by Nathaniel R
Kodi Smit-McPhee in his film debut. Getting a foot rub from his first screen mother, Franka Potente
With just a little over a week until Oscar night, we thought it would be fun to look at the official debuts of all the acting nominees. We previously witnessed baby Kirsten Dunst and a 29 year-old Judi Dench as well as the actresses that haven't been working that long in movies but made quick splashes. Today's Best Supporting Actor honorees have all been in the movies for a good while now. Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit McPhee were professional child actors but Ciarán Hinds, Troy Kotsur, and JK Simmons all got their first movie roles well into adulthood. We'll take them in the chronological order of their debuts to see the very first time they appeared on the big screen...
CIARÁN HINDS as "Lot" in Excalibur (1981)
first clear shot of Ciarán Hinds in a movie
with Sir Patrick Stewart, both shocked that Arthur has pulled Excalibur from its stone
first line in a movie: [shouting] "Merlin, we haven't forgotten you. What trickery is this!?!
You have to be paying close attention to spot Hinds, 16th billed, in this famous Arthurian Legends film since there are a lot of famous British and Irish faces four decades younger than we're accustomed to. Plus they're often in group shots... at night... wearing helmets! Hinds, who was just 28 at the time, plays one of the Knights of the Roundtable. He wasn't the only now much-more famous star given new exposure by John Boorman's then-divisive but enduring film. The film also contains an excellent early performance from Helen Mirren as Morgana LeFay and you can spot Patrick Stewart as Leondegrance, too. They had both been acting for cameras for a while but Hinds was not the only relatively green actor. Gabriel Byrne as King Uther Pendragon and Liam Neeson as Gawain had also just barely begun acting for cameras even if this wasn't quite their official debut.
J.K. SIMMONS as "Siskel" in The Ref (1994)
first line in a movie: "I'm glad I caught you before you left for the holidays."
One of the best comedies of the 1990s and it's funny from the very first scene. Simmons, 28th billed, appears twice early in the film playing some sort of faculty member at a military boarding school. A young boy, who he calls a 'demon seed', is blackmailing him. The movie, which is about a thief hiding out at a bickering family's home during Christmas, has a very strong funny cast from top to bottom including Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey (just before his Oscar win and long before he was widely hated), and Denis Leary in the leading roles, and in supporting roles BD Wong, Christina Baranski, and the great Glynis Johns as the mother in law from hell. Nice debut for Simmons since he gets multiple closeups despite having a tiny part; The late director Ted Demme obviously knew he had a find. Simmons hadn't originally planned to be an actor but a singer (which might explain the late start) but after four Broadway shows (two of them musicals) he took this role at 39 and never stopped working again in film and on television. His breakout role, as an extremely scary leader of the Aryan Brotherhood in the prison drama Oz, was just three years away.
JESSE PLEMONS as "Hobo" in Finding North (1998)
NOT FROM "FINDING NORTH" -- This is Jesse in "Varsity Blues" his second movie. He was 11
first line in a movie: N/A couldn't find
Plemons, who is 33, began his career 30 years ago in a Coca-Cola commercial. By the age of 10 his first movie premiered at Sundance. Alas, we couldn't locate this film, a gay indie starring John Benjamin Hickey and Wendy Makkena. It's surely a bit part as Plemons is nearly last on the credits list though now he's the most famous member of its cast. That's not to say that Hickey is a slouch, he's a wonderful actor and Tony-winner / Emmy nominee! Plemons worked regularly on film and television from age 10 and onward. Fame arrived with a regular series role on Friday Night Lights (2006) when he was just 18.
TROY KOTSUR as "Barnaby" in The Number 23 (2007)
first shot of Troy Kotsur in a movie
...but he has no lines and just this two scenes
first line in a movie: N/A He doesn't sign in this role.
Troy Kotsur got his debut in this (unintentionally?) campy thriller in which Jim Carrey loses his mind (or finds it?) seeing the number 23 wherever he goes. Kotsur is in only one scene, as Barnaby, the gardener of a cemetery Carrey runs into twice chasing a stray dog who he shoots with a tranquilizer. Turns out, it's not a stray but Barnaby's dog. Not much of a role but at least its credited. He's 13th billed and you have to start somewhere and we're glad he did since he's so moving in CODA.
KODI SMIT-MCPHEE as "Raimund" in Romulus My Father (2007)
First shot of Kodi Smit-McPhee on movie screens
First title card. He was fourth billed despite the story being mostly from his point of view. He's the only one of these five men who got his own title card on his first movie.
Kodi made his feature debut in this family drama which premiered at Cannes a month before his 11th birthday. He's the first face we see in the film as a lightblub swings hypnotically, temporarily illuminating his face. He's watching his father (Eric Bana) wake up some bees who mistake the light for the sun. By the time Romulus My Father was released he had been acting professionally for two years and had already had a handful of TV gigs and made a couple of short films. For this official feature debut he won the Young Actor's Award from the Australian Film Institute. Romulus My Father was directed by the Australian actor Richard Roxburgh (most famous as "The Duke" in Moulin Rouge! and next up in Elvis) and despite the film being well received he has yet to direct another one. Kodi's naturalism and emotional flexibility quickly landed him more lead roles when he was still a child including The Road with Viggo Mortensen and Let Me In with Chloë Grace Moretz. The actor, who is now 25, is one of those rare 'prodigy' child stars to become even more celebrated as an adult actor.
Who are you rooting for in Supporting Actor and have you seen any of these debut efforts?