For many celebrities in Hollywood, fame isn’t something that they were born with. It took years of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice in order to get them where they are today.
This means before they ever stepped foot on a red carpet, many were paying their dues with normal jobs. Have a look at these celebrities who know exactly what it feels like to make minimum wage.
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Ashton Kutcher was a Jack of All Trades before becoming a Hollywood A-list actor.
The former star of That 70s Show worked in carpentry, as a farm-laborer, and even swept up cereal dust on the floor of the General Mills plant.
Ashton also talks about donating blood solely as a means of securing extra income.
Matthew McConaughey used to work at a golf course.
Matthew says that he used to have to rake the sand traps and that his shifts usually started around 3 AM.
On top of that, Matthew was employed to hunt and kill the armadillos that would often wander onto the course.
*Queer Eye*’s Tan France once worked as a flight attendant.
But according to the Fab Five member, a life spent with his head in the clouds simply wasn’t for him.
Tan decided to trade in his wings after only having spent two months on the job.
Margot Robbie used to be a Subway sandwich artist.
“I think I was really good at it though,” Margot explained to Sean Evans during an appearance on Hot Ones . “because I, you know would really spread everything out to the edges evenly — the right amount of everything.”
Taylor Swift’s old job will make you bug-out.
Taylor told Esquire that she and her siblings grew up on a Christmas Tree farm.
“We all had jobs,” Taylor explained. “Mine was picking the praying-mantis pods off of the trees, collecting them so that the bugs wouldn’t hatch inside people’s houses.”
Amy Poehler used to be an ice cream scooper.
It might sound idyllic and even romantic on the surface, but Amy is quick to dispel any misconceptions that anyone might have regarding an ice cream parlor.
The way she describes it, it sounds like a frozen strawberry-flavored version of Hell.
Kanye West worked at the GAP in high school.
“It’s funny that I worked at the Gap in high school,” Kanye told Paper magazine. “because in my past 15 years it seems like that’s the place I stood in my creative path — to be the gap, the bridge.”
Jon Hamm worked in the adult film industry.
Get your head out of that gutter, Jon never acted in an adult film, but he did most definitely work as a set-dresser on a number of softcore porn films that used to air on Cinemax.
Jennifer Aniston was a bike messenger.
Jennifer has said that of all the jobs she’s ever had, being a bike messenger in New York City was by far the most difficult.
Just thinking about all those cars on the street; gives me anxiety
Kate Middleton worked as a buyer at a luxury clothing store.
Kate worked for Jigsaw , who as fate would have it put out a number of pieces for Meghan Markle’s own collection.
It’s no wonder Kate always looks good — she literally used to get paid for it.
Melissa McCarthy used to be a barista at Starbucks.
She recalled to Conan O’Brien the one time she had the chance to serve her comedy icon, Chris Farley.
“At one point, I got so overwhelmed because he was right there, that I started crying,” Melissa said.
Nicki Minaj
Before Nicki became the undisputed Queen of hip-hop, she worked as a waitress for Red Lobster .
The hip-hop artist said that while she did enjoy interacting with people, she had a very low tolerance for BS.
Tiffany Hadish used to be a part of the ground staff team for Alaska Airlines.
I would like to think of myself as one of the best customer service agents ,” Haddish said to The Late Show host, Stephen Colbert.
“I worked at the gates and my goal was always to bring happiness and joy to people.”
Brad Pitt was a mascot for El Pollo Loco.
Brad was made to dress up as a giant chicken and stand outside of the restaurant, waving a sign.
He says he doesn’t remember how much it paid, only that he got flipped off very often.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson used to wash dishes at a pizza parlor.
The fact that Dwayne has been working since he was 13-years-old is impressive on its own (and also highly illegal).
But to think that he’s been pulling 8.5 hour days from the time he became a teenager — now that’s work ethic.
Meghan Markle used to be a pro at calligraphy.
Before her breakout role on Suits , Meghan worked part-time at Paper Source teaching calligraphy , gift-wrapping, and book-binding. Meghan’s calligraphy classes were no joke, either. They often lasted upwards of two hours at a time.
Beyoncé swept up hair in her mother’s salon.
According to Queen Bey, the tips she made from sweeping hair went towards her Six Flags season pass. The iconic artist says that even after all these years, she still loves a good roller coaster ride.
Cardi B worked as a grocery store cashier.
After giving her friend a considerable discount on a phone, Cardi was fired from her job at the Amish Market in TriBeCa. Shortly after being let go, she walked across the street to the New York Dolls club and got a job as a stripper.
Cindy Crawford’s first job was shucking cobs of corn.
Anyone who enjoys corn on the cob in the summertime will tell you that peeling off the corn stalk can be a royal pain. Cindy used to do this as a summer job and made roughly $4 an hour.
Megan Fox worked in a smoothie shop in Florida.
Megan told Ellen DeGeneres that every Friday one of the staff members would have to dress up like a giant piece of fruit. She said that she had to wear a banana costume on more than one occasion.
Jennifer Hudson used to have it her way at Burger King.
Before Jennifer earned herself an Oscar for her role in Dream Girls , she was working at her local Burger King in Chicago. After she left to pursue acting full-time, Burger King gifted her free food for life.
Eva Longoria flipped burgers at Wendy’s.
Eva told Rachel Ray that she used to love working at Wendy’s. She even saw fit to let Rachel’s studio audience in on Wendy’s top-secret cheeseburger bun stacking technique.
I’ll definitely be trying this the next time I barbeque.
Rachel McAdams worked the drive-thru at McDonald’s.
“It was a great place to work, but I had a little bit of an OCD thing with hand washing and just didn’t have time,” Rachel explained to Glamour . “They were like, “Hey, the drive-through’s backing up. Stop washing your hands!”.”
