Random Real Stories of How Famous Actors Were "Discovered" (15 items)

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  (#1) Jennifer Lawrence

  • The Bill Engvall Show

  It seems like award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has been at the top of her game forever. The Kentucky native was vacationing in New York when a talent agent spotted the 14-year-old walking around Union Square. Lawrence quickly got work as a teen model before making her television debut on Monk in 2006.

  The Hunger Games heroine received her first Oscar nomination for her acclaimed performance in the indie drama Winter's Bone in 2010.
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  (#2) Pamela Anderson

  • Home Improvement, Baywatch, Days of Our Lives, Dancing with the Stars, Stacked, V.I.P., Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding, Baywatch the Movie: Forbidden Paradise, Stripperella, E!'s Pam: Girl on the Loose!, Package Deal

  Pamela Anderson worked as a fitness instructor in the late '80s. While living in British Columbia, she attended a B.C. Lions football game wearing a Labatt Blue t-shirt. Anderson was put up on the stadium's Jumbotron, and the crowd cheered so enthusiastically that the Labatt company hired the future Playboy playmate as a "Blue Zone Girl" spokesmodel. 

  After modeling in Playboy, Anderson began focusing on acting and received small parts on several TV shows. Her big break came as "Tool Time Girl" Lisa on Home Improvement. Then, in 1992, Anderson got the role that would define her career: blonde bombshell C.J. Parker on Baywatch.
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  (#3) Charlize Theron

  • Arrested Development, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, MTV Movie Awards

  Charlize Theron moved from South Africa to Hollywood when she was just 18 years old. She was on the verge of running out of cash and living in a sketchy hotel room when she was discovered at a bank. Actually, she was discovered at a bank while yelling at a teller because he wouldn't cash her paycheck. Apparently, it was a do-or-die situation for Theron.

  She explained the ordeal during an interview with O Magazine, "I’m like, ‘It’s survival, people.’ If I didn’t cash that check, I wouldn’t have had a place to sleep that night. I said to the teller, ‘You don’t understand - please!’ I was begging and pleading, and a gentleman came over and tried to help. I had to fill out a ton of paperwork and open an account, and I cashed the check.”

  The Oscar-winning actress cashed her check, but she also got discovered: The man who helped her was a talent agent. Theron scored her first feature film acting gig just a few months later in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest in 1995.
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  (#4) Johnny Depp

  • 21 Jump Street

  Apparently, Johnny Depp wanted to be a rock star. But friend Nicholas Cage got him an audition for Nightmare on Elm Street, and Wes Craven's teenage daughter thought he was the best choice for the part. 

  The future Jack Sparrow landed the role as Glen and made his feature film debut in 1984. Depp's Glen appears in one of the most famous death scenes in horror movie history.
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  (#5) Natalie Portman

  Neta-Lee Hershlag (Natalie Portman) was just being a normal 11-year-old gal eating a slice of pizza when a rep from Revlon spotted her. Portman told the rep that she didn't want to be a model but did want to get into acting. Portman spent a few summers honing her acting chops by working in theater productions.

  In 1993, she auditioned for the part of Mathilda Lando in Luc Besson's Léon: The Professional. The actress was turned away at first for being too young for the part. However, after a few more auditions, Besson cast the future Academy Award winner for the role of a hitman in training.
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  (#6) Ellen Pompeo

  • Grey's Anatomy

  Ellen Pompeo was working as a bartender in SoHo in New York City in the mid-1990's. A casting agent saw her and tried to offer her advice, which Pompeo mistook for flirting. But soon she was acting in commercials and landing minor television roles, including Law & Order and Friends.

  Film roles followed, and Pompeo made a memorable turn as Jake Gyllenhaal's love interest in Moonlight Mile and as Luke Wilson's love interest in the hit comedy Old School. Major breakout success eluded Pompeo until 2005 when she was cast as Meredith Grey, the titular doctor in the long-running ABC drama Grey's Anatomy.
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  (#7) Rosario Dawson

  • Gemini Division

  Rosario Dawson was hanging out on her front porch with some friends when director Larry Clark was walking by and spotted the 15-year-old. He told Dawson about a film he was working on and told her to come audition.

  Even with no acting experience, Dawson landed the part of Ruby in the controversial indie film Kids. Dawson's Ruby was a promiscuous teenager in the edgy drama about a day in the life of teens in New York City. 
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  (#8) Mel Gibson

  • Punishment, Complete Savages, Clubhouse, For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots, Carrier

  Mel Gibson was supposedly just being a good pal by giving a friend a ride to an audition. The Australian ended up in a bar fight the night before and had bruises and cuts all over his face. His condition caught the eye of director George Miller, who thought that Gibson would be a good fit for one of the villainous background roles in his post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie Mad Max.

  When Gibson returned to the set a few weeks later, Miller took one look at the bruise-free, extremely handsome Aussie, and decided to give him the lead role. At least, that's the way Gibson tells it; the director denies this account.
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  (#9) Harrison Ford

  • Star Wars Holiday Special, The Graham Norton Show, The Making of Star Wars, Spike Guys' Choice Awards

  Harrison Ford moved out to Hollywood to become an actor but quickly grew frustrated. He taught himself carpentry in order to earn a living and support his family. Ford landed a small gig in George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973). However, success did not come quickly to Ford, who still had to do carpentry to make ends meet.

