When you think of people like Dwayne Johnson and Halle Berry, it’s hard to imagine a time that they were never not beloved by everyone around them. But as it turns out, that isn’t the case.
In fact, many of our favorite A-list actors faced incredible hardships in their youth at the hands of bullies. Have a look and see which celebrities were definitely not popular in high school .
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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
By the time that Dwayne Johnson had turned 16-years-old, he’d already attended four different high schools in four completely different states.
According to an Instagram post made by ‘The Rock’ himself, most of his classmates thought that he was an undercover cop .
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s real name is Stephanie Germanotta . While she was studying at NYU, a small group of her classmates got together and created a Facebook group titled “Stephanie Germanotta, you will never be famous.”
I guess she showed them.
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo was constantly bullied throughout high school because he wore braces . When he came across a young fan being bullied online for his appearance, Mark reached out and personally invited him to The Avengers: Infinity War premiere night.
Rashida Jones
“I came out of the womb reading books and thinking about my next project,” Rashida said during a 2011 interview with Playboy . “I’m a born nerd.”
Rashida was also an integral member of her school’s math team, as well as the student government.
Shawn Mendes
Shawn said via Instagram that “The day after I posted one of my first covers onto YouTube back in 2014.. at school walking down the hall straight into a group of older guys yelling out “sing for me Shawn sing for me!” In a way that made me feel absolutely horrible.”
Shay Mitchell
High school wasn’t an easy time for Shay. She was forced to eat her lunch alone in the bathroom on most days, in order to avoid a group of mean girls who seemed intent on making her life miserable.
Tom Cruise
When Tom was a kid growing up, his family was forced to move around — a lot. That meant that he was always the new kid in school, and by the time he’d begin to feel like he was settling in, it was time to up and move again.
Halle Berry
Halle explained in an interview with People magazine that “Because my mother was white and my father was black… we got called Oreos and names, and kids just didn’t understand, so we were different. We were the brunt of a lot of jokes.”
Justin Timberlake
In high school, Justin was labelled as different by his classmates. They thought that his drive and passion was weird , and would constantly name-call and try to put him down. Justin credits his own mother for teaching him that being weird/different was a good thing.
Lizzo
Lizzo was a self-professed band geek in high school who took things to the next level. She was determined to become a master flutist and says that she used to voluntarily attend band camp in the summer months.
Ryan Gosling
Growing up in Cornwall, ON, Ryan was tormented by the kids in school. It got so bad that by age 10, his mother unenrolled him and began homeschooling the burgeoning young star. He was also diagnosed with ADHD from a very young age.
Cameron Diaz
Cameron told host George Lopez that she was a fighter back in high school. ‘I used to get in fights with boys more than girls, for some reason boys liked to fight me,” she recalled during the interview.
Henry Cavill
Henry was called ” Fat Cavill ” by the kids in school. He says that while now he understands that it wasn’t necessarily malicious, at the time it felt incredibly cruel. Despite the hardship, Henry says that he doesn’t hold any grudges.
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence had to change schools because the kids were so mean. She told The Sun that “They were less mean in middle school , because I was doing all right, although this one girl gave me invitations to hand out to her birthday party that I wasn’t invited to.”
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan was once People ‘s “Sexiest Man of the Year.” But growing up he didn’t have even half the confidence that he does now. He told Conan O’Brien during an interview that up until he turned 18-years-old, he used to pretend to fall just to get girls to notice him.