I’m not the type of person who really cares what a celebrity is doing with their life, other than what roles they are working on for upcoming movies. I don’t care who broke up with whom, where they were seen eating or swimming, or any of the other millions of things that the paparazzi feel we need to invade their privacy to know. As far as I’m concerned, celebrities are just people who are doing their jobs. Unless you want to discuss how they did in the last movie they were in, I’m not interested in their day-to-day shenanigans and I think that the reason so many celebrities are crazy is because too many people are interested in their every move. That would certainly wear on me day after day! With that said, it does interest me to know who these people were before they became famous. What they did to pay the bills before every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the street could recognize them on sight. This type of information intrigues me because it just goes to show that they were once every day people, and it gives hope to the rest of us every day people still living paycheck to paycheck that it might not always be that way. If it can happen to them, it can happen to you! And that is a fun hope to have!
1. Whoopi Goldberg was a morgue beautician and before that, a phone sex operator! She says she can never go back to the last job because she has too unique of a voice and everyone would recognize her on the other end of the phone, not that she needs the extra cash anymore.
2. Patrick Dempsey was a professional juggler. He even competed in the International Jugglers Competition Junior Division in 1982 and 1983 and placed 2nd! Dr. McDreamy is even more dreamy, if you are into jugglers that is.
3. Johnny Depp was a solicitor who sold ball point pens over the phone. I wonder if he had fun with his job by pretending to be different characters on each phone call.
4. The sweet Amy Adams, who makes me think of the movie Enchanted when I think of her, worked at Hooters. Most likely because she wanted an employee discount on their great wings.
5. Rachel McAdams, whom I loved in The Notebook, worked at McDonalds every summer for three years while in high school.
6. Channing Tatum is well-known for his skills as a male stripper from his movie Magic Mike. Well, he learned those skills while he stripped for 8 months at the age of 19! That just goes to show that stripping not only pays the bills, but gives you marketable skills that can make you millions as well.
7. Hugh Jackman, best known for his role as Wolverine, was once a PE teacher who did part-time work as a party clown charging $50 per show.
8. Jon Bon Jovi used to make Christmas decorations.
9. Helen Mirren had the best job ever of promoting an amusement park in Southend on Sea. You would think amusement parks promoted themselves just by being amusement parks.
10. Kanye West, the rapper, songwriter, and record producer used to work at The Gap. I can’t imagine him being the best at customer service.
11. Jennifer Hudson worked at Burger King running the drive through, and using the mic to practice her singing before quitting to work on the Disney cruise line.
12. Eva Mendes worked a mall selling hot dogs at Hot Dog On A Stick. I wonder if she got to keep her outfit.
13. Tom Cruise wasn’t always a member of the Church Of Scientology. He once wanted to become a priest when he was attending the Franciscan Seminary.
14. Everyone’s favorite Friends actor Matt LeBlanc was once a carpenter.
15. Ozzy Osbourne worked at a slaughterhouse for 2 years when he was 15 years old, The singer is now a vegetarian. I would be too after having that job.
16. Harrison Ford was a self-taught professional carpenter which allowed him to support his small family while taking small non-credited roles in films.
17. Jim Carrey used to clean factories before becoming a regular on In Living Color.
18. Lucy Liu was a waitress at a comedy club and she also taught aerobics.
19. George Clooney sold insurance door to door before becoming famous for his role on the television series ER playing Dr. Ross.
20. Sheryl Crow taught music to elementary students which allowed her to sing in bands on the weekends.
21. Christopher Walken had a job as a lion tamer for the circus when he was a teenager.
22. Demi Moore probably had the worst job there is, a debt collector.
23. Vince Vaughn was saving lives as a lifeguard at the YMCA before becoming a well-known actor.
24. Mick Jagger, lead singer for The Rolling Stones, worked in a psychiatric hospital as a porter which may have inspired the song “19th Nervous Breakdown”.
25. Simon Cowell started at the very bottom of the music industry as a post boy working in the mail room at EMI Record Label because his father was an executive for EMI and got him the job.
26. Gerard Butler has a law degree but hasn’t practiced law since getting fired from his first job at a law firm. Thankfully it didn’t work out because then he might not have been our favorite Spartan King Leonidas in 300 which would have been a shame.
27. Evangeline Lilly was once a flight attendant before playing the role of a flight crash victim in the TV series Lost.
28. Nicole Kidman was a massage therapist before her first starring role in the film Days of Thunder (however the first movie I remember seeing with her is Far and Away).
29. Danny De Vito was not only a hair dresser prior to his first big role on the TV show Taxi, but he was also a hair dresser for the recently deceased. Doing hair for those at the mortuary, but only for elderly women who had died.
30. Victoria Beckham, the once Spice Girl turned model and fashion designer, once worked for a BBC Sex Education Show where she played the part of a sperm on roller skates.
Knowing what these now famous people did before they were famous makes you wonder who you see on a daily basis that might win the fame lottery and be thrown into the spotlight on a moment’s notice. It could be your waiter at a restaurant, or the person who handed your food out the fast-food window. Or, maybe it is you! This just goes to show that your dreams are possible and no matter what you do now, that doesn’t mean that some day you won’t be living those dreams!