Kristen Stewart Debuted In An Awful Prequel To A Live-Action Adaptation Of A Classic Cartoon

Every career has to start somewhere, but it's hard to imagine anyone ending up with a truly brilliant career when their first film appearance was in the truly terrible 2000 comedy prequel "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas." Somehow, Brian Levant's critically panned 1994 film adaptation of the 1960s animated series "The Flintstones" was a box office hit for Universal, and it ended up making a prequel that came out six years later. Not only was it an unwanted, bizarre film, but it didn't even have the stars from the original, as apparently John Goodman, who played Fred Flintstone, begged producer Stephen Spielberg to keep him out of any future "Flintstones" films. 

Starring Mark Addy as Fred Flintstone and Stephen Baldwin as Barney Rubble (replacing Rick Moranis), "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas" tells the story of Fred and Barney meeting and falling in love with their future wives, Wilma (Kristen Johnston) and Betty (Jane Krakowski), and it was a massive flop. Nowadays, it's kind of an oddity, a weird little footnote in franchise adaptation history ... except that it's also where Academy Award-nominated talent Kristen Stewart made her (uncredited) film debut. It's true: She might be better known these days for starring in the "Twilight" films before trying to fully eschew that image (becoming an indie darling before being nominated for an Oscar for her turn as Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín's 2021 film memoir "Spencer"), but once upon a time, Stewart was just a child actor trying to break into the industry.

Early on in "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas," Fred and Barney take the ladies on a double date to a carnival, where they play all kinds of carnival games. There's a very brief shot of a father and daughter at a ring toss game, and we see the girl toss a large ring (one the size of a hula hoop). We don't see her face, but know that the girl is Stewart, as she once confirmed it on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," joking about how she didn't really seem to give it her best effort. To be fair, it's hard to look that excited about throwing a hula-hoop covered in papier-mâché over a person dressed as a caveman while wearing something resembling a 1970s bathroom rug.

Indeed, long before she was absolutely killing it in films like the deeply unsettling "Personal Shopper" or the emotionally devastating "Still Alice," Stewart played the ring toss girl in this "Flintstones" prequel while appearing as an extra in the background of the Disney Channel original TV movie "The Thirteenth Year."

Thankfully, for all of us, Stewart soon scored a starring role in David Fincher's "Panic Room," launching her career almost overnight. Though many child stars go on to choose jobs out of the spotlight, Stewart's own child star days led her to an incredible career in acting as an adult — though she's always been excellent.

While we don't really get a chance to see Stewart's acting chops in the very short sequence in "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas," it wouldn't be too much longer before audiences got to appreciate her impressive talents. She's phenomenal in "Panic Room" (a movie that required quite a bit from its actors both because of its premise and Fincher's intense over-preparation as a director), with Stewart playing a young girl who gets trapped in a panic room with her mother — played by Jodie Foster — when violent burglars invade their new home. Admittedly, child actors have a tendency to be, well, kind of terrible because they just haven't had the life experiences to hone their craft yet, but Stewart gives the kind of performance you'd expect from someone twice her age.

After "Panic Room," Stewart would have a successful career as a child star before being cast as Bella Swan in the "Twilight" films when she was 18. Since then she's delivered great performances in a whole lot of fantastic movies, and I'm sure she'll only continue to impress us in the years to come. KStew rules, even if the first film she ever appeared in is a total stinker.