14 Commercials Starring Hollywood Actors That You Probably Missed (For Good Reason)

Starring in commercials is an evergreen job in the life of an actor. Whether you're an Oscar-winning legend, a rising star, or a complete unknown, commercials are a huge way for actors to break into the industry. From the Super Bowl to daytime television, it's a win-win scenario for everybody; companies get to tout a famous face standing by their product, while actors get a big paycheck that can pay off their student loans or finalize construction on their third beach house. 

While you might recognize commercial actors from time to time, some of the biggest stars in Hollywood have done some real head-scratching ads. It's common for notable celebrities to appear in commercials for countries like Japan, but other A-listers appeared in strange commercials well before they ever had their big break. Other times, a celebrity made an interesting decision to act against type for the sake of advertising. Whatever the case may be as to why one of these 14 actors took on a commercial gig, if you haven't seen them yet, you certainly won't forget them now. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger has had quite the prolific career, seamlessly transitioning from world-renowned bodybuilder to blockbuster movie star to even governor of California for eight years. But one of the strangest things Schwarzenegger's ever been a part of in his career are a series of commercials for a Japanese energy drink. The actor is somewhat notorious for having done plenty of advertisements in the country to capitalize on his worldwide fame, but it's safe to say no one would expect him to play an evil spirit released from a bottle of Alinamin V.

Lots of these Alinamin V commercials may even raise the question among viewers as to what it's exactly promising. In one, Schwarzenegger maniacally laughs while being flooded with gold coins, while in another he helps carry an old woman across a farm towards the sunrise, which doesn't even have anything to do with the product. At the very least, it seems that Japanese television audiences were compelled to give Alinamin V a shot based on its celebrity endorsement, given just how many of these adverts Schwarzenegger was a part of. 

Nearly a decade before she was the glue on the set of "Friends," Courteney Cox made some pretty iconic appearances as a struggling actor, including a cameo in Bruce Springsteen's music video for "Dancing in the Dark." Only a year later, she lucked out again by landing a starring role in this groundbreaking commercial for Tampax. Dressed in era-appropriate yoga attire, Cox confidently stands behind tampons as a cleaner alternative to pads. However, what made the ad so revolutionary at the time was that it was the first known utterance of the word "period" on national television. At the time, some networks even refused to run it for that reason. 

During an appearance on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" in 1996, Cox reminisced on the reaction to the ad, saying, "I actually got fan mail from this commercial that no one was ever going to see." While Cox has certainly done much more recognizable work since 1985, she hasn't forgotten her roots. In 2022, she parodied the Tampax ad on her Instagram to discuss the travails of menopause, which has been liked over one million times. 

It can be quite disorienting to see an actor like Bryan Cranston in a show like "Malcolm in the Middle," given how iconic the actor is now for playing the ruthless drug kingpin Walter White. Cranston's transformation from childhood to "Breaking Bad" wasn't without its fair share of weird day jobs, as many working actors can attest to. From a Mars Bar commercial that required him to learn to rappel off a mountain to a Shield deodorant ad where he dressed as a skunk, Cranston's strangest commercial gig might have been a brief TV spot for Preparation H in the 1980s. 

In the ad, Cranston looks like a cross between Walter White and Hal Wilkerson, touting the "oxygen action" of Preparation H to aid with hemorrhoidal inflammation. During an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," Cranston commented on his decision to take the role, joking, "I justified it by saying, 'Well, I'm an expert in hemorrhoids but not a sufferer.'" He even still remembered his lines from the commercial over 30 years later, though he admitted he still has no idea what "oxygen action" even means.

Natalie Portman was 13 years old when she got her big break with her screen debut in 1994's "Léon: The Professional." In the years that followed, Portman became a bona fide star with films like "Garden State," "Black Swan," and of course, the "Star Wars" prequels, after which Portman and her career were never the same. But even diehard fans of Portman's career may not have seen her series of commercials for Lux, a Japanese shampoo company advertising their "Super Rich" brand of shampoo.

It's true that the commercials do showcase Portman's gorgeous hair, but they also have a story arc of their own, in which Portman rides up to an audition in a motorcycle, showcases her sword-fighting skills, and lands a role in a film where she fights while her hair flows in the breeze. What Hollywood insiders might find a little puzzling about these commercials is how glamorous it makes the film industry look, when in reality no one ever auditions in a room that fancy. The important thing is, Portman does look incredibly good wielding an épée, which is likely the only thing Japanese audiences care about. 

