These 19 Celeb Facts Might Sound Fabricated, But They're 100% Legit
Celebs might seem relatable on social media and during interviews, but there's always a little something to remind us that they live in a different world.
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Their successes, struggles, and bizarre stories are far beyond the scope of the average person... but they make for incredibly interesting reads.
1.Oscar Isaac played in numerous ska bands — including one that opened for Green Day — before he was famous.
Before becoming a major movie star, Oscar Isaac was a musician in bands like Petrified Frogs, Closet Heterosexuals, and The Worms. One of his most successful groups, The Blinking Underdogs, even opened for Green Day and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
2.Tina Turner did Angela Bassett's hair and makeup near the end of shooting What's Love Got to Do with It — and she did it significantly faster than the film's stylist.
In 2022, Bassett confirmed that Turner ignored all the help being offered by crew members, finishing Bassett's look in a quarter of the time that it would take the film's hired stylist.
3.Do you love having Saturdays and Sundays off from work? Sir Ian McKellen's great-great-grandfather helped invent the concept of the weekend as we know it.
Sir Ian McKellen has given us some of the most iconic roles ever in franchises like X-Men and The Lord of the Rings, but his ancestor Robert Lowes arguably gave us something better: the weekend. On an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, McKellen learned that Lowes became "the grandfather of the modern weekend" after winning a fight for workers' rights, which allowed staff to be given Saturday afternoons off.
4.Lady Gaga is the first woman in history to win a Grammy Award, BAFTA Award, Academy Award, and Golden Globe Award in a single year.
Though Gaga was already an A-list musician at the time, her role in 2018's A Star Is Born propelled her to even greater heights. The film's inescapable hit single, "Shallow," garnered endless praise and earned her a string of wins at the four biggest award shows of the year.
5.Tom Hardy made rap music in the '90s.
These days, Tom Hardy's known as a brilliant actor with notable roles in films like The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Inception. However, '90s Tom Hardy had a different career path in mind. He recorded an album titled Falling on Your Arse in 1999 under the name "Tommy No 1," and it's actually not too shabby.
6.Michael B. Jordan was literally KO'd while filming Creed.
Talk about taking one for the team. While filming 2015's Creed, actor Tony Bellew landed a nasty hit on MBJ that genuinely knocked him out. No one said filming a boxing movie was easy.
7.In the '90s, Michelle Yeoh received so many offers for stereotypical (borderline racist) roles that she chose not to work for two years instead.
While racism in Hollywood is sadly commonplace, it's always baffling to hear just how brutal the business can be. "People in the industry couldn't really tell the difference between whether I was Chinese or Japanese or Korean or if I even spoke English," she told People. "They would talk very loudly and very slow."
8.Salma Hayek painted temporary butterfly tattoos on herself for the 1998 MTV VMAs because designers refused to lend her jewelry for public appearances.
We all start somewhere. Salma Hayek had a hard time finding designers to dress her for events at the beginning of her career, so she happily took matters into her own hands. "I had on a very simple black dress, and I knew all the other girls were going to have fabulous dresses, beautiful jewelry," she tells Vogue. "I was like, 'I am fabulous.' I painted some butterfly tattoos on myself, and I felt happy about myself."
9.Abel Tesfaye (now known as The Weeknd) heard his music in public for the first time while working at American Apparel... and his coworkers had no idea it was his song.
While speaking with GQ, Tesfaye revealed that nobody knew what The Weeknd looked like when his song "What You Need" dropped. "A good friend of mine hooked me up with a job at American Apparel, and I was folding clothes there when somebody at the store played the song."
10.Ariana Grande's last name isn't pronounced the way you think it is.
In a 2018 interview with Apple Music, Ariana Grande shared that her grandfather pronounced their family's last name as "Grand-ee." Her brother suggested the change to "Grahn-day" because it sounded more fun. Of course, this pronunciation caught on, though Ariana regrets not sticking with the original.
11.Henry Golding is a fully trained hairstylist.
That photo of Henry Golding holding a hair dryer wasn't for show. The Crazy Rich Asians star got his start working in a hair salon before striking gold with his acting career.
12.In 2020, Harry Styles became the first man ever to nab a solo appearance on the cover of US Vogue.
The magazine, founded in 1892, had previously featured men on its covers, though they all shared the spotlight with women. Styles's photoshoot for the December 2020 edition made him the first man in US Vogue history to tackle the task completely solo.
13.Nicki Minaj was the first female rapper ever to perform at Yankee Stadium.
Despite the slew of successful female rappers that came before her, it wasn't until 2010 that Nicki Minaj would make history by hitting the stage at the iconic New York stadium.
14.Jason Momoa fabricated a story about being a model while auditioning for Baywatch Hawaii... and he got the gig.
During an interview with Square Mile, Momoa was asked about his humble beginnings as a model. "No, actually I made that sh*t up!" he responded. He also admits that he met managers who, "...made up some stuff for me like, ‘Hawaii Model of the Year.’" Fake it till you make it, right?
15.Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had male breast reduction surgery.
Dwayne Johnson has always been a notably large man. After all, he was 6'4" and had a mustache by the time he was 15 years old. Despite towering above his peers his whole life, he suffered from self-esteem issues caused by gynecomastia (known colloquially as "man boobs"). This led him to breast reduction surgery.
16.Zendaya watches Harry Potter about once a day.
In a 2019 interview with InStyle, Zendaya explained that watching Harry Potter is a form of self-care for her. “Don’t come over to my house if you don’t want to watch it," she said, "because it’s going to be on.”
17.Timothée Chalamet had a rap persona called “Lil’ Timmy Tim” as a teenager, which he summoned for a high school statistics project.
Instead of doing his homework like a normal student, “Lil’ Timmy Tim” made a rap video about statistics for his favorite teacher. Not his grandest moment, but being nominated for an Academy Award probably offsets that, right?
18.Jennifer Lawrence dropped out of middle school, so she doesn't have a GED or a diploma.
Lawrence refers to herself as "self-educated." She dropped out of school at 14 to pursue her acting career. Safe to say, her bold move was (shockingly) worthwhile.
19.Bill Murray was arrested at the age of 20 for trying to catch a flight with 10 pounds of marijuana in his luggage.
That amount of weed was worth $20,000 at the time, but he was spared jail time and placed on probation for five years since he was a first-time offender.
