Actresses Who are Crazy Good At Playing Dumb

The good news for the actresses on this list is that each one is spectacular at her job, which is acting.  The bad news is that they’re so good at embodying ditziness that people often forget that they’re actually actresses playing parts, not the characters themselves.  It could be worse, I guess.  They could be really good at playing pedophiles or something.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn wasn’t the first dumb blonde on the big screen, but she certainly set the standard.  We forget that on top of Monroe’s breathy voice, flawless face and voluptuous hourglass figure, the lady was a pretty decent comedienne.  Especially when she played the part that everyone loved to see her in, the ditzy, money-hungry knockout looking for a husband.   And that was where she held her own with the best entertainers of the fifties.

Unfortunately, she took that persona with her wherever she went;  candid interviews, movie premieres, presidential birthday galas, everywhere.  And it just sort of became who she was, to the point where playing the serious, smart type wasn’t going to be in the cards for her.

Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams

1999 was a really good year for Kirsten Dunst.  She broke out of child star boringness with three great movies; Dick, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Virgin Suicides.  And two of the three movies were hilarious…probably the funniest things she’s done ever.

In Dick, Williams and Dunst play high school dingbats who bumble their way into the crime of the Seventies, Watergate.  Along the way Williams develops a major crush on Richard Nixon and the two girls inadvertently become ‘Deep Throat.’  Together.  Kirsten is bubbly and sweet, but as dumb as a brick, and Michelle plays her lovestruck, equally scatterbrained best friend.

And they did it so well that it’s a mystery why neither of these actresses aren’t doing more comedy today.

Mindy Kaling

What’s not to love about the girl writer who developed a hilarious but unexpected character for an already hilarious show?  If you’ve ever watched the British version of The Office you know that most of the American characters had British counterparts, but not Kelly Kapoor.  She’s a total original.

Mindy Kaling says that Kelly is an exaggerated version of how she thinks others perceive her, but Mindy herself is a pretty funny girl.  And smart, since she went to Dartmouth, and talented, since she’s written/produced/directed several episodes of The Office herself.  But for our money, Mindy’s at her best when she’s being Kelly Kapoor.

“I swallowed a tapeworm last night. It’s going to grow up to three feet inside of me and then it eats all my food so that I don’t get fat. And then after three months I take some medicine and then I pass it. Creed sold it to me. It’s from Mexico.”

Lisa Kudrow

It takes a special kind of actress to be able to successfully pull off multiple versions of dumb and keep it interesting.  Lisa Kudrow is definitely that actress.  Her Friends character Phoebe wasn’t exactly dumb, per se, just quirky and earthy and naive to the point of ridiculousness.  Not to mention kind of unhinged.

But to see Kudrow really show off her dumb chops you need to see her as Michele in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.  Mira Sorvino is funny too, but she’s kind of the smarter of the pair.

Kudrow kind of reinvented the dumb blonde stereotype with her playful mannerisms and great timing.  True fact:  Lisa Kudrow lost a slot on Saturday Night Live to Julia Sweeney.

Jennifer Coolidge

Although best known as Stifler’s mom from the American Pie series, Jennifer Coolidge is actually a great improvisational comedian and was cast in several of Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries, beginning with Best in Show. And she stole every single scene she was in, which is pretty impressive considering she was sharing the screen with Jane Lynch and ‘Blue’ from Old School.

Coolidge is really more of a character actress than anyone else on this list, but her characters all happen to be on the brainless side of beautiful.  And she doesn’t just stick to the breathy Marilyn route, although lord knows she has the figure to pull it off if she wanted.  Jennifer’s characters have elaborate back stories and bizarre quirks that catch you off guard.

“Someone’s killed their children and made them into cookies, and I want to go see that.”