Are you proud of your first job?
If the answer is “no” then congratulations!
You’re normal!
While most of us have the luxury of being embarrassed in private, an actor’s resume
is very public knowledge.
And while some people get their big break right away, most of us start at the bottom.
Here are 10 Famous Actors With Embarrassing Early Movie Roles.
Ben Affleck Over the years, Hollywood has had a love-hate
relationship with Ben Affleck.
And to be fair, he’s starred in a few box office duds.
But if you’ve been so distracted by the hype, you might not remember one of his earliest
roles; 1992’s movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Before he was Batfleck, the actor was cast as “Basketball Player Number Ten”.
A pretty generic term for a future two time Oscar-winner.
Over the course of his career, Affleck has given audiences plenty to argue about.
And depending on what side of the Batcave you’re on, he’s either the best or worst
thing to ever happen to the Batfranchise.
But as far as Buffy is concerned, the actor has barely left an impression.
Denzel Washington Denzel Washington is a name synonymous with
greatness.
Every script the actor touches turns to gold.
He’s played some of the most interesting characters to ever hit the big screen, and
has proven himself to be incredibly versatile.
Wether playing gangsters, athletes, detectives, or even Malcolm X - Washington can (and will)
deliver.
Considering how celebrated the actor is, it’s easy to forget that success is a process.
And not every role is a home run.
In 1990’s Heart Condition, Washington plays a ghost working alongside a racist police
officer (Bob Hoskins) on the hunt for his murderers.
The thing binding the two characters together?
A heart transplant.
Aww.
Emma Stone Over the last decade, Hollywood has seen an
influx of young, new talent.
And one of the best performers to come from the new-ish crowd is Emma Stone.
Most audiences became aware of the actress after seeing the 2007 Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg
teenage train wreck Superbad.
As Jonah Hill’s love interest, she steals every scene she’s in.
But a year earlier, Stone was doing a little behind-the-scenes work at Disney.
As the voice of a dog named Ivana, the actress lent her talents to one episode of the show
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
We know, we know, that’s technically a show and not a movie, but how could we possibly
resist telling you that story?
Tom Cruise It’s hard to imagine what movies would be
like without Tom Cruise in them.
And if he would have stuck with his original plan of becoming a priest, we might not have
met characters like Ethan Hunt, Les Grossman, or Maverick.
The actor got his start on the big screen in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 dud Endless
Love.
But wait - isn’t that the name of an epic song by Lionel Richie?
It sure is!
That tune was written for the movie, but that seems to be where all the praise ends.
It’s widely regarded as the worst movie on Cruise’s resume, and he’d probably
be happier if we could all just agree to stop bringing it up.
Emilia Clarke As Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen,
Emilia Clarke has shown he can hold her own around large beasts.
But before she became a Khaleesi, the mother of dragons was actually practicing her skills
on dinosaurs.
In a 2010 made for T.V.
movie called Triassic Attack, Clarke gets caught up in the middle of a classic “haunted
dinosaur bones” situation.
The movie is exactly as tacky as you’d expect, but it obviously didn’t hold the actress
back in any way.
Since she’s now one of the most instantly recognizable characters in entertainment today.
Jon Hamm Viewers will probably recognize Jon Hamm as
Mad Men’s Don Draper.
But, just in case you’ve been living under a rock, he’s also made appearances in Unbreakable
Kimmy Schmidt, 30 Rock, and Bridesmaids.
But before he put himself in front of the camera, he actually worked behind it.
At the end of the 90’s, he was working as a set dresser- the person who organizes props
in a scene.
The job itself is commonplace on every production, but the environment where Hamm was doing set-dressing
is a little more interesting: in the world of soft-core pornography.
The actor has come a long way since leaving his off-screen post.
Winning two Golden Globes, and being nominated for a pile of other awards.
Daniel Craig & Kate Winslet Kate Winslet and Daniel Craig are two highly
trained performers who have both been acting since childhood.
Audiences will recognize Craig as the most recent embodiment of James Bond, but he’s
actually been working steadily since the early nineties.
And Winslet blew everyone away for the first time as Rose in 1997’s Titanic.
Back in 1995, the two actors worked together on A Kid in King Arthur’s Court.
Bringing in just north of 13.4 million dollars the movie was considered a failure, especially
by Disney standards.
Considering the acclaim they’ve both achieved since, it’s amazing they weren’t successful
sooner.
Matthew McConaughey & Renée Zellweger Matthew McConaughey may have a few bad career
choices under his belt.
But most of the skeptics had their minds blown off after seeing his work on the first season
of HBO’s True Detective.
And for a handful of years in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Renée Zellweger was everywhere
- but perhaps captured the most hearts with her portrayal of Bridget Jones.
Before the two actors were independently famous, they worked together on one of the worst movies
ever made, 1994’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation.
The movie almost wasn’t released, and both actors threatened to sue Sony if they were
featured too heavily in it’s marketing.
It’s almost like they knew it would tarnish their image.
What do you think of our list?
Did we miss any actors with embarrassing early movie roles?
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