Celebrities are just like us. Most people have thought
about giving up their jobs at one time or another, and some of Hollywood’s
biggest celebrities have almost turned their back on their acting careers.
A few that I can think of:
Henry Cavill
Cavill will forever be known as Superman, but
that might not have happened had he followed through with quitting acting.
“Thankfully at this stage I’ve got my foot in the door enough that if someone
tried to slam it shut, I could probably squeeze a little bit and keep the door
open,” the Witcher star
told Men’s Journal in 2016. “As far as a full backup plan, it was the
British Armed Forces. But being 33 years old I think I’m too old to join now.”
(check the photo above)
Emma Watson
It may be hard to imagine anyone else but Watson playing Hermione
Granger, but The Perks of
Being a Wallflower star nearly quit the Harry Potter franchise to
pursue higher education. Harry
Potter producer, David
Heyman, told Glamour U.K. in 2013 that the actress
“was quite academic and was very keen in the pursuit of schooling and was wrestling
a little bit more than the others.”
The Brown University graduate also
contemplated quitting acting altogether because she didn’t enjoy fame. “I’d
walk down the red carpet and go into the bathroom. I had on so much makeup and
these big, fluffy, full-on dresses. I’d put my hands on the sink and look at
myself in the mirror and say, ‘Who is this?’” she recalled to Vanity Fair in
2017. “I didn’t connect with the person who was looking back at me, and that
was a very unsettling feeling.”
Melissa McCarthy
Days before
landing her role on Gilmore Girls as Sookie St. James, McCarthy was
very close to giving up her acting dreams. “Acting wasn’t working out, I was
getting rejection after rejection, I wasn’t even getting auditions — I couldn’t
get a job to save my life,” she told Heat magazine in 2016. “I always
said if I don’t get anything substantial by the time I’m 30, I’m done. And a
week before I turned 30, I got Gilmore Girls.”
The Oscar nominee
continued, “Things weren’t ‘bad’ but I had been working two jobs and I got to a
point where I thought, ‘Why am I doing this? Why am I beating myself up?’
Acting never would have left my life, I would’ve acted in some way, but I’m so
fortunate that this is now my occupation.”
