20 Times Actors Bet Against Hollywood (And WON)
No-one thought Schwarzenegger could do comedy - how wrong they were.
To work in Hollywood is to be a gambler. That's the harsh truth of the business.
Nothing is ever guaranteed. No-one ever knows for sure if a film will make money and, given how many moving parts are involved in film production, even getting the movie completed and released at all can be a considerable challenge. When working in film, you have to take leaps of faith, and that's especially true of actors.
In such an oversaturated field and in such an uncertain business, actors nearly always have to take risks in order to succeed. Their decisions don't always pay off but if they do, then the riches will be plenty. These following twenty actors have proven that.
They - and, in certain cases, their directors - fought to be cast in roles that no-one thought they could do, and they absolutely killed it, thus taking their careers to enthralling new heights. They bet against everyone and they freaking won, making these some of the most heart-warming acting success stories around.
So, the next time a questionable casting comes along, reserve judgement until the movie's out. As these performances reaffirm, don't judge a book by its cover...
20. Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
Acting is a crowded world and in order to set yourself apart, sometimes you just have to really go for it. That's exactly what happened here.
When writer-director Debra Granik was prepping her coming-of-age quasi-Western Winter's Bone, she was screening various actresses for the lead role of Ree Dolly, a teenage girl forced to look after her destitute family. A particular 20-year-old auditioned for the part but was turned down as it was felt she was looked too cute for the part.
And yet, when the casting team was in New York, that same actress showed up unannounced, having just got off a red eye flight. She hadn't washed her hair in a week, she'd walked through the snowy city without a coat and she did all of this to prove to Granik that she could shed her polished look. She read again and finally got the part.
That actress was Jennifer Lawrence and she was fantastic in the part, delivering a star-making turn that allowed her to become one of the youngest-ever nominees for Best Actress. Better still, this role fully established her on the Hollywood scene and over the next few years following this she'd became one of the biggest stars in the world.