle Fever (1991)

Jackson plays Gator Purify in Spike Lee’s romantic drama

Jungle Fever follows Flipper Purify, a Black architect, and his fall from grace after news of his affair with his Italian assistant reaches his family and business partners. Among the film’s themes, loyalty and family are two of its biggest, and Gator Purify is a character who embodies these themes more than almost anyone else. In addition to Gator’s infamous “crackhead” dance adding much-needed levity to the more dramatic scenes, he also delivers his monologues about family in a way only Samuel L. Jackson can. While the best Samuel L. Jackson performances often see him in the lead, his body language and line delivery help his supporting character stand out.

Additionally, Jackson’s work as Gator highlights issues very prevalent in many African-American households, such as the hypocrisy of interracial dating, and poor decision-making leading to substance abuse. Although many of Jackson’s lines are delivered with his signature gusto and humor, the role doesn’t fall victim to feeling like a caricature of individuals similar to Gator. Even though Gator eventually meets his end at his own father’s hand, the character’s philosophy, sense of humor, and glimpses into the kind of relationship he could have had with Flipper if he were sober remain a strong example of an underrated performance in a Spike Lee movie.

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7 Theresa Randle In Girl 6 (1996)

Randle plays Judy/Girl #6 in Spike Lee’s black comedy

Girl 6 sees an aspiring actress named Judy turn to a phone sex operation under the alias Girl #6 to make ends meet after witnessing first-hand how most actresses are treated in Hollywood. In what’s one of Spike Lee’s most ambitious movies, Teresa Randle takes a fairly standard role and makes it one of the filmmaker’s best, and she accomplishes this primarily with her eyes. Judy/Girl #6 often says one thing over the phone, but Randle’s facial expressions and highly emotive eyes tell a completely different story. This is made even more impressive considering most of Randle’s acting is done over the phone without a scene partner.

Also of note is the fact that Randle effectively plays two characters in the film, with one being the more modest and humble Judy, and the other being the more assertive alter ego Girl #6. However, Randle’s smokey voice and perpetually gloomy disposition aid significantly in unifying the two characters in a way not often seen in other Lee movie performances. Because of the worsening condition of the character’s situation, her behavior becomes more erratic throughout the film, thus requiring Randle to blur the lines between what Judy is experiencing, and what Girl #6 falsely leads her to believe is real.

6 Chadwick Boseman In Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Boseman plays “Stormin” Norman Earl Holloway in Spike Lee’s war drama

One of the best movies of 2020, Da 5 Bloods centers around a small group of Vietnam veterans as they return to a dig site where they buried gold shortly before the end of the war. While Delroy Lindo’s work as Paul is the most memorable performance in the film, the frenetic energy that Chadwick Boseman brings to the role rivals the scenes of his fellow co-stars, Lindo included. What’s even more impressive about Boseman’s performance is that virtually all of his scenes occur via flashbacks, meaning he rarely interacts with any of his co-stars throughout the film.

The power of Boseman’s performance truly shines in the film’s climax when Paul hallucinates a conversation with Norman that forces him to come to terms with his trauma. Although it’s one of the few scenes that sees Boseman with any of his co-stars, it stands as a memorable performance in a Spike Lee movie, as the heroics previously displayed by Norman are completely replaced with a brotherly tenderness that emphasizes the bond Norman once shared with his brothers in arms. Seeing Boseman bounce between war hero and brother-like figure throughout Da 5 Bloods is impressive because he does it with a flair that makes it look easy.

5 Bill Nunn In Do The Right Thing (1989)

Nunn plays Radio Raheem in Spike Lee’s tense drama

Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing follows the inhabitants of Bed-Stuy in New York, and it examines the day-to-day stresses the multi-ethnic neighborhood endures during the hottest summer of the decade. The movie is rife with great characters and performances, including Nunn as Radio Raheem, a towering man known primarily for his curt attitude and his boom-box that perpetually blasts Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.” While Radio is certainly one of the quirkiest characters seen throughout the film, Nunn’s performance shines in the film as his body language and song of choice perfectly embody the stress and angst that many of the citizens feel.

In addition to Nunn’s commanding presence, his love/hate monologue stands as one of the best in cinematic history, as it expresses the film’s themes uniquely and gives the character another layer of depth that wasn’t seen otherwise. While the character’s death via police brutality is a tough scene to watch, it speaks as a testament to Nunn’s performance. With minimal dialogue and limited screen time, Nunn still does enough character work that makes his death one of the most tragic in cinematic history, and its profound effect on Bed-Stuy’s surviving residents is enough to incite a riot against the film’s New York Police Department.

