Meetings With Celebrity: Before Their Fame (20 pics)
“I went to school with Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley from Harry Potter). I was into acting too, so we had done a few school plays together. He was really nice, very chill, a good laugh. I haven’t seen him since school days, but he kept coming to classes whenever he wasn’t filming, was always happy to chat about the movies. Sometimes he’d need a little break from so many people wanting to talk, and would come and hang out in the library, and honestly, you’d never know he was in the biggest film series at the time.”
“Jack Black is the same person he was as a teenager, funny, kind, caring, and spreading that joy of music.”
“Went to middle school with Meagan fox for a bit. She rode my bus and she mostly kept to herself. Most of the guys would fight over who was going to sit next to her but she was very shy and didn’t really have much to say.”
“A close family friend was best friends with Tom Cruise before he got famous. I didn’t believe her and she showed me pictures they have taken together like a Vegas road trip, camping, etc. He was really awesome but as soon as he got an ounce of fame it went to his head and he became very arrogant and a fame wh#re.”
“A friend of mine is buddies with Paul Rudd. Says he’s exactly the same and a great human.”
“Friend of mine was friends with Tom Hanks in high school and went to prom with him. He still writes her personalized BDay cards on one of his typewriters.”
“Not personally but everyone in my town has a Dave Chapelle story. I worked with a guy who said he knew him, I called BS. We then met Dave and they were actually friends. Basically no one in town thought he would be much. Now he is a local hero really down to earth. You literally see this man just chilling in the park in normal cheap clothes. Nothing has changed him. You wouldn’t think he was famous. Maybe homeless but not famous.”
“I live in the town where Dolly Parton grew up, and practically everyone above the age of 50 who grew up here claims to either be a distant relative of Dolly’s, or they claim to know her in some way. Everyone has their story of the time they met Dolly. It’s pretty obvious, but regardless of who you talk to, Dolly has always been sweet and generous, but everything has simply grown exponentially due to her fame. I honestly can’t think of one person I know who doesn’t like her. Dolly’s heart has only gotten bigger because of fame.”
“My grandfather taught Jack Nicholson in High School math class. Said he was rebellious but wasn’t too bad at math.”
“My coworkers dad grew up with Queen Latifah in North Jersey. His whole family loves her because they were about to lose their house, so she paid it off for them. They’ve never said a bad thing about her.”
“My aunt was best friends with Madonna in high school stayed friends until she got famous and she turned into a completely different person in the worst way possible...”
“My mom used to ride the bus to work in downtown Cleveland with Steve Harvey’s first wife. Apparently she supported him while he was trying to get his career started. And then basically as soon as he got successful he divorced her for a younger woman. My mom always hated him because she felt that he treated his first wife like ###t and always yells “bastard!” at the TV when he pops up.”
“I had a teacher who taught drake. Apparently he was a nice kid but then got really douchey when he started getting famous.”
“My mom is friends with Johnny Knoxville’s cousin. She met him once and had no idea who he was. She said he was nice and funny as all hell. She didn’t realize until years later she’d even met him until I showed her one of his movies. From what I gather he’s a normal dude and pretty hilarious.”
“My mom knew Seal as far back as when he was still trying to be an architect, and she says he was always really nice. They didn’t stay in touch, she moved away and they were never close, but she said he went out of his way to foster genuine connections to people before and after his music started to gain traction.”
“My Grandpa(RIP) owned a grocery store in Miami in the late 70s. Wesley Snipes and his friends once stole some candy from his store and when he caught them he let them have it. Since then Wesley and his friends were regulars. Once, Wesley left his bike in front of the store and it got stolen (was a pretty bad area). My grandpa gave him his old bike that he kept in the back of the store. My uncle took over in 2001 when my grandpa died. In 2007 he came back to the store while my uncle and cousin were there, to ask about my grandpa. My uncle said they talked for a little over an hour about how he my grandpa treated him like a son. When he found out my grandpa passed he felt guilty he didn’t visit sooner. He embraced my uncle and cousin and left. My uncle said he told him they plan on having the building repainted while they talked. About a week later a crew of painters arrived and told my uncle they were already paid to have the building repainted. Such a genuine dude.”
‘I went to Junior High with Norah Jones. She was the most sincere and serene person. She was fun to talk to and she never gave a hint of who her father was. The night she won all those Grammys was very telling that she hadn’t changed a bit.”
“My dad was good friends with Will Smith before the Fresh Prince days – Will actually showed him the pilot before it aired. Fast forward however many years to After Earth and Will invited us on the set. His first words when he saw my dad 10+ years later was “the philly crew is back!” Both will and Jaden are the sweetest people you’ll ever meet.”
“Chris Hemsworth and his brother Liam, both really good blokes before and after they became famous.”
“I had a friend in high school whose cousin is Kendrick Lamar. He’s said Kendrick’s pretty much still the same guy, acts the same around friends and family, just with millions of dollars now.”