What's more surprising: that Paul Rudd starred in a commercial for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or the fact that he hasn't aged a day since then? The answer is probably both, as many fans might not know about the work of Paul Rudd before his breakout role in the 1995 film "Clueless," as well as recurring roles in TV shows like "Sisters" and "Friends." However, Rudd made his acting debut only a few years earlier in 1991, promoting Nintendo's introduction to the 16-bit era with their follow-up to the highly popular NES. 

In the commercial, Rudd is a teenager who sneaks into an abandoned lot to play the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or "SNES") on a massive screen. Other teens join in, enraptured by watching Rudd play titles like "F-Zero," "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past," and "Sim City," which seems oddly prophetic about the future of competitive video gaming. Hopefully, someone at Nintendo can capitalize on the commercial's retroactive virality by recruiting Rudd to star in an advertisement for the Nintendo Switch's successor, or maybe even have Rudd appear in the upcoming live-action "The Legend of Zelda" movie. 

Paul Rudd isn't the only celebrity to show up in commercials for Nintendo. Over the years, the video game giant has recruited the likes of Robin Williams, Annie Murphy, and Brie Larson, but the most surprising person to show up in a Nintendo advertisement has to be Penelope Cruz. By the time she appeared in an ad for "New Super Mario Bros. 2" for the Nintendo 3DS XL, Cruz was already an Academy Award-winning actress for Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." But worldwide renown doesn't mean the actress can't spend her downtime rescuing princesses and collecting coins.

In the ad, Cruz is playing "New Super Mario Bros. 2" on her 3DS XL before she's joined by her sister, Monica, to compete in co-op mode. As punishment for losing against her younger sister, Penelope dons the iconic Super Mario outfit and, speaking Italian, asks a grocery store worker if she can have a mushroom. It's a surprisingly silly turn from the typically dramatic actress, and it's not even her only team-up with Nintendo, as she also stars in another delightfully cute 3DS commercial that sees her playing "Animal Crossing: New Leaf" and attracting the ire of a little girl. 

It seems that as long as it isn't related to "Star Wars," Harrison Ford is down to do anything in Hollywood, as evidenced by his tendency to fly over to Japan to film commercials for various products. Many fans may have seen Han Solo himself pick up a PlayStation 3 controller to advertise the video game "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception," but Ford was actually a lot more involved in a series of ads for a Japanese beer company called Kirin, which he filmed in the '90s.

One of the more peculiar commercials to come out of Ford's Kirin campaign featured him relaxing in a sauna with a Japanese man, as the two fantasize about drinking an ice cold lager beer before running out in a panic to get themselves a can. In another, much simpler commercial, Ford picks up a Kirin bottle at the beach and is then handed a fried corn on the cob to go along with it. There's even one that seems to reference his experience as Indiana Jones, as he tirelessly wanders the jungle in search of his companion only to find that his Kirin beers are being stolen. 

Jennifer Lawrence broke through in Hollywood at a young age, receiving her first Oscar nomination for "Winter's Bone" at 20 years old, and two years later, actually winning best actress for "Silver Linings Playbook." From "The Hunger Games" to "No Hard Feelings," Lawrence's transformation game is beyond impressive, but like many actors, she started out with roles in some pretty embarrassing commercials. One of those was for MTV's "My Super Sweet 16," which featured her playing a bratty birthday girl and even nabbed her a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) card.

However, Lawrence's most puzzling commercial gig by far was at 14 years old, when she starred in a very risqué "Burger King" commercial. She plays a regular teenage girl in the bedroom of Whopper Jr., who tells her she can always "have it her way." Their flirtation is interrupted by the entrance of Whopper's father (Whopper Sr.?), also dressed as a burger, who chides his son for selling himself for a buck. When his dad leaves, Whopper tells Lawrence, "Eat me." This would be a somewhat funny commercial — if the teens in it weren't minors. Either way, Lawrence is probably much happier doing commercials for fashion lines like Dior and Dolce Vita. 

Leonardo DiCaprio has done a lot of commercials throughout his long and prolific acting career. From childhood to his teenage years alone, DiCaprio appeared in ads for Bubble Yum, Honda Civic, and Kraft Singles. And while DiCaprio has turned down plenty of huge roles and is one of the most famous movie stars in the entire world, he's still up for selling high-end goods from time to time. He's even gone to Japan to lend some of his Hollywood stardom to various products. 

One such example is DiCaprio's ad campaign for Jim Beam whiskey, in which he meticulously chips away at a giant ice sphere to fit in his small whiskey glass. When it takes too long, he simply snaps his fingers, and the sphere disintegrates into crushed ice for his drink. Thankfully, DiCaprio's turn with an ice pick didn't have the same disastrous outcome as his climactic scene in "Django Unchained," filmed only a few years earlier than this commercial, in which he cut his hand open on a glass mid-performance. 