4 The Main Ensemble In Get On The Bus (1996)

Charles S. Dutton, Ossie Davis, Bernie Mac, and a dozen other actors play the men in Spike Lee’s road movie

Get on the Bus follows a group of Black men who travel by bus to Washington D.C. to attend the Million Man March. With an ensemble cast that features the likes of Ossie Davis, Charles S. Dutton, Wendell Pierce, Isaiah Washington, and Bernie Mac to name a few, the road movie centers around various issues such as Black masculinity, sexuality, and religion and personifies them through the film’s various characters. All 15 characters converse with each other while aboard the bus, and each actor portrays their role in ways that make them all feel authentic. While some characters have more lines than others, each actor’s performance is understated and unique.

3 Adam Driver In BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Driver plays Detective Philip “Flip” Zimmerman in Spike Lee’s biographical drama

BlacKkKlansman is a biopic that loosely tells the real-life account of Ron Stallworth, Colorado Springs, Colorado’s first Black police detective, and his efforts to bring down a local Ku Klux Klan chapter. As Philip “Flip” Zimmerman, Adam Driver’s range is on full display as he expertly weaves between being a dedicated Jewish police detective committed to bringing the Klan to justice and convincingly going undercover to gain their trust. Although Driver handles the material very well, the elements of his performance that stand out the most are in the scenes he shares with co-star John David Washington.

The scenes involving Driver and the members of the Klan are tense and compelling, but his scenes with Washington, especially any of their scenes post-Klan infiltration, offer a different side of the character. Driver’s usual laissez-faire delivery is replaced with a heightened sense of urgency that suggests to the characters and the audience that the stress of the job is becoming overwhelming. However, things never escalate to wild proportions between the two leads, and this is largely due to their superiors reminding them of the importance of the job. While Driver’s range was a perfect fit in BlacKkKlansman, his performance as Flip still deserves far more praise than what it received.

2 Alfre Woodard In Crooklyn (1994)

Woodard plays Carolyn Carmichael in Spike Lee’s coming-of-age movie

Crooklyn is a semi-autobiographical film about Lee’s upbringing that sees him living under one roof in 1970s New York with five of his siblings, his school teacher mother, and his aspiring jazz musician father. Alfre Woodard plays Carolyn Carmichael, and her performance as the overworked yet underpaid matriarch of the Carmichael household holds up incredibly well even by today’s standards. While co-star Delroy Lindo delivers a cool, calm, and collected performance, Woodard juxtaposes it with a hurricane of a performance that sees her bounce between uninterrupted shots of her single-handedly looking after the children to her more somber moments alone with Lindo.

While Woodard’s performance very easily could have come across as perpetuating negative stereotypes about Black women, she grounds it with her scenes with the family all together at the dinner table. It is during these moments that Woodard expresses the nuances associated with real-life mothers in that, while she is hard on her children, she does it because she loves them and wants them to be successful in life. The performance doesn’t rely on overly long speeches and declarations of love, but rather, her subtle head nods after hearing about her kids’ progress in school and warm, inviting smiles are enough to convincingly display her love and affection.

1 Giancarlo Esposito In Do The Right Thing (1989)

Esposito plays Buggin’ Out in Spike Lee’s masterpiece

Giancarlo Esposito’s role as Buggin’ Out marked the second collaboration between the actor and Spike Lee, and the most famous. Do the Right Thing is populated with unique and memorable characters who each represent different emotions, like love, hate, compassion, and angst, during the hottest day of the summer in 1989. While Buggin’ Out is largely unlikable, Esposito infuses an authenticity to the character that, despite all of his ills, makes him one of the film’s most interesting characters. Esposito’s attention to detail in the role makes for memorable scenes, such as his issues with Sal’s wall of fame, and a White resident accidentally scuffing his shoes.

On the surface, these moments may seem petty or even insignificant, but Esposito’s rapid-fire delivery and the passion that accompanies it make those two issues in particular seem far more important than they probably are. Furthermore, Esposito’s sustained energy throughout the film perfectly reinforces one of Do the Right Thing‘s key themes of stressed-out individuals taking their anger out on any and everybody. Do the Right Thing is one of Spike Lee’s best movies, and Esposito’s ability to make an otherwise forgettable side character among one of the most memorable and one of the best of the actor’s career, speaks volumes to his performance.