I was talking to a friend this weekend about star making performances, and the first person who came to my mind was Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth". What little or unknown actor blew you away the first time you saw them (and which film) where you felt they were going to be huge? I have a few others that come to mind but wanted hear your picks.

Edward Norton in Primal Fear. The movie is a nice thriller even without his performance, but it's Norton's performance which makes me watch the movie every few years..

I saw Mystic Pizza in 1988 and left the theater certain that Lili Taylor was going to be huge.

Nora Lum aka Awkwafina in The Farewell.

Naomi Watts scuffled around Hollywood for a while before Mulholland Drive.

Billy Bob Thorton broke out as a triple threat, -writer, director, and star, -after "SlingBlade".

Robert Downey Jr had been around a long time with varying degrees of success that was muddied by his personal demons. "Iron Man" re-launched him as a bankable mainstream star.

Although he had a solid career as a character actor (Exorcist 3, Coming To America), worked with top directors like Spike Lee (Mo Better Blues), Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas), Steven Spielberg (Jurassic PArk), and was beginning to get lead roles in crappy movies (Amos and Andrew, Loaded Weapon 1), it wasn't until Pulp Fiction in 1994 that Samuel L. Jackson became a motherfucking STAR.

It was a one two punch of Laurence Fishburne making bad career choices...saying no to Pulp Fiction...holding out for more money in Die Hard with a Vengeance.

His supporting performance as a crack addict in Jungle Fever (1991) was the kind that made you think "this guy should be starring in movies."

And Halle Berry was really good in that movie as a crack whore. Imagine running across Halle Berry on the street offering to give $5 blow-jobs!


Big spoiler in that clip

D'oh! Can't believe I blanked out on that. Great performance. And that year the Oscars nominated two people from Bugsy for Best Supporting Actor.

Star Wars put him on the map, but Raiders of the Lost Ark immediately put Harrison Ford into Orbit as a star

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting are obvious choices.
Sylvester Stallone in Rocky
Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. She had been in some bigger films in the 10 years before that, but Basic Instinct catapulted her in to super stardom.

Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone