15 Actors Who Broke Out In Big Budget Films

The Australian actor wasn’t Bryan Singer’s first choice for the role of Wolverine. Back in 2000, Hugh Jackman he was a stage actor who had barely done any film work. In fact, Singer chose Russell Crowe to play Logan, but that fell through because the actor felt he wasn’t going to be paid enough money, therefore Dougray Scott was cast. Jackman was a last-minute replacement for Scott, who opted to star in the atrocious Mission Impossible II (I bet he still rues his decision), and we’re all glad that that’s how things panned out.

He recently got an Oscar nomination for playing Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Les Misérables. Not bad, huh? Daniel Day Lewis ended up winning for his role in Lincoln (duh), although Jackman is still a favorite of the Academy after he brilliantly hosted the Oscars back in ’09, and I bet they’ve been secretly begging him to come back for a second gig. He’s currently filming X-Men: Days of Future Past, in which he’ll reprise his iconic role as Wolverine for the seventh time. Also, James Mangold’s The Wolverine comes out in July — aren’t you excited?

Enough about people who deserve their success — let’s talk about someone who might as well have won the lottery. What’s so special about Shia LaBeouf? Call in all the best mathematicians, engineers, philosophers, biologists and chemists in the world, and they still wouldn’t be able to come up with an answer. So what if he was in Transformers? Any halfwit with a stutter can star in a Michael Bay-directed flick. Seriously, why do filmmakers keep on hiring him? Steven Spielberg, Lars von Trier and even Oliver Stone have cast him in their movies. I mean… Shia LaBeouf? Really?

I’m not a spiteful person, but I sincerely resent Spielberg’s decision to include him in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The film was a real stinker, but it would have been more tolerable without LaBeouf playing Indy’s son. What were they thinking? I bet it was Lucas’ doing. Anyway, we’ll see this guy in von Trier’s The Nymphomaniac soon, but I sincerely doubt he’s going to get any better. I just hope he doesn’t come anywhere near a Star Wars set.

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