In the history of cinema, it is almost impossible to find an actress or actor whose career did not include minor roles or participation in obscure films. Even the great English actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who very carefully chose the films in which he starred so that every third of his films brought him an Oscar nomination, still played several lesser roles in his youth.

What can we say about those Hollywood stars who have long and stubbornly walked to the top, filming along the way in sometimes completely disgusting, low-budget and simply uninteresting films and TV shows? An acting career is like a cardiogram, it has its ups and downs, and sometimes the latter are no less than the former. Even for the worldwide recognized movie stars.

The online database IMDb has collected a selection of little-known roles of star actresses and actors whose names are ringing all over the world today. Bored Panda has already made a list of the most interesting and unusual appearances of stars in lesser roles, so here is the second part of our collection for you!

Feel free to scroll to the very end, promise not to be surprised when you see familiar faces in completely unexpected images, and perhaps this post will be an occasion for you to revisit something from the good old ages of cinema, when our world was still very young, and the greatest movie stars were extremely small.

More info: IMDb

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#1 Natalie Portman And Jean Reno In Léon: The Professional (1994)

#2 Christian Bale In Empire Of The Sun (1987)

#3 Leslie Nielsen In Forbidden Planet (1956)

Buy Now: Warner Bros.

#4 Jake Gyllenhaal In City Slickers (1991)

Buy Now: Columbia Pictures

#5 Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, Harry Basil, And Glenn Withrow In Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

In fact, various actors’ paths to fame turn out to be completely different in length – and almost never does star status come after the very first role. Even John Travolta had nine small roles before his breakthrough in Saturday Night Fever, and Leonardo DiCaprio, before appearing as Johnny Depp’s younger brother in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, which brought him an Oscar nomination at the age of seventeen, starred in TV shows and lesser-known films for as many as five years.

#6 Kevin Bacon In National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)

Buy Now: Universal Studios

#7 Hilary Swank In Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992)

Buy Now: 20th Century Studios

#8 Jeremy Renner In National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995)

Buy Now: New Line Cinema

#9 Willem Dafoe In Streets Of Fire (1984)

Buy Now: Universal Studios

#10 Cary Elwes And Robin Wright In The Princess Bride (1987)

There are a lot of reasons why screen stars take such a long road to fame, and they are all different. Morgan Freeman, for example, became an actor relatively late, at the age of almost forty, and only in his early fifties did he become a legitimate star, having received his first Oscar nomination.

But Nicolas Cage, whose family status seemed to promise a quick rise to fame, deliberately changed his last name to distance himself from his famous uncle, movie director Francis Ford Coppola. But now Cage, if he wants, can rightfully sing after Frank Sinatra “I did it my way!”

#11 Reese Witherspoon In The Man In The Moon (1991)

Buy Now: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

#12 Meryl Streep In The Deer Hunter (1978)

Buy Now: Universal Studios

#13 Sarah Jessica Parker And Amy Linker In Square Pegs (1982)

Buy Now: CBS

#14 Nicolas Cage In Valley Girl (1983)

Buy Now: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

#15 Ben Affleck And Pam Potillo In Abc Afterschool Specials (1986)

Buy Now: American Broadcasting Company (ABC)

On the other hand, if a person becomes a movie star as a child, this may subsequently not be reflected in the best way for a career. Suffice it to recall, for example, Macaulay Culkin, Mickey Rooney or Shirley Temple, who in adulthood could not even come close to the glory they had in their childhood.

True, Temple subsequently made an impressive political career, but now we are talking about cinema! Perhaps only Christian Bale, who became rather famous in his childhood, managed to make tremendous progress and become a real screen superstar. This is probably the exception that only proves the rule…

#16 Daryl Hannah In Blade Runner (1982)

Buy Now: Warner Bros.

#17 Jodie Foster In Taxi Driver (1976)

#18 Ewan Mcgregor In Shallow Grave (1994)

#19 Jerry O’Connell And Ryan Reynolds In Buying The Cow (2002)

Buy Now: Destination Films

#20 Ron Howard In The Andy Griffith Show (1960)

In general, according to the authors of The Actors Place, just becoming an actor will take at least two years, and only then, depending on how talented you are and how lucky you are, you will have from several to dozens of little-known roles. And maybe, after many years, you will also fall into our new similar selection!