.png)
1 year ago
6
"I always said if I don't get anything substantial by the time I'm 30, I'm done."
Hollywood success stories aren't always filled with glitz and glamour from the start. Many of today's most celebrated actors faced financial hardships and almost gave up on their dreams before landing that one life-changing role.
Freeform
From scraping by to sleeping in their cars, these actors defied the odds and turned their lives around. Here are 9 famous actors who were dead broke or on the verge of giving up acting before they struck gold...
1. Melissa McCarthy – Gilmore Girls
Taylor Hill / FilmMagic/The WB / Via Getty Images
Melissa may be part of the Tinsel Town furniture at this point, but back in the day the actor made a pact with herself that if she didn't get anything substantial by the time she was 30, she was done. "Acting wasn't working out, I was getting rejection after rejection, I wasn't even getting auditions – I couldn't get a job to save my life", she told Heat Magazine. It just so happened that the day before she turned 30, Melissa got cast as Sookie St. James in Gilmore Girls.
2. Jacob Elordi – Euphoria
Taylor Hill/HBO / Via Getty Images
In between The Kissing Booth and Euphoria, Jacob was living in his car and had $400 to $800 left in his bank account. The actor planned to return to Australia to make some money and recuperate, but ended up being cast in the 2019 show as Nate Jacobs. Soon enough, he was being put up in the Standard in West Hollywood. "I got really lucky, which is just an LA story, you know?", he told GQ.
3. Laverne Cox – Orange is the New Black
Steve Granitz / FilmMagic/Netflix / Via Getty Images
Before she broke out in OITNB, Laverne was in all sorts of trouble financially and considered quitting acting altogether. "I was in rent arrears on my apartment, I had rolled back rent and I was in all kinds of debt and I was going to give up acting actually", she told Gio Benitez during a Paley Center pride month panel. Laverne recalled being "devastated" by turning 40 and her acting dreams not coming true. She was about to quit and go to grad school when she got the audition that would change her life.
Laverne's role on OITNB broke all sorts of records, including her being the first openly trans actress to be nominated for a primetime acting Emmy.
4. John Krasinski – The Office
Mike Coppola / NBC / Via Getty Images
After telling her he was going to pursue acting, John's mother made him promise to "pull [himself] out" of the industry if he didn't make it in the first few years. Two and a half years later, John called his mother during a shift waiting tables: "I was ready to [give up], I was telling her to come get me", he told Stephen Colbert. She suggested he wait until the end of the year before quitting, and three weeks after that call, he landed his breakout role in The Office as Jim Halpert.
5. Will Smith – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Neilson Barnard / NBC / Via Getty Images
Will had had some success as a rapper before The Fresh Prince, and released his first album – Rock the House – in 1986 in collaboration with DJ Jazzy Jeff. Despite earning prestige in the form of a Grammy in 1989, Will was soon in some serious debt thanks to his splurging, and owed the IRS $2.8 million in tax debt. Rock the House had gone triple-platinum, but unfortunately his next album went "double-plastic", according to Will.
He was struggling financially in the early '90s when NBC decided to approach him to formulate a sitcom around him. The show was successful and launched Will's TV and film career.
6. Matt LeBlanc – Friends
Noam Galai / NBC / Via Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival
Before he became world famous as Joey in Friends, Matt was seriously broke. "I had, I think, I was down to $11", the actor told Conan O'Brien. "That's holding out too long because even if I'd said at that point, I'm gonna go get a waiter job, by the time that $11 ran out, it would've been before the first paycheck [and] I would've starved", he added. Matt couldn't even afford to get dental work done and ending up doing it himself! Cut to 2002, and Matt was earning $1 million per episode of Friends.
7. Halle Berry – Jungle Fever
Frazer Harrison/Universal Pictures / Via Getty Images
Halle Berry has been a Hollywood A-Lister for years now, but before she cracked the industry, the actor had to stay in a homeless shelter and a YMCA whilst living in New York. "I took my modelling money [and] three months later I was out of my cash", she told People magazine. "I called my mother and I asked her to send me some money and she said no... That's probably one of the best things she did for me because it taught me".
Two years later, Halle got her breakthrough role in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, and the following year landed a leading role in Boomerang alongside Eddie Murphy.
8. Chris Pratt – Parks and Recreation
Nathan Congleton / NBC / Via Getty Images
Before he became the star of Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, Chris was basically homeless. As a teen, he lived out of a van in Hawaii doing odd jobs to make ends meet. He soon moved to L.A. to work on a movie, but ended up waiting tables there and would get busted for eating off of customer's plates. After landing a role in Everwood, Chris appeared in The O.C. before securing a role in Parks and Recreation, which catapulted him to stardom.
9. Charlize Theron – The Devil's Advocate
Jon Kopaloff/Warner Bros. / Via Getty Images
Charlize moved to Los Angeles from South Africa with just $400 to her name; indeed, she once ended up in an altercation with a bank teller who wouldn't cash a check she desperately needed. Talent agent John Crosby witnessed the incident and decided to give her his card, and this led to Charlize's first (non-spreaking) role in Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest. Two years later, Charlize starred in The Devil's Advocate, which is largely considered her breakout role.
English (US) ·