20 Tenacious Actors Who Bagged The Lead Role As Their Very First Role
If you're an actor dreaming of making it big in Hollywood, bagging a lead role is a sign that you're well on your way in your chosen career path. However, we think it's obvious that getting a lead role isn't that easy.
In fact, many actors spend years and years in bit parts, supporting roles, or even just as extras while they keep going to audition after audition hoping to finally get the part that is just for them.
The world of entertainment though is a tough place. Sometimes, it won't even be clear to you exactly what they're looking for in their main character.
For some casting directors, it might look and for others, it might be the way they really fit into the character. No matter what it is, actors are always holding their breath when they get out of an audition room not knowing what's in store for them next.
There are some actors who seem to have the best of luck in the world though and get to land the lead role the first time they're cast in a movie or tv show. The roles might have just fit them so perfectly or they were just there at the right time and place.
Whatever it is, these actors and actresses are definitely going places. Here are 20 actors who bagged the lead role for their very first roles.
1. Zendaya
Zendaya initially wanted to be a WNBA player but when she decided she wanted to do acting instead, she debuted in Disney Channel's Shake It Up as Rocky Blue.
She told Seventeen, "I grew up around the California Shakespeare Theater, and that's where I realized that my true love was in the performing arts."
Disney Channel / © Disney Channel / Courtesy Everett / Everett Collection2. Rachel Zegler
The competition was tough for the role of Maria Vasquez in Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story. For the role, Rachel Zegler beat out 30 000 other actors.
She told BuzzFeed, "The process was extremely long and very stressful. I auditioned for about two and a half weeks shy of a year, which is not very common in things like this. I went in for the team about five or six times before I actually got the part. But I was basically in auditions from January of 2018 to January of 2019."
20th Century Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection3. Alaqua Cox
The first-ever role Alaqua Cox booked was Maya Lopez/ Echo, a character who debuted in Hawkeye and is set to get her own spinoff titled Echo.
Cox told Hollywood Reporter that she found she got the role when a casting agent messaged her a Zoom link.
She said, "I see about 12 people, including the Marvel Studios president, Kevin Feige, doing the deaf clap where you wave both your hands. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ and they said, ‘Welcome to the Marvel family!’"
Marvel Studios / Via Disney+4. Jason Schwartzman
Schwartzman got the role of Max Fischer in Rushmore after his cousin, filmmaker Sofia Coppola introduced him to the film's casting director.
He told Dazed, "[I thought,] I’m not gonna get it, so I should just try it! I wrote down my address in LA, and [the casting director] sent the script to my home in LA, and it was the first script I’d ever read.”
Buena Vista Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection5. Rosario Dawson
While a commercial was being filmed outside her apartment when she was 15, Dawson came out and tried to flirt with a grip. Then, director Larry Clark and screenwriter Harmony Korine saw her, approached her, and asked her to audition for the role of Ruby in Kids.
She told Dazed, “Larry said he was making his first movie and would I be interested. And Harmony was jumping up and down, like, ‘Oh my god, I wrote this character for you without even realizing. I didn't even know you. You're perfect for this character, you have to come in. You have to come in, you have to come in.’”
Shining Excalibur Pictures / © Shining Excalibur Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection6. Maisie Williams
Maisie Williams didn't actually feel like she fit in when she was auditioning for Game of Thrones, however, she later realized that all the things that made her feel different gave her a better grip on her character Arya Stark.
She told Backstage, "I even remember that on my audition day, I had a hole in my leggings and I was trying to cover it with my hand while I was doing the scene. But now I know that Arya is known for being scruffy, especially when she was a kid — she’s always the cause of her mother’s shame; she’s always late or has been out playing in the mud — stuff like that."
HBO / Via youtube.com
7. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
Maitreyi actually found the casting call through her best friend who sent her the tweet of series creator Mindy Kaling and now, she stars as Devi Vishwakumar on Never Have I Ever.
Lara Solanki / © Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection
8. Auli'i Cravalho
Auili'i Cravalho was actually the last actor to audition for the role of Moana and at the age of 14, she is the youngest person ever to voice a Disney princess.
Karwai Tang / WireImage via Getty Images / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
9. Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis wasn't actually director John Carpenter's first pick for the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978). Afterward, however, he was just so impressed with what she can do that he wrote a part just for her in The Fog.
She also went on to reprise her original role in Halloween II (1981), Halloween: Ressurection (2002), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022).
Compass International Pictures / Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy Everett Collection
10. Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana made her big-screen debut as Eva Rodriguez in the film Center Stage. 20 years later, the cast reunited to raise money for the American Ballet Theatre's Crisis Relief Fund.
Columbia Pictures / © Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
11. Joe Jonas
Camp Rock director Matthew Diamond first saw Joe Jonas and his brothers when the director attended a Jonas Brothers concert because Disney was considering them for the film. Later on, Joe submitted an audition tape for the role of Shane Gray.
Diamond gave him a few notes then he auditioned again before finally getting Disney's approval.
Disney Channel / Via Disney+
12. Nicholas Ralph
Nicholas Ralph went straight into vet boot camp after he bagged the role of James Herriot in the remake of All Creatures Great and Small.
He told Vulture, "Straight off the bat with our on-set vet adviser, Andy Barrett, we were up close and personal with horses, sheep, kind of going through the procedures and things that we would be doing. Learning how to approach the animal and everything like that. Using the stethoscope on the cow’s heart, then lungs, then stomach — you do this kind of triangle as an initial examination."
PBS / Playground Television / All3Media International / Courtesy Everett Collection
13. Gabourey Sidibe
Gabourey Sidibe didn't think she had "any business going to the audition" but she was cast in the lead role for the film Precious which earned her an Oscar nomination.
She told the Post-Gazette, "The biggest thing I learned is that I was wrong about what I thought I could do. I thought I'd be a receptionist my whole life."
Lions Gate / © Lions Gate / Courtesy Everett Collection
14. Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz broke into acting with her onscreen debut as Tina Carlyle in The Mask after she was found by casting director Fern Champion through her modeling agent who worked in the same building as Champion.
Director Chuck Russell told Variety, “[Diaz] was the only person for the part, as far as I was concerned, after her first reading. And then I saw the chemistry with her and Jim [Carrey]. Eight callbacks later, including improvs with Jim, I finally convinced producers.”
New Line Cinema / Courtesy Everett Collection
15. Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand first played the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl for broadway. She then reprised her role in the film adaptation.
Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
16. William Hurt
Hurt made his onscreen debut in the film Altered States as Edward Jessup. Drew Barrymore also made her film debut in the same film in a minor role.
Warner Bros / © Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection
17. Aria Mia Loberti
Loberti's first audition ever was for the main character in the upcoming Netflix series All the Light We Cannot See which she bagged. The former Fulbright scholar and current PhD student decided to try out auditioning when one of her teachers who knew she was a fan of the Anthony Doerr book series told her about the casting call.
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18. Kelly Osbourne
Other than a cameo as herself, Kelly Osbourne's first role was as Deborah Tynan in the series Life As We Know It.
Touchstone Television / © Touchstone Television / Courtesy Everett Collection
19. Emma Watson
Emma Watson went through auditions eight times before she got the role of Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone after getting scouted from her school. She told Interview Magazine, "They came to my school and asked if they could put forward a group of 20 children between the ages of 9 and 12. They took my photograph in the school gym, and then I got a call three weeks later."
Warner Bros. / © Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection
20. Rupert Grint
For the role that changed his life, 10-year-old Rupert Grint actually rapped to make himself stand out for the role of Ron Weasely. He told Live With Regis and Kelly that "it was basically just information," and the lyrics included, “Hello there, my name is Rupert Grint. I hope you like this and don’t think I stink."
Warner Bros. / © Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection
We don't know if its fate or just plain chance but a lot of these actors and actresses seem like the role was made for them even though it was their first time getting the lead role in a film. They definitely deserve the roles.
It also goes to show that you just have to take a chance even if you're doubting yourself. You'll never know when you might be just the right person they're looking for, right?
