Everyone has to start somewhere. Occasionally a movie star appears from nowhere, dazzling the world with their incredible talent in a breakout movie role–think Natalie Portman in Leon, Ed Norton in Primal Fear, or Alan Rickman in Die Hard. But many more start at the bottom, working their way up through bad TV shows and films until that big break happens. So here are some of the world’s biggest screen stars, all of whom began their careers in movies that most of them would love to forget…
Michael J Fox – Midnight Madness (1980)
Midnight Madness was a “wacky” Disney comedy about an adventure game that takes place across LA in a single night. Young Michael Fox (he hadn’t yet added the J to his name) gets up to a variety of nocturnal hijinks while trying to solve the clues and win the game. The movie was a critical and commercial flop and lost Disney millions.
Leonardo DiCaprio – Critters 3 (1991)
Even at the age of 16, DiCaprio was out-acting everyone else on screen–although when the movie in question is Critters 3, it’s perhaps not so difficult. Leo plays a skating teen who is forced to fight fanged furballs in the third movie in this series of Gremlins rip-offs.
Holly Hunter – The Burning (1981)
The Burning was one of the many, many slasher movies released in the early ’80s to cash in on the huge success of Halloween and Friday the 13th. It now has the infamy of being co-written by disgraced studio head Harvey Weinstein, but it also features a couple of early debuts. Holly Hunter plays Sophie, one of the movie’s many young victims.
Jason Alexander – The Burning (1981)
The second debut from a future star in The Burning is Jason Alexander, eight years before his breakout role in Seinfeld. He plays Dave. He also dies.
Brad Pitt – No Man’s Land (1987)
Thelma & Louise was the movie that gave Brad Pitt his big break, but three years earlier he was serving drinks and sporting a terrible haircut as an uncredited extra in the forgotten Charlie Sheen vehicle No Man’s Land.
Courteney Cox – Masters Of The Universe (1987)
Courteney Cox was already world famous by the time she made her movie debut. Most people didn’t know her name, but until Friends came along, she was mostly known as the girl who dances with Bruce Springsteen in his “Dancing in the Dark” video. Three years after boogying with The Boss, she appeared in the terrible movie adaptation of the cartoon favorite/toyline Masters Of The Universe as teenage heroine Julie. She’s probably the least worst thing in it, but that’s not saying much.
Jennifer Aniston – Leprechaun (1993)
Another Friends star with a B-movie past, Aniston made her first screen appearance in this infamous horror trash. Jen plays a young woman whose family are staying in a farmhouse inhabited by a vengeful Irish spirit. Star Wars veteran Warwick Davis plays the title role, and the movie was followed by five sequels and a remake. Unsurprisingly, Aniston didn’t return to the series.
Charlize Theron – Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
Speaking of inexplicably popular horror franchises, the Children of the Corn series has now made it to ten movies, with seemingly no end in sight. Back in 1995, a 21-year-old Charlize Theron made her debut in a small role as the follower of a psychotic corn-worshipping cult leader. She doesn’t have any lines, but she does get eaten by a tentacled monster.
Eva Mendes – Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)
Theron wasn’t the only future star to get her start fighting corn-based evil. Fast & Furious actress Eva Mendes plays one of a group of teens who find themselves trapped in the cultist’s town in the fifth Children of the Corn movie. Eva has a lot more screen-time than Charlize but still meets a nasty end, sacrificing herself in a flaming corn silo.
Jeff Goldblum – Death Wish (1974)
The vigilante favorite Death Wish is actually one of the better movies on this list, and a remake is due next year. Independence Day and Jurassic Park star Jeff Goldblum made his screen debut as a “Freak #1”, doing some very bad things to poor Charles Bronson’s wife in the movie’s most infamous scene.
Sylvester Stallone – The Party At Kitty And Stud’s (1970)
By the time Rocky made Stallone a star, he had already appeared in a number of movies, including Woody Allen’s Bananas and the cult classic Death Race 2000. But it was this infamous soft-porn flick, later retitled The Italian Stallion, in which the struggling actor made his screen debut. Sly later said: “It was either do that movie or rob someone. Instead of doing something desperate, I worked two days for $200 and got myself out of the bus station.”
Scarlett Johansson – North (1994)
While most of the names on this least appeared in bad B-movies, there are of course plenty of terrible big budget movies too. Scarlett Johansson was only nine when she appeared in a small role in the fantasy drama North, a star-studded turkey from When Harry Met Sally director Rob Reiner. It got some of that year’s worst reviews, but Johansson’s natural screen presence was clear from the very beginning.
George Clooney – Return to Horror High (1987)
Technically, George Clooney did appear momentarily as an extra in 1982’s long-forgotten drama And They’re Off, but since he only ended up in that film because he was visiting his acting cousin Miguel Ferrer on set, we’re not counting that. Clooney’s first movie as a professional actor was as a magnificently-haired security guard/victim in the horror comedy Return to Horror High.
Tom Hanks – He Knows You’re Alone (1981)
Horror is not a genre you’d associate with Tom Hanks, but he made his screen debut in the largely useless slasher movie He Knows You’re Alone. Hanks plays Elliot, a friend of the movie’s main character, and even in his brief appearance at a fun fair, he radiates pure likable star power.
Madonna – A Certain Sacrifice (1979/1985)
Although shot in 1979, Madonna’s first movie wasn’t released until after she was already one of the biggest pop stars in the world. It’s a weird ultra-low budget sex drama for which the Material Girl got paid just $100. When producers announced their plans in 1985 to finally release the movie to cash in on their star’s new fame, she unsuccessfully attempted to buy the rights back to stop anyone from ever seeing it.
Arnold Schwarzenegger – Hercules in New York (1970)
The Austrian action icon hates his debut movie so much that in 2012 he recommended that it be used to torture terrorists. The 22-year-old Schwarzenegger had his voice overdubbed and is credited as Arnold Strong–but he does get to fight a man in a bear suit in Central Park.
Clint Eastwood – Revenge Of The Creature (1955)
Revenge Of The Creature was the first sequel the monster classic Creature from the Black Lagoon. It’s a terrible movie with none of the eerie power of the original, but it does have the first ever big screen appearance from Clint Eastwood, in an uncredited role as a lab assistant with a mouse in his pocket.
Ryan Gosling – Frankenstein and Me (1996)
Long before he was Blade Running and jazzing his way through La La Land, Ryan Gosling played Kenny, a kid attempting to bring Frankenstein back to life in this forgotten Canadian monster movie homage. Burt Reynolds also appears briefly, looking very silly in a sleeveless T-shirt.
Mila Kunis – Piranha (1995)
The future Black Swan and Bad Moms star has been acting since she was a child, and was only 12 when she debuted as a water-phobic girl in this z-grade remake of Joe Dante’s 1979 classic Piranha. It was produced by Roger Corman once more, but with none of the original film’s wit and thrills.
Tom Cruise – Endless Love (1981)
By 1983, Tom Cruise was a household name, as the success of Risky Business catapulted him to stardom. But two years earlier, he had a small role in the soppy romantic drama Endless Love. The Cruiser gets to wear nothing but a tiny pair of jean shorts and deliver a strange monologue about burning newspapers.
Denzel Washington – Carbon Copy (1981)
Carbon Copy was a well-meaning but utterly tone-deaf comedy about race and privilege, that features a first appearance from a young Denzel Washington as the long-lost son of white businessman George Segal. The movie is rarely seen these days, which is not a bad thing.
