Words: Guy Aubrey Devito
It’s very easy to look at celebrities and think ‘boy, do those guys have it easy!’ – but it wasn’t always so. Many celebrities did a number of absolutely terrible jobs before they found success. Here are some of the horrific jobs the rich and famous did before they became members of the glitterati.
GRAVEDIGGER/MORTICIAN
It seems that a fair few celebrities enjoy the macabre – and many of those that they work with are the dearly departed. The novelist Will Self, children’s writer Allan Ahlberg and the old rocker Rod Stewart all apparently worked as gravediggers, whilst Whoppi Goldberg worked in a mortuary, applying makeup to dead people.
PORN INDUSTRY
Many movie stars found career breaks in the porn industry, which runs alongside the traditional film industry in Los Angeles. Jackie Chan, Sasha Grey and Sylvester Stallone all appeared in proper pornographic films – Stallone’s was hilariously called The Party at Kitty and Stud’s. Jon Hamm meanwhile worked on the sets of porn films (hopefully not as a fluffer!)
JOBS WITH ANIMALS
Warren Beatty was famously employed as a rat catcher before finding success as an actor, whilst Christopher Walken and Sylvester Stallone both worked with lions. Walken was a lion tamer but poor old Stallone had the unenviable job of being the maid to a big cat – he cleaned the lion’s cage at Central Park Zoo.
FOOD MASCOT
Perhaps the most famous Hollywood star active today, Brad Pitt worked in many demeaning capacities before finding fame – but perhaps none was worse than his stint as a chicken mascot for fast food chain ‘El Pollo Loco’. He’s not the only one, Megan Fox had to dress up as a giant banana to attract customers to a smoothie shop in Florida.
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