12 Celebrities’ First Movie Roles You Won’t Believe—From Leonardo DiCaprio to Dwayne Johnson
Discover the surprising first roles of your favorite stars, from Scarlett Johansson to Johnny Depp
You love these stars from their iconic films — like Leonardo DiCaprio as heartthrob Jack Dawson in Titanic or Reese Witherspoon as fashionable Elle Woods in Legally Blonde — but before they had starring roles as some of your favorite characters, these stars made their film debut on the silver screen through much smaller roles. Check out which parts catapulted these major movie icons into the industry and made them into the stars we know today!
1. Leonardo DiCaprio
First movie role: Critters 3 (1991)
What he said: “[Critters 3 is] possibly one of the worst films of all time. I guess it was a good example to look back and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
2. Allison Janney
First movie role: Who Shot Patakango?
What she said: “It was my first movie role, and I remember going out for my call time on the subway, because I lived in New York, and I threw up when I got there. I was so nervous that I was going to be on camera. I’d never been on camera before.”
3. Johnny Depp
First movie role: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
What he said: “Wes Craven [the film’s director] was the guy who gave me my start, from my perspective, for almost no reason in particular… At the time, I was a musician. I wasn’t really acting. It was not anything very near to my brain or my heart… Wes Craven was brave enough to give me the gig based on his daughter’s opinion.”
4. Emma Stone
First movie role: Superbad (2007)
What she said: “I have the best memories of working on that movie. I was walking around with my mouth agape — I just could not believe that I was on a movie set.”
5. Hugh Grant
First movie role: Privileged (1982)
What he said: “Mike Hoffman… said, ‘Oh I’ve got some money together, I borrowed a camera from John Schlesinger… and I’m going to make this film. Do you want to be in it?’ And I said no, because I wasn’t very interested in acting at that point. I’d done a couple of sort of plays, but it wasn’t my main thing. And then I realized this girl who I really fancied called Victoria Studd was going to be in it, so I said, ‘Oh alright, I’ll be in it…. it was ghastly and deeply pretentious.”
6. Reese Witherspoon
First movie role: The Man in the Moon (1991)
What she said: “I made Man in the Moon in 1990, so guys, do the math… it was 30 years ago,” she said. “I’m so proud that was my first movie. I really love that movie. If you get a chance, check it out. It’s really cute.”
7. Ryan Gosling
First movie role: Frankenstein and Me (1996)
What he said: “I ended up taking that Frankenstein suit home and wearing it around a lot to try and frighten other kids on the block, though the novelty wore off pretty quickly when they found out it was me.”
8. Scarlett Johansson
First movie role: North (1994)
What she said: “The first film that I did was a Rob Reiner movie called North… it’s almost over 30 years ago, which is insane… it’s like another lifetime.”
9. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
First movie role: The Mummy Returns (2001)
What he said: “My very first film of my Hollywood career was The Mummy Returns, which Brendan [Fraser] was the star of. Lots of critics and cynics betting against me at that time, but Brendan welcomed me with open arms and was very supportive.
10. Jeremy Renner
First movie role: National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995)
What he said: “It was the lead in this National Lampoon movie. It was random. It was a big get for me at that time, because it was my first job ever on camera. At the time I was, like, ‘This is fantastic!’”
11. Tom Hanks
First movie role: He Knows You’re Alone (1980)
What he said: “The very first movie I made, I didn’t even know the process of being cast. I was in New York and I was just an actor who was trying to bounce around, and I went to some audition… And I did this kind of general audition and they said, ‘OK, you’ll be in the movie. We don’t know who you’re going to play, but you’ll be in the movie.’ And I said, ‘Is that how it works? Just like that?’”
12. Eddie Murphy
First movie role: 48 Hrs. (1982)
What he said: “The movie’s still on today. It’s on, and it plays, and new audiences find it all of the time. The movie is ‘new’ forever, because there’s always going to be some new generation to discover it.”
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