2024 was truly Sabrina Carpenter's year, from hit songs "Espresso" and "Please, Please, Please" to her sold-out "Short 'n Sweet" tour to earning her first Grammy nominations, including all four major categories. However, real fans know that this acclaim and success didn't come out of nowhere. Carpenter has been working from a very young age, starring in the Disney Channel series "Girl Meets World" as a teenager and releasing her first album over a decade ago. Even if you've somehow missed all that, you may have seen Carpenter recently pop up in ads for Redken and the Olympics. 

Along with the movies and TV shows that Sabrina Carpenter fans never knew she was in, the future pop star also had quite a few commercial roles earlier in her career, including one notable performance in an ad for Miracle Whip when she was 12 years old. An angry medieval mob storms up to a door, demanding to burn the unholy bottle of Miracle Whip. A confused Carpenter answers the door, and defiantly tells the mob to "try it before making such wicked accusations," and shuts the door on them. Even as a child star, you can tell that Carpenter was born to be a pop diva. 

It's no secret that Eddie Murphy has starred in some of the biggest movies of all time, whether it's leading iconic comedies like "Beverly Hills Cop" or "The Nutty Professor," or lending his voice to animated films like "Mulan" and "Shrek." But something not many people may know is that Murphy provided his voice and image to a series of advertisements for Toyota in Japan. Murphy even drove a Toyota himself, as the world discovered thanks to one of the actor's most damning scandals. 

Prior to the Internet revealing these commercials to Murphy's fans in the West, the actor's reputation was damaged after he got caught giving a ride in his Toyota SUV to a sex worker in Los Angeles. Although Murphy was not charged with a crime, it did prove that he had an affection for Toyota outside of these Japan-exclusive commercials. However, it might change the way some people watch these ads, which feature Murphy emphatically telling viewers to buy a Toyota Celica, going as far as to kiss the hood of the car and saying, "It's almost as popular as I am." 

Zendaya Coleman has come a long way from childhood to starring in "Dune" and the MCU "Spider-Man" movies, but many of her fans were first introduced to her as a Disney Channel actor. Before becoming an A-list movie star, Zendaya played major roles in two Disney sitcoms: "Shake It Up" and "K.C. Undercover," though even before that she was brushing shoulders with Disney royalty. In her early modeling career, Zendaya appeared as a backup dancer in a commercial for Sears, which starred then-Disney icon Selena Gomez. 

For those who watch the musical commercial, in which Gomez and other kids promote a back-to-school line of clothing, it can be hard to spot Zendaya, but look out for the familiar enthusiastic dancer in the third set piece. Zendaya even reflected on the experience of shooting the commercial in an interview with J-14, saying, "That's a funny commercial because it's so weird to think that later on — Ross [Lynch] was in it, Leo Howard was in it — and we were backup dancers, we weren't even the lead kids." 

Brad Pitt has one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood, but even for him there was a time when he would take any job he could. He's made the effort of flying to Japan to lend his famous face to advertisements for designer jeans and Japanese energy drinks, but one of his more surprising early career commercials was for none other than Pringles. In fact, this 1980s commercial is so unhinged and of-its-time that it's bound to make you cringe, if not laugh at how ridiculous it is.

The commercial centers on a group of shirtless guys at the beach, including Pitt, enjoying cans of Pringles and attracting the attention of some hot ladies clad in bikinis, who also happen to love Pringles. They all party very seductively as a jingle touts Pringles as "the fever reliever" — which is highly unrealistic, as there's no scenes of these hotties getting their hands stuck at the bottom of the can. It's possible that Pitt isn't ashamed at all of this early career work, given how he's talked about other early odd jobs of his, such as wearing a chicken costume for the Mexican chain El Pollo Loco. 

Meghan Markle is one of the biggest celebrities in the entire world, but it unfortunately has very little to do with her acting career. Despite having a seven-year run on the USA Network drama "Suits," Markle rose to A-list fame after marrying Prince Harry, son of King Charles III, thereby making her the first American to join the British royal family as the Duchess of Sussex. Her life ever since has been tabloid fodder, for better or for worse, but it's also exposed the public to some of her earlier acting work, including an oddly funny commercial for Tostitos. 

In the ad, Markle shops in a grocery store for party supplies while her inner monologue debates buying a different brand of chips, getting slightly sidetracked by the thought of the unwanted "Gary" before naturally settling on a bag of Tostitos Scoops. It's pretty incredible that the actress has come quite a long way from this simple ad, but thankfully, the Duchess of Sussex doesn't have to worry about buying potato chips for herself anymore, as the royal family probably has someone whose job it is to pick up Tostitos for them.