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These actors were all hidden in plain sight in huge movies.
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00:00It's always great fun to watch a movie and suddenly notice an actor you had no earthly idea was actually going to be in it,
00:06typically because the actor in question wasn't yet an established brand name in their own right.
00:11Knowing that jobbing on-the-rise actors were hanging out on the periphery of a huge movie
00:16in the midst of the very A-listers they'd eventually be rubbing elbows with years later
00:20can add an unexpected re-watch value to films from years or even decades past.
00:25So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture and here are 10 actors you had no idea were in movies.
00:32Number 10. Rami Malek, Battleship
00:34Now, to be completely fair here, 2012's Battleship is about as forgettable as blockbusters get.
00:40A thunderously generic sci-fi action flick, albeit one that rocks a fairly star-studded cast.
00:45And while nobody's going to miss the likes of Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård and Rihanna front and centre,
00:51it's pretty shocking that a future Oscar winner appears in a hilariously throwaway role that you surely didn't catch.
00:57Rami Malek, who at the time was probably best known for his role in the Night at the Museum movies,
01:02appears a few brief moments as Lieutenant Hill, a soldier caught up in the alien invasion alongside Admiral Terence Shane.
01:10Malek gets a few lines, but basically disappears into the scenery easily enough.
01:14And to watch him here, you'd never guess the greatness that was in store just a few years later.
01:19Both winning the career-defining lead in hit TV show Mr. Robot, and nabbing a Best Actor Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody.
01:25While few have likely bothered to revisit Battleship since it came out,
01:29for those who do, Malek's shocking presence is most certainly a Leo-pointing-at-the-screen moment.
01:34Number 9. Michael Shannon, Groundhog Day
01:37Unlike Battleship, there's a good chance you've seen comedy classic Groundhog Day a few times over the years.
01:43But even so, it's incredibly easy to miss a straight-up acting legend hidden near the end of the movie.
01:49Protagonist Phil Connors, who spends the film stuck in a time loop, has used his predicament to learn about the locals,
01:55including a couple who are due to be married that day, Debbie and Fred.
01:59Debbie has cold feet, but Phil uses his accrued knowledge from repeated interactions with Debbie to convince her to go through with it,
02:06which her eventual hubby is extremely happy about.
02:08But take a close look at Fred, and you'll see that he's played by the great Michael Shannon,
02:13who was just 19 years old at the time of shooting.
02:16Even accepting how memorable it is that Phil then gives the newlyweds WrestleMania tickets,
02:21it's easy to miss Shannon considering this is the last place most would have ever expected to see him.
02:26Number 8. Nick Offerman, Sin City
02:29Sin City boasts such a ludicrously stacked cast that you couldn't be blamed for missing Ron Swanson himself, Nick Offerman.
02:36Four years before he broke out with his iconic role on Parks and Recreation,
02:40Offerman played a small supporting part in Robert Rodriguez's ultra-stylish graphic novel adaptation,
02:45appearing as bumbling hitman Bert Schlubb, a.k.a. Fat Man.
02:49With his bleach-blonde hair, goatee, ear and nose piercings, and black leather get-up,
02:54he couldn't see much more of a far cry from the character which well and truly put him on the map.
02:59Teamed with fellow hitman Douglas Klump, a.k.a. Little Boy,
03:02the duo are a pair of verbose yet dim-witted assassins who get their arses summarily kicked by Hero Hartigan.
03:08Though Offerman already had dozens of walk-on parts to his name in the likes of The West Wing,
03:1324, Deadwood, and Miss Congeniality 2, Armed and Fabulous,
03:17getting roughed up by Bruce Willis was surely a career benchmark at this point.
03:20Thankfully, though, greater things were soon on the horizon.
03:23Number 7. Octavia Spencer, Spider-Man
03:26Almost an entire decade before she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in The Help,
03:32Octavia Spencer made a fleeting appearance in a little-known movie called Spider-Man.
03:37Spencer showed up in the superhero tentpole as the check-in woman when Peter Parker registers to take part in an underground wrestling event.
03:44Spencer's character clearly doesn't fancy Peter's chances and briefly tries to talk him out of competing,
03:49though when he insists to be signed up, she drops the memorable one-liner,
03:53you understand the NYWL is not responsible for any injury you may and probably will sustain while participating in said event.
04:00Spencer gets all of about 20 seconds of screen time, but clearly makes the most of it.
04:04And though she appeared in a number of prominent movies in the years that followed,
04:08such as Legally Blonde 2, SWAT, Bad Santa, Miss Congeniality 2, Drag Me to Hell, and Halloween 2,
04:14it wasn't until The Help that Spencer finally graduated out of character actor territory.
04:19Number 6. Nicolas Cage, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
04:23Classic 80s sex comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High became a launching pad for the careers of many future stars,
04:29such as Sean Penn, Eric Stoltz, Forrest Whitaker, and Anthony Edwards.
04:33But there's one blink-and-you'll-miss-it role that'll drop your jaw if you do manage to spot it.
04:38Nick frickin' Cage!
04:39A 17-year-old Cage, who was still going by his birth name of Nicholas Coppola at this point,
04:44appears for mere seconds as an unnamed friend of Brad's,
04:48who works with him in a fast food restaurant and is simply credited as Brad's Bud.
