Embarrassing Roles of Famous Beginners Revealed
When you think of successful actors like Emma Stone or Jacob Elordi, it can be hard to think of them as less than A-listers. But it wasn’t always like that.
Most of the actors had to play small role after small role to get to where they are now. And many of these small roles are interesting, to say the least. Here are the first 18 weird roles that your favorite movie and TV stars starred in:
1.
Glen Powell, the funny but hunky game star, once played the “Long-Fingered Boy” in a children’s sci-fi film, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in 2003.
In a 2024 interview with People Magazine, Powell recalled his day on set Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over as unforgettable. He says, “I was 13 years old. I shot my part, then I sat behind the camera. The whole team had the most interesting jobs in the world. You had endless friends. And Spy Kids 3-D it was ours A mound.”
2.
His roles in Euphoria again Frankenstein we may have briefly erased it from your memory, but we will never completely forget that Jacob Elordi’s breakout role was in 2018. The Kissing Booth.
The Netflix rom-com, which also stars Joey King and Molly Ringwald, portrays Elordi as a high school student who falls in love with her brother’s best friend. This goes on for three full movies and is painfully painful, but worth watching.
3.
Sitting down, Nicole Kidman played a crime comedy BMX gangsters I was just 16 years old, before he began acting in highly regarded commercials for AMC Theaters.
In a 1983 interview, Kidman described the film, saying, “It’s about three BMX teenagers…we get caught up in a hidden case of walkie-talkies, which leads to involvement with the police and criminals and stuff…it’s all fun, and it’s comedy and big adventures.”
4.
Before he played some role in famous works like this one Sex Education, Bridgertonand, more recently, The Devil Wears Prada 2Simone Ashley had a two-episode arc in CBBC’s fourth season Wolfblood.
He played a journalist who investigates whether the viral video is real, to prove the events in it Blood wolf the letter was true. The television show successfully ran for five seasons, received numerous awards and two spinoffs.
5.
Other Bridgerton star, Jonathan Bailey, who guest starred on the 2017 British TV show, chewing gum, where he played love with the race slave.
One clip of this episode has been circulating on social media yearsand that’s where many of us first saw the Sexiest Man Alive (despite un-fits the end of the episode).
6.
A few decades before playing villains Inglourious Basterds as well as James Bond films, Christoph Waltz appeared in an Austrian children’s show, I’m Das Des, in 1977.
This was Waltz’s first role and a meaningful departure from the roles for which he would be known. The show’s title has its own absurdity: it has no literal translation; it’s just a silly nursery rhyme like “eeny meeny miney moe.”
7.
Best known for portraying our favorite Targaryen, Emilia Clarke’s first role was in the 2010 dinosaur film called. The Triassic Attack. She played the daughter of a museum owner who has to stop a dinosaur attack after a local shop owner curses the town.
Widely considered a knockoff of the jurassic park, the television movie scored an 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. Fortunately (for us), Game of Thrones she started acting the following year, and Clarke became known for that sweet role instead.
8.
During the horror of the 1980s, Sam Rockwell played one of three brothers set up by escaped mental hospital patients dressed as killers in the ’89 flick. The Clownhouse.
Rockwell has largely avoided discussing this role, which is not surprising, given the tragic events that took place behind the scenes: the director, Victor Salva, was convicted of sexually assaulting Nathan Forrest Winters, one of the young actors on the set, before the film even finished production.
9.
Today, she is known as a two-time Oscar winner, but Emma Stone was once the voice of Ivana Tipton, London Tipton’s Pomeranian, Zack and Cody’s Suite Life, where she is credited by her real name, Emily.
Stone embellished Russian and English to voice the worst furry resident of the Tipton Hotel as he fell in love with a poor dog who had recently visited the hotel. It is like four legs, to be rich, Romeo and Juliet.
10.
Stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan briefly played one of Miranda’s boyfriends in Season 4 of Sex and the Citywho had a habit of using the bathroom without closing the door.
Gaffigan talked about the role in a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly. He remembers, “At this time, Sex and the City it was the biggest show and, as a New York actor, you wanted to be one of the boyfriends. But it was strange. We were shooting it, and there was a bucket of water for them to shoot [use to] make sounds. Sometimes as an actor you say, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this for a living.'”
11.
Don Cheadle once played a gang leader named Goldilocks in the 1993 superhero film, The Meteor Manopposite Robert Townsend, James Earl Jones, and Marla Gibbs.
The film is known as one of the first Black superhero movies. Despite floundering at the box office, it has become a cult classic. Entertainment Weekly Review described it as “kind of confusing, but really, really good.”
12.
Award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro got his big break as “Duke the Dog-Faced Boy” in 1988. Big Top Pee-wee.
In a 2015 Conan interview, Del Toro said he went through the motions to get the role. He recalled, “I was imitating the dog I grew up with. He got old and had a weird barking pattern. He was saying ‘ooh ooh ooh.’
13.
Early in her career, Zoë Kravitz had a supporting role in the 2007 rom-com No Reservations like a goth babysitter.
At just 17, this was Kravitz’s first role, but he certainly held his own opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones and child star Abigail Breslin.
14.
Before his roles Harold & Kumar again house, Kal Penn had a guest role in Season 4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He played one of four brothers who unknowingly drink a magical beer that turns them into cavemen.
Penn appeared on a podcast in 2025 where he warmly reflected on the recording experience, describing it as “kitschy and…really fun.” He also admitted that the episode, titled “Beer Bad,” has always been considered one of the worst episodes of the WB show.
15.
American actress and director Sofia Coppola may have the smallest role on the list, as the baby is baptized The Godfather. This should not be surprising, since his father, Francis Ford Coppola, directed the film.
Coppola went on to have supporting and starring roles in all three Father films, causing controversy among fans and critics. Winona Ryder was originally cast as Michael Corleone’s daughter in the third installment, but Coppola took over the role after Ryder suffered a nervous breakdown before shooting even began.
16.
In 2009, lyrical legend Lin-Manuel Miranda once played a bipolar patient in Season 6 House MDwho – surprise, surprise – liked to rap.
Miranda actually took on this role during her first Broadway show, At the heightwas in the middle of its three-year run (2008-2011) at the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York City. He would return to the same theater in 2015, which will begin to be shown Hamilton.
17.
Before School of Rock again JumanjiJack Black had an uncredited role in I Still Know What You Did Last Summerplaying a dreadlocked stoner who works at a resort and – spoiler alert – is killed by Fisherman.
Since the release of the sleazy film in 1998, Jack Black seems to have received no harsh criticism for this outrageous role.
18.
And finally, Eva Mendes again Scarlett Johansson starred in the 1999 children’s film, Brother Pig. Mendes and Johansson play best friends who have to figure out what to do when Johansson’s annoying brother is turned into a pig.
The film was released in theaters but had a short run and was quickly forgotten. This is not surprising, as it followed several years of children’s films that showed some form of human transformation and perhaps did not stand out.
Have you ever seen the main characters in the silly early roles? Leave your favorite in the comments!
