Today you see them large as life on the silver screen with their popularity soaring with every movie. Some are already superstars who have had their share of fame and taking on roles reflecting their age. But, as huge and famous as they are now, your favorite Hollywood stars were unrecognizable at one time doing roles as extras for a few books to sustain themselves on the struggling pathway to fame. Take a look at 17 such stars who acted as extras in Hollywood.
We start this list with Jean Claude Van Damme simply because this is such a revelation. Today we know Van Damme as the hero of martial art action movies namely Bloodsport which was one heck of a film done in his younger days. Can you ever contemplate Van Damme shaking his booty in a dance movie?
Well!! Not only has he done that but he has done it as an extra as part of the spectator crowd in the movie “Breakdance the Movie” or “Breakin” as it is also called and which exploded on the screen during the break dancing era of the early eighties. Van Damme is seen wearing black dancing tights and shaking during the crowd scene of the movie. That was the very first Hollywood movie that Van Damme was cast in as an extra.
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Today Mega Fox is a superstar having appeared in the Transformers franchise which gave a boost to her career. She has been seen in earlier films like Jennifer’s body but her very first screen appearance came in another Michael Bay Movie “Bad Boys 2” where she was a bikini-clad dancer under a waterfall. It is such a small part that you barely notice it.
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It is common knowledge that Sly Stallone struggled really hard before he made it big with Rocky. He was even evicted from his apartment in New York and ended up sleeping in a bus terminal. As an extra out to make some cash, he ended up doing a role in an Adult softcore movie. But as an extra, he was also cast in Woody Allen’s “bananas” (1971) where he acted as a mugger in the subway. It was a minor role which he didn’t receive any credit for. Stallone also plays a disco dancer in the Jane Fonda movie “Klute” 1971.
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Among stars who acted as extras, action hero and dancer Channing Tatum is an up and coming star having several hits to his credit like 21Jump Street and GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra. But in the early days of his struggle to make it in Hollywood, he did roles as an extra with his first screen appearance being in a music video which happened to be Ricky Martins popular single”She Bangs”. Look closely at the video; you’ll see Tatum is the dancing bartender.
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He is undoubtedly one of the best martial actors to grace the screen and has come a long way with hundreds of films to his credit. But, if you are a martial art movie fan and loved Enter the Dragon, did you notice one of the guards fighting Bruce Lee is none other than Jackie Chan? Incidentally, it was said that Lee actually hit Chan who didn’t seem to mind.
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She vowed us with hits such as Real Steel and as the Elf warrior Tauriel in The Hobbit 2. She is also Marvel’s Wasp in the Marvel cinematic universe. But when Evangeline was first starting out, she acted as an extra in some movies notably in Smallville where she was hired for 4 episodes. She is also the Police Office in Lizzie Maguire and a student in Freddy vs. Jason.
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Bruce Willis by now is a stalwart of Hollywood movies where we will always remember him as the maverick cop John Mclane in the Die Hard franchise. His first appearance however on screen was an extra playing a court observer in the 1982 movie “The Verdict” which starred Paul Newman.
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James Dean the fifties heartthrob will always be remembered for the movies “Rebel without a Cause” “Giant” and “East of Eden”. But these came later in Dean’s career where he struggled to make it taking on roles as an extra in movies. He was a Boxer trainer in “Sailor Beware” where he doesn’t even have a name and a Football spectator in the movie Trouble along the Way. He also appeared as an extra in the movies like “Deadline” as a copy boy and an uncredited boxing trainer in “Sailor Beware”.
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Charlize Theron today is an Oscar-winning actress taking away almost all the awards you can dish out for her performance in “Monster” but in her early days, Theron played an extra in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest where she is ultimately killed by an evil tentacle.
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The famous actress of “Chicago” and “Jerry Maguire” played the role of an extra in “Dazed and Confused” 1993 where she is seen as the girl who keeps guzzling down beers. Her major break came in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1994.
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William Dafoe is a veteran of films but his acting debut came in the 1980 movie “Heaven’s Gate “where he was just an extra without any activity but as part of the crowd. He was also kicked off the set by director Michael Cimino for laughing loudly at a joke told to him by another female extra.
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He has had an incredible career with several great movies, the latest being the mad Grandmaster in Thor Ragnarok. However he has also acted as an extra in some pretty big Hollywood movies such as a freak in “Death Wish” and a party guest in Annie Hall. His first big break was after ten years when he was cast in “The Fly”.
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He is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in Hollywood both as an actor and director. We always remember him for his western roles in The Good Bad and Ugly and Outlaw Josey Wales but when he was a struggling aspirant he played minor roles in movies like “Tarantula”, “Francis in the Navy” and “Revenge of the Creature”. In the image below, Eastwood is on the far left.
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Who doesn’t know this man but he would never have been recognized as an extra in the 1988 movie “Coming to America”. Although he never even had any lines, he was given a haircut by the barber played by Eddy Murphy.
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She hit it big in the Twilight films and has enjoyed box office hits ever since but when she was starting out, she first appeared in a Disney original “The Thirteenth Year” (1999). Kirsten was a non speaking extra drinking at a water fountain and was just nine years old.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger may have been a body building star in the seventies but that did not mean he was a Hollywood star as he too struggled for roles. Although he acquired a role in the movie Hercules in New York, the film had to be dubbed again because of his heavy accent. His second role as a villain in “The Long Goodbye” was a muted where he just stood around doing nothing.
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Today Brad Pitt is one of the biggest names in Hollywood and a superstar but just like all the others he too was among stars who acted as extras and struggled up the ladder forced to accept minor roles in various films. He was a nameless extra in Hunk, No Way Out, No Man’s Land and Less than Zero where he was named in the credits as “Partygoer”. His first break came in 1991 when he was chose to star in Thelma & Louise and there has been no looking back ever since.
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