Actors, pop stars, and TV presenters are among those people who enchant, captivate, and even inspire us. Their performances allow us, even if only briefly, to escape the mundane aspects of our lives. The glitz, glamour, and romance of their own lives, in turn, compel us to consider what happens, or has happened, behind the scenes. While at a basic level, the events in their lives are little different from our own, some become quite fascinating when considered in the context of their careers and fame. Here are some interesting facts about celebrities you may not have heard.
1. At age 19, Nicki Minaj worked as a waitress at a Red Lobster restaurant in the Bronx, but was fired for being "disrespectful to customers.".
In an interview on show "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"« Nicki Minaj spoke about her time as a waitress at a Red Lobster restaurant. She said she was bothered by the way servers were called to tables in a panic while waiting for orders, leaving thinking it was an emergency, and then customers asking, "Can I get more bread?" She was fired from at least fifteen different jobs for similar reasons before she became famous. (1, 2)
2. Jack Nicholson grew up thinking his grandmother was his mother and his mother was his sister. He was born out of wedlock, and his mother was 18 when she gave birth.
Nicholson's mother, Jane Frances Nicholson, was a dancer who married an Italian-American without knowing he was already married. It's believed her agent may have been Nicholson's father, although this isn't certain. Because she was unmarried and unaware of her father's identity, her parents raised Nicholson as their own son, claiming his mother and sister were his two older sisters. He only discovered the truth at age 37, when in 1974 researchers from the journal Time They uncovered it and told him. By that time, his mother and grandmother had already died. He later said the news was "quite a dramatic event, but I wouldn't call it traumatic... I was quite well prepared psychologically.". (source)
3. In his youth, Quentin Tarantino watched an average of 200 movies in theaters a year.
In his youth, Tarantino was a huge film buff. Between the ages of 17 and 22, he kept a list of all the films he saw in theaters that year, including reruns of classics. Over the years, he saw between 197 and 202 films, despite being broke at the time. He also selected his favorites from the list and presented them with small awards. (source)
4. Oprah Winfrey was originally named "Orpah" after her sister Ruth from the Bible. But many mispronounced it and spelled it as "Oprah," so the new name stuck.
Oprah was born at home in rural Mississippi in 1954, where education was scarce. Her name was chosen from the Bible, but no one knew how to pronounce or spell it. Although her birth certificate listed her name as "Orpah," elsewhere people put a "p" before the "r." Eventually, her name became "Oprah.". (source)
5. At the age of 16, Charlize Theron witnessed her mother kill her father to protect her and her sister.
Charlize Theron's father was an alcoholic and verbally abusive. Her parents had a difficult relationship, and divorce was socially unacceptable in South Africa at the time. One night, on June 21, 1991, when she was 16, he and his brother got heavily drunk. Returning home, he started shooting at the locked gate and then, enraged, banged on Theron's door, shouting, "I'm going to kill you both with a shotgun tonight!" He then began firing into her room. Her mother grabbed her pistol and shot them both, killing her husband and wounding his brother. (source)
6. Mayim Bialik, who plays a neuroscientist in The Big Bang Theory« , in real life is also a neurobiologist and has a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Since childhood, Bialik has been actively involved in acting and studying at school. She has also voiced characters in many animated television shows, including «The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest» , «"Break"» from Disney, «Kim Possible» , «Johnny Bravo» и «"Hey, Arnold!"» . She also starred in Michael Jackson's music video for the song «Liberian Girl» .
After graduating from high school in 1993, Bialik attended Harvard and Yale, but chose the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) because she didn't want to move too far from her parents. She then earned a Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience with a minor in Hebrew and Jewish studies. After a break in 2005 to pursue an acting career, she returned to school and earned her PhD in neuroscience in 2007. Her dissertation title was "Hypothalamic Regulation in Relation to Maladaptive, Obsessive-Compulsive, Affiliative, and Saturating Behaviors in Prader-Willi Syndrome.". (source)
7. Channing Tatum used to work as a stripper under the name "Chan Crawford," and the film «Mike's Magic» based on his experiences during that period.
Tatum spent most of his teenage years in Tampa, Florida, and graduated from high school in 1998, where he was voted "most athletic." Although he attended college on a football scholarship, he dropped out and began working various jobs. One of these was as a stripper at a local nightclub under the nickname "Chan Crawford," which he did for eight months. He later told Steven Soderbergh about it, who suggested a movie should be made about it. The film was made and eventually became «Magic Mike» . (1, 2)
8. Danny Trejo, nicknamed "Machete," learned to fight while serving time in San Quentin Prison and became the prison's lightweight and welterweight boxing champion.
Trejo spent a lot of time in prison in the 1960s, learned to box, and became a boxing champion in San Quentin. He later became a youth drug counselor and helped a teenager with cocaine problems on the set of a film. «Runaway Train» . The film's screenwriter was Edward Bunker, a crime writer and actor who had also served time with Trejo in San Quentin. Bunker recognized Trejo and his boxing skills and offered him $320 a day to train one of the actors for a boxing scene. The film's director, Andrei Konchalovsky, decided to offer him a small role in the film, which launched his acting career. (source)
9. While studying acting, James Franco, a UCLA dropout, worked part-time at McDonald's to make ends meet. While handing out Big Macs, Franco practiced his foreign accent in front of customers.
In 1996, James Franco moved to Los Angeles to study English at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), but dropped out because he wanted to become an actor. Both his parents had master's degrees, and when he told them of his decision, they said he'd have to support himself if he didn't go to college. So he took a night job at McDonald's, sharing an apartment with two other aspiring actors. He began taking acting lessons with Robert Carnegie at Playhouse West, and while at work, he practiced fake accents with customers to practice scenes from the acting class. A fan of River Phoenix, he was a vegetarian before working at McDonald's, but to save money, he soon began eating cheeseburgers that would otherwise have gone in the trash. (1, 2)
10. At the age of 12, Jim Carrey and his family were so poor that they had to live in a van. He had to drop out of school and become a janitor to help them.
Due to some management problems, Carrie's father lost his job, plunging the family into financial difficulties. At the time, he worked as a janitor at a factory. By then, he had also become a skilled impersonator and wanted to showcase his talent on stage. However, although his father tried to support his aspirations as a comedian, it was only much later, after his financial problems had been resolved and stability had returned, that he began performing at a higher level. Soon, he was landing regular paid gigs and began building a reputation, eventually becoming the star we know today. (source)