These Stars' First Jobs Are So Relatable (Well, Almost)
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Originally appeared on E! Online
As they say, you've got to start somewhere.
And so many stars started off anywhere that would have them, waiting tables after school, making minimum wage in between auditions or even embarking on full-fledged careers before realizing that [insert more stable profession here] would never make them happy.
Which doesn't mean that they didn't take pride in their work, even if it was 180-degrees away from where they wanted to be.
"When you first go into the workforce, your first job, whether it's 7-Eleven or whatever it is," Hugh Jackman mused to Fast Company in 2019, "you realize that you've got a role to play—a responsibility—and people are expecting you to fulfill it." And even though his convenience store tenure was not illustrious, "I was left with this feeling that I could make my way," he added. "I could work with my hands, my feet, and my brain."
Of course, leave it to the de facto master of all ceremonies to make even the most thankless-sounding gig sound formative and inspiring.
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So, here's a reminder that there is no direct route from bartending and scooping ice cream to fame, fortune and thanking the Academy—but if there's a will, there's a way.
Keep reading to see what Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Chris Hemsworth, Oprah Winfrey and many more stars took on for their first jobs:
Julia Roberts
The Oscar winner scooped ice cream at Baskin-Robbins before she delivered Mystic Pizza.
Brad Pitt
Once upon a time, the Oscar winner worked at an El Pollo Loco in Hollywood. "Man's gotta eat," Pitt said on Ellen in 2019, adding that he felt "no shame" about his days dressed as a chicken for the fast food chain.
His other gigs to pay the rent included moving furniture and chauffeuring strippers around. The latter admittedly got "really, really depressing," Pitt said during a 2007 Oscars roundtable, so he quit after only two months, "even though it was really good money I needed at the time." But, making one last drive, he met a woman who was in an acting class he decided to check out and the rest is history. "Strippers changed my life," he concluded.
Jimmy Fallon
The late-night host started off working in a grocery store. Which wasn't bad, minus having to scrape gum off the welcome mats.
Chris Hemsworth
The Thor star said on The Tonight Show that he got his first job at 14 "cleaning breast pumps" at a pharmacy—"and repairing them as well, occasionally."
"They would rent them out, the machines would come back," he explained, "and I would have a toothbrush, a little spray and wipe..."
But Hemsworth wasn't one to nurse a grudge.
Tom Hanks
When he was in high school, the two-time Oscar winner sold popcorn and peanuts at Oakland Athletics games, a tear-free gig since there's no crying in baseball.
Amy Adams
Before walking red carpets, the Oscar-nominated actress waited tables at Hooters. Which, she said, was a great way to earn money to buy a car.
Oprah Winfrey
As a teenager she worked at a grocery store near her father's barber shop in Nashville and "hated it with a passion," she recalled during a 1992 visit filmed for The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Not least because she "wasn't allowed to talk to the customers," she said, adding, "Can you imagine that for me?"
But Winfrey diligently showed up for work without fail. "The only thing that got me out of the store," she said, "was the fact that I got myself a job in radio broadcasting."
Sandra Bullock
While sharpening her acting chops at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, the Oscar winner supported herself bartending.
"I learned a lot of accents as a bartender," Bullock told the Associated Press. "A lot of girls came in looking for rich husbands. I learned to imitate them."
Channing Tatum
Art reflects life: The Magic Mike star's own days as a male stripper under the stage name "Chan Crawford" inspired the 2012 box office hit.
Nicki Minaj
The rapper revealed she started off waiting tables at Red Lobster restaurants: "I've gotten fired from all three or four of them."
Mindy Kaling
Before she was in front of the camera, Mindy worked behind the counter at a video store. Admitted the actress, "I think I learned nothing from it."
Rachel McAdams
The Notebook alum once worked at McDonald's, where, she acknowledged, "I was not a great employee."
Vivica A. Fox
The Independence Day star says she was inspired to go into the entertainment industry after seeing Diana Ross and Michael Jackson in concert, but she "never forgot" where she started: Working at a hot dog stand!
Denzel Washington
The actor's first job was cleaning up at a local barbershop when he was 11 years old. While working there, he learned a lot about acting and "hustling!"
Sasha Obama
The first daughter, who graduated from university of Southern California in 2023, reportedly had a summer job waiting tables and working the takeout window at a seafood restaurant on Martha's Vineyard when she was 15.
Emma Stone
Before she was a top dog in Hollywood, Emma worked behind the counter at a dog treat bakery. Seeing puppies all day? Doesn't sound too ruff.
Jennifer Aniston
Before her star-making role as Rachel on Friends, the actress made her allowance cleaning toilets ("I'm actually pretty good at it," she's said) and was later a bike messenger in NYC.
Russell Crowe
As a teenager, the actor spun tunes at an Australian nightclub under the name "Russ Le Roq" to pick up women.
Tom Cruise
The priesthood proved mission impossible for the future movie star after a brief stint in a Franciscan seminary at 14. And when he moved to New York to pursue acting, he worked as a hotel bellhop to make ends meet.
Hugh Jackman
The Wolverine actor manned the counter at a 7-Eleven in Sydney before being fired for talking to the customers too much. The manager "just wanted me to get them out," he told Fast Company. "I said, 'There's no one else here and I want to chat.'"
Christopher Walken
The multitalented star of The Deer Hunter and Hairspray was already a child actor—"I was in sketches with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin," Walken told The Guardian. "Never got paid a cent!"—when he spent a summer as a trainee lion tamer in the circus when he was 16.
"Who's going to turn that down?" he said.
"I would come into the cage and wave my whip," Walken recalled, and the lion, Sheba, would "lazily get up and sit like a dog and maybe give a little roar. I like cats a lot. I've always liked cats. They're great company."
Megan Fox
The Transformers star previously worked at a smoothie shop, where once a week someone had to dress up as a piece of fruit and stand by the highway to entice customers. "I was a banana," Fox said on Ellen in 2012, "a giant banana."
Kourtney Kardashian
The Poosh founder's first job was as a movie production assistant, where, she told Us Weekly, she yelled "cut" and "rolling" all day.
Gerard Butler
The Scottish actor studied law for five years and spent two working at an Edinburgh firm—where, he said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in 2018, he became "the first trainee lawyer ever in the history of the Scottish legal system to be fired before he qualified." Getting sacked actually took "a lot of work," he added, sharing that he racked up 32 days of being OOTO in his first two years.
"You find yourself suddenly working at a law firm," Butler explained, "and you follow that through and you think, 'Okay, I can see myself now in retirement age, having done something that— in truth—I don't care about. I have no interest in this.'"
This story was originally published on Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 6 p.m. PT.
