(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sat 22 November 2025 0:30, UK
Even though signing up for an interesting independent project is always a good decision for an actor, Whiplash ended up breaking into the mainstream and becoming a highly influential film for a new generation of up-and-coming directors, and saw Miles Teller‘s career take off radically on the back of some subsequent monumental successes that would have been hard to anticipate.
Similarly, Top Gun: Maverick ended up being a cultural juggernaut that drew out everyone to the movies, even those who had no nostalgia or familiarity with the original Tony Scott classic from 1986.
In between these instantly hailed masterpieces, Teller has done no shortage of interesting work; he played a deranged cop in the surrealist neo-noir series Too Old To Die Young, a heroic firefighter in Only the Brave, and a real lightweight boxer in the underrated biopic Bleed for This. While his dramatic capabilities are without question, he’s never been quite given the credit he deserves for his sense of humour.
It’s thanks to a streak of bad luck that Teller hasn’t managed to find his groove in comedy quite yet, but it’s not from a lack of trying. Despite standout performances in the cult comedies 21 & Over and Project X, the actor’s attempt at leading his own romantic comedy faltered when That Awkward Moment proved to be just as uncomfortable as the title suggested.
Maybe Teller thought he would get to deliver some quips when cast as one of the most famous Marvel comic book characters of all time, but it turned out that 2015’s Fantastic Four was one of the most humourless superhero films ever made. There’s still a chance that he can make it in comedy based on the clarity of his inspiration, as no one could argue that his two favourite comedic actors are among the best to ever do it.
Teller had initially been set to portray Dan Aykroyd in a biopic about the late John Belushi, and admitted to Rotten Tomatoes that it was “gonna be hard to play Dan Aykroyd in front of Dan Aykroyd”. The project never ended up materialising, and it’s unlikely to happen now that Dylan O’Brien has played Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live; nonetheless, Teller still considers Aykroyd to be a “comedy legend”.
He also expressed his admiration for Bill Murray, another “legendary” member of the original SNL cast, who may have been subjected to more controversy in recent years due to his alleged on-set behaviour, but it’s hard to argue that he’s not one of the most influential movie stars of the last half-century. In fact, Teller’s other favourite comedy stars, including Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, and Jim Carrey, all walked down the road that Murray had paved with his groundbreaking work.
Murray and Aykroyd don’t work nearly as often now as they did when Teller was growing up, so he might have to sign up to be in a new Ghostbusters film if he ever wants the chance to work alongside these two legends, but that doesn’t mean that the actor can’t have a career that somewhat resembles Murray, with his latest film a high-concept romantic fantasy comedy, Eternity, which has the same mix of magic, whimsy, and satire that made Murray classics like Groundhog Day and Scrooged so iconic.
By choosing these types of creative projects, Teller might have a shot at being a comedy legend in his own right, just like his heroes.
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