17 celebrities who worked at McDonald's
Singer Pharrell Williams was fired from his McDonald's job three times.
Rachel McAdams worked at the fast-food spot for three years.
"Fine By Me" singer Andy Grammer also worked at McDonald's and described his experience as "terrible."
Everyone has to start somewhere. Before these celebrities were the stars that people know and love, they were the cashiers, fry cooks, and employees serving our Big Macs.
Some celebrities remember working at the fast-food chain fondly, while others described their "terrible" jobs and even near-death experiences.
Here are 17 celebrities who worked at McDonald's before they were famous.
Former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno got his start working at McDonald's.
According to Forbes, Leno said he learned how to operate a business while working at McDonald's. The restaurant is known for filling executive ranks with people who started in lower positions at the company, a practice Leno adopted for his talk show.
Andie MacDowell remembers her early career at McDonald's fondly.
According to Forbes, the actress said she enjoyed her time working at a McDonald's in South Carolina. While there, she felt it was "a great environment to work in, with lots of camaraderie and teamwork."
"The View" host Star Jones said she learned responsibility while working at McDonald's.
"Being a fry girl for McDonald's started me on my professional path! It taught me responsibility," she said on Twitter in 2015.
Read more: 24 of the weirdest and most unique McDonald's restaurants in the world
Macy Gray praised the working environment of McDonald's.
"I worked as a McDonald's crew person and there is so much more to working at McDonald's than people know," she said in press release. "The action, the fun, the people, the sense of accomplishment — it truly was my first big break!"
James Franco also had nothing but good things to say about his time working the drive-thru late shift.
The "Freaks and Geeks" and "Pineapple Express" star got a job at McDonald's to help support himself while he studied acting early in his career.
"All I know is that when I needed McDonald's, McDonald's was there for me. When no one else was," Franco said in an article he wrote for The Washington Post. "Someone asked me if I was too good to work at McDonald's. Because I was following my acting dream despite all the pressure not to, I was definitely not too good to work at McDonald's. I went to the nearest Mickey D's and was hired the same day."
Before she starred in movies like "The Notebook" and "Sherlock Holmes," Rachel McAdams worked at the fast-food spot for three years.
"I worked at the local McDonald's for three years," McAdams told the New York Times in 2008. "I'm not sure why they kept me: I am something of a daydreamer and a dawdler, so they would only let me be the 'friendly voice' that greeted you when you entered the restaurant. I was slow — I would be organizing the sweet-and-sour packets in the customer's takeout bag while the line snaked out the door."
Pharrell Williams was fired from McDonald's three times when starting out.
"At a certain point they just realized that I was no help," Williams said on "Late Night with Seth Meyers." "I was only good at eating the chicken nuggets."
The funny thing is, Williams would actually become an important figure in the chain's history — he co-wrote the Justin Timberlake song "I'm Lovin' It," which became the basis of the iconic slogan and jingle.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos worked the grill in a McDonald's one summer when he was 16.
"The most challenging thing was keeping everything going at the right pace during a rush. The manager at my McDonald's was excellent. He had a lot of teenagers working for him, and he kept us focused even while we had fun," Bezos told Cody Teets, author of "Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers That Began at McDonald's."
"You can learn responsibility in any job if you take it seriously. You learn a lot as a teenager working at McDonald's. It's different from what you learn in school. Don't underestimate the value of that!"
Before she starred in "Basic Instinct" and "Total Recall," Sharon Stone also worked at McDonald's.
According to IMDb, Stone manned the counters at the restaurant early in her career. While working at McDonald's, she worked her way into modeling in TV commercials and print ads.
Lin-Manuel Miranda's song "Delivery" was inspired by his time working at McDonald's.
In a tweet, Miranda said, "My first job was working the cash register and deliveries for McDonald's. It was worth it for this song, years later."
Before she became known for her singing voice, Pink worked the drive-thru window.
"It was important to my family that I make my own money. I was a drive-thru girl at McDonald's," she told Food & Wine in 2015. "I had a Janet Jackson microphone — I had power."
A teenage Shania Twain also worked at the chain while she pursued a singing career.
"I worked at McDonald's for several years as a teenager after school while singing in bars at night," Twain told Us Weekly in 2017.
"Fine By Me" singer Andy Grammer also worked at McDonald's.
"My first job was McDonald's — terrible!" he told Us Weekly.
So did Seal, who only worked there for two weeks. He called it the worst job he ever had.
"The worst job I ever had was in McDonald's in Kentish Town," Seal told The Guardian in 2011. "I was 16, and they gave me a brown uniform that was two sizes too small. I stayed for two weeks, until I got my first paycheck, then I was outta there."
James D'Arcy said he was held at gunpoint while working at McDonald's.
"Someone brandished a gun at me when I worked in McDonald's," D'Arcy told Metro in 2012. "I was behind the till, and someone pointed a gun at my face. He'd come in looking for someone else but that guy wasn't working that night. He came in, pointed the gun at me and ran away."
While he may be a Jedi now, actor Mark Hamill's first job was at McDonald's.
"If you don't count paperboy, the time I was hired to play Santa's helper in a department store or the countless backyard puppet/magic/ventriloquist shows I did... My 1st real job WAS at McDonald's in Annandale Virginia when I was 16," Hamill wrote on Twitter.
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan used to work as a fry cook at McDonald's before entering politics.
"When I was flipping burgers at McDonald's, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life," Ryan said at a campaign rally in Colorado in 2012. "I thought to myself, I'm the American dream on a path and journey so that I can find happiness however I can find it myself."
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