10 Movie Stars Who Had To Fight Tooth And Nail For Their Dreams

The path to becoming a star is never easy. It’s full of risks and failures. To become one in a million, you fight back and never stop believing in yourself. Even Oscar-winning actors have to deal with many rejections in their earlier days, but they got back on their feet every time. These movie stars who had to fight for their dreams are truly a big inspiration for many people!
So let’s see what they have been through before they became A-list actors. Here are 10 stars who had to fight tooth and nail for their dreams.

1. Meryl Streep

stars who had to fight Meryl Streep Source: © Getty Images

Before she became known as the “best actress of a generation,” Meryl Streep started her career on the theater stage and had to face quite a lot of failed auditions. Her first audition was the worst. It’s a very humiliating experience for Streep, and many people would have quit if they were in the same situation.
The actress went to audition for the leading role in King Kong. When movie producer Dino De Laurentiis saw her, he called her an “ugly woman” in Italian, not knowing Streep understood perfectly what he just said. The actress fired back and left. She never gave up and managed to get a small role in Julia, which was her first step to becoming a star.

2. Anthony Hopkins

stars who had to fight Anthony Hopkins Source: © Getty Images

It took Anthony Hopkins over three decades to make it big, but his hard work paid off. He decided to pursue an acting career when he was 15 but only became famous after 50. Hopkins joined Hollywood in the 70s, however, he was only given small roles and mostly appeared on TV shows. This was very discouraging to him and he returned back to England, thinking his acting career was over.
Luckily, he got offered the role of the infamous cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs afterward. His amazing performance won him an Oscar and the title of an iconic actor.

3. Lisa Kudrow

stars who had to fight Lisa Kudrow Source: © Getty Images

Nowadays we know Lisa Kudrow through her portrayal in Friends. But not many people know that the actress was fired from Frasier on the third day of rehearsing the pilot. She was quickly replaced with another actress, which was very sad for her. However, Kudrow never gave up.
Her performance in Friends won her an Emmy award. From then on, she became one of the highest-paid TV actresses at the time, making a million dollars for each episode.

4. Kate Winslet

stars who had to fight Kate Winslet Source: © Getty Images

Kate Winslet has a very tough childhood. She was a chubby girl and her classmates often made fun of her body, calling her fat and bullying her. When she decided to pursue an acting career, her extra weight made it very hard for her to even get a small role in a production. Winslet was rejected repeatedly.
Everything changed in 1992 when she played an overweight woman’s daughter in Anglo-Saxon Attitudes. The director thought she was very similar to the actress that portrayed her mother, so they encouraged her to lose some weight. She got her breakthrough role in Heavenly Creatures not long after and quickly became a global sensation after Titanic.

5. Keira Knightley

stars who had to fight Keira Knightley Source: © Getty Images

Despite being born into a family of actors, Keira Knightley was one of the stars who had to fight tooth and nail for her chance to make it big in the Hollywood world. She had to face many rejections, even after she became famous for Pirates of the Caribbean. The number of refusals she got was so devastating that she confessed to not recommending her daughter to become an actress like her.

6. Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson Source: © Getty Images

Jack Nicholson started his first step closer to the world of cinema when he was 20. He got an assistant job at the animation department at MGM and started taking classes in acting soon after. The actor got some roles in movies, but all of his parts were small and weren’t really successful. He finally got the chance to make it big with Easy Rider, which was released when he was already more than 30 years old.

7. Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman Source: © Getty Images

When asked about his earlier days at his drama school, Hugh Jackman confessed that he felt like he was the dunce of the class. “Everyone was cooler, everyone seemed more likely to succeed, everyone seemed more natural at it,” he said.
At one point, he was so desperate that he “would have taken any job, probably.” Luckily, it was time that he got the role of Wolverine. His performance soon became one of the most iconic superheroes on the silver screen. Nobody could have played the character better than him!

8. Carey Mulligan

Every theater school Carey Mulligan applied to rejected her. Her representatives once told her that she should try to be an anchor on a child show. Her audition for the Drama Centre London was torturous and the actress was shocked by the rejection afterward.
Carey Mulligan found her breakthrough with the role of Daisy in The Great Gatsby. Nowadays, she is a BAFTA winner for Best Actress in a Leading Role in An Education, and Critics Choice Award for Promising Young Woman.

9. Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington was fired from 2 other shows before she got the leading role in Scandal. All the pilots that she was featured in were changed. The actress claimed that in both cases, the directors wanted her to act more stereotypically. Washington refused, and that was why she got fired.
Those directors must have a lot of regrets. Later, Washington was nominated for an Emmy for Best Actress and a Golden Globe. Nowadays we know her name through big projects and big-budget movies.

10. Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon got many rejections in her earlier days. She had to face a lot of turn-downs and was frequently ignored, always being the second choice for the part that she wanted. This made Witherspoon feel like she was always worse than some other actress. However, she refused to let the negative thoughts get to her and continued to fight for her dreams.
Those are 10 movie stars who had to fight hard for their dreams. Similar to these guys, other celebrities also have to fight against their families to pursue their dreams of doing what they want. Check out their inspiring stories here!