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Lots of the biggest actors in Hollywood started their careers with very modest parts. Sometimes, like Renée Zellweger in Dazed and Confused, they don’t even have lines. Others have a little more to do, but in all of the examples on this list, they are all in smaller roles and rarely more than cameos. Let’s get on to the list!
Renée Zellweger – Dazed And Confused
Dazed and Confused has one of the most stacked casts of young actors in any movie ever. Some are stars of the movie, like Matthew McCaughney and Parker Posey. Renée Zellweger is on the other end of the spectrum. She’s only seen briefly in a couple of scenes, including one with Posey, but she doesn’t have any lines.
Amy Adams – Drop Dead Gorgeous
Amy Adams has become one of the most formidable actors in Hollywood today, but like many, she started with smaller roles in big movies. Her first role, in fact, was a minor role in 1999’s Drop Dead Gorgeous. She would get her big break a few years later in Catch Me If You Can and has gone on to be nominated for six Oscars, but is weirdly still an actor who has not won an Academy Award.
Keira Knightley – Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Keira Knightley had a few small television roles before she landed a small part as the Queen’s decoy in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. She does a great impression of Natalie Portman, of course, as that was her job!
James Gandolfini – The Last Boy Scout
James Gandolfini ground it out for years, working small parts in great movies like True Romance and Crimson Tide, and Get Shorty, before landing the role of a lifetime in The Sopranos. His first role, for which he wasn’t even credited, is as an extra playing a henchman to Damon Wayans’ character in 1991’s The Last Boy Scout.
Alfred Molina – Raiders Of The Lost Ark
While Alfred Molina had appeared in some small roles on television, his first acting credit came as Satipo in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He plays Indy’s assistant who first betrays Indy, then is struck down trying to escape with the treasure at the beginning of the movie. It’s a bigger role than an extra or a cameo, but not much more. He’s gone on to much bigger things since, of course.
Elizabeth Banks – Shaft
Elizabeth Banks has built her career into a true Hollywood powerhouse as an actor, director, and producer. In the early days, though, she was like most actors, trying to land whatever parts she could in whatever movie she could. She appears in a handful of movies basically as a credited extra, including 2000’s Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson. She was billed under the name Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell.
Matt Damon – Mystic Pizza
One thing Matt Damon wins on this list is “best character name” for his debut in a motion picture. He has a small role with the name “Steamer Windsor.” There’s a lot to unpack there; if only he had more screen time, we might have been able to.
Tom Cruise – Endless Love
While Endless Love might not seem like the biggest movie on this list, it was a minor hit back in 1981, starring Brooke Shields. It’s hardly remembered today, but it did give an obscure actor named Tom Cruise his first role in a movie, and that has to count for something. Though Cruise has a small role here, later that same year, he would star in Taps, and two years later, his career would blow up with The Outsiders, Risky Business, and All The Right Moves, all in 1983. He’s basically been the biggest star on earth in the decades since.
Melissa McCarthy – Go
Melissa McCarthy can do it all in comedy. She’s been fantastic doing impressions on SNL and has played both memorable supporting roles in classics like Bridesmaids and This is 40, and starring roles in Central Intelligence and Ghostbusters. But it was a small role as a roommate in Go that gave her her start.
Nicholas Cage – Fast Times At Ridgemont High
The ’80s classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High helped launch a lot of careers, like Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, and Phoebe Cates. It also gave Nicholas Cage his first role, though he didn’t get a line in the movie. Famously, he was billed under his given name, Nic Coppola. Soon, he would change it to get some distance from his famous family, and the rest is history.
Elijah Wood – Back To The Future Part II
Elijah Wood has had a long career, and it stretches all the way back to 1989 and Back to the Future Part II, where he plays one of the kids who makes fun of Marty for using his hands to play a video in the future.
Jack Black – Bob Roberts
In Jack Black’s first role, the musician and comedian plays an absolutely terrifying fan of the politician and musician Bob Roberts in the Tim Robbins movie, also called Bob Roberts. Black plays a supporter of the politician, and the moment he appears on screen, he makes you nervous. It’s kinda brilliant, if short-lived.
Julia Roberts – Satisfaction
Of all the parts on this list, Julia Roberts’ first role, in Satisfaction, the 1988 film that also stars Justine Bateman and Liam Neeson, is larger than most. She plays the bass player in the fictional band, and like many real-life bass players, she is mostly in the background. Later that year, she had a much more substantial role in Mystic Pizza, and from there, she pretty much conquered Hollywood.
