While some music sensations plunge into movies with fanfare, Courtney Love was as hot as hot could be on the music scene, but decided not to take the spotlighted route of Madonna and Whitney Houston, instead easing her way into the medium with independent pictures. After a handful of small roles, the lead singer of the group Hole found herself in the spotlight when Milos Forman cast her as Althea Leasure in the biopic "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996).
While some music sensations plunge into movies with fanfare, Courtney Love was as hot as hot could be on the music scene, but decided not to take the spotlighted route of Madonna and Whitney Houston, instead easing her way into the medium with independent pictures. After a handful of small roles, the lead singer of the group Hole found herself in the spotlight when Milos Forman cast her as Althea Leasure in the biopic "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996).
While still in his twenties, the likeable and low-key Casey Affleck, who enjoyed a slow and steady rise as an actor, saw the show business mechanics from the inside out while watching his older brother Ben Affleck gain meteoric Hollywood success – as well as the inevitable and subsequently vicious backlash. Still, the younger Affleck saw himself on another path, eschewing studio-produced Frankenstein projects in favor of eclectic character parts. The promise of his early work in “To Die For” (1995) and “Good Will Hunting” (1997) did eventually lead him to the blockbuster types like “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001) and its star-packed sequels. While nestled comfortably into one of Hollywood’s most entertaining ensembles, Affleck still found a way to comfortably transform in a variety of projects, creating a witty, quirky onscreen persona along the way.
Actor, writer, and director Ben Affleck hit the Hollywood radar in 1997 as the co-writer and co-star of “Good Will Hunting,” earning an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay along with childhood best friend Matt Damon. In fact, the seemingly overnight ascent to stardom in tandem with Damon, became one of the great “Hollywood” stories” of all time – right up there with Lana Turner being discovered at Schwab’s Drugstore.
