I know a few: Brad Pitt, Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Renée Zellweger. There are more actors & actresses who were extras prior to reaching stardom or becoming famous. Not all are obvious unless you knew what they looked like when they’re younger or looked via IMDb. I’ve spotted Bruce Willis as an extra in two movies: The First Deadly Sin starring Frank Sinatra in an uncredited role as “man entering diner” & The Verdict starring Paul Newman as an courtroom observer (uncredited) before he became famous in Die Hard.
Yes, Elijah Wood is in Back to the Future II! He’s one of the kids trying to play the old school arcade machine.
Oh, and Cuba Gooding Jr is in Coming To America (he’s getting a haircut).
Nicolas Cage had a small role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as one of Judge Reinhold’s coworkers at the burger joint. Credited as Nicolas Coppola.
Tobey Maguire had a part in Empire Records. His scene was cut but he still appears in the credits.
Jacob Wysocki (of Dropout) has a small role in Pitch Perfect.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were extras in Field of Dreams. But the most notorious actor which comes to mind is Clint Eastwood, he had a few uncredited parts plus a few extra roles in the 1950s!
penguinz0 in The Hunger Games, before that no one really knew him.
I don’t really watch his content a lot, but i always assumed that was some kind of inside joke when he mentioned it. That’s pretty funny
The joke is that he was cast as an extra in a crowd for the fourth(?) hunger games movie, but his scene got cut.
He turned it into an inside joke that he was just “too good” of an actor and would have taken attention away from Jennifer Lawrence.
Edit: worth mentioning that he was cast because he just happened to be in the area at the time of filming. Not because he was a niche internet celebrity
The Long Goodbye.
Arnold pops up as a thug who’s 10x bigger than everyone else.
It’s truly hilarious and unexpected.
Samuel L Jackson in Jurassic Park, not one MF out of him!
Not an actor (?) or a movie, but a young Lady Gaga was an extra in an episode of The Sopranos. She was part of the high schoolers in the bleachers in one of Anthony’s swim meet scenes.
Eddie Izzard plays some random minion that gets thrown off a catwalk in The Avengers (1998). Completely jarring to suddenly have five seconds of someone charismatic onscreen amid all the tedious wtfery of that film…
Jackie Chan was an extra and a stuntman in Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon, where he does an impressive job of getting beaten up by Bruce Lee.
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Sylvester Stallone is a thug in Bananas. Jeff Goldblum is the person who kicks off the whole Death Wish series as Freak #1. He also has a line in Annie Hall.
He also has a line in Annie Hall.
“I forgot my mantra” is such a great line though. It’s the only thing I remember from the movie tbh
IIRC Jason Statham started as a dancer in music videos.
The one that really stuck with me, was Brad Pitt’s ‘blink before you miss it’ scene as a waiter in No Man’s Land 😁
It’s a supporting role in a minor movie, but George Clooney in Return of the Killer Tomatoes comes to mind, where he’s a the comic relief best friend character.
Jack Black was an extra in Demolition Man.
