At the age of nineteen, Langenkamp worked for "The Tulsa Tribune". She saw an ad looking for extras for Francis Ford Coppola's "The Outsiders" in the summer of 1983. Auditions took place at a nearby elementary school where Langenkamp gave the casting director her polaroid. She got a call back to appear in a high school scene. Amidst what seemed like "hundreds" of other adolescents, she had to wear 1950s based attire. The same summer, Coppola was shooting another film, "Rumble Fish". Her friend got a phone call to appear in a street scene. Her friend's mother felt more comfortable with Langenkamp going with her to the set at night. The assistant director informed her that they had dialogue and wanted to give it to her. She did several takes of her saying dialogue to Matt Dillon's character. The scenes didn't make it into the final product of neither film. Despite this, these extra parts helped her get into the Screen Actors Guild.