I just saw the Faculty. Released in 1998 it has many actors and actresses who would achive fame in the years following its release, or who would do to a greater extent later.
It has amongst others
Josh Hartnett
Jordana Brewster
Elijah Wood
Famke Janssen
Jon Stewart
Usher
Can you think of other movies where the members of the cast would go on to great fame and success later on, that in retrosecpt it would seem an ensemble cast, but not at the time of shooting and its initial theatre run.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
Tim Curry
Susan Sarandon
Barry Bostwick
Meat Loaf
Richard O’Brien
All of whom would go on to become bigger successes in film, theatre, music, or… game show hosting. Either way it was a nothing cast back when Rocky Horror was released but all of them are stars now, and in the case of Susan Sarandon and Meat Loaf, massive success stories.
From 1984:
Peter Weller
John Lithgow
Ellen Barkin
Jeff Goldblum
Christopher LloydThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
From 1983:
Sam Shepard
Scott Glenn
Ed Harris
Dennis Quaid
Fred Ward
Barbara Hershey
Lance Henrikson
Jeff Goldblum
Harry ShearerThe Right Stuff
The kids in *Stand By Me * :
I’ve always considered Milos Forman’s **Ragtime ** (1981) to be the ultimate of these:
James Cagney
Brad Dourif
Elizabeth McGovern
Donald O’Connor
Mandy Patinkin
Mary Steenburgen
Debbie Allen
Norman Mailer
Jeff Daniels
Fran Drescher
Samuel L. Jackson
Michael Jeter
Andreas Katsulas
John Ratzenberger
Did you just forget to mention Jack Bauer?
Coppola’s The Outsiders had:
C. Thomas Howell
Matt Dillon
Ralph Macchio
Patrick Swayze
Rob Lowe
Emilio Estevez
Tom Cruise
Diane Lane
Tom Waits
Sofia Coppola
Diner had
Kevin Bacon
Ellen Barkin
Mickey Rourke
Tim Daly
Paul Reiser
Daniel Stern
Steve Guttenberg
How are any of these movies post facto ensembles? Wouldn’t that assume that they all had a main star when they were released? Because I know that’s not the case with The Faculty, which was always pitched as an ensemble movie.
Dazed and Confused had
Ben Affleck
Matthew McConaughey
Milla Jovovich
Parker Posey
Renee Zellweger
Joey Lauren Adams
Jason London
Cole Hauser
Adam Goldberg
Nikki Kat
Rory Cochrane
I think it’s pretty obvious he’s talking about casts that were “a bunch of nobodys” - rather than an ensemble of big names, like Ocean’s 11-13 was.
American Graffiti:
Richard Dreyfuss as Curt Henderson
Ron Howard as Steve Bolander
Paul Le Mat as John Milner
Charles Martin Smith as Terry “The Toad” Fields
Cindy Williams as Laurie Henderson
Mackenzie Phillips as Carol Morrison
Harrison Ford as Bob Falfa
Suzanne Somers as Blonde in T-Bird
TV movie Uncommon Women and Others:
Meryl Streep - Leilah
Swoosie Kurtz - Rita Altabel
Jill Eikenberry - Kate Quin
Ellen Parker - Muffet DiNicola
Ann McDonough - Samantha Stewart
Alma Cuervo - Holly Kaplan
Josephine Nicholas - Mrs. Plumm
Cynthia Herman - Susie Friend
Anna Levine - Carter
Alexander Scourby - Narrator (voice)
Switching to the small screen, Freaks & Geeks had:
Linda Cardellini
James Franco
Seth Rogen
Jason Segel
Busy Phillips
Martin Starr
Joanna Garcia
Lizzy Caplan
And cameos by Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman.
Godspell (1973)
Victor Garber (DeathTrap, Titanic, First Wives Club)
Lynne Thigpen (Warriors, Lean on Me, Anger Management, Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego?)
Original Lodon cast, srage production of Godspell:
Julie Covington
David Essex
Jeremy Irons
Tom Saffery
Gay Soper
Marti Webb
And the small screen Bosom Buddies:
Tom Hanks
Peter Scolari
Wendie Jo Sperber
Holland Taylor
Donna Dixon
Telma Hopkins
*American Graffiti *was my first thought, but Annie beat me to it. Unknown cast and an unknown director.
James Cagney and Donald O’Connor were not exactly “unknowns.”
But how about **American Grafitti **(1973) which featured, among others, Richard Dreyfus, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, MacKensie Phillips, and Harrison Ford, none of whom were well-known at the time?
OK sure, but that’s not what “ensemble cast” means. It just means a group of characters without one actor overshadowing the rest.
Can’t Hardly Wait had a lot of people that were early in their careers and a few people that were already well known.
Ethan Embry
Lauren Ambrose
Seth Green
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jason Segel
Jamie Pressly
Donald Faison
Selma Blair
Breckin Meyer
Jenna Elfman
Jerry O’Connell
Liv Tyler
Melissa Joan Hart
Breakfast Club:
Judd Nelson as John Bender
Emilio Estevez as Andrew “Andy” Clark
Molly Ringwald as Claire Standish
Ally Sheedy as Allison Reynolds
Anthony Michael Hall as Brian Johnson
Paul Gleason as Principal Richard “Dick” Vernon
John Kapelos as Carl Reed