1.
Before becoming a Marvel superhero, Simu Liu dressed up as Spider-Man for kids’ birthday parties. On an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! he said, “I would show up to these kids’ birthday parties and basically get attacked by them for an hour because no one ever believed I was the real Spider-Man.”
“I worked for a company that was a bit stingy. I have a feeling if you were given a movie quality suit and showed up some kids might actually believe it. I had less Marvel, more Walmart… It was awful. “
2.
During Oprah’s master class, Whoopi shared with Goldberg that she was once a beautician at the morgue. “I did hair and makeup for dead people. There was an ad in the newspaper! And I’m also a licensed cosmetologist because I went to beauty school. … It’s a tough gig. You must be a certain type of person. And you have to love people to make them worthy of a great farewell.”
Whoopi recalled her boss pranking her when she started the job. He asked her to come downstairs to meet him, but when she got there, a drawer seemed to open on its own. Then her boss showed up and said, “Hello, there.” Whoopi was so scared that she ran right into a door and knocked herself unconscious. When she came to, he said, “Well, the worst thing imaginable has happened. That’s it. This is the worst that can happen. It’s already happened.
3.
Tan France worked as a flight attendant when he was 19. The Queer Eye star – who is of Pakistani descent – has faced racism from passengers. In his memoirs he wrote: “This was a few years after 9/11 and they had no qualms about openly labeling my people terrorists it would be clear that they were not happy that I was the one serving them .”
He lasted two months in the role before he had enough. During his most recent trip, “ruffians” were so “aggressive” and “rude” that he snapped and told them to “get their own coffee” before telling the chief flight attendant to stop.
4.
Growing up, Taylor Swift lived with her family on a Christmas tree farm. “We all had jobs,” she told Esquire. “Mine was picking the praying mantis pods from the trees and collecting them so the bugs wouldn’t hatch in people’s homes. … The only reason that was my job was because I was too small to help lift trees.”
5.
Gabourey Sidibe worked as a phone sex operator for three years before getting the lead role in Precious. She told People, “I knew that when people asked me, ‘So, do you have acting training?’ My drama school was on the phone pretending to be a super young 21 year old college girl named Melody. I know that was my acting! But I felt too stupid to say it.
6.
Vera Wang began figure skating as a child and competed nationally until she was 20 – when she failed to qualify for the 1968 Winter Olympics. “I was devastated when I didn’t qualify for the Olympic team,” she told Post magazine. “I had a nervous breakdown and ended up in Paris for a semester, where I realized I had a passion for fashion.”
Throughout her career, Vera has combined her love of figure skating and fashion, designing costumes for Olympic skaters such as Michelle Kwan and Nathan Chen. “It’s not for the faint of heart,” Vera told People. “If a strap breaks or the bead on your sleeve gets caught as you turn, your entire Olympics is over. It’s that serious.”
7.
Megan Fox’s first job was at a smoothie shop. Speaking on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Megan said, “The only real job I’ve ever had was working at a little smoothie shop in Florida. And I mostly worked behind the counter, but once a week someone had to dress up as a piece of fruit and go out and stand by the highway… I was a banana, a giant banana.
8th.
When he was 14, Tom Hanks was selling snacks at a ballpark. On an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tom said: “I went down to sell peanuts and soda pop and thought it would be a bit like on a TV show where everyone is helping the little kid. … First of all, I robbed twice. Note to self: Hide those wads of cash. Don’t walk around with a wad of money sticking out of your pocket.
“Then I encountered professional salespeople who didn’t like the fact that children were there. So, I’m 14 years old, and a guy, probably in his late 50s, yells, ‘Hey, kid! That was my sale! I came down the aisle. You took my offer, little one!’”
9.
In 1988 Matthew McConaughey won a scholarship that gave him the opportunity to spend a year in Australia as an exchange student. Although he spent his time cleaning chicken coops, he looks back fondly on that time. “It’s been a very life changing year because I’ve been removed from all the crutches I’ve had in my life,” he told the Australian Way.
“I was on my own – stumbled, fell and survived. It’s been a great year to get to know myself. I’m an extrovert and it’s been a very introvert year and it has a lot to do with who I am now – one of the best things I’ve ever done,” he concluded.
10
At the age of 16 Christopher Walken worked as a trainee lion tamer in a circus with a lion named Sheba. “Who will refuse?” he asked during an interview with the Guardian. “I came into the cage and waved my whip, and she lazily got up and sat down like a dog and maybe roared a bit. I like cats very much. I’ve always liked cats. You are great company. “
11.
Before gaining worldwide fame with The Hangover, Ken Jeong was a doctor specializing in internal medicine. On an episode of NPR’s All Things Considered podcast, he said, “I was a doctor during the day. I was a comedian at night. And it was really just to blow off some steam. It just became my golf, you know, in a lot of ways. Most doctors have golf as a hobby. Mine was comedy.”
“I never admit that I’m a comedian,” he continued. “I never played. It was really important to me not to be Patch Adams. I was so super serious as a doctor. I barked orders to my nurses. I was hardcore job right. I was perfectly trained to be a doctor. You know it wasn’t a coincidence. I’ve worked hard on it.
12.
In the ’80s, Victoria Beckham starred as a cum on roller skates for a ` educational show called Body Matters before making it big as the Spice Girl.
13.
During a First We Feast interview, Ashton Kutcher revealed that he had many “very blue-collar jobs” growing up, including washing dishes and skinning deer at a butcher’s shop. But the most surprising? “I used to work in a grain factory sweeping Cheerio dust.”
“I think the biggest thing it taught me was appreciation,” he said. “When you have a job like that, at the end of the day, when you get home, you’re going to collapse from physical exhaustion. Actor seems even easier.”
14
Lucy Liu has worked as a secretary, hostess and even an aerobics teacher. “I worked seven days a week,” she told the Seattle Times. “I knew if I wanted to get into acting I needed money because I probably wasn’t going to make a lot of money right away. … For me it was exhausting work, but I loved the idea of why I did the work.”
fifteen.
Before Meghan Markle found fame with Suits, she freelanced in calligraphy to pay rent. During an interview with Esquire, Meghan said: “I went to an all-girls Catholic school for six years when the kids actually had handwriting classes. I’ve always had a tendency to understand cursive quite well. During the audition I acted as a pseudo-waitress. I didn’t wait on tables. I did calligraphy for Robin Thicke and Paula Patton’s wedding invitations.”
“I used to do this for Dolce & Gabbana’s celebrity correspondence over the holidays. I sat there with a little white tube sock on my hand to keep hand oil from getting on the card, trying to pay my bills during the audition. I’m glad that in the country where nobody seems to appreciate a handwritten note anymore, I can try to keep that alive,” she concluded.
Any other surprising or random jobs celebs had before they got famous? LMK in the comments below!
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