James Marsden has an enviable six-pack and a chiseled, lantern jaw. It’s come in plenty handy, since he’s played one of the leading members of the X-Men, Cyclops, and plenty of other heroic characters. He’s also appeared in “Superman Returns,” “Hairspray,” and is one of the lead characters in the recent miniseries for “The Stand.”
Before he made the jump to movies and TV, Marsden modeled for Versace. In recent years he’s put in a lot of time helping out small, independent movies. Examples include “Into the Grizzly Maze,” and “The D Train.” He’s also applied his voice to a few projects.
Uma Thurman
At the tender age of thirteen, the world got its first taste of Uma Thurman — she signed with Click Models and started appearing on the cover of “Glamour” magazine and the British edition of “Vogue.” Nowadays it's hard to find even a casual movie fan that doesn't know about this classic actress.
She's been in Quentin Tarantino classics like “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill,” and has made her mark on Gotham as Poison Ivy in “Batman & Robin.” Her list of roles continues to grow even now, with new projects still in production. She's recently made the jump to limited-length television series such as “Imposters,” “Chambers,” and “Suspicion.”
Rebecca Romijn
Rebecca Romijn was plenty used to showing off her physique when she signed on to act as Mystique in the 2000 “X-Men” movie. By that time, she had already posed for the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issue. She had also hit the runway as a tried-and-true supermodel for both Giorgio Armani and Victoria's Secret.
While her most well-known role is probably the blue mutant, Romijn has also been in several series such as “Eastwick,” “King & Maxwell,” and “Ugly Betty.” She will join the storied Star Trek franchise as “Number One” in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” which comes out in 2022.
January Jones
Before she appeared on “Mad Men” as Betty Draper (who was also a former model, now that we think about it,) Jones was an Abercrombie model, wearing a high-collared jean jacket and some big earrings. She got her start in acting with the pilot of “Get Real” in 1999, but her big break came five years later when she appeared in the “sequel” to “Dirty Dancing.”
From 2007 to 2015 she was Betty Francis/Draper before moving on to “The Last Man on Earth” and “Spinning Out.” She's also been in a few big movies, like “X-Men: First Class” and “Unknown.”
Djimon Hounsou
Homeless, down on his luck, and looking for anything, it was then that Djimon Hounsou met fashion designer Thierry Mugler, who got him to take a step into the modeling world. He was living in Paris at the time and spent plenty of time showing off chiseled features before moving to America and trying his hand at acting.
He had a few roles on “Beverly hills, 90210” and “ER” before earning a Golden Globe nomination in “Amistad.” He's now been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, voiced a character from the DC universe, and is set to star in “A Quiet Place Part II.”