Ryan Gosling.Photo:Buena Vista Television/ Courtesy: Everett Collection; Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images
Buena Vista Television/ Courtesy: Everett Collection; Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images
Let’s take a trip down movie memory lane!
The Oscars take place on March 10, a prestigious night that honors the best in film from the past year. Hollywood’s biggest names will be in attendance, many of whom will be up for awards.
Maestro’s Bradley Cooper,The Holdover’sPaul GiamattiandRustin’s Coleman Domingo are among the talents nominated in the Best Actor category, whilePoor Things' Emma Stone,Nyad’s Annette Bening andMaestro’s Carey Mulligan are among those nominated for Best Actress.
While it’s hard to imagine these actors as anything other than the stars they are today, their Oscar-nominated roles aren’t their first gigs. In fact, many of them didn’t land leading roles until later on in their careers.
Giamatti, for example, looked back on his “funny career” when speaking toUSA Todayabout the “tough times” which made him “wonder if it’s still worth doing.” He explained, “But then I would get something I enjoyed, and it’s enough to keep you going until the next one… There’s a strange optimism and hope underneath it all.”
Read on to learn where some Oscar-nominated actors and actresses made their onscreen debuts, from Bradley Cooper’s role inSex and the Cityto Jodie Foster’s gig in 1965’s Coppertone ad.
Bradley Cooper
Max;Getty
Bradley Cooper, who is nominated for Best Actor for his role as Leonard Bernstein inMaestro, made his onscreen debut inSex and the City. He played “Jake the downtown smoker,” a fleeting flirtation forSATCheroine Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker).
Cooper, who also directed the biographical drama about the iconic conductor, looked back on that early part of his career at theSanta Barbara Film Festivalin February 2024. Specifically, he revealed why he ended up being “terrified” that he landed the role.
“I still remember it: I was Jake the downtown smoker,” he said of his sports-car-driving, downtown party boy character that appeared in a season 2 episode of the hit HBO series.
“I auditioned for it, and at that time I didn’t really realize that you could ever get the job,” Cooper recalled. “Honestly, I thought that I had a job as a doorman at Morgans Hotel and then I was lucky enough to audition.”
Despite Cooper’s initial fears and hesitations, the experience ended up being “really fun,” and the actor affirmed that Parker “was incredible.”
When it was noted that this year will see the episode’s25th anniversary, he quipped that he feels “old” and added, “S—, I’ve been around, dude.”
Emma Stone
VH1;Getty
“It was totally, 100 percent a reality show,” the actress toldThe Daily Beastof the series, which was based on the ’70s hit showThe Partridge Family.
The award-winning actressgot her start covering songslike Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” andMeredith Brooks’s ’90s empowerment anthem “Bitch.“Let it be known that Stone won the entire competition.
“I did it and ended up winning. I don’t regret it for a minute,” she made clear.
“You go in there rolling your eyes, thinking, ‘This is just a reality search competition,’ but then you’re there for seven weeks, and you just really, really want to win,” Stonepreviously said in an interviewabout the whole experience.
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling, who’s nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ken inBarbie, made his onscreen debut inThe All-New Mickey Mouse Clubat just 13 years old in 1993.
“I remember when we first got to the show, they sort of had all the kids perform for one another,” Gosling recalled onThe Ellen DeGeneres Show. Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were also cast on the show.
“I remember, it was Christina Aguilera and then Britney performed and I remember thinking, ‘Okay. They’re like, freakishly talented,'” Gosling continued. “I was used to working with talented people, but that was another level.”
Regardless, Gosling previously described his experience toEntertainment Weeklyas “the greatest two years ever.”
Annette Bening
Universal Pictures;Getty
“When I was living in New York and doing theater, I was trying to get commercials. I got one national commercial, which you’re trying to get because those are the most lucrative,” Bening recalled in a1998 interview.
Though it didn’t air, the actress booked a commercial for Arrid — “you know the underarm perspiration problem,” Bening joked — before remembering the potato gig.
“It was MOS, meaning totally without sound. I was the mommy and it did air and I made some money from it,” she said.
