I did this last year for Best Actress and Best Actor; basically the idea is, I find a person’s career journey to be interesting — so for the five men who could win Best Actor tonight at the Oscars, where did it all begin? What was their first role?
Eddie Redmayne
It appears to be 1998’s Animal Ark, a TV series. (I use IMDB to figure out earlier projects.) He was in the episode “Bunnies in the Bathroom” (LOL), but here’s another episode of the same series.
Benedict Cumberbatch
The 2002 TV movie Fields of Gold; here’s a clip of him in that.
Michael Keaton
Keaton was actually in an April 1975 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, although credited as Michael Douglas. He was in a 1977 TV movie called Klein Time, and was “The Robber” in an episode of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in the late 1970s as well.
Bradley Cooper
His first credited appearance was actually on Sex and the City in 1999; the clip has embedding turned off, but here you go. He did discuss the scene with Katie Couric years later.
Steve Carrell
He was Teslo in 1991’s Curly Sue, which is probably the worst film ever written/directed by John Hughes.
