His acting career languished as he enjoyed the rock star life and subsequently that fame limited the types of roles for which he was considered. Although he starred as Alan Rudolph's "Roadie" (1980), a film with its own cult following, most of Meat Loaf's movies were forgettable affairs. He had small parts in two high-profile pictures in 1992, "Wayne's World" and "Leap of Faith", but his career was still just limping along until the explosion of 1998. That year saw him as the wild-eyed Bible-quoting bad guy of "Black Dog" (starring Patrick Swayze), as Dennis Quaid's best friend in Quaid's directing debut, the made-for-cable "Everything Rises" (TNT), and as Gillian Anderson's husband in the slums of Cincinnati for director Peter Chelsom's highly-acclaimed "The Mighty". He subsequently portrayed a small town 60s sheriff coming to terms with his own prejudice in "Crazy in Alabama", helmed by Antonio Banderas, and donned a fat suit to play a 400 pound ex-bouncer in "The Fight Club" (both 1999), co-starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. A trimmed-down Meat Loaf was suddenly one of the hottest character actors in the business.
In 2002, Meat Loaf portrayed the character Lizard in the drug comedy feature "Formula 51", starring Samuel L. Jackson.