What’s more frustrating: that she has made so few movies since her Oscar-winning debut or that she’s never been as good again? You could argue years of playing Fanny Brice in the stage “Funny Girl” gave Streisand a boost, but it probably made it harder to seem natural and unrehearsed in the movie.
Still, these actors made first impressions that, for me, last. I’m not sure these seven performances are the best first times of all time, partly because it’s hard to gauge the impact of debuts before I was watching movies (folks say Lauren Bacall blew audiences away in “To Have and Have Not,” but I wasn’t around). That many of them fail to follow up splashy debuts may say something about the depth of their bond with their first directors, or maybe they never found another role that suited them so perfectly. Unknown children often get flashy roles - think of Reese Witherspoon in “The Man in the Moon,” Tatum O’Neal in “Paper Moon,” Anna Paquin in “The Piano” - and give some of the most believable performances.
2” parts, like Dwayne Johnson did in “The Mummy Returns,” Diana Ross in “Lady Sings the Blues” and David Bowie in “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” A prominent stage career helped Emma Thompson in “The Tall Guy” and Julie Harris in “The Member of the Wedding.”ĭana Hill’s heartbreaking performance in “Shoot the Moon” would be on this list if it didn’t feel unfair to include someone whose first movie was preceded by a ton of TV credits, but Hill represents another category of memorable debuts: kids. Specific requirements can match a specific role, like Minneapolis’ Barkhad Abdi as a pirate in “Captain Phillips.” Achieving fame in other media can help a new actor skip “Rejected Suitor No. So the people who wow us their first time out are unicorns, who luck into a great role and nail it. Tom Hanks debuted in the shocker “He Knows You’re Alone,” and he wasn’t the “He.” Viola Davis didn’t even get a name as “Nurse” in “The Substance of Fire.” And Jennifer Lopez is at the end of the cast list of the forgotten “My Little Girl.” You only get one chance to make a first impression, and actors typically have little say in what that chance is.Įarly in their careers, actors are near the bottom of Hollywood’s power structure, which is why the first credits of most of our biggest stars seem unworthy of the talents they will become.
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