The Weirdest First Roles of Your Favorite Hollywood Actors

These actors definitely paid their dues.

September 10, 2013

Image via Complex Original

Everyone has to start from somewhere. Not everyone can be an overnight YouTube star with a million-dollar film deal. Not everyone can gain success the One Direction, a la winning a televised talent competition. Most people have to trudge through thankless roles just to add more material to a reel just to mail to talent agencies.

But eventually, hard work does pay off, at least for these 20 famous stars. From uncredited roles to characters with barely a name—think Young Pilot #2—the following talent is proof that the juice is worth the squeeze. Even if that juice is bizarre as shit. These are The Weirdest Roles of Your Favorite Hollywood Actors.

Christina Hendricks as Rhiannon on Undressed (1991)

Years before causing men everywhere to smash the pause button on their DVRs whenever the red-haired goddess appeared onscreen in Mad Men, Christina Hendricks played series regular Rihannon on a show called Undressed. Let us save you the temptation of opening another tab in sweaty anticipation. It was a softcore show that followed romantic relationships of high schoolers and twentysomethings in Los Angeles that aired on MTV for three years, from 1999-2002. Think more in the dramatic range of Felicity. Yeah, chances are you wouldn't have watched it anyway.

Aaron Paul as Chad on Beverly Hills, 90210 (1999)

Before he was cooking up meth with Walter White, Aaron Paul was getting tips on how to act. In the original 90210, an awkward Paul is seen having trouble with Shakespeare.

But he's shown that he can act pretty damn well, winning two Emmy awards for his role on Breaking Bad. Paul will be returning to the big screen in next year's Need for Speed and Exodus. He sure showed that 90210 director. Jokes on you, bitch!

Chris Rock as Person Standing Next to Club During Fight in Krush Groove (1985)

First off, can we please address the crazy do Chris Rock is sporting? Man, he should've included himself in Good Hair. Back to the movie, Chris Rock's first role was a silent one, a departure from the reputation he established for himself in the years following. He became a household name on comedy sketch shows such as Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, and as the only memorable MTV VMA host ever.

Alison Brie as Nina in Hannah Montana (2006)

One set of viewers were introduced to the wonderful Alison Brie on Community. Another set of viewers who like their drinks dirty got an earlier glimpse of her on Mad Men. But before you get high and mighty, 12-year-old girls with a penchant for binge-watching Disney Channel had us all beat.

One of Brie's first television roles was as Nina, in pre-twerk Miley Cyrus' show, Hannah Montana. In her lone episode, she plays an extremely ditzy pseudo-Malibu Barbie who practices crazy hairstyles on Miley's older Jackson to disastrous results. Just believe this exists—we are not responsible for any nauseous cringing you may experience if you go scrounging through YouTube for a clip.

Charlie Day as Mailroom Kid in Mary & Rhoda (2000)

The real bizarre part here is that Charlie Day plays a character with a job, albeit a shitty minimum-wage mailroom job, but a job nonetheless, in the Mary Tyler Moore spin-off sitcom. Nowadays he stars on a hit show and is best known as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's resident schlepp. Who needs a job when you can dumpster-dive for a living?

Kristen Stewart as Ring Toss Girl in Flinstones:Viva Rock Vegas (2000)

Blink and you'd miss Kristen Stewart in this Flintstones movie. Don't worry, we'd probably miss her too, considering you don't get to see the then-10-year-old Stewart's face.

Fast forward 13 years later and that Ring Toss Girl is the most talked about, and highest paid actress, of her generation. Oh how time changes everything.

Zooey Deschanel as Nessa Watkins in Mumford (1999)

More than just a pretty face, Zooey Deschanel has won the heart of audiences everywhere with her signature brand of adorkability, thanks to roles in Almost Famous, Yes Man, and New Girl. However, her debut in Mumford showcases a different side of Deschanel. She plays a kind of oversized Emily Strange, a chain-smoking potty mouth with a mean streak who looks like she shops at Hot Topic.

Anna Kendrick as Fritzi Wagner in Camp (2003)

Ten years before the Age of Anna Kendrick, which the world is currently experiencing, the Pitch Perfect actress was Fritzi Wagner in the meta-titled indie movie, Camp. In it, Fritzi embodies the exhausted trope of a nerdy girl desperately aspiring to be liked by her abuser: a beautiful, relentlessly cruel diva. The tables turn as she sabatoges the diva to become the new HBIC.

Kendrick is quickly becoming the most prolific actress of the next couple years, as she's got multiple high profile projects coming up, including the star-studded Into the Woods.

Ben Affleck as Basketball Player #10 on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Ben Affleck is everywhere these days. He's an Oscar-winning director, for Argo. He's an Oscar-winning screenwriter, for Good Will Hunting. He's the lead in an upcoming David Fincher movie, Gone Girl. And he's Batman. But back in the '92, he was just an uncredited blip on the screen, as a random basketball player on Buffy. How 'bout them apples?

Angelina Jolie as Tosh in Looking to Get Out (1982)

It is difficult to consider it a role, but Angelina Jolie, then seven years old, made an appearance playing the fictional daughter of her real father, Jon Voight, in the final scene of the 1982 comedy, Lookin' to Get Out. Jolie would not return to the big screen until she was 18-years-old, with Foxfire.

