Celebrities who came from humble beginnings

There’s no denying Kate has had a Titanic Hollywood career – the Mare of Easttown star, 49, has a mantelpiece groaning with awards, including an Oscar. As a kid, her jobbing actor dad struggled to make ends meet and her family needed free meal benefits to get by. At the age of 11, Kate helped the family finances by starring in a Sugar Puffs TV commercial. “I’m not the pedigree kid,” says Kate. “I’m not classically trained. I didn’t come from the fancy home.”

Before she became the highest-paid television actor in Hollywood, courtesy of her scene-stealing role in sitcom Modern Family, Colombian Sofía, 52, had a string of low-profile roles. One of her first was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in beach drama Baywatch in 1999.

He’s riding high as the leading man on Netflix’s hit romance Virgin River, but Auckland born-and-bred Martin cut his acting teeth in Down Under soaps. He played wide-eyed teenager Stuart Neilson in Shortland Street, then spent some time in Australia, appearing in Echo Point and Home And Away before heading off to LA. “I was on the show for three years,” says Martin, 50, of his Shorty days. “I don’t know if it took guts to leave, but I listened to my inner voice and knew I needed to step away from it.”

It pays to be persistent – just ask Barbie star Margot. As a teenager, the wannabe actor called production house Fremantle every day hoping for an opportunity. “One day, I got put through by accident to the casting director for Neighbours,” she recalls. The casting director asked how old she was, to which was replied, “Seventeen.” It turned out that was exactly what they were looking for. She aced her audition and spent three years on the soap. Despite successfully making the transition from Aussie soap star to Hollywood A-lister, Margot, 34, says it wasn’t until she watched herself in I, Tonya that she believed in her abilities. “I went, ‘Okay, I’m a good actor.’”

Fans could be forgiven for thinking George started his career on the fabulously successful medical drama ER before making the leap to movies. Not so! The Gravity star did his time being “a seventh banana in TV”. He had minor roles in sitcoms, including The Facts of Life and Roseanne. “Quite honestly, I was objectified,” says George, 63. “I remember doing scenes on Roseanne and I’d drop a clipboard and bend over, and they’d all slap me on the butt.”

She’s been in front of the camera since before she can remember. These days, Rose, 36, is spoilt for choice as a Hollywood actor. The Kiwi iZombie star got her first big break at the age of three, playing an angel in The Piano. But before then, she and her older brother Paul appeared in television advertisements. Rose made her first commercial at the tender age of two. “My parents were very hesitant at first,” she recalls. “They didn’t want us to be out there as working children, but we enjoyed it, so they thought, ‘What’s the harm?’”

If only they’d known! Orlando was just 17 when he made his professional acting debut in Casualty. He was such a newbie that his performance went uncredited. He returned to the British medical drama two years later to play a builder called Noel Harrison, who was suspiciously prone to accidents. Orlando, 48, went on to star in two huge movie franchises: The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. He’s unlikely to reprise his role in Casualty any time soon!

Before he became one of the coolest dudes on the big screen, The Shawshank Redemption star Morgan was a children’s performer. As a founding cast member of a ’70s kids’ show called The Electric Company, the actor portrayed a number of characters, including Vincent the Vegetable Vampire – a suave vegetarian vampire who taught kids the importance of eating their five-plus a day, all the while emphasising words that started with V. Morgan, 87, has since admitted he was terrified he would never be taken seriously as an actor. “I really was afraid of becoming… Not typecast. Cast!” And after leaving the show, it was another 12 years before he hit the big time with Driving Miss Daisy.

La La Land Oscar-winner Emma, 36, did her fair share of bit parts before hitting the big time. At the age of 18, she appeared in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle. The role was a learning experience to say the least. Because her real name, Emily Stone, was already taken by someone else in the Screen Actors Guild, she had to think of a different moniker to go by. “I went through a list of names and picked Riley. But then, on the set of Malcolm in the Middle, everyone kept yelling, ‘Riley!’ and I didn’t know who they were talking to. I had to change my professional name to Emma, which my mum always called me.”

He’s one of New Zealand’s most famous exports, and it seems Wellington-born Russell had an inkling of who he was going to be from the age of 17. The Gladiator star had a crack at being a popstar, giving himself the name “Russ le Roq”. One of his singles was I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando. Now he’s a bona fide Hollywood A-lister, he has more in common with Marlon than ever before. “I don’t think there was ever a grand plan,” concedes Russell, 60. “I knew at a very young age I was a performer. Even though I was a very shy person, I knew.”

Horror story? You bet! One of Jennifer’s first roles was in 1993, when she starred in the comedy-horror flick Leprechaun. In the movie, she plays a spoiled teenager being stalked by a vengeful leprechaun. “I really thought I arrived,” shares Jennifer, 56. “It was with Warwick Davis. The guy from Willow was in it. It was a big deal! I really did think it was an amazing thing that I was in a movie.” But years later, it’s more of an embarrassment to the Friends superstar. When she began dating (her now ex-husband) Justin Theroux in 2011, she recalls him insisting on watching it. “It was one of those things when I tried to get that remote out of his hand and there was just no having it. He was like, ‘No, no, no, no, this is happening.’ I just kept walking in and out, cringing.”

Four years before her break-out role in acclaimed movie Winter’s Bone, Jennifer made her TV debut, aged 16. The Hunger Games star thought she was going to play one of two teenaged characters named Emily in an episode of a police comedy called Monk. “So this girl that’s in my church goes, ‘I’m gonna be playing Emily J on Monk,’ and I go, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to play Emily C. This is great!’” recalls Jennifer, 34. “But it turns out, I’m not playing that part. I’m playing the mascot.” For her role, she had to wear a big fluffy animal suit. “Everybody watched it after I told them I had this great, huge part and I was just the mascot. I’ve never been back to church since.”

He’s a true original – and so is his origin story! Dallas Buyers Club star Matthew, 55, got his first break appearing in dramatised reenactment scenes of a true-crime show called Unsolved Mysteries in 1992. In the episode, recalls a producer, “Matthew had to do a fairly robust death scene. He was working in his garage and he was shot by a man who pulled up with a shotgun. Let’s just say, his acting has come a long way since then.” Matthew was thrilled with the outcome of his first screen credit, saying, “They caught the guy 11 days later. They caught the guy that I was in the episode portraying. So, I went like, ‘Oh, my gosh, somebody had seen the Unsolved Mysteries that I was in!’”