20 Celebrities Who Had Completely Different Careers Before Fame

Before starring in Mean Girls and The Notebook, Canadian actress Rachel McAdams spent three years working at a local McDonald's. McAdams admitted she was far from employee of the month and once broke the orange juice dispenser, but credited the fast-food job with instilling a solid work ethic.

Long before becoming Wolverine, Australian star Hugh Jackman spent a gap year in England working as a physical education teacher at Uppingham School. Teaching sports to energetic teenagers taught him crowd control, stage presence, and the relentless discipline that later defined his action career.

Before captivating audiences as Don Draper on Mad Men, Jon Hamm taught eighth-grade theater at his old high school, John Burroughs School in St. Louis. Among his young acting pupils was future television star Ellie Kemper, who fondly recalled his passion for directing classroom scene work.

Ken Jeong earned his medical degree from UNC Chapel Hill and completed his residency in New Orleans. While working full-time as an internal medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente in California, he performed stand-up comedy at night before landing his breakout acting role in Knocked Up.

Before rising to stardom on Taxi and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Danny DeVito trained at the Wilfred Academy of Hair and Beauty Culture. He worked as a licensed hairdresser at his sister's beauty salon, which frequently involved visiting local mortuaries to style hair for funeral viewings.

When Brad Pitt arrived in Hollywood with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket, he took whatever gig he could find. His first paying job was dressing up in a giant yellow chicken mascot costume on Sunset Boulevard, dancing and waving promotional signs to attract drivers into El Pollo Loco.

From 1980 to 1984, Steve Buscemi served as a full-time FDNY firefighter in Little Italy, Manhattan. After achieving acting success in Reservoir Dogs and Fargo, Buscemi quietly returned to his old firehouse following September 11, working twelve-hour shifts searching for survivors at Ground Zero.

At age sixteen, future Oscar winner Christopher Walken spent a summer touring with a traveling circus owned by Terrell Jacobs. Dressed in a gold costume, Walken entered the cage and cued a gentle lioness named Sheba, later joking that working with big cats was great preparation for Hollywood.

Before her breakthrough in The Color Purple and achieving rare EGOT status, Whoopi Goldberg held several unconventional jobs, including working as a bricklayer and a licensed mortician cosmetologist. She carefully washed, styled hair, and applied makeup to departed individuals in a funeral parlor.

Disillusioned by bit acting roles in the late 1960s, Harrison Ford taught himself professional carpentry to support his growing family. While building recording studios and doors for Hollywood figures like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas noticed his charisma and cast him in American Graffiti.

Long before creating Rocky and Rambo, Sylvester Stallone struggled through deep poverty in New York City. To pay rent, he took a grueling job shoveling lion manure at the Central Park Zoo. Between cleaning enclosures, he wrote film treatments and attended auditions that launched his career.

Before landing his Oscar-nominated turn in Schindler's List and iconic action roles in Taken, Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson worked on the factory floor. He spent years driving heavy forklifts and moving kegs of stout for Guinness before committing full-time to the Belfast Lyric Players.

Before winning two Academy Awards and becoming one of cinema's biggest stars, George Clooney worked grueling odd jobs across Kentucky and Ohio. He cut tobacco in hot summer fields and sold door-to-door term life insurance, experiences that taught him how to handle constant rejection.

Before suiting up as James Bond, Irish actor Pierce Brosnan trained as a commercial illustrator and learned the theatrical art of fire eating in an experimental workshop. He spent three years performing fire-eating stunts in street spectacles and circus revues before pursuing dramatic acting.

While struggling to support his rock band in Los Angeles, Johnny Depp worked in a telemarketing call center selling personalized promotional pens. Depp used funny accents and fabricated extravagant sales bonuses to convince callers, later noting it was his first paid experience in voice acting.

Before Quentin Tarantino cast him in Inglourious Basterds, double Oscar winner Christoph Waltz spent thirty years grinding across European theater and television. To pay bills between small television roles, he translated theatrical scripts and dubbed English and French dialogue into German.

While trying to land his earliest commercial acting gigs in his twenties, Bryan Cranston became an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. Officiating dozens of weddings on scenic beaches and airplane runways provided crucial extra cash while he auditioned for guest television roles.

Scottish star Gerard Butler studied law at the University of Glasgow and worked as a trainee solicitor at an Edinburgh legal firm. Just one week before qualifying as a licensed corporate attorney, his lack of interest and hard partying got him fired, pushing him to move to London to pursue acting.

During a gap year spent as a Rotary exchange student in New South Wales, Australia, Matthew McConaughey worked grueling manual labor gigs. He spent months shoveling chicken manure, cleaning coops, and washing dishes at local diners, experiences he described in his memoir as deeply formative.

Before Guy Ritchie cast him in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Jason Statham was a member of Britain's National Diving Squad for twelve years, competing at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Between diving training, he sold counterfeit jewelry and perfume on London street corners to make ends meet.