Unfortunately, Bening’s spud stint isn’t easy to track down today. However, her role as Kate Craig inThe Great Outdoors— where she made her film debut in 1988 — is (pictured above)!
Carey Mulligan
Carey Mulligan, who’s nominated for Best Actress for her role as Felicia Montealegre inMaestro, made her onscreen debut in Joe Wright’s film adaptation of the Jane Austen novelPride & Prejudicein 2005. She played Kitty Bennet.
“I didn’t have any way into the industry. I didn’t know what my route in was,” Mulligan toldAPin 2018. “Sometimes, I feel compelled to write to someone to tell them how brilliant they are. I wrote to Amy Adams afterArrivaland I was like: ‘You are the best actress on the planet.’”
Fast forward nearly two decades — and a catalog of acclaimed film credits, numerous accolades and three Oscar nominations later — Mulligan told The Academy’sA.Framein February 2024 that she didn’t “think of herself as an actress” untilMaestro.
“With film, I think there was a part of me that had always been a little bit tentative through my career. And it was something that really annoyed me about myself as an actor, that I would pull back a bit,” she explained.
It wasn’t until she prepped for her role as Felicia alongside Cooper and an “amazing woman called Kim Gillingham” in a “dream workshop” ahead of filmingMaestro. “I can’t imagine another way of working… it did completely change things for me going forward,” she said.
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, who’s nominated for his role as William Hale inKillers of the Flower Moon, made his film debut in Brian De Palma’sThe Wedding Partyreleased in 1969.
Before solidifying himself as one of the biggest names in Hollywood with two Oscar wins, De Niro played Cecil in the black-and-white comedy filmed in 1963.
De Niro performed a scene from Clifford Odets' play about the cab strike. De Palma said, “It was like you’re watching Lee Jay Cobb rant in front of the union guys — we were like, ‘Holy mackerel!'”
The duo went on to make three more movies together: 1968’sGreetings, 1970’sHi, Mom!and 1987’sThe Untouchables.
Colman Domingo
CBS; Mike Marsland/WireImage
Colman Domingo, who’s nominated for Best Actor for his role as Bayard Rustin inRustin, made his onscreen debut in the San Fransisco-based television hitNash Bridgesin 1997.
“I got my AFTRA card first, then my SAG card. It was for a show calledNash Bridges,” the actor toldBackstagein an interview. “I was a recurring criminal every season.”
Domingo, who’s gone on to star in major titles across television and film, got his start in theater. “My first union card was at Berkeley Repertory Theatre on a touring show for Theatre for Young Audiences calledThe Yellow Boat,” the two-time Tony-nominated actor shared with the outlet.
Minor roles in series likeNash BridgesandTrue Crimebridged Domingo’s acting transition from the stage to screen in the late 1990s. He also appeared in independent films such as 2000’sDesi’s Looking for a New Girl, 2003’sKung Phooeyand 2006’sFreedomland.
Domingo’s breakthrough role was playing Victor Strand in AMC’sFear the Walking Deadduring its 2015 and 2023 run. He also gained critical acclaim for his role as Ali on HBO’sEuphoria, winning the Emmy Award in 2022 for outstanding guest actor in a drama series.
Paul Giamatti
Paramount Pictures;Getty
The actor has been open about his humble beginnings as an actor, nabbing any gigs he could get when trying to break into the entertainment industry. During an interview withMovie Maker, Giamatti recalled his role as “Man in Sleeping Bag” in a 1994 episode ofNYPD Blue.
“We were in a squatters village below the Manhattan Bridge. I was lying in real human feces,” the actor revealed. “A real lunatic who lived there in a huge drainage pipe of some kind would crawl out occasionally and pelt me with debris. They had to pay him a lot to stay in his pipe. Good for him.”
On top of it all, Giamatti was convinced that he blew his bit.
Eventually, Giamatti landed the role of “Pig Vomit” in 1997’sPrivate Parts(pictured above). In February 2024, the actor spoke with Howard Stern — whom he had worked closely with on the film — about the gig that in part helped launch his career.