04:52This was just Cage's second-ever movie part, and the last before he changed his surname to Cage
04:57to avoid accusations of nepotism, being the nephew of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and all.
05:02It was the next year that Cage won his first starring role in 1983's rom-com Valley Girl,
05:08though he well and truly broke out in 1987 with acclaimed performances in both Moonstruck and Raising Arizona.
05:15That's a long way from playing a throwaway line cook just five years earlier.
05:205. Jeremy Allen White – Movie 43
05:23Movie 43 may be a terrible film, but it's certainly not one easily forgotten,
05:27even if only because the calibre of its ensemble cast is basically inversely proportional to the quality of its script.
05:34The comedy anthology project was shot over numerous years and bafflingly managed to attract the likes of
05:39Halle Berry, Gerard Butler, Richard Gere, Hugh Jackman, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet.
05:45Producer Charles B. Wessler leveraged his friendships with many A-listers to secure their involvement,
05:51combined with the promise that they'd get to play unconventional characters and only need to spend a few days shooting their parts.
05:56But amid the shockingly overqualified cast, there's also an early role for The Bear star Jeremy Allen White.
06:02White appears as a homeschooled teenage boy whose parents attempt to replicate every aspect of the high school experience for him,
06:10including hazing and awkward romantic encounters.
06:13It's arguably the funniest segment in the entire anthology, though let's be honest, the bar is in hell.
06:17All the same, seeing an extremely fresh-faced 21-year-old White pop up out of nowhere is a real hoot.
06:234. Chris Rock – Beverly Hills Cop 2
06:26With many likely revisiting the earlier Beverly Hills Cop films following the recent release of the surprisingly good fourth movie,
06:33it surely will surprise many to see a young Chris Rock show up for a brief role in Beverly Hills Cop 2.
06:39When Axel Foley rocks up at the Playboy Mansion in a cement mixer truck, of all things,
06:44the mansion's parking valet isn't too thrilled about it, at which point Foley satiates him with a crisp $50.
06:49A 21-year-old Rock plays the valet, and even though he only gets about 15 seconds of screen time opposite Murphy,
06:56it's immediately obvious from his confident line readings that he has the source.
07:00But Rock didn't luck out by winning this part.
07:02He had already been working the stand-up comedy scene in New York City for several years prior,
07:07and upon seeing his act, Eddie Murphy personally mentored him and ultimately secured him his debut film role in this movie.
07:14Rock didn't have to wait too much longer for stardom to come his way either,
07:17as a stint on Saturday Night Live in the early 90s well and truly clinched it.
07:22Number 3. Melissa McCarthy – Go
07:24Melissa McCarthy's breakout movie role was of course her Oscar-nominated performance in 2011's Bridesmaids,
07:31and prior to this she was best known for playing Sookie St. James on hit TV show Gilmore Girls.
07:36But the year before Gilmore Girls premiered, McCarthy made her feature film debut with a small but hilarious appearance
07:42in the cult classic crime comedy Go.
07:44McCarthy plays Sandra, the roommate of Jimmy, a man who lovers Adam and Zack have both been having an affair with,
07:50each unbeknownst to the other.
07:52Once they learn the truth, they show up at Jimmy's apartment and are greeted by Sandra,
07:56who is both starstruck at seeing the duo on her doorstep, them both being actors and all,
08:01and clearly relieved that The Big Secret is now out in the open.
08:04It's a mere minute-long role for McCarthy, but she's clearly having a blast with it,
08:08and instantly proved beyond any doubt that she had the comedic chops to go far.
08:13Number 2, Brie Larson, 13 Going on 30.
08:16Here's one that'll melt your brain just a little bit.
08:19Much-loved fantasy comedy 13 Going on 30 follows a 13-year-old girl, Jenna Rink,
08:25whose wish to become the 30-year-old version of herself is magically granted.
08:29Before the transformation occurs though, we see Jenna be tormented by her high school's commanding clique,
08:35the six chicks, and if you keep an eye on the members of the group,
08:38you might just spot a young future Oscar winner in the mix.
08:41Among the clan is a 13-year-old Brie Larson, credited simply as Six Chick,
08:45who, while only getting a single line of dialogue, does appear extensively in the film's pre-Jennifer Garner prologue.
08:51This revelation proved quite the surprise to the film's male lead and Larson's MCU co-star Mark Ruffalo,
08:58who only learned that a young Larson was in the movie when a journalist told him
09:02at the Avengers Endgame premiere in 2019, much to his amusement.
09:05Number 1. Aldis Hodge Die Hard with a Vengeance
09:09And finally, Aldis Hodge is best known for playing hacker Alec Hardison in the crime drama series Leverage,
09:16and most recently Hawkman in Black Adam.
09:18But did you know that he started out his career way back in 1995 at just 8 years of age?
09:23Hodge had a brief but memorable role in Die Hard with a Vengeance as Raymond,
09:28the younger of Zeus' two nephews, who gets chewed out by Zeus for trying to sell him a stolen boombox.
09:33And while it was many more years before Hodge became a name talent in his own right,
09:38he recently revealed that this debut part turned out to be career-defining all the same,
09:42as Samuel L. Jackson advised his mother to get him and his brother Edwin,
09:46who also has a small part in the film, into stage acting.
09:49Hodge credits Jackson's advice with helping him hone his acting craft,
09:53and so it's entirely possible that without it, his career couldn't be where it is today.
09:58Hodge
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