It's easy to look at the lives of celebrities and think they're removed from the quote-unquote real world.
From iconic appearances on the Oscars red carpet to enviable jewellery looks, the lives of the rich and famous feel so far removed from reality. But many stars paid their dues working some very unexpected jobs before they struck lucky.
From digging graves to taming lions (really!), these are some of the most surprising jobs celebrities have held before they were famous.
Celebrities who had surprising jobs before they became famous
Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford is one of the most famous supermodels to ever have done it - but that doesn't mean a life of glamour, couture and A-List lovers was a given. Cindy grew up in DeKalb, Illinois - a small town 60 miles away from Chicago.
Far from city life, one of Cindy's first real jobs was shucking corn. She'd be in the cornfields for ten hours a day cutting back the earbuds, inoculating cornstalks and spreading fertiliser.
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman is one of the most stylish and iconic film stars in the industry, giving us some of the best looks on the red carpets and still sweeping awards shows decades into her career.
Unfathomable to imagine the Moulin Rouge! star doing anything other than acting, she has a secret skill which put her on a different early career path.
When she was younger, to help with the family income and to help ease some of her mother's pains after being diagnosed with cancer, Nicole studied massage therapy and worked as a masseuse.
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren has had an illustrious career, sweeping every award imaginable for an actor and even becoming something of an unlikely style icon in her later years.
Perhaps as a warm-up to the skills which she'd use on stage and screen, Helen spent her earlier years working in amusement parks. Having to convey confidence and charm, her job was to woo the punters.
While appearing on Mark Maron’s WTF Podcast, she called the job "blagging” and described her duties as shouting "something incomprehensible out to someone just to get their attention."
Demi Moore
From blockbuster action films including G.I. Jane to the Golden Globe winning The Substance, Demi Moore's had a career spanning nearly five decades.
Known for her striking beauty and trademark raven locks, Demi might not be the first person you'd think of as a debt collector, but she did, indeed, work as a collection agent before her breakout roles came in the early 1980s.
Hugh Jackman
Whether he's ripped and rugged as Wolverine or singing-and-dancing in The Greatest Showman, Hugh Jackman was born to entertain.
And his early career choices were similar... He was a clown.
He once recalled while appearing on Jimmy Fallon, "I was Coco the Clown and I had no magic tricks and I remember a six-year-old standing up at a party saying 'Mummy this clown is terrible, he doesn't know any tricks'—and he was right."
Whoopi Goldberg
Years before Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar for appearing in Ghost, she had another encounter with the deceased - she worked as a makeup artist in a morgue.
"I did hair and makeup on dead people," she revealed while appearing on Oprah's Master Class. "There was an ad in the paper! And I'm a licensed beautician as well, because I went to beauty school."
Geena Davis
An Academy Award winning legend who has starred in era-defining films like A League of Their Own and Thelma and Louise, Geena Davis' early jobs were surprisingly lacking in personality. That's because she was hired to literally be a mannequin.
She was hired to be a Saturday window mannequin for Ann Taylor, while auditioning for model and acting jobs.
Pierce Brosnan
Having played the iconic James Bond, danger is nothing to Pierce Brosnan - but one of his real-life jobs took this to new extremes. He was a fire eater.
He learned the skill back as an aspiring actor, joining a theatre company while learning the craft, and he'd take the skill to the streets to earn some money.
He revealed, however, that he has given up the trick. "The last time I did the fire-eating was on The Muppets. It was just after GOLDENEYE. They called up and they said, 'Do you sing? Do you dance?' I said, 'No, not really. But I do a fire-eating act - well, I used to.' They said, 'Oh great! Wonderful!"
However, it went a touch wrong and he describes how the fire blew back into his mouth and gave him blisters.
Brad Pitt
Fight Club. Troy. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Brad Pitt has played some tough, tough characters - but that doesn't mean he's not a chicken. Or rather, was a chicken.
As an aspiring, auditioning actor, Brad worked as a chicken mascot for the fast-food franchise, El Pollo Loco, he recalled on The Ellen Show in 2019.
