9. Chris Hemsworth Home And Away
There's a place where you go looking for someone to play the God Of Thunder and Australian soaps aren't it. For those of you who don't know about Home And Away, it's an Australian soap that been gracing us with its insights into Ozzie life since 1988, and for some reason it's got a reasonable following here on British shores. Americans might realise it as the show that gave birth to Heath Ledger's acting career. Unlike Ledger (more on him later), Hemsworth didn't have much of a turn elsewhere before he rocked up in a pimpingly awesome red cape. Sure, he'd had a part in the Red Dawn remake, but thanks to its shelving this was the first role any of us in which anyone saw the long-haired Antipodean. Such a casting led to much head-scratching the only thing people knew from Hemsworth's short CV was that he was a soap actor, and such things don't tend to go hand in hand with Asgard's finest. But obviously, we shouldn't have worried. Though he has the film stolen under him by Tom Hiddleston's Loki, Hemsworth provided an excellent Thor and proved competent /amenable enough to be invited back for The Avengers, which is more than we can say about Edward Norton. So next time you feel like casting a role, forget the A-List rock up to a soap with a giant net, and embrace the fanboy ire. Hell, Christoph Waltz got his big break from a similar position (although rumours of an actual net are unconfirmed), and look at him now.