9 Actors discovered entirely by chance

Many well-known Hollywood actors rose to fame purely by chance, whether through chance encounters with business people or unexpected openings.
After appearing as a young girl in a restaurant, Sarah Michelle Gellar landed her first film role and her breakthrough series in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Before landing a critical role in Star Wars, Harrison Ford was a Hollywood carpenter. Celebrities like Mel Gibson and Jennifer Lawrence have also found fame in unexpected ways.

Many want to be a Hollywood star and many of them work extremely hard to get their big break, but many actors achieve stardom almost by accident. The entertainment industry has a notoriously difficult entry barrier. It is really difficult to become a movie star if you don’t have the right connections. Nevertheless, some well-known Hollywood actors have accidentally entered the A-list by experiencing extreme luck.

There are many stories of actors who made it without ever trying, whether it was through a chance meeting with a future star at a bank or screenwriters spotting potential talent on the streets. Not only have lesser-known stars become famous in this way, some of the biggest names in Hollywood over the past fifty years have made their acting debuts purely by chance.

9 Actors discovered :

Sarah Michelle Gellar

At the age of four, Sarah Michelle Gellar began her acting career. When she was young, her family took her out to eat. They were contacted by an agent who asked them to register her (via the NY Times). She was cast in her first film, Invasion of Privacy, a few weeks later. She appeared in several commercials and small roles, before landing her breakthrough role as the lead character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Had it not been for that fateful night in a Manhattan restaurant, she might not have pursued acting.

Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson obviously wanted to be an actor when he was young. Gibson was just 12 years old when his family immigrated to Australia, even at that young age he enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. Although he had some modest uncredited roles and participated in several theater productions, his big break came as a surprise. Gibson took a friend to an audition when he was twenty. He wasn’t trying to get a job himself, as he had gotten into a fight a few days ago and had a serious facial injury.

Fortunately, Mad Max was the movie they were cast in, so they were looking for a slightly unconventional cast. The crew looked at Gibson’s injured face, snapped a few photos, and asked if he would come back in a few weeks (via USA Today ) once his face healed. After a successful round of tryouts, Gibson was cast in the lead role, catapulting him to stardom.

Ellen Pompeo

Ellen Pompeo, the star of Grey’s Anatomy, has had a longer and more stable acting career than some other actors. Since the premiere of Grey’s Anatomy in 2005, Pompeo has been allowed to appear in films on occasion, always knowing that she will always have a starring role. This is the lucky start of her acting career. Pompeo was a bartender who wanted to be an actress but had no idea how to get into the business. Fortunately, she got an answer when the agency she was working for contacted her and put her in touch (via backstage) with casting directors and hiring companies.

Rosario Dawson

Rosario Dawson found it easy to blend in and go unnoticed as a fifteen-year-old in the hustle and bustle of New York City. However, Dawson found herself outside her front door when filmmaker Larry Clark saw her and thought she would be ideal for his next film (source: Biography). After Dawson’s casting in Kids, she was able to get a series of parts that catapulted her to mainstream fame as the star of several superhero and sci-fi films such as Daredevil and Ahsoka.

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp has one of the richest businesses in Hollywood. He first rose to fame with his breakthrough picture A Nightmare on Elm Street and played several key roles in 21 Jump Street before establishing a productive collaboration with Tim Burton. Depp was initially not interested in acting. He moved to Los Angeles hoping to find fame as a musician and had some success working for more well-known artists such as The Ramones and Iggy Pop.

Still, Depp’s band failed to secure a record deal before splitting up and going their separate ways, and he had to find a means to make ends meet. Coincidentally, Depp’s friend Nicolas Cage urged him to act and promised to put him in touch with his agency when he was looking for odd jobs (via Looper). The rest is history – Depp soon won his breakout role in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford faced many obstacles on his way to stardom as an actor, best known for his roles as Rick Deckard, Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Ford was determined to get a job as an actor and managed to land modest, often uncredited roles in TV and movies. Ford had to find a means to support his wife and two children, however, as his acting career took off. While he was still hoping to land a successful part, he began working as a carpenter in Hollywood.

After winning a role in George Lucas’ American Graffiti, Ford worked in Hollywood for several years, but that wasn’t enough to make him quit his job as a carpenter. Casting director Fred Roos was a strong booster of Ford, conveniently hiring the future star for Carpenter in an effort to match him with the right people in Hollywood at the right time. Years after starting work as a carpenter, Ford finally appeared on set in 1976 when Lucas was casting actors for his upcoming space epic Star Wars.

Ford and Roos are at odds over whether the actor was actually making something up on set, as he has alleged, or if Roos was merely encouraging him to look like him. Either way, he was in the right position at the right moment. Lucas paid Ford to read lines with potential actors because he didn’t like the idea of hiring actors from American Graffiti. However, after a few tries from Roos, Lucas was convinced that Ford was the right man to play Han Solo (via Kids of the 80s).

Shelley Duvall

Thanks to her distinctive looks, Shelley Duvall was able to land iconic characters like Wendy Torrance in The Shining and Olive Oil in Popeye. In fact, it was purely by chance that her big eyes, slender figure and toothy smile led to her initial discovery. When Duvall was young, she went to an engagement party and caught the attention of two site scouts who worked for famed filmmaker Robert Altman. Despite Duvall’s lack of acting experience, the director cast her in the lead role of Brewster McCloud because scouts and Altman thought she had a good role (via biography).

Jennifer Lawrence

In Hollywood, Jennifer Lawrence’s reputation is still growing. Lawrence is one of the most famous celebrities out there thanks to her breakout performance in The Hunger Games and her continued popularity as a comedy performer. But it was a chance encounter with a talent scout during a trip to New York City that launched her acting career. Lawrence and her mother were approached in Union Square and the man asked for their phone number. After he set up a meeting with agencies, Lawrence decided to stick with modeling as long as she was an actress (via MTV). She was soon cast in TV roles and commercials.

Danny Trejo

After getting involved in drugs and crime at a young age, Danny Trejo had a rough start in life and spent time in prison. After his discharge, Trejo changed his ways and began helping other addicts. Worried about being on a Hollywood movie set again, one of the men, Trejo, calls him for help. When Trejo showed up to help his friend, he was asked if he wanted to appear as an extra and portray a criminal. When Trejo said, “I’m a professional,” his acting career took off (via Today).

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron was completely unprepared for her big break when it finally arrived. She worked as a model for a few years before moving to Hollywood at the age of eighteen to pursue acting. She went to L.A. managed to string together a few modeling gigs in , but eventually ran out of money.

Theron begs Teller to help her when she tries to cash a check from her job in New York and is upset to learn that the bank cannot handle checks from out of state. A stranger named John Crosby approached her to help and handed her his card as they left the bank together. As luck would have it, Crosby had several high-profile clients and even offered to represent Theron (via Vogue).

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