This meant he would literally stand on the streets, dressed like a chicken, trying to get customers through the door. Be kind to your fast food mascots, you never know if they'll be future Oscar winners.
Victoria Beckham
Before she was a fashion mogul, she was a Spice Girl. But before she was a Spice Girl, Victoria Beckham helped teach the younger generations about the birds and the bees.
In her early days, the impeccably dressed Victoria had to sacrifice her trademark iconic looks to dress up as a giant sperm on roller skates.
Really. It was part of a BBC sexual education show called Body Matters.
Amy Adams
We're so used to Amy Adams' best looks being full of Old Hollywood glamour and regal red carpet style that we can't imagine her donning something a touch... different.
But the multiple-time Oscar nominee spent a couple of months working at Hooters in the early days of her career.
Speaking of her time at Hooters to the Awards Chatter broadcast, Amy said, "It was a really good job because at the time, the minimum wage was $3.85 and they were willing to pay $7 to the hostesses and that for me - saving up for a car and being a dancer - I ran around in tights and a leotard all day long anyway. I learned that there was a difference between dance class and Hooters very quickly.”
Christoper Walken
With an unmistakeable voice and look, Christopher Walken has been one of the most celebrated character actors for decades.
His choice of bold roles proves he's not scared of the lion's den called Hollywood - and that's because he has experience with an actual lion's den.
He revealed all to Vanity Fair that his younger days were spent working with a travelling circus, including working as a lion tamer.
Megan Fox
With her sultry looks, you'd think Megan Fox's looks would have helped her for most of her life. However, one of her first jobs involved her hiding away under a banana costume as she promoted a smoothie shop.
While appearing on the Ellen DeGeneres show in the past, she admitted that it was the only real job she had - and Ellen pranked her by having a man dressed as a banana jump out to scare her.
Warren Beatty
An Oscar winner with an equally iconic sister (Shirley MacLaine) and famous exes including Madonna, Warren Beatty is one of the surviving stars of Hollywood's golden age.
While his career includes iconic roles in Bonnie and Clyde, his first job within the theatre wasn't traditional. He was hired as a teenager to work for the National Theatre in Washington... but he was hired to catch and kill mice at night.
George Clooney
Smooth, suave and stylish, George Clooney is a Hollywood legend. But acting wasn't on his mind when he landed his first job.
His first paying job was cutting tobacco on his grandparents' tobacco farm in Kentucky. He earned $3.30 per hour.
Ina Garten
Beloved by people across the world now, Ina Garten is a wholesome fan favourite, known for her welcoming, approachable attitude to cooking.
While her brand is low-key and inviting, Ina Garten's early career might surprise you. She worked in the actual White House between 1974 and 1978.
Her very important roles involved working on policies for nuclear energy, working under presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
Meghan Markle
Before she was the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was an actress and lifestyle blogger. But before that, she made ends meet by working as a calligrapher.
She worked at Paper Source for a while between 2004 and 2005, and some of her artistic skills were put to the test addressing the invitations for Robin Thicke's wedding to Paula Patton.
Sean Connery
Some people pack a lot of lives into their time on Earth, and Sean Connery is definitely one of those.
As well as being the first man to play James Bond, Sean's many careers included a stint with bodybuilding, being a nude life model, a milk man and, perhaps most bizarrely, a coffin polisher.
Patrick Dempsey
McDreamy's early jobs weren't so, well, dreamy.
Before his beloved role on long-running drama Grey's Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey's surprising choice of career involved him trying to make it as a professional juggler.
He even placed second in the International Jugglers' Association Championship in 1981.
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart has always forged her own path, and this included with her career paths before she became America's first self-made female billionaire.
One of her pre-fame careers saw her competing with the notorious boys' club of Wall Street in the 1960s.
Eventually she left the stockbroker business to open a gourmet-food shop that later became the foundation of her incomparable lifestyle brand.
Chris Hemsworth
Before he was the mighty Thor, Chris Hemsworth's surprising job involved cleaning breast pumps.
