Star Wars: The Force Awakens is finally here with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, and Daisy Ridley leading the way, but what of the many people who will occupy those smaller roles? For many, this will be the height of their career, but it’s entirely possible that there could also be actors in some of those roles who will one-day become huge stars in their own right. After all, it happened with the first six films and more often than you might recall. So, before you go stand in line outside the theater (or while you’re online standing next to a guy who is wearing his bad idea pants underneath his tauntaun cosplay), take a look at some of the actors who popped up in Star Wars long before they were famous.
Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley’s appearance in The Phantom Menace is probably the most recognizable on this list because her role as Queen Amidala’s hand-maiden, Sabé, actually played a role in things. Under a face full of make-up and a gaudy headdress, Knightley’s job as Natalie Portman’s decoy was believable. Of course, she would go on to have very successful careers, with Knightley starring in The Pirates of the Caribbean series, Bend it Like Beckham and The Imitation Game.
Warwick Davis
Depending on how deep your Star Wars knowledge goes, you know that Warwick Davis is kind of a legend. He first joined the universe in 1983 when he played Wicket – you know, the Ewok. But he got a bit of a promotion for The Phantom Menace when he got to play multiple characters, including Weazel, Wald, and Yoda (during walk-in shots). He would go on to be part of the Leprechaun series and most notably played both a goblin and wizard in the Harry Potter movies and Willow in the George Lucas conceived film of the same name. Oh, and he’s also got a role in The Force Awakens, but who knows how many times he’ll pop up.
Dominic West
While he’s shown up in 300, John Carter and has a role coming up in Finding Dory, Dominic West will probably always be recognized as Detective Jimmy McNulty, arguably the lead character 0n HBO’s The Wire. But, before any of that, he got a role in The Phantom Menace as a door guard that didn’t say more than five words as a tiny Anakin walked in to see his future love. When you hear the voice it’s hard to not slip into flashbacks of him talking to Bodie on a Baltimore street corner.
Rose Byrne
Yeah, you guessed it. Another Amidala hand-maiden with a bright future. The role was almost a better career jumping off point than SNL in the ’90s. Rose Byrne, who’s been in everything from the X-Men movie series to Bridesmaids and Neighbors, was cast as Dormé in Attack of the Clones in 2002.
John Ratzenberger
Before he played everyone’s favorite mailman on Cheers, Ratzenberger briefly played Rebel Force Major Derlin in The Empire Strikes Back. Just to make sure you don’t think his best work all came 30 years ago, Ratzenberger has also done plenty of work for Pixar and voiced some of our favorite characters (Hamm in Toy Story and The Abominable Snowman in Monsters Inc.).
Greg Proops
The pod races in The Phantom Menace are consistently one of the best parts of the movie. But, like any other sporting event, the races probably wouldn’t have been half as exciting without great announcing. What many may not know is that one of the two talking heads of the commentator was voiced by Greg Proops, who’s most famous for his improv work on Whose Line Is It Anyway.
Joel Edgerton
You may not have given the actor who played a younger version of Uncle Owen (aka, the man who raised Luke Skywalker) a second glance in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith but you know him now as the actor who played a crooked cop in Black Mass, an MMA fighter in Warrior , and a Navy SEAL in Zero Dark Thirty.
Sofia Coppola
Queen Amidala’s hand-maidens were clearly bursting at the seams with talent. While the most widely-known one may be Keira Knightley, she wasn’t alone. Sofia Coppola was cast as a hand-maiden named Saché. Unlike everyone else on this list, though, Coppola’s biggest on-screen credit happened before Star Wars (The Godfather 3) and she also didn’t seem as though she was interested in pursuing on-screen fame, working behind the camera like her father (and George Lucas pal) Francis Ford Coppola. A wise choice since Sofia went on to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost In Translation in 2003 while being nominated for Best Director. In 2013, Coppola wrote and directed The Bling Ring and recently re-teamed with Lost in Translation star Bill Murray to co-write and helm A Very Murray Christmas for Netflix.
Bonus: *NSYNC
*NSYNC’s Star Wars story is a bit tricky and filled with maybes. Okay, I’ll be honest, it’s mostly speculation. As the tale goes, the group came to the set in between tours – sans Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass – to fill in as background Jedi knights. They were told to just stand in front of a green screen and act like they were fighting droids. Sadly, the footage got cut. But, with the help of deductive reasoning by The Huffington Post, there’s actually a chance that the footage didn’t completely go to waste and made it into the movie anyway.
