30 Times Celebrities Revealed Their Favorite Movies
1.Jimmy Fallon loves Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
While listing his five favorite comedy films of all time for Rotten Tomatoes, Fallon said of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, “I love this movie because Paul Reubens is… just brilliant. [He] plays this character Pee-wee Herman, and the creativity that’s put into this movie, it was like, what else can you add to make this movie [better]?... Paul Reubens should have gotten an Oscar for this.”
Fallon also said that National Lampoon's Animal House, Bridesmaids, Airplane!, and American Movie are favorites of his.
2.The Rock praised It after watching a screening of the film.
“I saw an early screening of IT a few months ago and it instantly became one of my all-time favorites. Easily TOP 10 all time,” Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson wrote in an Instagram post. “Not only does it redefine the horror genre, but it's so layered, smart, and brilliantly scary… As a huge fan of the horror genre, this one's special.”
3.Keanu Reeves is a fan of A Clockwork Orange.
Reeves listed the movies that he believes everyone should watch for Esquire, and among them are A Clockwork Orange, The Big Lebowski, Rollerball, Blazing Saddles, and Raising Arizona.
4.Idris Elba likes The Champ.
“For a long time it was Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, and then I saw a film called The Champ,” Elba said of his favorite film in an Oprah.com interview. “It's a tearjerker of a movie, man. It's real old. There's this little boy, and he's yelling: ‘Come on, champ! You can get up in the ring again, champ!’ It's a good one.”
5.Demi Lovato's faves are Close Encounters and Unacknowledged.
In 2020, they tweeted, "2 of my favorite movies are now available on @PrimeVideo," before listing links to both Close Encounters and Unacknowledged.
6.Kristin Chenoweth can relate to Steel Magnolias.
“I have six aunts, and they’re all like my mom, and they’re all insane, but in a good way,” Chenoweth said in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes. “That movie makes me think of them. And I’m also Southern, so it’s like, 'Mmm, I get it.'"
She also loves The Shawshank Redemption, Schindler’s List, Inglourious Basterds, and The Sound of Music.
7.George's Clooney admires Network.
“Network is one of my favorite films of all time,” Clooney said in an interview with The A.V. Club. “I think Paddy Chayefsky was a genius. I think what he wrote about in 1976, at the time, was just a comedy, and everything he wrote about came from true.”
8.Damien Chazelle was inspired by The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
“It’s the most shattering, transporting work of art I’ve seen in any medium,” the director said of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in a CBS This Morning interview. The French musical was a source of inspiration that Chazelle drew from when creating La La Land.
9.Al Pacino had positive words forThe Tree of Wooden Clogs and Singin' in the Rain.
“I have... five or six movies I really think are the greatest,” Pacino said during a red carpet interview with the American Film Institute. “I always liked The Tree of Wooden Clogs…Singin’ in the Rain is good.”
10.Juliette Lewis loves What About Bob?
"My favorite movie is What About Bob?,” Lewis said to MTV News. “I can watch it a thousand, billion times. I'm going simple, fun. That's my answer. I thought I saw Bill Murray last night, but it wasn't him and my heart dropped…And ‘Baby Steps’ is my mantra, so it goes deeper than just fun."
11.The Mack is Snoop Dogg's favorite film of all-time
“This is my favorite movie of all-time, right here, The Mack,” Snoop Dogg said during a 2014 interview, which he tweeted for his followers to see. “This is the movie that made me who I am today. I would be nothing without this movie right here.”
12.Morgan Freeman raved about Moulin Rouge!
“My favorite movie that I didn't work on? Moulin Rouge!. I just think that movie is fabulous,” Freeman said to IGN’s Steve Head. “What Baz Luhrmann did is really amazing... the dancing, the wardrobe, the music. People tend to fall on either side of that movie. 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.”
13.Gwen Stefani knows The Sound of Music very well.
Stefani told Kandee Johnson in a 2015 interview that her favorite film is The Sound of Music, which she had just recently watched again with her children at the time of the interview.
"I realized how many times I've seen that movie because I'm not super repetitive about watching movies, but [with] that one, I knew every move," said Stefani.
14.Charlize Theron says Planes, Trains, and Automobiles never gets old.
“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” Theron said when listing her all-time favorite films for Rotten Tomatoes. “[It’s a] classic. You can not go wrong with that film…I’ve seen it probably 150 times, and it just gets better.”
Theron also loves Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Days of Wine and Roses, Jaws, and Splash.
15.Emma Stone's life was changed by City Lights.
“You've got to see City Lights,” Stone said to Entertainment Weekly while naming important movies of her life. "It's my favorite movie of all-time. The last five minutes of that movie will change your life. It changed mine. I realized where every romantic comedy comes from — what everyone is trying to achieve. It's the most romantic, touching... If I think about it too long, I'll cry. It's just so simple.”
16.Justin Bieber is a Step Brothers fan.
