Some celebrities we know and admire, such as 2-time Grammy Award-winning actor Bradley Cooper and Academy Award-winning actress Brie Larson, fought a lot to get to where they are today. They were repeatedly denied, and their confidence was undermined, but their perseverance paid off just as they were about to give up.
Henry Cavill
Henry Cavill was ready to give up acting and join the military before Superman and The Witcher came along. He had been turned down for gigs so many times that he began to believe the industry wasn’t for him.
Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman, says she had so many camera auditions and rejections before landing her big break that she told her husband she couldn’t stand it any longer. She was taken aback when she was finally cast in the major part.
Bradley Cooper
Bradley Cooper began his career as a struggling actor with a slew of little roles. He won a great role in Alias after years of performing minor roles, but his role was steadily chopped shorter and shorter. While suffering depression, he tore his calf muscle while playing basketball, forcing him to miss a whole year of work. Around that time, he claimed to wanting to give up acting for good.
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart almost gave up acting before becoming the world’s most famous Bella Swan in Twilight. She used to drive across Los Angeles with her mother, going from audition after audition, only to get turned down. She planned to give the final audition on her list a chance before calling it off. Thankfully, she was chosen for the part.
Emma Watson
When Emma Watson was nine years old, she earned a role in Harry Potter. She struggled with being the centre of attention and wearing too much cosmetics. She felt unqualified for the job and chose to leave the industry once the film series concluded. Watson, on the other hand, later grasped the power of her platform and used it to raise awareness about vital causes such as women’s empowerment.
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo claims that he auditioned for around 600 roles but was unsuccessful. He became depressed as a result of the rejection and considered giving up on his aspirations. His mother, on the other hand, kept encouraging him to find happiness, and it all worked out in the end.
Claire Danes
Claire Danes had been looking for work for the past two years and chose to pursue a career in interior design instead. She currently has three Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards under her belt, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson, like Kristen Stewart, struggled to find work before landing Twilight. His audition for the vampire drama went horribly badly, according to him, and he called his parents and told them, “I’m done, I can’t torment myself any longer.” The next day, he received a call from the movie, much to his amazement.
Brie Larson
At the age of nine, this Academy Award-winning actress began acting. After failing to secure major roles, she took on smaller jobs and even released a pop album, but only 4,000 copies were sold. She decided that Hollywood wasn’t for her and instead applied to institutions to study marine biology. She was called in for the show United States of Tara at the time, which catapulted her career.
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson confessed in an interview about her early career that she was tired of being exploited in the industry. She felt stuck and considered looking for a new profession and retiring from performing.
Elizabeth Olsen
Because of her sisters’ fame and how it was hurting them, Elizabeth Olsen claimed that she wanted to leave entertainment for good. The media, she claims, was hostile to them and would follow the twins around everywhere, almost causing accidents on several occasions.
Millie Bobby Brown
Millie Bobby Brown was bitten by the acting bug when she was eight years old, and despite never having taken any acting training, she set out to establish a name for herself in Hollywood. She scored a few of small jobs in popular shows like Modern Family and Grey’s Anatomy, but she felt she couldn’t do it any longer. When she was cast as Eleven in Stranger Things, she acknowledges that everything changed.
Chris Hemsworth
Chris Hemsworth struggled to find work after his stint in Star Trek (2009). Things only grew worse, and he considered quitting everything and returning to Australia.
David Harbour
When David Harbour’s show State of Affairs was cancelled, he lost all hope. He remarked in an interview that he told himself at the time, “I’m done.” David Harbour is no longer wanted in Hollywood. They’ve completed their work.” Shortly later, he landed a role in Stranger Things.
Melissa McCarthy
Melissa McCarthy was rejected numerous times and couldn’t even get an audition at one point. She was working two other jobs to make ends meet, and she made the decision to stop her acting profession if it didn’t become stable by the time she was 30. She landed a role on Gilmore Girls a week before her thirtyth birthday.
Which of the stories piqued your curiosity the most? Have you ever been turned down for a job? How did you handle it?
Preview photo credit Wonder Woman / Warner Bros, gal_gadot / Instagram
