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Surprising Jobs Of 20 Celebrities Before They Became A-Listers

An actor can't be easily successful by just trying their best because this job requires both skills and talents. If they attempt to persuade their passion for acting, they are still appreciated for their effort but it will be really hard for them to make it big. As a result, it comes as no surprise that actors sometimes have more than 1 job to be able to afford their life or make their dream come true until they find their right place in this industry.
Today, we see many talented actors who have become A-listers with a list of movies offering them as stars and they seem to really enjoy their life with their acting career. But many of them weren't born into a life of stardom and fame. To record these achievements, they used to struggle with many odd and weird jobs. Even some of them had never thought that they would be famous later. They were just normal people and find jobs to stabilize their life.  Let's take a look at what these 20 celebrities were doing before being an actor!

#1 He rose to fame playing Han Solo, but before that, Harrison Ford was a carpenter

Source: reuters

"I had a house at the time I wanted to remodel, a bit of the wreck of a house. I'd invest money in tools but wouldn't have money for materials, so I realized this was another way of putting food on the table," he wrote. "I was quite surprised when I was offered the part."

#2 Before winning an Oscar, Whoopi Goldberg worked as a mortuary beautician

Source: getflyimages

"There was an ad in the paper! And I'm a licensed beautician as well because I went to beauty school," she said. "It's a rough gig. You have to be a certain kind of person. And you have to love people in order to make them worthy of a great send-off." She said about her previous job - a mortuary beautician.

#3 Before playing a doctor on the big screen, Ken Jeong was an actual doctor

Source: Insider

In an interview with NPR, Jeong said, "During the day, I was a doctor. At night, you know, I was a comic. And it was really just to let off some steam. It just became my golf, you know, in many ways. Most doctors have golf as a hobby. Mine was doing comedy." "I was so super serious as a doctor, I would bark orders to my nurses. I was hard-core. I wanted to make sure I did my job right. I was perfectly trained to be a physician. You know, it wasn't a fluke. I worked hard at it," he added.

#4 Matt LeBlanc was on track to be a carpenter before making it big on TV

Source: voici

Matt LeBlanc said that he was almost a carpenter before being an actor. "Everyone in my family goes to work with some kind of tool in their hands," he said.

#5 Nicole Kidman once studied massage therapy

Source: getflyimages

In 2017, Nicole Kidman revealed that she took a massage course when her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and started experiencing "terrible seizure of the muscles." She liked it so much that she began to do it for others.  "I still love giving people massages," she added.

#6 Before he took on the role of Wolverine, Hugh Jackman was a high-school gym teacher

Source: reuters

Hugh Jackman had a pretty normal career before he took on Hollywood. He was a high-school gym teacher at Uppingham School in England.

#7 Before she became Rachel from "Friends," Jennifer Aniston worked as a telemarketer and a bike messenger

Source: AP images

Jennifer Aniston used to have several odd jobs before being famous. She worked as a bike messenger in New York City when she was 19, and she's called it "the toughest job" she ever did. She was also a waitress and telemarketer. She told InStyle, "I waitressed for years in New York before I got anything. And I was a telemarketer selling time-shares in the Poconos. I didn't make one sale. I was terrible at it. I was like, 'Why do we have to call people at dinnertime?'"

#8 Sofía Vergara almost became a dentist before taking on Hollywood

Source: getflyimages

Vergara told that she originally wanted to be a doctor before becoming an actress. "Being a doctor takes so much time, years of studying. It's difficult," she said. "So the next best thing for me at that time was to be a dentist. So I went to dental school, but I didn't finish."

#9 Bradley Cooper dabbled in journalism before taking on big movie roles

Source: reuters

When being a senior at Germantown Academy prep school, Bradley Cooper used to be a contributor for Philadelphia Daily News. He wrote a piece called 'When Best Friends Cross the Line' about my relationship with my friend Deb [Landes]

#10 Years before he started acting, Christopher Walken worked alongside a lion tamer

Source: getflyimages

Christopher Walken worked with a lion tamer for a circus. The actor told Vanity Fair in 2012, "It was a touring circus that was owned by a man named Terrell Jacobs. It was just one big tent, and he was a lion tamer. He didn't have any kids, but the bit was that I would dress up as his son in an identical outfit. When he would finish his act, there would be one lion left, and I used to go in and have this lion do tricks."

#11 He'll forever be known as Michael Scott to most fans, but Steve Carell was once a neighborhood mailman

Source: AP images

Steve Carell worked as a mailman for four months in a small town in Massachusetts. He claimed that it was the hardest job he's ever had, and he even had to use his own car for the gig.

#12 Before becoming one of Charlie's Angels, Lucy Liu was an aerobics instructor

Source: getflyimages

"I worked five days a week as a secretary and on weekends, during the day, worked as an aerobics instructor and in the evening worked as a hostess in a place called Tennessee Mountain in SoHo," she said.

#13 Brad Pitt had to wear a chicken costume at work before he became an international heartthrob

Source: getflyimages

After dropping out of the University of Missouri's journalism school two weeks before graduation to become an actor, he had to get odd jobs to pay the bills. He ended up donning a chicken suit to hand out flyers and attract customers to the chain restaurant El Pollo Loco.
Pitt also told Lipton he "drove strippers" as a job. In addition to providing transportation for them, he said he was responsible for various things throughout the parties, like playing music.

#14 George Clooney was selling insurance before he became one of the most iconic stars around

Source: getflyimages

George Clooney dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting, but it didn't happen right away. In the time in between, he worked a few odd jobs to make money — and one of them involved selling insurance.

#15 Before taking on award-winning roles, Amy Adams worked as a waitress at Hooters

Source: AP images

In order to make money for college, Amy Adams worked at the popular chain restaurant Hooters.

#16 Years before becoming a famous actress, Taraji P. Henson worked at the Pentagon

Source: reuters

In college, Taraji P. Henson had a few different jobs. According to Vanity Fair, she worked as a receptionist at the Pentagon by day and a Tina Turner cover singer on a Potomac River cruise ship by night.

#17 Rachel McAdams worked at McDonald's long before snagging an Oscar nomination

Source: AP images

The actress told Glamour in 2012 that she worked at the fast-food chain alongside her brother and sister when she was 16 years old. McAdams said that while "it was a great place to work"

#18 Before taking on an iconic role on television, Jon Hamm worked as a set dresser for soft-core pornography films

Source: Insider

"I was like, 'I need a job.' My friend said, 'You can have my job. I'm doing set dressing.' I said, 'I don't know how to do that.' She says, 'It's not that hard. They'll hire anybody.'"

#19 Melissa McCarthy was serving coffee at Starbucks before she made it big

Source: Insider

Melissa McCarthy said that she worked at a Starbucks in Santa Monica when she first moved there.

#20 Megan Fox wore a banana suit outside a smoothie shop before her big role in "Transformers" (2007)

Source: getflyimages

Megan Fox said she worked at a smoothie shop in Florida before becoming an actress. "It was weird, and what was bad about it was that your face wasn't hidden," she said.
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