film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

mac wonder boys.jpg

24 Now Famous People You Didn't Know Were In Movies You've Seen

By Petr Navovy | Lists | February 23, 2016 |

By Petr Navovy | Lists | February 23, 2016 |


In case you can’t tell, that jabroni up there in the header pic is Mac (sure, his ‘actual’ name is Rob McElhenney, but no it isn’t — it’s just Mac) in 2000’s underappreciated Wonder Boys.

I bring that up because I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole the other day. I was watching Collateral for about the eighth or ninth time — because I love Collateral — and, just like every single time I watch that movie, I was surprised that Mark Ruffalo was in it. He just disappears into the Detective Fanning role so damn well that it can’t be just me who forgets that he’s in this.

Look, see:
ruffalo collateral .png

That’s not Ruffalo; that’s Fanning.

And, also, in the same movie, Mr Bardem:
bardem collateral.png

Anyway, this led me down a slightly tangential rabbit hole. His role in Collateral happened around the time Mark Ruffalo was just about breaking through into our collective movie-watching consciousness (Eternal Sunshine was that same year), so which other movies had now-famous people star in them that at the time wouldn’t have registered? We’ve done this before , but not with this bunch of faces.

So strap yourself in and feast on these mind biscuits!

Kate Mara in Brokeback Mountain
k mara brokeback.jpg

Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Clay Davis) in The Spanish Prisoner and Goodfellas (with bonus Kevin Corrigan)
isiah whitlock spanish pris.png

isiah whitlock goodfellas.png

Chris Messina in Rounders
messina rounders.png

Cuba Gooding Jr. in Coming To America

cuba-gooding-jr-coming-to-america.jpg

Kerry Washington in Mr. & Mrs. Smith
kerry washington mr and mrs smith.jpg

Cynthia Nixon in Amadeus
cynthia nixon amadeus.png

Chris Bauer (Frank Sobotka) in The Devil’s Advocate

sobotka devil.png

Viola Davis in Out Of Sight
violadavis outofsight.jpg

Adrien Brody in Natural Born Killers (he’s the cameraman)

nbk9.jpg

Gerard Butler in Tomorrow Never Dies

gerard_butler_in_tomorrow_never_dies_1a3m6tu-1a3m6uq.jpg

Portia deRossi in Scream 2

P7yussPTp22l.jpg

Giancarlo Esposito in The Usual Suspects
giancarlo usual suspects.png

Claire Danes and Joaquin Phoenix in U Turn
Danes phoenix uturn.png

Dean Norris (Hank from Breaking Bad) in The Last Seduction and Total Recall
dean norris the last seduction.png

dean norris total recall.png

Spinal Tap bonus:
Ed Begley Jr.

Screen Shot 2016-02-22 at 21.57.59.png

Paul Schafer
Screen Shot 2016-02-22 at 22.00.10.png

Dana Carvey
Screen Shot 2016-02-22 at 22.01.06.png

Billy Crystal
Screen Shot 2016-02-22 at 22.01.14.png

TV bonus:
Baby Gus Grimly and Fassbender in Band of Brothers!

baby gus grimley.png

fassbdender bob.png

———————

Petr Knava plays music and he also had a brief role as the original cinematic Iron Man before Robert Downey Jr. swooped in and took all the credit. Maybe.