Ellen DeGeneres, well-known as being the host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, has also been an actress since the 90s. In 1996, the movie Jerry Maguire was released and near the end of it, there is a woman that looks like Ellen. This left many fans wondering if it was in fact her in the film.
Though the woman in the film does resemble Ellen, she was not in Jerry Maguire. Before she started her talk show in 2003, Ellen had an extensive acting career. Even though she was acting in movies at the same time that Jerry Maguire came out, she did not make an appearance in the film.
Continue reading to find out more about Jerry Maguire and what films Ellen has actually worked on.
Jerry Maguire Movie
Jerry Maguire was released in 1996. It is an American romantic comedy-drama sports film, written, produced and directed by Cameron Crowe. It stars Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr and Renée Zellweger. It received good reviews and financial success when it was released and brought in $273 million worldwide when its budget was only $50 million. It was also nominated for five Academy Awards and three Golden Globes.
Tom Cruise’s character, Jerry Maguire, is a sports agent who leaves his job to start his own agency. Renee Zellweger’s character, Dorothy Boyd, quits the company and leaves with Maguire. Their agency only has one client at the beginning, Cuba Gooding Jr’s character: Rod Tidwell. Over the course of the film, Jerry and Dorothy start to fall in love while also trying to bring in more clients.
The character that people think is Ellen in the film only appears near the end for about ten seconds. Despite lack of much screen time, Internet Movie Database (IMDB), confirms that every actor that appears in the film is listed on their site. There are about 175 actors listed on the Jerry Maguire IMDB page. Roles as small as “airplane passenger” and “answering machine voice” are all listed with their corresponding actors and actresses. If Ellen was in the film, she would be listed.
Ellen’s Acting Background
While Ellen may not have been in Jerry Maguire, she has been in plenty of films, especially around the same time that Jerry Maguire was released. Her first appearance as an actress was a small role in a television show called Duet in 1989, she went on to get a bigger role in a television show called Open House later on in the year. Her first, big role was in the movie Mr. Wrong in 1996 where she played a starring role. Notably, this is the same year that Jerry Maguire came out. She also had her own sitcom titled Ellen that aired from 1994 to 1998 which is the platform she used to come out as gay. Following that, she started to focus on voice acting as she voiced a dog in Doctor Dolittle in 1998 and later on her famous role in Finding Nemo in 2003 as a main character, Dory. Once her talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show started in 2003, she started to place less of a focus on her acting and instead only took on small roles like starring as herself on The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory.
She has also produced a lot of material, more so than projects she has acted in. She has been the executive producer in 40 projects, including being the executive producer on her talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She was also the executive producer for television shows like Ellen’s Design Challenge (2015), Fearless (2018) and Little Big Shots (2016). So, even though Ellen DeGeneres was not in Jerry Maguire, she does have an impressive resume as both an actress and producer.