Before the premieres and red carpets, plenty of famous actors were paying rent the usual way. They hung drywall, delivered mail, poured drinks and sold things door to door. Some of those jobs were short detours, and others lasted years.
The list below sticks to career stories that have been widely reported and repeated in interviews and biographies. Each one shows a different kind of ordinary work and what it left behind.
Harrison Ford, Self-Taught Carpenter
Harrison Ford spent years in Los Angeles taking small acting parts that didn’t pay enough. To cover the bills, he turned to carpentry and learned the trade largely on his own. It became his steady income through the late 1960s and early 1970s.
His woodworking reportedly led to one of his better breaks. He was hired to build cabinetry and a doorway at the offices of filmmaker George Lucas, and that connection helped land him a part in American Graffiti. Star Wars followed a few years later.
Brad Pitt, The Chicken Outside El Pollo Loco
Brad Pitt moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s with little money and a plan to act. He has talked openly about the odd jobs he took in those early years. One of them had him standing on the sidewalk in a chicken costume to promote the restaurant chain El Pollo Loco.
It’s the kind of detail that sticks because it’s so far from his later image. He also drove limousines for a stretch, another job he has mentioned in interviews. Neither lasted once his acting work picked up in the early 1990s.
Hugh Jackman, Gym Teacher and Party Clown
Hugh Jackman took a gap year after university in Australia, and it didn’t involve a film set. He worked as a physical education assistant at Uppingham School in England. The experience is often cited as a turning point, because it was around then that he got involved in school drama.
Back home, he also performed as a clown at children’s parties, something he has discussed in interviews. It was practical stage experience of a rough kind. Kids are a demanding audience, and he later moved into musical theater before Wolverine made him famous worldwide.
Sylvester Stallone, Zoo Cage Cleaner
Sylvester Stallone had a rough run in New York before Rocky. He has said he worked cleaning lion cages at the Central Park Zoo. He also took a job as a movie theater usher, which put him close to the industry he couldn’t yet crack.
Money was tight enough that he sold things he valued to get by. He then wrote the Rocky screenplay in a burst of effort and insisted on starring in it. The film arrived in 1976 and changed his life.
Jason Statham, Market Trader and Olympic Level Diver
Jason Statham’s route to acting was unusual even by this list’s standards. As a young man in England, he competed as a diver at a high level and was part of the British national diving team. To earn extra money, he worked as a street market trader, selling items like jewelry and perfume.
He has said that the selling years taught him to talk to people and think on his feet. A modeling job for a clothing brand then caught the eye of director Guy Ritchie. That led to his casting in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998.
Tom Hanks, Hotel Bellhop
Tom Hanks held a job as a bellhop at a Hilton hotel in the Oakland area while he was getting started. The work meant carrying luggage and dealing with guests all day, and he has described the experience warmly over the years. It was a long way from the lead roles he would later get.
Around the same time, he was building experience in theater, including seasons at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Ohio. His television break came with the sitcom Bosom Buddies in 1980. Big, in 1988, pushed him into movie stardom.
Steve Carell, Mail Carrier
Steve Carell worked as a mail carrier in his home state of Massachusetts, delivering letters on foot. He has told the story in interviews, including a few details about learning the route. It was a regular job with regular hours, and he held it before committing to comedy.
He later joined the improv scene in Chicago, performing with Second City. From there he moved to television, including a run as a correspondent on The Daily Show. The Office and The 40 Year Old Virgin made him a leading man.
Sean Connery, Milkman and Polisher of Coffins
Long before he played James Bond, Sean Connery was a young man in Edinburgh doing whatever work came up. Biographies and interviews describe jobs as a milkman and as a lifeguard. He is also widely reported to have worked polishing coffins, a job that stuck in the public imagination.
He served in the Royal Navy before those years, then turned toward bodybuilding and eventually the stage. Small acting roles led to Dr. No in 1962. That film started the Bond series and made him an international star.
Sandra Bullock, Bartender in New York
Sandra Bullock moved to New York to pursue acting after college. Like many newcomers there, she worked as a bartender and cocktail waitress while she auditioned. She has mentioned those jobs in interviews as part of the struggle to get started.
She also studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse, a respected acting school in the city. Film roles slowly followed in the early 1990s. Speed, in 1994, made her a household name.
Jennifer Aniston, Telemarketer and Waitress
Jennifer Aniston has said she held a handful of day jobs while chasing acting work in New York and Los Angeles. One was telemarketing, and she has joked that it wasn’t a good fit. She also waited tables, and she has mentioned working as a bike messenger as well.
Her early credits included small television parts and a short lived series before she landed Friends in 1994. The show ran for ten seasons and became one of the most watched sitcoms in American television. By then, the day jobs were long behind her.
