10 Celebrities Who Had To Fight Their Parents To Pursue Their Dreams

Who wouldn’t want their child to become a million-dollar star, right? Well, not really. Turns out there are a lot of mothers and fathers who disagree with their children’s dreams of becoming a celeb. Most of the time they think it’s a silly and unachievable plan that can ruin their children’s lives, so they discourage the kid. These celebrities who had to fight their parents to pursue their dreams were also the victims of this discouragement too.
So let’s discover the stories about these celebrities who had to fight their parents to achieve their glory. Some of them are quite sad to hear, others are really inspirational. Do you spot your favorite star on the list?

1. Dwayne Johnson

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Dwayne Johnson’s father is the famous wrestler Rocky "Soul Man" Johnson who is inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Yet when Dwayne expressed his wish to follow in his father's footsteps, Rocky was not happy. In fact, he was furious at his son’s decision and a big fight broke out between them. Dwayne recalled his father said: “Look around. Look what I have after all these years, and I want more for you.”

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However, The Rock stood his ground and chose to pursue his dream despite his dad’s disapproval. In the end, it was Dwayne's mother who finally intervened and convinced his father to change his mind. Rocky then agreed to train his son and the rest was history.

2. Jennifer Lopez

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Jennifer Lopez’s parents were not happy when they heard the news about how their daughter just dropped out of college to pursue her dreams. They told her that it was "really stupid" and "no Latinos did that." The disagreement was especially strong with Lopez’s mother. She did not understand that her daughter didn’t want to go to college and wanted to try and dance full-time. She and Lopez butted heads and had a big argument.

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The singer went against her mom by sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. She was homeless for a while but she accepted it as something she got to do to chase her dream. Lopez then got her first job dancing in Europe a few months later. After that, she quickly became a Fly Girl and moved to LA.

3. Jennifer Lawrence

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Similar to Lopez’s parents, Jennifer Lawrence’s mom and dad were also upset when she told them that she wanted to move to New York and become an actress. Lawrence was 14 at that time and she had some saved-up babysitting money beforehand, so she decided to keep convincing her parents about her dream instead of giving up.

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Eventually, Lawrence put her foot down and told them she was going to New York no matter what. Her parents were afraid for their daughter’s fate, so they made a compromise: she could go but his brother had to go with her. She could try acting for one summer, but if she failed then she had to go back and finish school. Well, she clearly did not fail.

4. Simu Liu

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Like a lot of Asian parents, Simu Liu’s father and mother also constantly disapproved of his dream of becoming an actor. To make his parents happy, Simu graduated from business school and became an accountant as they wanted. However, he quickly quit the job eight months later and pursued an acting career afterward.

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His relationship with his parents only went downhill from then. It wasn't until he landed his first major role in Kim's Convenience that they started to mend their connections. Everything got resolved after the heartfelt eight-page letter Simu send to his mom on her 60th birthday. They had a lot of healing conversations after that and admitted they were just flawed human beings trying to do their best.

5. Katy Perry

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Speaking of celebrities who had to fight their parents, the famous pop star Katy Perry had heavy pressure on her shoulders growing up. Her parents were ministers and they were very strict with their rules. She wasn't allowed to listen to secular music or say the words "deviled eggs." Katy first started out as a Christian singer but quickly turned to pop, which was strongly disapproved of by her parents.

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They were upset when I Kissed A Girl came out. During a sermon, her father told the congregation, "I kissed God — and I liked it!" The singer later shared that she and her parents coexist together. She stopped trying to change them and they didn’t try to change her anymore.

6. Sandra Oh

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Sandra Oh was also one of the celebrities who had to fight their parents to achieve her dream. Coming from the old traditions of Korea, her mother thought that acting was a lowly job and that her daughter should not put herself down to that level.

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In an interview with the Sunday Times Style Magazine, Sandra Oh shared her thoughts about her mom. “She's just a classic East Asian parent – constantly dissatisfied! But not being satisfied gives you drive, it's not bad," the actress said.

7. Daniel Dae Kim

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Like a lot of Asian kids, Daniel Dae Kim was given three choices of careers to pursue when he grew up: a doctor, lawyer, or banker. He accepted his fate until he took an acting class in college that changed him completely. After that, he took as many acting courses as he could and pursued an independent major in acting at a local neighboring college.

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When all of his friends were joining places like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, he chose to go to New York to pursue his acting career. Needless to say, his parents worried about him a lot. They were afraid that he was going to end up in poverty and couldn’t live a happy life with a wife and many kids. Like many Asian immigrant parents, their vision was for him to live wealthy and be able to support them when they get older.

8. Kerry Washington

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Kerry Washington shared about her unhappy time with her mom in an interview with USA Today. Her mother did not approve of her dream of becoming an actress.

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The poor woman even burst into tears and began sobbing when Kerry told her that she wanted to pursue an acting career. It was her worst nightmare that her daughter became a starving actress. “She felt, life is hard enough for you as a woman, as a person of color; why would you take on this additional struggle?" Kerry recalled.

9. Emma Roberts

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Emma Roberts’s aunt is none other than the famous actress Julia Roberts, so her parents must be supportive of her becoming a star like her aunt right? Nope. They actually wanted their little girl to grow up and become a doctor or a lawyer.

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Years later Emma told Elle Canada about her story, saying "[My mom] just didn’t want me to go into it young. When you come from a family that’s in the industry, they’re always like, 'Be a doctor! Be a lawyer!' But we end up wanting to be actors."

10. Randall Park

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Randall Park discovered his passion for acting after he started a theatre company on UCLA’s campus. His parents brushed it off as some hobby he did for fun, but they quickly put their foot down when he decided to seriously pursue acting after graduation. His mother would tell him how impossible it would be for him to become a famous actor, especially with his Asian blood.

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However, they didn’t cut off his financial support. Park’s parents might not approve of his choice, but they still kept their son housed and fed. Park appreciated the financial support his parents offered.
Those are some stories about celebrities who had to fight their parents to pursue their dreams. We hope that you can find inspiration through these stories and never give up your passion. Speaking of celebrity backstories, there are some that are quite crazy to hear. So crazy that they sound like movie plots rather than biographies.