It’s always great fun to watch a movie and suddenly notice an actor you had no earthly idea was actually going to be in it, typically because the actor in question wasn’t yet an established brand name in their own right.
Knowing that jobbing, on-the-rise actors were hanging out on the periphery of a huge movie, in the midst of the very A-listers they’d eventually be rubbing elbows with years later, can add an unexpected rewatch value to films from years or even decades past.
Whether the actors in question were mere children who later became Oscar-winning household names, or simply younger day-players who were yet to make their mark on the industry, these performers all went well below the radar in these popular movies.
From one of the most famous and recognisable actors on the planet getting his start in a seconds-long cameo in an ’80s sex comedy, to a future award winner who was part of the furniture in a major blockbuster smash hit, you almost certainly never noticed them in these films unless you revisited them more recently.
And just like that, you’ll surely want to go back and watch these movies once more…
Now to be completely fair here, 2012’s Battleship is about as forgettable as blockbusters get – a thunderously generic sci-fi action flick, albeit one that rocks a fairly star-studded cast.
And while nobody’s going to miss the likes of Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, and Rihanna front-and-center, it’s pretty shocking that a future Oscar winner appears in a hilariously throwaway role you surely didn’t catch.
Rami Malek, who at the time was probably best known for playing Ahkmenrah in the Night at the Museum movies, appears a few brief moments as Lieutenant Hill, a soldier caught up in the alien invasion alongside Admiral Terrance Shane (Neeson).
Malek gets a few lines but basically disappears into the scenery easily enough, and to watch him here, you’d never guess the greatness that was in store just a few years later – both winning the career-defining lead in hit TV show Mr. Robot and nabbing a Best Actor Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody.
While few have likely bothered to revisit Battleship since it came out, for those who do, Malek’s shocking presence is most certainly a “Leo pointing at the screen” moment.