Surprising First Jobs Celebrities Had Before Hollywood Fame

Brad Pitt - Chicken Costume Mascot for El Pollo Loco

Before he walked the red carpets, Brad Pitt was sweating it out inside a giant chicken suit. He opened up about his first job on The Ellen DeGeneres Show when he worked as a mascot for the fast-food chain El Pollo Loco, and stood on a busy street corner to attract customers. Can you even imagine an A-list superstar like him waving from the sidewalk now?

George Clooney - Women’s Shoe Salesman

This Hollywood heartthrob who keep us drooling now, was once selling women’s shoes in a department store. Yes, we are talking about George Clooney. Even today, he recalled his earlier days in an interview and laughed talking about “all women lie about their foot size” and the challenge of jamming a size ten into a seven. That’s not all. Even after that, he sold insurance door-to-door, stocked shelves, did construction, and even cut tobacco as a kid. At one point, he was so broke he slept on a closet floor and rode a bike to auditions. His life was no less than movie roles!

23. Johnny Depp, Garage-Band Guitarist Turned Telemarketer

Before Hollywood came calling, Johnny Depp’s dream was music. At 16, he dropped out of high school to pursue a career as a guitarist, joining a band called The Kids. They gained enough traction to open for acts like the Talking Heads and the B-52s, but success didn’t come with steady pay. To get by, Depp took odd jobs, including selling pens over the phone as a telemarketer in Los Angeles. It surely wasn’t glamorous, but it paid for rent and kept him afloat while he chased his dreams!

22. Hugh Jackman, Party Clown “Coco”

Hollywood stardom wasn’t always a reality for Hugh, and initially, he was just “Coco the Clown.” Yep, he used to show up at kids’ birthday parties in full costume, making balloon animals and pocketing about $50 per job. He wasn’t very good at it. Jackman has laughed about those days, admitting he had no real clown or magic skills. At one party, a little kid even called him out, telling him he wasn’t a “real clown.” Maybe, destiny was just preparing him to face his audience someday!

21. Rachel McAdams, McDonald’s Employee

Back when The Notebook and Mean Girls didn’t happen, McAdams was wearing a McDonald’s visor instead of designer gowns as an employee. Rachel herself laughed about it now and confessed that even though she worked there as a teenager for about three years, she wasn’t exactly employee of the month. In fact, she constantly broke the orange juice machine and wasn’t great at keeping the line moving. But destiny had it plans and now, she’s right where she deserves to be.

20. Tom Hanks, Popcorn and Peanut Vendor

Baseball fans at the Oakland Coliseum probably once saw a teenage Tom Hanks shouting sales pitches in the stands, selling peanuts and popcorn with a tray strapped around his neck. Even though Hanks himself accepted that he wasn’t a good vendor, the job gave him enough pocket money to stay afloat. Even today, he’s thankful for that job as it gave him the first chance to experience working in the crowd.

19. Chris Pratt, Waiter at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Chris Pratt was once just a guy in Maui, living in a van parked near the beach and waiting tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Now, recalling those days he said, they were 'broke but happy' days of his life. And, like out of a perfect rom-com plot, his life almost changed overnight when while waiting tables, actress Rae Dawn Chong noticed him and offered him a role in her short film. That tiny break opened doors for him; first, TV gigs, then movies, and eventually the galaxy-saving, dinosaur-chasing career we know today.

18. Meryl Streep, Hotel Waitress

Meryl Streep, often called the greatest living actress, started out just like you, me, and so many more; waiting tables. While in college and later as a struggling actor in New York, she worked as a waitress in hotels and restaurants to make ends meet. Today, she’s grateful because those jobs gave her people skills and resilience, even when customers weren’t the nicest. What’s most inspiring is that, besides waiting tables, she was studying acting and slowly landing roles in theater too. It’s hard to picture the three-time Oscar winner balancing plates, isn’t it?

17. Jim Carrey, Janitor and Security Guard

“Will work for laughs” could’ve been Jim Carrey’s teenage motto. By day, he scrubbed toilets and pulled overnight shifts as a janitor and security guard at a Canadian tire factory. By night, he was already chasing glitz comedy dreams. In an interview, Jim opened up that money was so tight, that even his family had to live in a van for a while. Jim added that those tough years pushed him to work harder at what he really loved. Finally, all that effort paid off when he landed In Living Color.

16. Matthew McConaughey, Chicken Coop Cleaner

As a teenager back in Australia, one of the only jobs Matthew could get was cleaning out pens. Smelly, messy, and about as far from Hollywood as you can imagine. It’s not really the Hollywood star picture we have now in our minds, right? Matthew himself has confessed that it was exactly as gross as it sounds; long hours, feathers everywhere, and a smell that stuck to your clothes no matter how hard you tried to wash it out. But he also accepted that those years away from home forced him to toughen up, figure things out for himself, and value hard work.

15. Ashton Kutcher, Factory Worker

Can you picture Ashton Kutcher in a hairnet and dusty coveralls, sweeping piles of cereal dust in the middle of the night? Well, that was his reality before he became the on-screen star. Kutcher worked at a General Mills plant in his hometown of Cedar Rapids, and recalling those day he confessed that the job was dirty, repetitive, and definitely not glamorous, but it paid the bills. That’s not all, in between factory jobs, he also worked construction and even dabbled in carpentry before taking the leap to the modeling industry.

14. Jennifer Hudson, Burger King Employee

One of Jennifer Hudson’s first paychecks came not from a stage but from the Burger King down the street. Back in Chicago, her first job was at Burger King, where she took orders, worked the fryer, and tried to keep up with the lunch rush. She’s even joked that she wasn’t very good at it, but the steady paycheck helped until music started opening doors.

