Before They Were Stars (2-for-1 Special): Julia Stiles & Samuel L. Jackson in “Ghostwriter”

The Back Row just finished recording a podcast about our favourite childhood TV shows, which will be posted up on the website tomorrow, and one show that got mentioned was Ghostwriter, the PBS series about teenager who solve crimes with the help of an invisible ghost who manipulates text and letters to give them messages. Anyway, Julia Stiles made her acting debut by doing a guest appearance on this show at the age of 12, playing an hilariously dated early-90s computer hacker. Samuel L. Jackson also made a few guest appearances as the main character’s father and while he was steadily working character actor and bit player at the time, he was not yet a “star”, so my appearance still meets my criteria. It’s so surreal watching this clip since you just automatically expect him to start swearing at any moment.