Hey! Isn’t that the guy from the place with the thing?

Aaron Johnson is everywhere right now. He is the newest hot young man loved by film critics and award committees, but he is not tarnished by being the focal point of unhealthy obsession by teenage girls everywhere. He is the antithesis to Robert Pattinson, which for film purists, is already a massive bonus. The new John Lennon biopic and the super awesome Kick Ass will cement his reputation as the newest legitimate offering from these shores to Hollywood.

Some of you may be asking, who is this Aaron Johnson and where did he come from? I remember seeing him a year ago when channel surfing on Sky Movies and being sucked into a film called Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. I didn’t want to watch it but it seemed to fulfill every romantic fantasy I had as a 14-year-old girl.  In that guilty pleasure of a film, was Aaron Johnson, and a quick IMDB search later confirmed that as a much younger child he played a young Charlie Chaplin in the awful sequel Shanghai Knights.

This got me thinking. I’m a big fan of catching old lesser-known movies on television and spotting household names in tiny parts and cameos. Even better is re-watching an old film and recognizing faces and seeing names you hadn’t even heard of when first watching the film. It is a relief to know that, like me at this present moment, everyone has had to start from the bottom and climb that career ladder slowly. Most actors in Hollywood have not achieved stardom straight away but have paid their dues in the smaller TV and straight-to-video movies. As you know, I’m a bigger fan of lists, so here are the most notable examples of these surprise appearances.

Aaron Johnson: Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging to Nowhere Boy

He went from a cheeky Chappie to the exact opposite as a young John Lennon. For his role in Nowhere Boy Johnson trained his voice so he could sing like Lennon and studied hours of footage so he could learn the Beatle’s mannerisms and movement. I can imagine that his only preparation for playing Robbie in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging involved practicing the dewy eyed look to melt those teenagers’ hearts.

Jennifer Love Hewitt: House Arrest to Heartbreakers

She went from a virginal pubescent just wanting her parents to get back together in House Arrest, to a money-hungry sex siren in Heartbreakers. A natural progression, which many child stars like herself went through to try and escape their clean cut image. Of course, she realized that maybe her original image was for the best so she became a good little wifey who helped ghosts find the white light in Ghost Whisperer.

Christian Bale: Mary, Mother of Jesus to Batman Begins

I am proud to say that I had my eye on Christian Bale way before he became Batman. I fell in love with him when I saw him as Laurie in Little Women when I was the tender age of thirteen. An unhealthy obsession with him started, with me eager to see every film he had ever been in, so it was with great delight, when channel surfing all those years ago, to catch the made-for-tv movie Mary, Mother of Jesus. He turned in a convincing performance as the Son of God himself, and I guess the whole saving mankind idea stuck in his head as he donned the black mask and pointy ears six years later.

Tom Cruise: Far and Away to Tropic Thunder

He certainly has progressed far from playing the Irish man with a crush on Nicole Kidman. His terrible accent was forgiven as he churned out hit after hit, from Cocktail all the way through to Minority Report. I was going to choose Top Gun to Mission Impossible 2, but then I realized that nothing’s changed much there, as his ego in both films eclipsed all hints at a character other than ‘Tom Cruise’. At least in Tropic Thunder, Cruise left his ego at home, along with the perfect hair and the ‘serious-face’ acting.

Alyssa Milano: Commando to Poison Ivy

I suppose this was the natural conclusion of the traumatizing kidnap ordeal.

Aaron Eckhart: Erin Brockovich to The Dark Knight

I watched the film The Core, another guilty pleasure of mine (I have a lot of them) and it shocked me when doing my obligatory IMDB search to discover that the hero who saved the world from evil birds and freak lightning storms, was also the hairy biker from Erin Brockovich. He has proved his acting chops in most of his films (I’ve forgiven him for No Reservations) and it was only a matter of time after Thank You For Smoking that he hit the big time.

Bradley Cooper: Alias to A Team

As you had probably guessed from the post below this one, I am a huge fan of Alias. One of my favourite characters was Will Tippin, the weedy yet rather hot friend of super spy Sydney Bristow. His rise to fame has been alarmingly fast ever since his appearance in the ensemble film He’s Just Not That Into You, even though he had practice playing a cheating lover in Wedding Crashers. Now he’s set to play Templeton “Faceman’ Peck in the new A Team film, and another ensemble romantic drama, Valentine’s Day. I have a firm belief that he is the new less annoying Matthew McConaughey…minus the bongos.

Matthew Goode: Chasing Liberty to Watchmen

I am slightly shamed to admit the only reason Matthew Goode is on this list is because I found him incredibly sexy in Chasing Liberty and lesbian rom-com, Imagine Me and You, when I presumed him just another unknown generic hottie. Clearly Woody Allen (Match Point) and Zach Snyder thought otherwise.

Jennifer Garner: Dude Where’s My Car to Elektra

This is one girl who has definitely climbed her way to the A-list through traditional methods, like hard work and starting off small. She has cameos peppered across many films from 2000 onwards, including Pearl Harbour and Catch Me if You Can until the success from Alias launched her into the stratosphere. She has appeared in a string of average films, with the exception of Juno, never fully shining as she did in her television show.

Ben Affleck: Buffy The Vampire Slayer to Pearl Harbour

To finish off, here’s Ben Affleck, who like his wife, (see above) has steadily climbed his way to the top from indie films to blockbusters. The fact that he has talent as a writer and actor boded well for him, but before he co-penned the great Good Will Hunting, he had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in the film that sparked the massively successful television show, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The picture is a still from the movie, but for all you die-hard Affleck films, the clip of him is below (for some reason I could only find it in Spanish).