13. Sylvester Stallone, Lion Cage Cleaner

A struggling young actor in New York, broom in hand, scrubbing out the cages of full-grown lions at the Central Park Zoo. That was Sylvester Stallone’s reality before anyone knew the name Rocky Balboa. The job was hectic and terrifying, all while dreaming of breaking into Hollywood. Later, as an actor and filmmaker, when he sat down to write the script for Rocky, he poured in all the grit, frustration, and resilience he’d built during those years.

12. Jennifer Aniston, Telemarketer

Jennifer Aniston has joked for years that she was a terrible telemarketer. Her job? Cold-calling people at dinnertime to sell timeshares, and almost never closing a deal. It wasn’t her only gig either. To keep the bills paid in New York, she balanced shifts as a waitress and even zipped through traffic as a bike messenger. She later admitted that none of those jobs were really cut out for her. Still, those odd jobs taught her how to handle pressure, improvise on the spot, and keep going after setbacks; skills she carried with her into acting.

11. Madonna, Hatcheck Girl, Elevator Operator, Art Model… and More

The first thing Madonna did when she landed in New York at 20 was run out of money. She later said she had “35 bucks and a lot of nerve.” To survive, she took whatever work came her way; checking hats at the Russian Tea Room, pressing elevator buttons at Terrace on the Park, even posing as a nude art model for photography students. Surely, these weren’t ‘dream jobs’ but it bought her time to do what she really wanted.

10. Whoopi Goldberg, Mortuary Beautician

Whoopi Goldberg worked one of the most unusual jobs you can imagine; she was a beautician in a funeral home, and her role was to apply makeup to people who had passed away and make them look presentable for viewings. She once shared that on her first day, she thought she heard a body move. That wasn’t her only early gig though. Whoopi also worked as a bricklayer and a bank teller before her acting career took off.

9. Channing Tatum, Stripper

Channing Tatum’s first stage wasn’t in Hollywood, it was a strip club in Tampa. At 19, broke and looking for fast cash, he worked the floor under the name Chan Crawford. The job wasn’t glamorous, but it taught him how to hold a crowd’s attention. He’s joked about it plenty since, saying he learned more while performing in those clubs than he ever expected.

8. Megan Fox, Banana Costume for a Smoothie Shop

Imagine driving down a Florida highway and spotting a giant banana waving at you from the sidewalk. That was a teenage Megan Fox, working at a local smoothie shop, where some shifts meant cashier duty, others meant sweating inside the banana suit to lure in customers. She’s laughed about it now and said it wasn’t exactly the “spotlight” she had in mind. But those odd shifts, plus a little modeling work, kept her afloat until acting auditions started to click.

7. Sandra Bullock, Bartender and Waitress

It’s hard to imagine Sandra Bullock juggling martini glasses instead of movie scripts, but that was her reality when she first moved to New York. With rent to pay and no steady acting work, she picked up shifts as a bartender and waitress. Now, Bullock has admitted those nights behind the bar gave her their own kind of training. The pressure of handling impatient customers or smoothing over barroom drama later made her a natural in roles like Miss Congeniality.

6. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dishwasher

Can you picture a 13-year-old Dwayne Johnson standing at the back of a little pizza shop in Honolulu, up to his elbows in soap suds? It’s true. In fact, one of his first paycheck came from scrubbing greasy pans after school, a gig he later said taught him discipline long before the fame ever did. But that wasn’t his only side hustle; he even tried bouncing at nightclubs and even thought about becoming a cop before wrestling pulled him in. But it’s the dishwasher story he brings up most, probably because it’s such a far cry from the global superstar life he leads now.

5. Nicole Kidman, Massage Therapist’s Assistant

At just 14, Nicole Kidman wasn’t babysitting or bagging groceries like most teens—she was learning massage therapy. Her mother was battling breast cancer, and Kidman wanted to help ease her pain. She got so good at it that she began assisting a professional therapist, using the skills to bring in extra money for her family. Looking back, it’s easy to see how that compassion carried into her performances.

4. Mick Jagger, Hospital Porter

Mick Jagger once had a job that couldn’t have been further from the stage. As a teenager, he worked as a hospital porter in Bexley, England, helped patients and ran errands for the staff. At the same time, he was studying at the London School of Economics; so by day, hospital shifts and textbooks, by night, rehearsals and music.

3. Charlize Theron, Ballet Assistant

Charlize Theron didn’t always picture herself on a movie set. In fact, her first dream was ballet. Later when she moved to New York to study dance, she picked up work as an assistant at a ballet school to poay the bills. That path came to an abrupt end when a knee injury cut short her hopes of becoming a professional dancer. After moving to LA, a manager spotted Theron while arguing with a bank teller over cashing a check, and seeing her fiery determination, offered to sign her.

2. Eva Longoria, Wendy’s Worker

Ask Eva Longoria about her first job, and she’ll smile and go back to the days when she was 16, wearing a Wendy’s uniform in Texas, taking orders and working the fry station. She kept the gig for years and often jokes she can still assemble a Wendy’s burger in her sleep. Longoria has said she genuinely enjoyed the routine and the responsibility, it gave her independence. Now, she even credits those early shifts, saying they taught her how to stay calm under pressure and manage people’s expectations; skills that later came in handy on a film set.

1. Steve Buscemi, Firefighter

Not every actor can say they once wore a real uniform before a costume. In the early ’80s, Steve Buscemi was part of New York City’s Engine Company 55, stationed in Little Italy. He was a full-time firefighter, and spent his days answering emergency calls. What’s remarkable is that even after Hollywood success, he didn’t leave that life completely behind. When the September 11 attacks happened, Buscemi quietly rejoined his old crew, and worked long shifts at Ground Zero to help search for survivors.