Entertainment
Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Gosling and More Stars Who Got Their Acting Breaks on Soap Operas
Before fame, Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Gosling, Demi Moore and more got their start on daytime soaps — and they’ve never stopped crediting the grind for making them stars.
The daily grind of daytime dramas has been an excellent training ground for these stars. Find out where they launched their careers.
Ryan Gosling
The Project Hail Mary star got his start on children’s TV, but credits Days of Our Lives star Deidre Hall as his “OG acting inspiration,” telling the Happy Sad Confused podcast that watching the 78-year-old while growing up was “an incredible acting class.” Flattered, Deidre invited the 45-year-old to appear on the long-running show. Replied Ryan, “This is a very enthusiastic yes to a very cordial invitation… Anytime, anywhere. You tell me, I’ll be there.”
Michael B. Jordan
The Oscar winner took over the role of troubled teen Reggie Montgomery on All My Children in 2003 when the late Chadwick Boseman was fired after objecting to the stereotypical character. The 39-year-old has never been shy about giving credit to the since-canceled show for launching his career. “I never knew how many casting directors and executives in Hollywood would tell me, ‘Oh man, my wife really loves you,’ or like, ‘Oh, she watches you all the time on the stories… Come in for this and read for that,’” he’s told People. “It opened up so many doors.”
Demi Moore
Cast at 19 as investigative journalist Jackie Templeton on the super-popular daytime drama General Hospital, the Golden Globe winner recalled feeling “a little terrified,” but grateful for the opportunity. “It was like a real job where I was going to be paid and have an actual salary,” the 63-year-old told People. “Meaning that I didn’t have to have another job, I could actually live by doing this thing that I loved.” After she left the show in 1984, she went on to become one of the highest-paid female movie stars ever!
Amber Tamblyn
In 2024, the 42-year-old returned to her daytime roots to celebrate General Hospital’s 60th anniversary. “Wow, that was amazing,” the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants star, who played Emily Quartermaine from 1995 to 2001, said afterward in a clip shared to Facebook. “And emotional and beautiful.” Just a teen during her run on the show, Amber admitted she had her first kiss, with Jonathan Jackson’s Lucky Spencer, on the show!
Laurence Fishburne
Growing up in working-class Brooklyn with his single mom, the Matrix star was acting by age 10, spending three years as Joshua Hall on One Life to Live before lying about his age to get cast in 1979’s Apocalypse Now. But being on the soap didn’t mean a big payday. “I didn’t have the nicest clothes, all that s**t,” the 64-year-old told Vulture, adding, “The kids in the neighborhood would be like, ‘Hey, movie star. How come you’re dressed like a bum? What the f**k?’ That kind of thing.”
Justin Hartley
Before he broke out in the primetime hit This Is Us, the 49-year-old played Nicholas “Fox” Foxworth Crane on the now-canceled cult soap Passions from 1998 until 2006. “They’d have me with no shirt walking around a hospital for three weeks,” he recalled of his days on the show. “It was ridiculous, but I loved it.” He later returned to daytime drama, playing Adam Newman on The Young and the Restless from 2014 to 2016.
