It is well-known that acting is an unpredictable career choice and that it takes many people years to achieve success if they succeed at all. Some actors trail from one audition to the next without much hope of hitting the big time. However, this is not the story for some actors as they have landed big roles at unexpected moments. Here are five actors who landed life changing roles by accident.
1. Mel Gibson
During the 1970s, Gibson worked on several stage productions after studying Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art. As far as he was concerned, that was the maximum level of success he would achieve in his acting career. All that changed when his friend asked him for a lift to auditions for the 1979 movie, ‘Mad Max’. Gibson had no intention of auditioning himself, so he spent the night before the auditions in a bar where he got into a brawl. When he took his friend to the audition the next day, the director saw Gibson’s battered face and thought he would make a great villain in the movie so asked him to return in a few weeks to audition. When he returned, Gibson’s face was healed and the director realized he was a good looking man. Instead of casting him as a villain, he offered him the lead role.
2. Johnny Depp
Although Depp is now one of the best-known and most respected actors currently on the movie scene, he originally had no intention of pursuing a career in acting. He wanted to make money with music and moved to LA follow his dreams. However, his career path took a turn when he accompanied a friend to the auditions for ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’. The director’s daughter took a shine to him, describing him as ‘dreamy’, and persuaded her father to cast young Depp in the movie. The rest, as they say, is history.
3. John Wayne
John Wayne’s real name was Marion Robert Morrison and his dream was to become a professional football player. Unfortunately, due to an injury, this dream came to an end. To support himself, he took on odd jobs and this led to him working on a film set. His job involved moving things around and handling the props. Due to his athletic build, the directors allowed to become a stand-in. One of the greatest directors of this era was John Ford and he upgraded Morrison from a stand-in to a small part as a geese herder in ‘Mother Machree’. When Ford introduced Morrison to other directors, he was given his first starring role and changed his name to John Wayne.
4. David Boreanaz
Boreanaz is best-known for his role of ‘Angel’ in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and he landed this role in rather strange circumstances. Prior to this, he had just a fleeting attempt at starting an acting career with just one appearance on ‘Married with Children’. The writer of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, Marti Nixon, was looking for a handsome man to play the part of ‘Angel’. A friend of Nixon’s was a neighbor of Boreanaz. The neighbor had seen Boreanaz walking his dog past his home, so put his name for the part. Since then, Boreanaz has had his own spin-off series and a lead role in ‘Bones’.
5. Danny Trejo
An acting career couldn’t have been further from what Trejo was expecting in life. In his youth, he had a serious drug problem and had spent time in prison. While serving time in San Quentin, he cleaned up his act, went through the twelve-step program and became a boxing champ. While in recovery, he met a guy who asked for his help on the set of ‘Runaway Train’. Due to his disheveled appearance, Trejo was given the part of an extra. The screenwriter knew Trejo and asked him to train some of the crew to box. When the director saw him boxing, he gave him a part in the film. The role he is now best-known for is the lead in ‘Machete’.
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