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11 Now Famous People You Didn't Realize Were In Movies You Loved

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | December 15, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | December 15, 2017 |


We used to run this feature fairly periodically, but we haven’t trotted it out in a few years now. It’s silly, inconsequential picture fun, so perfect for a Friday in the middle of December. The gist of it is: You see a movie you love from a decade ago, and in between the time you originally watched and the time you saw it on TNT ten years later, some bit part actor or actress has become famous, so you’re like, “OMG! I didn’t know SO AND SO was in this,” and why would you, because that person wasn’t famous the first time you saw the movie.

For instance, here’s Meritt Weaver, late of The Walking Dead, Nurse Jackie, and Godless. She’s great. She also played a pharmacist in M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs, which is a movie most of you have seen, even if it’s not necessarily one you “loved.”

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How many of you remember Aaron Taylor Johnson in The Illusionist? He played the young version of the Ed Norton character.

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I can’t believe it’s only been 11 years.

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We love Friday Night Lights the TV show so much that we often don’t revisit the also outstanding movie upon which the TV show is based. Amber Heard was in that.

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My first memory of Amy Adams was in the phenomenal Junebug. I think she got an Oscar nom (or she should have). Two years before that, she was in Catch Me If You Can.

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I think this photo has been pulled up a few times since Brie Larson caught fire, but it’s still fun. There she is on the far right in 13 Going on 30 13 years ago. Of course, she was also an angsty teen pop star back then.

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I loved him in Rectify and he actually makes the Lethal Weapon TV show very much worth watching. Here’s Clayne Crawford in freakin’ Swimfan! (Shirri Appleby was also in that, but in a bigger role that many of you may remember).

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Our boy David Harbour from Stranger Things? He was in Brokeback Mountain.

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Geeky heartthrob to a niche audience, Fran Kranz played a certain kind of role back in the early aughts. Here he in in Training Day and Orange County. He’s also in Matchstick Men, but I couldn’t find an image. My guess is that he also played some sort of stoner in that, too.

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Oscar winner Octavia Spencer played a prostitute in Bad Santa. I think this is one we’d all rather leave forgotten (don’t worry! You’ll forget all of these within 2 days, and it will be a surprise to you all over again if you rewatch the movies).

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Before Grey’s Anatomy, Sandra Oh was in … Princess Diaries.

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And finally, our man Walton Goggins rocking it in the original Bourne flick, Bourne Identity.

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Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba.