Scarlett Johansson started acting when she was a kid. Her family included many people working in theater, like her grandfather, Ejner Johansson, who a director and a screenwriter, her mom, Melanie Sloan, a producer, and Vanessa, her big sister who also is an actress. Her interest was continued and involved in her education when she went to Professional Children's School in New York after elementary school until 2002 when she graduated.
Did you know that Johansson's first role ever was a theatrical one? She was in Sophistry, an Off Broadway play with Ethan Hawke in 1992. She had several roles early in her career while she was a child, as she started auditioning when she was a kid, but they were limited by her mom because she didn't do well with rejection. Sophistry was followed by her first four film roles, where she played Laura Nelson in North in 1994, Kate Armstrong in Just Cause in 1995, Emily in If Lucy Fell in 1996, and Amanda in Manny & Lo in 1996, which gained attention from critics, which helped her career.
Actors, including me, can learn a lot from Scarlett Johansson's early career. It shows that if you keep try and auditioning you will eventually get a part, as she went through rejection as a child actor. She became upset when she didn't get the part she tried out for, which shows that you have to learn to accept rejection, or at least be more understanding when you don't get the part. Her career also shows that acting takes a lot of hard work and practice, because she went to acting school. The career of Scarlett Johansson can teach many actors, including me, many valuable lessons.
Neil Patrick Harris started acting after being Toto in The Wizard of Oz when he was in elementary school. His passion grew as he acted in many different performances at La Cueva High School and eventually the playwright Mark Medoff discovering him when he was at acting camp in New York.
After his discovery, Harris was casted as David Hart in the film, Clara's Heart, the television movie Too Good to Be True as Danny Harland, and as Billy Johnson in the movie Purple People Eater. He gained a lot of attention from Clara's Heart which also starred Whoopi Goldberg and was nominated for a Golden Globe, which was his first professional role. His first professional theater credit was when he played Mark Cohen in the 1997 National Tour of Rent.
There are several lessons that can be learned from Neil Patrick Harris' career by actors, including myself. His career also shows that knowing people can help your career, as Medoff, who discovered him, also worked on Clara's Heart. The critical and popularity of Harris's early work shows that some people can get their success by luck sometimes, as it's very rare to be nominated for a Golden Globe in your first professional film. Harris's career can teach several lessons to actors, myself included, about being a performer.
I found it fascinating researching about successful actors' like Neil Patrick Harris and Scarlett Johansson's early careers. I learned many interesting facts about them, also, like that Harris' first role was playing ToTo. It also taught me important lessons about acting, also, which I can use when I work on my monologue for my audition piece, which I'll write about it soon.
See you then!
Sources-
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000439/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Patrick_Harris
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlett_Johansson
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