  Then, Lucas spotted the 35-year-old doing woodwork at a movie studio while the director was conducting auditions for his new movie Star Wars. Lucas remembered Ford from his small role in American Graffiti and asked the actor to audition for the part of Han Solo. Once Ford landed the iconic gig, he no longer had to work in carpentry.
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  (#10) Ashton Kutcher

  • Two and a Half Men, That '70s Show, Robot Chicken, Just Shoot Me!, Grounded for Life, Beauty and the Geek, Punk'd, The Beautiful Life: TBL, Miss Guided, Room 401, Roman's Empire, Opportunity Knocks, Game Show in My Head, Pop Fiction, True Beauty, Chloe Gamble, Eric B, American Idiots, You've Got A Friend, Adventures in Hollyhood, The Real Wedding Crashers, Excellent Adventure, The Fam Fite, Beauty and the Geek Australia

  Iowa-born Ashton Kutcher was studying engineering at the University of Iowa in 1996. While out at a bar one night, he was spotted by a talent agent who talked him into entering a modeling competition. The ever-handsome Kutcher won first place. He then dropped out of college to go to New York to sign with an agency.

  Interestingly, Kutcher lost a big modeling competition to Josh Duhamel. However, Kutcher went on to appear in ads for Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch. Kutcher eventually packed his bags and headed to Hollywood to pursue acting. He landed the role as Michael Kelso on That '70s Show in 1998.
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  (#11) Burt Reynolds

  • Gunsmoke, Amazing Stories, Evening Shade, Win, Lose or Draw, Out of This World, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, Dan August, The New Mike Hammer, Riverboat, Hope and Gloria, Gentle Ben, B.L. Stryker, The Blue Angels, The Brothers Brannagan, Michael Shayne, Hawk, Amazing Grace, Flight

  Burt Reynolds originally had no real interest in becoming an actor. He earned a football scholarship to Florida State University and was even drafted by the Baltimore Colts (now the Indianapolis Colts), but his NFL dreams shattered when Reynolds suffered a career-ending injury.

  The ruggedly handsome athlete took a shot at acting and won a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse in New York. After performing in a revival of Mister Roberts, Reynolds signed a television contract and appeared on several TV shows over the next decade. He hit the silver screen in 1972's Deliverance and became one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood. 
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  (#12) Katherine Heigl

  • Grey's Anatomy, Roswell, State of Affairs, Romy and Michele: In the Beginning, The Tempest

  When Katherine Heigl was just nine years old, she reportedly posed for pictures for her aunt's hair care products. Those pictures were sent to modeling agencies, and Heigl signed with world-renowned agency Wilhelmina Models. Her signing led to a career in commercials, TV, and film. She even made the cover of Seventeen magazine in 1994.

  Her breakout role on television came in 1999 with the sci-fi program Roswell, which lasted for three seasons. After appearing in several independent films, Heigl then landed the role of Dr. Izzie Stevens on the mega-hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy, which instantly made the actress a household name.
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  (#13) Peter Mayhew

  • Dark Towers

  You may not know the name Peter Mayhew, but you certainly know the iconic Wookiee he portrays. He has appeared as Chewbacca in five Star Wars movies. Mayhew, who worked as a hospital orderly pre-Star Wars, was discovered when he appeared in a newspaper article about men with huge feet. The 7'3'' Mayhew caught the attention of producers, who cast him the movie Sinbad and the Eye of Tiger. Mayhew was selected because filmmakers needed a really tall actor to play the Minotaur.

  Mayhew was also cast in Star Wars because of his size. The English actor originally auditioned for the role of Darth Vader, but Lucas picked him to play Chewie.
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  (#14) Tippi Hedren

  • Fashion House, Invasion America, Legenden

  Much has been made about Tippi Hedren's complicated relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock. But before she became his long-suffering muse, she worked as a model. Hedren was discovered when she got out of a cab in Minneapolis.

  The chance encounter led to a few ads and a commercial for a diet beverage called Sego. In 1961, Hitchcock was watching The Today Show when he saw Hedren's Sego ad and arranged a meeting, hoping she might be his Grace Kelly replacement. Hedren signed a seven-year deal and appeared in her first motion picture, The Birds, in 1963.
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  (#15) John Wayne

  • Producers' Showcase, Running Hollywood, Casablanca (1955), Wide Wide World, Screen Director's Playhouse, Raquel!, Dateline: Hollywood, V.I.P. Schaukel, The American West of John Ford

  John Wayne originally wanted to play sports instead of acting. He attended the University of Southern California on a football scholarship in 1925. However, an injury ended his football career and his scholarship money. Thankfully, he managed to find work as a prop boy and extra, which is how he met director John Ford. 

  Wayne appeared in several B-movies over the next decade. Then, in 1939, Ford cast Wayne in his breakout role as Ringo Kid in the acclaimed western Stagecoach. Wayne went on to not only become one of the most lauded actors in Hollywood history, but also a silver screen icon.

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