"I literally worked for a pharmacy that would rent them out," he told Jimmy Fallon on the late night chat show "The machines would come back and I would have a toothbrush, little spray and wipe."
Paul Rudd
Of the many strange jobs people might have, Paul Rudd's is one you don't hear too much about. The This is 40 actor glazed hams. No, not some strange euphemism.
"I glazed hams for about six months," he told IMDb. "It was a weird job and I appreciated how strange it was - and the fact that I smelled like ham, all the time. can still glaze with the best of them. I haven't held a propane torch in a long time, but it's like riding a bike."
Terry Crews
Popular actor and host Terry Crews is best known for starring in White Chicks and fronting America's Got Talent.
However, one of his earliest roles is something rather niche - he worked as a courtroom sketch artist.
Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi used to work as a New York firefighter before landing breakout roles in films like Fargo and Reservoir Dogs.
Bravely - and touchingly - he dusted off his skills and volunteered to help his old company, Engine 55, search for survivors of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.
Rod Stewart
A full-blown rock legend, Rod Stewart is known for his trademark bold fashion, his epic power ballads and that gravelly voice.
While the icon has plenty of life left him in with his showmanship, Rod has experience with the dead, too. He worked as a gravedigger at Highgate Cemetery in London during his teens.
Matthew McConaughey
From How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days to hard-hitting Oscar films like Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey is one of Hollywood's most bankable leading men.
While his films often see him chasing after his leading lady, his early careers saw him chasing something else - armadillos.
His actual job was to be a sand raker for a Texas country club, but the armadillos were an unexpected extra. He told GQ that his boss told him, "'As well as raking the tracks, I'd like to hire you for the next two weeks to come out from 10pm to 3:30am… I'm gonna give you a .22 [pistol] and you just spotlight them on the green and pick them off.'"
Taylor Swift
With a seemingly untouchable chokehold on the music industry, it's hard to picture Taylor Swift doing anything other than entertaining millions of fans across the globe.
One of her first jobs was a far cry from selling out stadiums though. As she told Esquire, she was tasked with "picking praying-mantis pods off of the trees" at her family's tree farm.
Taraji P. Henson
With her glamorous red carpet looks and unforgettable roles like Cookie in Empire, Taraji P. Henson is Hollywood royalty.
And one of her earliest forays into showbiz saw her paying tribute to music royalty.
She worked as a singing waitress on the Spirit of Washington, a dinner-cruise ship in the Potomac River, where she'd often sing Tina Turner songs.
Pope Francis
One name you might not have expected to see on such a list, the actual Pope didn't always serve a higher power or purpose.
Pope Francis - the 266th Pope and supreme leader of the Catholic Church - was once a bouncer at a nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These weren't the only pre-Pope jobs he had - he'd also worked as a janitor and a lab technician.
Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone's story is Hollywood legend - he was broke and nearly giving up on his dreams when he eventually sold the Rocky script to a film studio. He took a smaller fee than other studios offered on the onus that he could star in the film. And the rest, as they say, is history.
While he waited for his acting career to take off, Sylvester worked all sorts of jobs - with some highlights being a cleaner of lions' cages at Central Park Zoo and making a cameo appearance in an adult film!
Jennifer Aniston
Before the days of Friends and one of Hollywood's leading ladies, Jennifer Aniston was just like any young city dweller trying to make ends meet. Which led to her taking on the job of a bike messenger.
During the press tour for her movie, Horrible Bosses, Jennifer revealed it was the "toughest" job she ever had.
She shared, "[My lowest moment was] probably driving into a door that opened." A slapstick moment that could come right from one of her films.
Channing Tatum
Ladies (and some gentlemen), settle down, because things are going to get a bit hot under the collar now.
Before he was a Hollywood heartthrob, Channing Tatum was making people swoon as an exotic dancer.
Stripping under the name Chan Crawford, Channing Tatum's experiences as a male dancer are what inspired him to produce and lead the Magic Mike film franchise.
