11. Natalie Portman As Mathilda In Léon: The Professional (1994)
While people may debate whether it was the ‘80s or the ‘90s that were the “golden age” of action films, both decades boast their fair share of movies within the genre. Enter Léon: The Professional (1994), a crime-action drama about a 12-year-old girl whose family is murdered and she becomes a professional assassin. That 12-year-old is actually Natalie Portman. And she was actually around 13 at that point. And this was actually her first serious gig in film.
12. Scarlett Johansson As Katie Armstrong In Just Cause (1995)
You know Scarlett Johansson, right? The actress who played an artificially intelligent virtual assistant named Samantha in Her (2013) and Black Widow in the Avengers. Well, before (way before) this, she also did this one role of a little girl, Katie Armstrong, daughter of protagonist and lawyer Paul Armstrong (played by Sean Connery), in a movie you may have heard of—the 1995 mystery crime thriller Just Cause. Bonus fun fact—she was also Molly Pruitt in Home Alone 3.
13. Alyson Hannigan As Jessie Mills In My Stepmother Is An Alien (1988)
Before coming into some serious fame through her roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), American Pie (1999), and How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014), Hannigan did a lot of TV series gigs with the exception of two feature films—Impure Thoughts (1986) and My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988), which were incidentally her first two in her acting career.
In the latter, she played the role of Jessie Mills, a daughter of Earth physicist Steven Mills who was being seduced by an alien disguised as Kim Basinger [cough]… I mean, Celeste Martin.
14. Ryan Gosling As Himself In The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989-1995)
While Ryan Gosling has been in the acting scene for over 25 years now, many of us never really noticed him up until about ten years ago when he appeared in Blue Valentine (2010), and if not that, then Drive (2011), and if not that, then you definitely saw him in La La Land (2016).
But a little-known fact about Ryan is that he was one of the so-called Mouseketeers in the 1989 Mickey Mouse Club, appearing alongside Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Granted, he only appeared in 3 episodes (two in 1993 and one in 1995), but he was front and center there, and it’s something some of you may not have caught on to.
15. Kirsten Dunst As Campbell Mccoy In The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990)
While many most likely remember her more from Spiderman, Melancholia or possibly even Little Women from 1994, Kirsten Dunst also made an appearance as Campbell McCoy in a couple of scenes in the Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). The movie also starred the likes of Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, and Morgan Freeman.
16. Ethan Hawke As Ben Crandall In Explorers (1985)
Ethan Hawke is one of the busier actors in the industry, starring in at least 3 productions each year, with 2018 being one of his busiest. And this is besides doing some writing, producing and directing work along the way.
His very first star role in a feature film which you may not have noticed was in Explorers from 1985. There he played a boy named Ben who was a huge fan of science fiction movies and had a recurring dream about this one blueprint. He ended up redrawing it, gave it to his friend, and what happens next, well, you gotta watch the movie now.
17. Saoirse Ronan As Izzie In I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)
Yeah, this one’s from not that long ago, but did you actually catch Saoirse Ronan, Irish-American actress best known from her work in Hanna, Brooklyn, and the Lovely Bones, as Izzie in 2007’s I Could Never Be Your Woman starring Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer? She’s 27 as of this article, but back when she acted for the movie, she was 13.
18. Elijah Wood As Stu Simmons In The War (1994)
Island World; Avnet/Kerner Productions
While Elijah Wood does look like someone who would look young no matter how many decades may pass, there was, in fact, a time when he was a kid, and a star at that. That was in the movie The War from 1994, where he played the son of Stephen Simmons (portrayed by Kevin Costner), a Vietnam vet who helps kids battle over a tree house all the while himself recovering from his war experience. Fun fact, it also starred a super young Lucas Black, who was also in The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006).
19. Seth Green As Egg In The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
Island World; Avnet/Kerner Productions
This one’s more of an honorable mention—Seth Green’s portrayal of 10-year-old Egg in the Hotel New Hampshire may not be a key-key character, but he does pop up in the spotlight on several occasions throughout the movie, making him very hard to miss.
This was also Green’s first real gig in the film industry, though he has spent much of his career afterwards in TV movies and series. In the over 40+ years that he’s been in acting, he is best known for his work in the Austin Powers franchise (1997-2002), the Italian Job (2003), Party Monster (2003), Robot Chicken (2005-2021), and Family Guy (1999-2021), among other productions.
20. Drew Barrymore As Gertie In E.t. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
When E.T. first came out back in 1982, it blew people’s minds with its cinematography and storyline, among other things. You know what else will blow your mind? The fact that Drew Barrymore played the role of Gertie there.
21. Aaron Taylor-Johnson As Charlie In Shanghai Knights (2003)
Not all movies in this list are from the past century—take, for example, Shanghai Knights, a light action-adventure comedy released in the early aughts. Besides the likes of the legendary Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, you also had Aaron Taylor-Johnson (credited as just Aaron Johnson) playing the role of a young Charlie Chaplin. Since then, Aaron went on to bigger games like starring in Kick-Ass (2010-2013), Nocturnal Animals (2016), and Nowhere Boy (2009).
22. Elisabeth Moss As Lucky (Age 6) In Lucky Chances (1990)
Mini-series as a medium have been gaining popularity in the last several years, with masterpieces such as Chernobyl (2019) and the Queen’s Gambit (2020) being prime examples of it; it’s not like the genre hasn’t existed before.
Back in 1990, we had a mini-series of just 3 episodes called Lucky Chances. It is based on romance novelist Jackie Collins’ books Chances (1981) and Lucky (1985) (see what they did there?). It revolves around one Gino Santangelo in the casino industry in Las Vegas. His daughter, Lucky, who is portrayed by then 8-year-old Elisabeth Moss, grows up to inherit his ‘gambling empire’ and the story follows her struggles with maintaining it.
