10 Actors Who Have Gone From Supporting Role To Leading Man In 2013

Okay, so Aaron Paul is already a household name. For five years, the 34-year-old newlywed has been the man behind The One Who Knocks on AMC’s Breaking Bad, and he’s won a slew of awards for doing just that (including two Emmys). But now that the much-beloved series has officially reached its conclusion, it’s time for Jesse Pinkman to drive off into the sunset and for Paul to explore terrain beyond the New Mexico desert. And he’s launching his film career in a big way with several leading roles on the horizon, including A Long Way Down, Pascal Chaumeil’s adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel; the video game-turned-actioner Need for Speed; and Ridley Scott’s Exodus, opposite Christian Bale.

London-born Benedict Cumberbatch has been working steadily in theater, television and film for more than a decade, but up until now he’s been better known in his native England. In 2004, he won a Best Actor BAFTA for playing Stephen Hawking in the BBC’s Hawking. Shortly thereafter, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art alum began amassing a series of small but notable parts in such critically acclaimed features as Atonement, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, War Horse and The Hobbit. But the 37-year-old’s rise to leading man territory began when he was handed the enviable role of the villainous Khan in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness, followed by the part of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. (In response to the film, Assange wrote an open letter to Cumberbatch in which he slammed the filmed but complimented the actor, stating: “I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film.”) The performance is already earning Cumberbatch some serious Oscar buzz, though only time will tell whether that comes to fruition. What is a sure thing is the actor’s presence in a slate of this holiday’s seasons most anticipated films, including 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

For an actor on the rise, there are few better people to have in your corner than Joel and Ethan Coen, as George Clooney, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem can all attest. Now it’s Oscar Isaac’s turn, as he takes on the title role in December’s Inside Llewyn Davis, in which he plays a singer trying to navigate the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the 1960s. Already a recognizable face from supporting roles in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive and Madonna’s W.E., Inside Llewyn Davis will reteam Isaac with his Drive wife Carey Mulligan, and set him up for the kind of leading man roles that Javier Bardem found post-No Country for Old Men. Already on his roster is Therese with Elizabeth Olsen, The Two Faces of January with Viggo Mortensen and Mojave with Garrett Hedlund.

Though fans of Showtime’s The Tudors were familiar with Henry Cavill’s work from the three seasons he spent portraying the Duke of Suffolk, when director Zack Snyder announced that the 30-year-old Brit would be the next actor to don Superman’s red cape, millions of movie fans took to Google to learn more about him. Oddly enough, this was not Cavill’s first brush with playing The Man of Steel; Cavill was a front-runner for the lead in 2006’s Superman Returns, but was eventually passed over for Brandon Routh. He was also seriously considered as the new James Bond in Casino Royale and was Twilight author Stephenie Meyers’ first choice for the role of Edward Cullen, but ultimately deemed too old for the part—leading Empire magazine to call him “the most unlucky man in Hollywood” in 2005. With Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman on the horizon and the lead in Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E., who’s the unlucky one now?

Like legendary ballplayer Jackie Robinson, whom he portrayed in this summer’s 42, Chadwick Boseman is a man of many talents. A graduate of Howard University, where he earned a BFA in Directing, the Brooklyn native went abroad to study at the British American Dramatic Academy at Oxford. In 2006, Boseman earned a Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work for Deep Azure, a hip hop-influenced play he mounted at Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre Company. Yet somehow the 31-year-old has found the time to rack up almost two dozen acting credits in the past decade, including plum small-screen appearances on Lincoln Heights and Persons Unknown. With his newly acquired leading man status firmly intact, expect to see much more of Boseman in the coming months, including the lead in Tate Taylor’s James Brown biopic, Get on Up.

Up until now, Liam Hemsworth has been best known as the boyfriend-turned-fiancé-turned-ex of Miley Cyrus. With that high-profile relationship now behind him, the 23-year-old seems to be following in the steps of older brother Chris (who is currently starring in Ron Howard’s Rush), lining up leading roles in a full slate of movies through 2015. Among the Aussie’s imminent gigs are three more reprisals of his role as Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games franchise and sharing the screen with Billy Bob Thornton, John Malkovich and Michael Stuhlbarg in Cut Bank.

A surprise hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, The Spectacular Now has catapulted its stars, including 26-year-old Miles Teller, into A-list territory. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the film won Teller and his on-screen leading lady, Shailene Woodley, a Special Jury Prize for Acting, “For two young actors who showed rare honesty, naturalism and transparency and whose performances brought up the best in each other.” Hollywood took notice. Currently filming a feature-length version of Damien Chazelle’s Sundance-winning short Whiplash, Teller will next be seen in Two Night Stand with Analeigh Tipton and That Awkward Moment with Zac Efron, and will reunite with Woodley (plus Kate Winslet, Zoë Kravitz and Ashley Judd) for Divergent.

Sons of Anarchy devotees know 33-year-old Charlie Hunnam as the president of an outlaw motorcycle club whose fashion sense leans toward the scruffy, black leather jacket and highly tattooed side. But this summer, audiences got a glimpse of what the Englishman might look like in a leading role when he played a pilot fighting giant robots and monsters in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. In 2014, moviegoers were poised to see a whole lot more of Hunnam as sadomasochistic billionaire businessman Christian Grey in the highly anticipated (and often bitched about) big-screen adaptation of E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey. But on October 12th, Hunnam surprised everyone by abruptly departing from the project. Though Universal initially blamed it on scheduling conflicts, rumors have been swirling every since, with everything from cold feet to problems with the script being cited as the reason for his departure. The irony of it all is that Hunnam’s dropout stature has made him even more in-demand with producers. He’s got John Hillcoat’s Triple Nine and Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak in pre-production. And if other films pop up between then and now, we’re pretty sure they won’t be BDSM-themed.

Since Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom made its HBO debut in June of 2012, John Gallagher Jr. has been one of the ensemble dramedy’s standout stars. But in this summer’s indie hit Short Term 12, written and directed by Destin Cretton, Gallagher proved that he’s got what it takes to light up the screen all on his own. In Zachary Wigon’s upcoming The Heart Machine, Gallagher will get a chance to do just that, as a young man involved in an online relationship who begins to suspect that he’s been catfished—and decides to investigate. On Sept. 3, HBO officially announced that The Newsroom will be back for a third season next summer, so he’s got that happening, too.

In the past 12 months, Scoot McNairy has gone from name you want to laugh at to guy you want to cast in your movie. Since breaking out in the 2007 indie hit In Search of a Midnight Kiss, the 36-year-old Texan (who is married to his Monsters co-star, Whitney Able) is now averaging about three major films per year. In the last 12 months alone, he has gone head to head with Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly, been rescued by Ben Affleck in Argo, followed Matt Damon and John Krasinski to the Promised Land and hung out with Robert Pattinson in The Rover. Up next is the sure-to-be-Oscar nominated 12 Years a Slave, the musical comedy Frank with Michael Fassbender and a Black Sea adventure with Jude Law.