Normally, it’s not hard to tell how our favorite actors make their fortunes. These are the most popular people in their field, so nobody is really shocked when a movie star gets a big payday from making a movie. For these talented men and women, that’s just another day in the office!
However, some of your favorite actors have done some very crazy things for money. Sometimes, these are desperate acts from before they hit it big. Other times, though, these actors did insane things at the height of their fame that nearly cost them their careers.
Which celebs are we talking about, and what are the strangest things they’ve done for money? Keep reading to find out!
Tom Hiddleston hawked Centrum Silver
Tom Hiddleston is one of the most popular actors in the world. He was already a big deal even before joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But after playing villain turned reluctant hero Loki in movies like The Avengers, he quickly became a household name. Apparently, though, even Marvel doesn’t pay as much as you might think!
At least, that’s what we concluded after seeing the Centrum Silver ad he filmed for broadcast in various East Asian countries. The whole ad is weird…it’s not entirely clear who Hiddleston is talking to or what he means when he promises to make it up to this woman for being away so often. What’s even less clear, though, is why someone with a pocket full of Marvel money is hawking a multivitamin for elderly people half a world away.
Jennifer Lopez performed for a dictator
It’s pretty common to see Jennifer Lopez in the headlines. Usually, it’s for something positive, like a new role, or maybe reconnecting romantically with Ben Affleck. However, in 2013, she made headlines for the worst possible reason: performing for a notorious dictator.
Specifically, she performed for Turkmenistan dictator Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. She went to help celebrate his birthday party and presumably got very well paid. We know this because even though her team was quick to clarify that she didn’t know how bad this guy is, HuffPost reports that she has made over $10 million performing for various dictators all over the world.
Hugh Jackman was a professional clown
As of this writing, Hugh Jackman is making a killing at the box office in Deadpool & Wolverine. In that film’s odd duo coupling, he often plays the straight man to the very clownish Deadpool. However, long before Jackman played a famous mutant on the big screen, he was a clown…professionally.
On The Howard Stern Show, Jackman described being a birthday clown for children’s birthday parties before he became a Hollywood celeb. Apparently, the entire experience was awful: in addition to “being hired so the parents can just drink for an hour,” he hated how some kids were just impossible to please. This included an 8-year-old who hated Jackman’s gags so much that the future actor simply let the birthday boy and his guests entertain themselves by throwing eggs at him!
Whoopi Goldberg put makeup on dead bodies
Watching her effortlessly transition from actor to talk show host and back again, we sometimes think there’s nothing that Whoopi Goldberg can’t do. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised, though…before she made it big, this legendary actor picked up a number of skills. She’s been a waitress and a bank teller, but she’s also had more exotic jobs like being a bricklayer. By far the weirdest gig she had, though, was putting makeup on dead bodies for a morgue.
As you may or may not know, morgues are responsible for making the dead bodies look as dignified as possible before funerals, wakes, and so on. The person who does this is the morgue cosmetologist, and this is the job that Goldberg did long before she became a famous actor. It’s the kind of job that would scare most people, but according to the actor, her former boss eased all her fears on the first day.
On that day, her boss pretended to be a dead body coming back to life and crawling out of a drawer. She freaked out, but her boss fessed up to the prank and said that she would no longer have to be afraid of weird things that could happen on the job. According to Goldberg, he was right!
Hilary Swank went to a dictator’s party
Sadly, Jennifer Lopez isn’t the only famous actor who got a little too cozy to a dictator for money. In 2011, Hilary Swank was paid to attend a “city day” celebration in the Chechen Republic for its dictator, Ramzan Kadyrov. While there, she also gave a speech that seemed to encourage everyone to celebrate Kadyrov despite his well-known history of human rights violations.
After her participation made headlines, things moved swiftly: Swank made public apologies and fired her manager, and she was, in turn, dropped by her publicist. It’s impossible to prove this, but many think the reputational fallout from hyping up a dictator is one of the reasons this Oscar-winning actor no longer seems to have much of a career.