Actors who you're surprised aren't more famous

I don't get why Shia Lebeouf is a big star, and Joseph Gordon Leavitt isn't. I thought Monica Potter was going to be a big thing, but now she's doing TV.

And there are a bunch of actors who either made bad choices, or had their shot but couldn't "open" a film that have had successful, if not the most visible, careers.

 

I've always thought Andre Braugher was underrated as an actor. He's good in everything he does, but has never had a leading role (except for his short-lived medical drama "Gideon's Crossing," which was canceled way too soon).

 

Mark Paul Gosselaar just cause he had the look.

 

Mark Harmon ... Movies Not TV.

Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk and Thora Birch.

Lezlie Zinn ..

 

I loved that show.

Rhona Mitra ... mmmmm.

Actually, given her hotness, I thought she'd be a bigger star by now.

 

Hollywood is good at churning out an "it girl" every couple of months - Gabrielle Anwar, Gretchen Mol, Famke Jensen. Next time you see them, they're playing a mom or a DA.

 

Billy Zane

 

I can't say this is specifically the case with any of the above mentioned people, but don't you ever get the idea that the way that business works, that these people can just phone it on for a couple big movies and milk it for pretty much the rest of their life somehow? Either that, or they get some behind-the-scenes directing or production job that they milk. Or marry someone in the business who sets them up for life. I know it's not that cookie-cutter, but I feel like Leelee Sobieski is probably better set up for the rest of her life than I am, even if I'm 20 years older than her and have never starred opposite Nicholas Cage in a shitty M. Night Shamalongadingdong movie.

 

After seeing "Blame it on Rio" who did you think was on their way to stardom: Michelle Johnson or Demi Moore?

 

Yes, and unless you're a perfect 10 you don't have a chance. We'll never see another Kathy Bates.

 

I recognize this as the ultimate rhetorical question, SoCal, but ... oooohhh.

Of course, I didn't see that movie until well after Demi Moore was huge and Michelle Johnson was pretty much gone from the face of the earth. You could easily point out a million movies where future stars had nobody bit parts and then got big.

 

Thora Birch comes from a family of porn stars. Her parents both "acted" in Deep Throat. She also has a brother named Bolt. Bolt Birch. I wonder if he is in porn. There's your Hollywood fun fact for the day.