"Step Brothers is my favorite movie," Bieber revealed in 2010 for an Us Weekly list of "25 Things You Don't Know About Me."
17.Mark Ruffalo thinks On the Waterfront is great.
"I'd probably say On the Waterfront. It's [Marlon] Brando at... his all-time best,” Ruffalo said to MTV News when asked about his favorite film. “It's Elia Kazan, who is one of the all-time great directors. And it's just the perfect mix of great storytelling, social commentary and great acting. It's political and still relevant.”
"Those themes are still happening today. It's universal," Ruffalo added. "Coming from the theater, to tell those kind of stories in film, is what's really exciting to me."
18.Jennifer Lopez watched West Side Story 37 times.
Lopez told Vanity Fair that she watched West Side Story, which was recently revamped by Steven Spielberg, 37 times as a child. She especially took an interest in the character of Anita, played by Rita Moreno, rather than Natalie Wood’s Maria.
“I never wanted to be that wimpy Maria, who sits around pining for her guy," Lopez said. "I wanted to be Anita, who danced her way to the top."
19.Simone Biles' favorite is Divergent.
The USA Gymnastics website lists Biles' interests outside of gymnastics, including her favorite food (Italian), and her favorite pastimes (shopping & hanging out with friends). Under the category of favorite movie, Biles named Divergent as her preferred film.
20.Benedict Cumberbatch praised The Elephant Man, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Royal Tenenbaums.
While talking to the HFPA, Cumberbatch called Raiders of the Lost Ark "[his] childhood favorite," said the The Royal Tenenbaums is "so clever" and stated that he thinks The Elephant Man is "strong."
21.Zendaya watches Harry Potter daily.
"People say I’m crazy, but I watch Harry Potter, like, once a day," the actress said to InStyle in 2019. "It’s just calming to me, so that’s my thing. People are like, 'Oh my god, Harry Potter again?' I say, 'Don’t come over to my house if you don’t want to watch it, because it’s going to be on.'"
22.Lin-Manuel Miranda is a loyal fan of The Little Mermaid.
Miranda named The Little Mermaid as one of his top five favorite musicals for The New York Times. The list also included Singin' In the Rain, The Band Wagon, Chicago, and Labyrinth.
In past interviews, Miranda has expressed his love for the1989 Disney animated film, which in part inspired him to name his son Sebastian after the anxious crab character voiced by Samuel E. Wright. He recently worked with Little Mermaid composer Alan Menken on the score for Disney's upcoming live action version of the movie.
23.Antonio Banderas likesThe Exterminating Angel.
Banderas said to Rotten Tomatoes of The Exterminating Angel, "It’s a very, very beautiful and interesting story — also risky, and very misunderstood at the time that the movie opened."
He also enjoys Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, 8 1/2, and Touch of Evil.
24.Oprah was moved by Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Oprah.com said that this was Winfrey's new favorite movie after she viewed it. Winfrey called the film "magical" and "spiritual," and "unlike anything we've seen."
"When you see it, you're just going to want to talk to somebody about it," Winfrey said of Beasts of the Southern Wild. "You're going to want to know, 'How did they do this?'"
25.Zac Efron enjoys Jim Carrey's performance in The Truman Show.
"Jim Carrey is one of my favorite actors. He just goes for everything, balls to the wall. After this movie, I always look over my shoulder to see if this is really happening or if it’s all for some weird documentary," Efron said to Entertainment Weekly about the1998 film.
The Goonies, Shine, Control, and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels were his other top picks.
26.Dirty Dancing is one of Natalie Portman's faves.
"Dirty Dancing is one of my favorite movies of all time," Portman said while introducing the film for AFI Movie Club. "It is certainly the movie I've watched most in my life...it's just one of the best, best movies."
27.Obama loves The Godfather and The Godfather II.
Obama listed The Godfather and The Godfather II as his favorite films in a Facebook post from 2016.
28.Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory made Salma Hayek want to work in film.
"I was really young...and I saw Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. And I remember when I saw this film, something clicked in my brain, and I went, 'Woah, there is actually a universe within this life, within this universe, where anything can happen,'" Hayek said on Live with Kelly and Ryan. "I realized that through filmmaking, you can create so many different realities and everything was possible. And so, I wanted to be part of that business."
29.Jennifer Aniston is moved by Terms of Endearment.
"I've seen Terms of Endearment hundreds of times," Aniston said in Cindy Pearlman's book, "You Gotta See This." "It's one of those movies where you can turn it on or catch it at any point, and it just makes me burst into tears. It's almost Pavlovian for me...What more do you want in a movie but humor, laughter, heart-wrenching moments, acting that's superb, and writing that's sublime? It's a fantastic piece of work."
30.Johnny Depp is a Wizard of Oz fan.
Also in "You Gotta See This," Depp described how The Wizard of Oz was an escape for him during childhood.
“I grew up loving The Wizard of Oz," said Depp. "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."