With Maleficent coming next summer, we're excited for her to reclaim her throne as the Hollywood queen. Hopefully it's enough to make us forget the atrocity that is The Tourist.

Zach Braff as Nick Lipton in Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

More than a decade before Zach Braff made a statement about identity with the shirt-blending-into-wallpaper motif in Garden State, he had a bit role in the Woody Allen film, Manhattan Murder Mystery. In it, he played Nick, the son of Allen and Diane Keaton's characters. Only a self-proclaimed Braff completist—do they even exist?—would have noticed the then 18-year-old actor delivering, through trembling teeth, his few lines among these screen legends.

Bryan Cranston as Paramedic # 1 in Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)

The only thing more bizarre than Bryan Cranston's appearance in this '80s sci-fi spoof flick is the name of said flick, Amazon Women on the Moon. He had such a minor role that it's impossible to find a trace of it online. Ironically, a couple of decades later, he'd be bigger than the actors who took top-billing over him, including Ed Begley Jr., Roseanna Arquette, Arsenio Hall, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Jennifer Aniston as Tory Reding in Leprechaun (1993)

Leprechaun is a camp horror classic. It's the movie in which an evil leprechaun engages in a killing spree until he recovers his lost pot of gold. While Jennifer Aniston did not die in the film, she did have to suffer the embarassment of playing major role, Tory Redding, for an entire 92 minutes. Frankly, she deserved some success after that experience, and that she got.

Aniston would go on to play Rachel for 10 years on Friends and relieved millions of suburban mothers of crushing ennui (for a couple weeks) through a signature hairstyle.

Jason Bateman as Todd Howard in Teen Wolf Too (1987)

Teen Wolf Too marked the cinematic debut of Jason Bateman as titular wolf—and cousin of original teenage wolfman—Todd Howard. This time, another coach with zero qualms about cheating encourages known wolfman Todd to join the high school's boxing team where he quickly begins to dominate his teenage opponents.

After gaining mainstream recognition for that role, Bateman would never hit such lows ever again. Ultimately, he'd hit the incredible high of Arrested Development. We dare you to find someone that plays the exasperated straight man better than Bateman's Michael Bluth. Wait, don't waste your time. There is no one.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as George on Roseanne (1993-1995)

While most memorably rising to fame in underrated show, 3rd Rock From the Sun, one of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's early high-profile roles was a four-episode run playing annoying, penny and nickel-collecting neighbor, George, on Roseanne way back in 1993. We're surprised he's been around that long, too.

Gordon-Levitt is now a legitimate Hollywood leading man, spawning a generation of sensitive of dudes hiding their copy of (500) Days of Summer inside a DVD case for The Departed, to delivering one of the most obvious lines in film history, when he announces he's Robin in The Dark Knight Rises. Not to mention, he's got the 'affable' romantic role on lock until 2050.

Jack Black as Slip in Never Ending Story (1994)

Jack Black used to be intimidating. He got his big break playing high school jock/bully, Slip, the leader of the Nasties, the main antagonists of the young adult film. Which is ironic, considering he's become the go-to guy for beer-belly-busting, gross-out humor. Just think Nacho Libre and School of Rock.

Jon Hamm as Young Pilot #2 in Space Cowboys (2001)

A role with a number next to it is not exactly a promising start. For Jon Hamm, it was Young Pilot # 2 in the Clint Eastwood movie, Space Cowboys. He would continue to gain independent film work and a slew of one-off episdoes in mainstream network television fare like CSI:Miami. Eventually, he landed a landmark role of Don Something in this show called Mad Men about sad dudes in suits or something. It might still be on. All in all, he's apparently doing much better now.

Ryan Gosling as Jamie Leary on Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1991)

If you ever catch your girlfriend staring into space for more than five consecutive seconds, chances are she's thinking about Ryan Gosling. If there is any solace, Gosling had somewhat humble beginnings. After not getting the kind of attention his fellow Mousketeers Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears received, he returned to Canada to continue working, where he soon landed on the children series Are You Afraid of The Dark? in 1995. Gosling, then 15, played Jamie Leary in the episode titled, "The Tale of Station 109.1." Despite starting his career playing a jerk, he's now the most fawned over guy in Tinseltown.

Kerry Washington as Chenille in Save the Last Dance (2001)

Before Kerry Washington became the queen of primetime television with the hit ABC drama, Scandal, she was relegated to bit roles that were unrecognizable. Chances are, you didn't even realize that her first big project was as Chenille, Save the Last Dance's resident baby mama, and the BFF to Julia Stiles cornrow-wearing white girl Sara.

Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

Not even the biggest Paul Rudd fan on earth could answer this trivia question. Ready? Who played Tommy Doyle in the sixth (yes, sixth) installment of the Halloween series? The answer is Paul Rudd. Don't bother sneaking off a Wiki search on your smartphone. Rudd played an adult Tommy Doyle (the haunted kid in the original Halloween) and he's done research into what is behind the Michael Myers curse. With the help of Dr. Loomis—OK, we don't care either.

Out of that dank, dark basement of a start in movies, Paul Rudd made it a long way, to say the least. He'd rebound with Romeo + Juliet only a year later and his resume only got better from there—Cider House Rules, Wet Hot American Summer, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Anchorman, to name a few. Talk about progress.