Let me guess: your preparations for the Paper Towns movie have included a re-read of the John Green novel; emergency meeting of your book group; and pre-purchase of tickets for both a first viewing and a second one, so all the teen angst and lust for life can really sink in. You've reblogged all the Tumblr fan art, drooled over the red carpet premiere pictures, and picked out the quote you want for your eventual tattoo. But do you know that Ansel Elgort has a Paper Towns cameo?
Word first got out about the Fault in Our Stars actor's role after a special LA screening of Paper Towns, where Elgort's cameo elicited a massive audience reaction. Director Jake Schreier told MTV News, “Elizabeth, the head of the studio, was talking to Ansel and was saying, ‘you should do a cameo.’ It’s one of the nice things about the producers we had on Fault and just how close everyone got and Nat and Ansel are such good friends — it sort of feels like a family."
Elgort's shining moment as a heavily tattooed gas station attendant is brief (he only has two lines), but obviously will be a huge treat for his fans. And he's not the first big star to tackle a tiny part. These cameos prove the famous saying that "there are no small parts, only small actors." Their time on-screen may have been short, but these actors certainly made an impact.
1. David Bowie In Zoolander
The Ben Stiller comedy is stuffed with cameos, but this one is my favorite. None other than the White Duke steps in to facilitate Derek and Hansel's walk-off, and my face kind of looked like Matilda's does right here.
2. Jason Biggs and James Van Der Beek In Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
Heads up: lots of NSFW language in this clip. It's a Kevin Smith movie, after all.
Anyway, the year was 2001, and Biggs and Van Der Beek were the Ansel Elgorts of their generation. (Or something like that.) They played themselves playing Jay & Silent Bob in a movie about a movie about Jay & Silent Bob. And if that's not meta enough for you, they then met themselves and had a chat about the dangers of typecasting.
3. Cate Blanchett In Hot Fuzz
Not only was two-time Oscar winner Blanchett uncredited for her role as Simon Pegg's character's girlfriend in the cop comedy Hot Fuzz, she also hid behind a full hazmat suit, leaving only those eyes and that voice for movie fans to identify her.
4. Johnny Deep In 21 Jump Street
Depp invented the cop-goes-undercover-in-high-school game, son! So it was a total joy to see him pop up in the movie adaptation of the series that made him a star.
5. Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, & Steven Spielberg In Austin Powers In Goldmember
The Austin Power franchise was thinning by the time the third film rolled around, but that didn't stop Mike Myers from pulling out all the stops with this star-studded movie-within-a-movie opening.
6. Keith Richards In Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
Johnny Depp often cited the Rolling Stones guitarist as one of his inspirations for the character of Jack Sparrow. So it was a no-brainer to cast him as Sparrow's father, Captain Teague. He enjoyed the gig so much that he gave an encore performance four years later in Pirates Of The Carribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Cameos are an awesome way to get the band back together, let the audience in on an inside joke, or just to shake things up. Hopefully cross-pollination between John Green adaptations becomes a trend, and we can expect these actors to pop up in each others' movies from now on!
Image: greenspies/Tumblr
