Some of the faces we grew up watching came to prominence after being covered in blood. Many of Hollywood’s top actors started their careers in the fear business. Here are 13 whose big breaks came through the horror genre.
Jenna Ortega, “Insidious: Chapter 2”
Before becoming one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood, Jenna Ortega made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in James Wan’s supernatural sequel “Insidious: Chapter 2” in 2013. After breaking out in projects like the CW’s “Jane the Virgin” and Disney’s “Stuck in the Middle,” Ortega returned to her horror roots with projects like “The Babysitter: Killer Queen,” two “Scream” sequels, and “Wednesday.”
Paul Rudd, “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers”
Many of us first met Rudd in the comedy classic “Clueless,” but the future “Ant-Man” actually filmed his other 1995 feature first: “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.” In the sixth installment of the franchise, Rudd plays an adult version of Tommy Doyle, the boy who’s terrorized by Michael Myers in the original “Halloween.”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Critters 3”
Even Leo had to start somewhere weird. Before breaking box office records in “Titanic,” working with A-listers like Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan, and winning an Oscar for “The Revenant,” DiCaprio made his film debut in the low-budget creature feature sequel “Critters 3” in 1991. He’d soon after describe the role as “your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair.”
Adam Scott, “Hellraiser: Bloodline”
Fresh from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, future Emmy nominee and “Parks & Recreation” favorite Adam Scott landed one of his first film roles in “Hellraiser: Bloodline” in 1996. For the fourth installment of the series, Scott played Jacques, an 18th century Frenchman who helps open a portal to Hell. “I didn't turn my nose up at anything,” Scott told us about his earliest acting work. “I had friends who I graduated with who, from the very start, said, ‘Oh, no, I don’t want to do this or that.’ I was always of the mind of: I’m going to do anything and everything.
Anya Taylor-Joy, “The Witch”
Audiences first met the SAG Award nominated star of “The Queen’s Gambit” and “The Menu” in Robert Eggers’ 2015 rural horror film “The Witch.” In her first on-screen role, Taylor-Joy starred as Thomasin, the eldest daughter of a 17th century Puritan family being tormented by an evil entity in the woods.
George Clooney, “Return to Horror High”
The year was 1987, and Clooney had yet to wow us with his effortless charm and Oscar-winning acting skills. The A-lister-in-the-making was busy playing the doomed actor Oliver, who happens to be dressed as a police officer during a string of high school murders.
Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation”
Years before both took home Oscar gold, these two Lone Star State natives teamed up for 1995’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation,” the fourth entry in the gritty horror series. McConaughey played the aptly named Vilmer Slaughter, a maniacal backwoods murderer pursuing a group of teenagers, including Zellweger’s Jenny.
Kevin Bacon, “Friday the 13th”
Before “Footloose,” Bacon was forever immortalized in horror history as one of the gnarliest kills of the original “Friday the 13th.” Sixteen years before winning his first SAG award, Bacon played Jason Voorhees victim Jack, better known as the guy who got an arrow through the neck while smoking in bed.
Tom Hanks, “He Knows You’re Alone”
Fans of Hollywood’s most amiable actor might be surprised to learn that Hanks made his big-screen debut in the 1980 slasher “He Knows You’re Alone.” The two-time Oscar winner plays Elliot, a psychology student who develops a crush on a girl who’s being stalked by a serial killer.
Jamie Lee Curtis, “Halloween”
Jamie Lee Curtis has always been candid about how she landed her debut role in John Carpenter’s groundbreaking slasher. “If you’re going to choose between this [actor] and this [actor], choose the one whose mother was in ‘Psycho,’ because it will get some press for you,” Curtis said in 2019. “I’m never going to pretend that I just got that on my own, like I’m just a little girl from nowhere getting it.”
But no matter how it came to be, Curtis’ performance as Laurie Strode helped kick off an entire horror subgenre and the star’s illustrious career, which led to a 2022 Oscar win for her performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Jennifer Aniston, “Leprechaun”
Before she was there for us when the rain started to fall in “Friends,” Jennifer Aniston was trying to outwit the luck of the leprechaun in this bloody horror-comedy. The 1993 flick follows the future eight-time Emmy nominee as she tries to outthink a sadistic leprechaun willing to stop at nothing to get his pot of gold.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Troll”
One year removed from “Saturday Night Live” and three years before “Seinfeld” began its history-making run, Julia Louis-Dreyfus made her first film appearance in the 1986 cult B-movie “Troll,” directed by her future husband Brad Hall.
Header image credits: “Leprechaun” Courtesy Trimark Pictures, “Scream VI” Courtesy Paramount Pictures, “Halloween II” Courtesy Universal Pictures, “The Witch” Courtesy A24