15 Cringeworthy Early Roles Of Actors We Love
![15 Cringeworthy Early Roles Of Actors We Love](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/5/783845_320x180.jpg)
Acting often has a long road to success, marked by roles in low budget movies, off off off off Broadway plays, and weird, goofy commercials and strange videos. It’s that way for most actors, with very few landing a major breakout role as their first. Working actors have to, well, put in the work to get to the top, starting at the bottom just like most every other career path.
With the highs of their now successful careers in mind, looking back at the early, and sometimes embarrassing or strange roles our favorite actors had is a whole lot of fun. And it’s incredibly interesting to hear what they thought of those jobs, as well as what they learned from them. Our favorite meth kingpin Bryan Cranston, for instance, not only got his start on soap operas -- he considers that job incredibly challenging. Here’s the full story, plus 14 other early roles that we have forgotten but the stars themselves have not:
![One of Gillian Anderson's first roles was a thriller with white supremacists. TURNING the In The Turning, she was the girlfriend of a guy who stays with white supremacists. On the video cover, she's unbuttoning her blouse. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/0/783860.jpg)
Source: Entertainment Weekly
![In 2000, The Rock played an alien bad guy on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. In the episode, they kidnapped Seven of Nine and made her fight in an arena. Her first opponent was a young Dwayne Johnson in silver spandex. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/7/783857.jpg)
Source: Big Issue
![Jonathan Banks CAKA Mike in Breaking Bad) starred in a 1970s sex ed video. Linda's Film on Menstruation is about a girl who gets great at bowling after getting her first period. Her bowling partner is a young Banks. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/8/783858.jpg)
Source: LATimes
![One of Jean-Claude Van Damme's very first movie roles was Gay Karate Man. That was his character's name in Monaco Forever, from 1984 his short role consists of trying to seduce an ex-Nazi jewel thief, failing, then scaring him off. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/9/783859.jpg)
Source: Entertainment Weekly
![In the early '90s, when she was 19, Cameron Diaz filmed a softcore porn movie. It's called She's No Angel, and it has Diaz using chains to yank a shirtless guy (and also spraying aerosol on her nipples, for some reason). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/6/783856.jpg)
Source: The Frisky, IMDB
![In the 1970s, Bill Murray played Human Torch from The Fantastic Four (seriously). Marvel did a 10-episode audio drama about The Fantastic Four, which had Murray shouting Human Torch catchphrases like Flame On! CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/5/783855.jpg)
Source: Entertainment Weekly
![One of Michael Keaton's early roles was a panda on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood; TADLAEY He got dressed up as Black and White Panda - he was a stagehand at the PBS station that produced the show, and they got him to perform on stage. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/3/783853.jpg)
Source: CBS
![Before Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt played Disgusting Donald. He was one of Anna Faris' exes in What's Your Number?, a movie about a woman who thinks she's slept with too many men to be marriageable. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/4/783854.jpg)
Source: Reuters
![In 2010, Emilia Clarke starred in a movie about reanimated dinosaur skeletons. Syfy's Triassic Attack involves three skeletons in a museum's fossil hall being brought to unlife and running rampant, acting just like real dinosaurs. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/2/783852.jpg)
Source: HuffPo, Smithsonian Magazine
![One of Jason Statham's early movies is about ghosts possessing people on Mars. In, uh, Ghosts of Mars, Martian cops in 2176 (including Statham) and criminals have to fight a swarm of miners who got possessed by angry ghosts. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/1/783851.jpg)
Source: ScreenRant
![Bryan Cranston's acting career started with a role in ABC's soap opera Loving. It was surprisingly difficult, he says You learn your lines the night before With that kind of turnover, how do you get to a place that feels honest? CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/0/783850.jpg)
Source: Variety
![One of Jon Favreau's early roles was as a birthday party clown in Seinfeld. He was Eric the Clown, hired for George's girlfriend's son's birthday. At the party, George is pretty hard on him because he's not too familiar with Bozo the Clown. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/9/783849.jpg)
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
![Leo DiCaprio's first role was in the third instalment of a forgettable franchise. He was in Critters 3, and the franchise was milked dry at that point the first movie was a success, the second wasn't, and the third was a cash grab. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/8/783848.jpg)
Source: ScreenRant
![Jim Rash (Dean Pelton in Community) was Amateur Porn Guy in a 2002. movie.. 5 FOOD That was his character's name in One Hour Photo, and his scene was shot in one night in a deserted building made to look like a Walmart or CVS. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/7/783847.jpg)
Source: Vulture
![Brooke Shields played a pre-teen who lived with her prostitute mom in a brothel. When Pretty Baby came out in 1978, it was pretty controversial- but 40 years later, Shields said it was the best creative project I've ever been associated with. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/6/783846.jpg)
Source: Vanity Fair