Mark Wahlberg – Renaissance Man
Mark Wahlberg famously had some troubled teenage years while his brother Donnie stormed the music charts with New Kids On The Block. Still, eventually he would get his act together and find some success in show business, first as a musician himself, then later as one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. He was already famous when he landed his film debut in Renaissance Man, but it wasn’t the starring role he’d soon be known for.
Tom Hardy – Black Hawk Down
The cast of Black Hawk Down is absolutely stacked. It’s so stacked that Tom Hardy, who doesn’t have a huge role, is really easy to overlook. The Havoc star landed his first role in a movie alongside actors like Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, and Jason Isaacs, plus guys like Orlando Bloom and Ty Burrell in early roles.
Brad Pitt – No Way Out
It’s hard to believe that Brad Pitt wasn’t an immediate star in Hollywood, but he had to put in the work, just like most. Early in his career, he had a number of uncredited roles as an extra, and his most notable was 1987’s No Way Ou,t where he plays a guy at a party who is really just standing behind Kevin Costner.
Anthony Edwards – Fast Times At Ridgemont High
One of the many actors who found early work in their career in Fast Times At Ridgemont High was Anthony Edwards, who has a bit part as one of Sean Penn’s stoner friends. It’s true he has more lines than Nicholas Cage in the movie, but his role is still pretty minor, yet memorable.
Geena Davis – Tootsie
Geena Davis really burst onto the scene in smaller, but substantial roles in Tootsie and Fletch. Sure, there weren’t the smallest roles on this list, but they weren’t the leading roles she would later become famous for in movies like Beetlejuice, The Accidental Tourist (for which she won an Oscar), A League of Their and Thelma and Louise.
Eric Stoltz – Fast Times At Ridgemont High
The list of actors who got their start in Fast Times At Ridgemont High is long and distinguished. One name that you have to include as having had the most impressive career is Eric Stoltz. Three years later, Stoltz would star in Mask, and he pretty much wrote his own ticket after that performance. He plays one of the stoners in Fast Times with Sean Penn and Anthony Edwards, who don’t like to wear shirts in public.
Jason Segel – Can’t Hardly Wait
Random teenage stoners are pretty common characters for big stars to have played early in their career. Jason Segel is a perfect example. Segel plays a random dude at the big party who appears to have overindulged with his buddy in the classic teenage comedy, Can’t Hardly Wait. The watermelon he’s eating does look delicious, though.
Angelina Jolie – Lookin’ To Get Out
The title of this list is about big movies, and you might hear the name Lookin’ To Get Out and think, “What movie?” That’s fair, as it’s basically forgotten today, but it was a very hyped movie with a substantial budget for 1982. It was a Jon Voight project from top to bottom, and as such, he got to cast his then-seven-year-old daughter Angelina Jolie in a small part towards the end of the movie.
Jeff Goldblum – Death Wish
When you are credited as “Freak #1” in a movie, it’s a safe bet that you’re not going to be featured much. Still, when Jeff Goldblum landed that role in Death Wish, he went all out, including not showering for a while to immerse himself in the minor role. To his credit, he does look almost unrecognizable in the role.
Channing Tatum – Coach Carter
Even guys as good-looking and talented as Channing Tatum need to start somewhere. For Tatum, it was as a member of the basketball team in Coach Carter, the 2005 sports drama starring Samuel L. Jackson as the titular high school basketball coach.
Timothée Chalamet – Interstellar
Like countless other New York actors, Timothée Chalamet’s first credited role came on Law & Order, which he landed when he was still in high school. In 2014, he was cast in Interstellar as Matthew McConaughey’s character’s son. It’s a small role, but it obviously has led to big things.
Seth Rogen – Donnie Darko
Seth Rogen is most famous for his many comedic roles, but his first film role, a smaller role as a high school bully in Donnie Darko, is exactly his funniest role, that’s for sure. The role came after he found his early success on Freaks and Geeks, but well before he broke out as a writer, director, as well as an actor later in his career.
Vince Vaughn – Rudy
Vince Vaughn has starred in a ton of classic comedies in his career, like Swingers, Old School, Dodgeball, and Wedding Crashers. He’s also made his mark in dramas like Brawl in Cell Block 99, Freaky, Hacksaw Ridge, and his first movie, the classic sports drama, Rudy, where he plays one of the teammates on that Notre Dame football team.