“I’m not kidding when I say I credit you totally [for helping launch my career],” Giamatti told Stern on the radio hosts’eponymous talk show, adding that he’d mention him in his Oscars acceptance speech should he win the award. “I have no idea what I’d say, [but] I’ll thank you. I’ll do that for sure,” he said.
Emily Blunt
Blunt went on to explain an “embarrassing” moment she had while filming, being that it was her first time working on a movie set. She recalled “really projecting” when reciting her lines — meanwhile, the boom mic over her head effortlessly picked up her sound.
Jodie Foster
CBS via Getty; Hector Vivas/Getty
Jodie Foster, who’s nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Bonnie Stoll inNyad, made her onscreen debut at age 3 as the little girl in a Coppertone ad in 1965.
The gig was secured thanks to her mother, Evelyn “Brandy” Almond, who brought Foster on anaudition for the sunscreen brandmeant for her brother Buddy, then 9. But Foster ended up stealing the show.
“We’re inseparable,” Foster told PEOPLE in a 1980 interview. “We’re a team. If it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t have anything. And if it weren’t for her, I would be nothing.”
In 1976, Foster earned her first Academy Award nomination forTaxi Driver. In 1989 and 1992, she won the Oscar for Best Actress forThe AccusedandSilence of the Lambs, respectively. In 1995, she was nominated in the category forNell.
When speaking withThis Morning, the actress recalled the “nostalgia” she feels with her fifth Oscar nomination, 58 years into her career.
Robert Downey Jr.
United Artists; Frazer Harrison/Getty
“Poundis a film that my dad got the financing for,” Downey Jr. toldVanity Fairin July 2023. “I think the investors thought he was making a documentary about pounds and animal shelters. And then he said, ‘No, no. It’s a live action thing and I’m casting people to play the dogs.'”
“Next thing you know, we’re shooting it and these character actors of all shapes and sizes are playing various dogs. And then I played a puppy,” he said.
Downey Jr. went on to recall that his “earliest memories” as a kid included “cameras, being on sets, being on stages, being on location to the point where it almost seemed like life was kind of making a movie and kind of being a kid at the same time.”
Danielle Brooks
Netflix;Getty
Brooks, who played Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson in the hit prison drama series, received praise for her role on the show which ran for seven seasons until its finale in 2019. Since her breakthrough role, she’sgone on to become an EGOTcontender.
“When I reflect on all the moments in my life that have been highlights,” Brooks told theWashington Postabout getting into Juilliard, bookingOrange Is the New Blackand landing the role of Sofia on Broadway and in the film. “None of it’s come with ease. None of it has been smooth sailing.”
Brooks recalled her early years auditioning (and nonetheless hustling) when speaking to theNew York Timesin February 2024. “I was hitting the audition pavement hard and desperate beforeOrange Is the New Black,” she said.
“I remember going to a 1 p.m. audition for a Broadway show, and in my head, I was like, ‘I don’t want the director to be hungry during my audition and thinking,OK, when’s lunch?’ So I brought in a veggie plate,” she explained. “Totally didn’t get a callback.”
Brooks admitted to the outlet that she was “just throwing everything at the wall” at the time. She revealed that she wasn’t “taught how to audition” when she was at Juilliard.
“I had to learn as I went and made a lot of mistakes,” Brooks said. “But the universe works how it’s supposed to, and I needed all of the no’s so that I could figure it out.”
America Ferrera
HBO;Getty
America Ferrera, who’s nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Gloria inBarbie, made herfilm debutinReal Women Have Curvesin 2002. That same year, she starred in the Disney Channel original movieGotta Kick It Up!
In January 2024, Ferrera reminisced aboutReal Women Have Curvesand what it was like to watch herself in it for the first time. The actress told PEOPLE that the 2002Sundance Film Festivalwas “the first time I ever saw myself on screen.”
At the debut of her breakout film, which won a jury prize at the 2002 fest, Ferrera remembered celebrating “with a packed audience as they laughed and cried and applauded and then gave us a minutes-long standing ovation.”
She added, “That moment changed my entire world. I was getting to live out my wildest dreams. I’ll never forget it.”
source: people.com
