Lying is supposed to be one of those things that you should never do because it never pays off . That’s what we’re told, but somehow, there continue to be situations in life where a little lying can pay off.
Case in point: these celebs all lied about something. Some did it for big breakthroughs while others saw more modest gains. In any event, lying — and then being caught in the lie — didn’t hurt their careers.
RELATED STORIES
Ben Hardy
Ben Hardy’s performance in Bohemian Rhapsody was compelling. What makes it all the more impressive is that he had to learn how to play the drums on the fly after lying to producers that he was an experienced drummer.
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel made up something a little weird some years back when he said he got his start as a Beastie Boys backup dancer. Eventually Ad-Rock, one of said Beastie Boys, set the record straight and said Diesel misinterpreted things.
Idris Elba
Viewers of The Wire were probably surprised to find out that Elba is British, considering how well he nailed the Baltimore accent in the role. This is no accident, as he told showrunner David Simon that he was American.
Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith was pregnant when she played Niobe in The Matrix Reloaded . She was concerned that she might not get the role if it was known just how pregnant she was, so she told a white lie about when she was due.
Jameela Jamil
Jameela Jamil was truly a fish out of water when she landed her big break on The Good Place . She told directors that she was an experienced comedic actress who was skilled in improv, even though she hadn’t acted since she was a kid.
Robert Pattinson
Pattinson is engaged in a lighthearted, long-running lie that everyone knows is a lie. For years, he’s repeated the claim that he got started out as a women’s hand model when he was a kid. Even though he admitted that it was a lie more than a decade ago, he still occasionally makes the claim.
Jason Momoa
Jason Momoa has done some photoshoots since he became a household name, but when he originally auditioned for Baywatch: Hawaii way back in the day, he had no modeling experience. That didn’t stop him from telling casting directors that he had all kinds of high-profile modeling gigs.
Matt Damon
Matt Damon’s been a huge star for more than 20 years now, but when he was just starting out, he had to scratch and claw his way just to get a bit part on a local Boston TV station. To get on air, he lied about knowing how to ice skate.
Lily Allen
It would make some sense that Lily Allen would be offered a Game of Thrones role, as her brother Alfie stars on the show. She claimed she could have had a role but turned it down because of incestuous scenes with her brother — but Alfie himself said Lily was never offered a role.
Meghan Markle
In order to get a speaking role in a production, you need a Screen Actors Guild, or SAG, card. Meghan Markle isn’t doing much acting anymore, but at the beginning of her career she wanted roles — and had no SAG card .
Nicholas Braun
Nicholas Braun hasn’t let his 6’7″ height get in the way of a successful acting career, but there was a time when this was in question. When he was still a relative unknown, he would tell casting directors that he was “only” 6’4″.
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix has done a few weird things during his David Letterman interviews. While not his most famous stunt, he told Letterman in 2014 that he was going to marry his yoga instructor. He later admitted that he made the story up.
Tom Hardy
Tom Hardy wanted a role in Inception so badly that he told Christopher Nolan he knew how to ski, even though he had no clue what he was doing on the slopes. He said he would have made up just about anything in order to work with Nolan.
Niecy Nash
Nash was unforgettable in her role on Reno 911! Incredibly, she went into the role with no improv training and had to learn on the job. She admitted years later that she lied about having improv training during her audition. In a sense, she improvised on the spot.
50 Cent
Years after “In Da Club,” 50 Cent showed off his wealth by appearing in photos with big piles of cash, even though he’d filed for bankruptcy recently. The ordeal caused him to temporarily delete his Instagram and insist that the money was fake.
Mads Mikkelson
Mikkelson was unforgettable in his villainous role in Casino Royale . To help grease the wheels a bit, he told producers he was a huge James Bond fan. As it turned out, he’d never even seen a Bond movie and started watching them once reporters started asking him 007-focused questions.
Jodie Comer
Jodie Comer only knows English fluently. When a part in Killing Eve became available — a part that asked for an actress who had knowledge of many different languages — Comer decided to lie and audition anyway. It all worked out in the end.
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson was just 24 when she landed her iconic role as Agent Dana Scully in The X-Files . At her audition, she said she was 27 because she’d heard that the showrunners were looking for someone more mature to star opposite David Duchovny.
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck was made fun of for appearing in photos with a massive, gaudy tattoo on his back. He claimed it was a fake tattoo for a movie role, but after no back-tat-Ben movie came out, he came clean and admitted it was a real tattoo .
Sadie Sink
Sink was auditioning for a role in Stranger Things that required someone with both skateboarding and rollerblading experience. Sink had done a little bit of rollerblading, but not much, and no skateboarding. She told producers she knew how to do both, and she got the role .
