The Strange Jobs These Actors Had Before They Were Famous

Nicole Kidman

Nicole actually has a degree in acting, but early on she had to take time off university after her mother was diagnosed with cancer when Nicole was just 17. As Janelle Ann was undergoing her treatment and rehabilitation, the family was one breadwinner short.

So Nicole put her studies on pause, took a massage course and got a job as a masseuse in a hospital. She later resumed her studies, but to this day, she believes that helping people is more important than acting in movies.

Channing Tatum

Channing ended up as an actor accidentally. He always dreamed of joining the military and even enrolled in a military academy. But things didn’t work out and he dropped out just six months in.

He couldn’t stay idle, especially seeing how his family had seven other kids. So to help out his parents, Channing got a job as a clothes sales clerk. He soon got very bored with it and found a far more lucrative career.

Channing was always handsome and athletic so he got offered a job as a night club stripper. That gig ultimately got into modelling. The rest, as they say, is history, the switch from modelling to acting was a no-brainer, and he is now a famous movie star.

George Clooney

George was born into a celebrity family. His father hosted his own TV show, his mother was a beauty queen, and his aunt Rosemary Clooney was a popular singer in the 1950s.

Despite all this, it took Clooney a while to get his break. For some reason, he sucked at auditions. So as money ran low he had to find a regular job. He worked as a loader, then as a sales clerk, then did a stint as an assistant cook and even worked as a shoemaker and tailor.

He never gave up on his dream, though, and kept going to auditions. In 1994, he finally got his break when he was cast in ER.

Brad Pitt

Back home, Brad Pitt studied journalism and advertising, but before long he realised he wanted to be an actor. So he headed out to Hollywood, but nobody seemed to be interested in giving him a role.

He went to lots of auditions and got rejected at every one of them. So he had to find a job to make a living. He worked as a bartender, then as a docker, but his most memorable gig involved donning a chicken costume and passing out fliers to passers-by.

All these varied positions, however, helped him get better at acting, eventually, and really came in handy when he started getting roles.

Hugh Jackman

As a student, Hugh was short of money, which is typical of students, really. His parents told him he was all grown up now and on his own, so he had to find a job.

Hugh worked as a waiter in a restaurant, then as a filling station attendant and last but not least, he entertained people in a clown costume in a mall. Arguably, such a varied job track record also helped him grow as an actor.

Jim Carrey

Jim’s family was large, and poor. The father worked and the mother was ill. Then one day, the head of the family lost his job and they had to move to a trailer park because they could no longer afford a house.

All the kids had to work then, otherwise the family would have just starved. Jim worked as a security guard, a doorman, and a construction worker. He even had to clean floors and toilets at one point.

It took a while before Jim’s career as an actor and comedian took off. When he first performed in public he bombed miserably and decided to never go back on stage. After a while he tried again and in the early 1990s he was cast in a series of highly successful movies, which changed his life entirely.

Matthew McConaughey

As a student Mathew went to Australia on an exchange program. During that time he had to work to make a living. The job he got involved cleaning chicken cages from bird droppings, collecting eggs and plucking feathers from chicken carcasses. Mathew still remembers it with a smile.