All celebrities start somewhere, and it's fascinating to hear from people who knew stars before the fame hit share what they were like. Were they
Below, people who were friends with celebrities before they were famous share what they were like beforehand, and if fame has changed them. Check them out!
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
Kylie Jenner
“I was friends with Kylie Jenner from about the fourth to the eighth grade. We stopped talking because I left to go to another school, and I think she started homeschool around that same time.
Honestly? She was the nicest person I’ve ever met. I was a chubby weird girl and didn’t have many friends when I started at the new school. There’s even a group picture of us my first year all sitting on a hill, and out of everyone, I was the only one sitting alone.
On that trip, my mom came as a chaperone. She was walking with Kylie while I was someplace else and told my mom ‘I like [my name]. I wish everyone wasn’t so mean to her. She is nice. She loves animals, and so do I!’ She then processed to met up with me and talk about how cute this turkey was.
She helped me those years. She was one of the only people who didn’t bully me. We weren’t best friends, but when we did hang out, we had fun.
I’m not sure how she’s changed now, but I hope she hasn’t. I’ve never really followed her stuff, but she seems like she is happy and successful. I hope she remains that way.”
Danny McBride
“I went to high school with Danny McBride. I was in drama, so I was actually in our crappy plays on the same stage with him. He was nice. His sister was also nice, but he was good friends with this group of three other guys. They wrote scripts together, did everything.
For some reason I’m not privy to, the other three guys decided to ‘prank’ Danny by telling him they were all going to this one college, which Danny applied and was accepted to, while they were going somewhere else. I like to imagine that Danny McBride made getting famous his mission just so they would spend every day sobbing about missing their golden ticket.
I have yearbooks and signed playbills as evidence. One of the plays he wrote with this group got us to State (but we didn’t take top prize): The play was ‘Deception Most Foul.'”
Jake Gyllenhaal
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“We had several future celebrities in our school, including Jake Gyllenhaal. He was a well-regarded actor, even at a young age, and seemed groomed by his industry-parents to be in films one day. He was disliked by his peers, perhaps out of jealousy.
After all his success, he was exceptionally friendly to everyone from his past — including those who may have been mean to him.”
Anna Kendrick
“When I was a teenager, Anna Kendrick was one of the counselors assigned to my cabin at summer camp.
She was attending university and on summer break. She was very kind, laid back and unfailingly funny. She used to sing to us before bed.”
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
“I went to middle school and high school with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She was very stuck up then (she had just gotten a big part at the local Broadway-type theater when she started going to middle school), and it got worse as she got more parts.
She eventually moved when she got her role on ‘Passions.’ I do think she’s a great actress, but it’s funny to see her in things now when I look back to all of the middle school boys who used to pine after her longingly.”
Chris Hardwick
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“I went to elementary school with Chris Hardwick.
He is pretty much as you see him on TV. He was always cracking jokes, and he was a huge chess nerd. It’s good to see him doing well.”
Jonah Hill
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“Jonah Hill was a few years younger. He had a lot of confidence, even in elementary school. He’d be very gregarious and funny, even around the older kids.
From what I hear, he got a massive ego during high school and beyond, but I can’t confirm that.”
Dave Sabo
“I was buddies with Dave ‘The Snake’ Sabo of Skid Row. I played bass in Dave’s first metal band. Back then, Dave was a cool, laid-back guy. He laughed a lot. But he was dead serious about playing guitar. He practiced constantly and was easily the best musician in the band. He had a black Ibanez Iceman that went with him everywhere.
After getting famous and conquering the world, Dave is still an easygoing, funny guy. No rock star ego. He just loves music and having a good time. I haven’t seen Dave in decades, but we stay in touch via Facebook.
Here’s a tidbit for you die-hard Skid Row fans: Dave lived with his mom in an old house in Sayreville. She was very tolerant of our musical noise and very supportive of Dave’s playing. She’d always offer us drinks and snacks and stuff. We started calling her ‘Mrs. Snakes’ and it stuck.”
Adele
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“A good buddy of mine went to school in London. He invited me to this celebratory event at a bar because one of his female classmates had just signed a record deal. I went, met her and thought, wow, she must have a good voice because her image (she was very overweight) won’t work in the current climate. Understand, I didn’t care about her weight, but this was a time of perfect body and bone structure pop stars.
Anyway, this girl was lovely and a good laugh. That girl was and is Adele.”
Avril Lavigne
“I know someone who knows Avril Lavigne, to the point where they’d hang out whenever she was touring and came through town.
He said she always wanted to just have time to be a normal person with a normal life and seemed chill enough.”
DMX
“My mom was neighbors with DMX, and they grew up together. She says he was chill, and they would go out to eat, but he would always flirt with her.
She said even when he was trying to get his career started he was down to earth. They haven’t talked for a while now.”
Emma Roberts
“A few years ago, my friend ran in the same social circles as Emma Roberts and so they’d show up to the same parties, hang out and all that.
According to my friend, Emma Roberts is a huge jerk. She’d show up to parties and expect everyone to be in awe of her and would constantly say ‘I’m Emma Roberts, my aunt is Julia Roberts’ to justify doing whatever she wanted. She’d be very stuck up to other people and expected the royal treatment.”
Seth Rogen
“I went to high school with Seth Rogen. He was a hilarious guy, and couldn’t keep quiet in class because he was always thinking up funny stuff. Our math teacher came up with a solution to this: Seth would have the floor to himself for five minutes every Monday. In exchange, he’d keep quiet the rest of the week.
It was great. Seth would do a hilarious monologue every week, telling outrageous stories about what he’d been up to over the weekend, often integrating the teacher and members of the class in the story.”
Brad Pitt
“I didn’t know him really, and he was already famous when this happened.
I’m from Shawnee, Oklahoma, and my great aunt is good friends with Brad Pitt’s grandma. We stopped by her house for some reason; I can’t remember what for but when we got there I really had to pee. So, when we got there, I immediately went straight to the bathroom to my surprise I walked in on Brad Pitt taking a dump. I was mortified, mostly because I was only 9 years old, and secondly I had no idea Brad Pitt was there.
I was embarrassed. I just walked to my aunt and was like ‘Brad Pitt is here,’ and she looks at me confused and goes ‘I told you William came to visit.’ Yeah, I didn’t know that was his real name.”
Justin Bieber
“I live in Stratford, Ontario, home of Justin Bieber. I didn’t know him personally, but I knew his friends. From what I can hear, he was a jerk before and after fame. He was suspended for pouring coffee on a teacher and then flipping her off. Recently, he was kicked out of the local theater for punching an old lady who reported him to the ushers for smoking pot in the theater.
So nothing changed.”
Ryan Dunn
“I grew up with Ryan Dunn, and considered him a brother and was even his roommate for a spell. He would spend holidays with my family. We were friends since we were 14 and continued to stay friends until his death.
He was always the best dude, and fame just made him closer to his real friends. There was never a time in his life either before or after his fame that he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world.”
Katy Perry
“I was friends with Katy Perry
Her name is Katy Hudson. Before she did pop music, she was a Christian artist. My friend’s dad was her manager, and she went to my church. She was a remarkable person who truly had an amazing voice. Our youth group at the time would listen to her songs, and we had a listening party to help decide what would go on her final album.
Her Christian album tanked, mostly because she was way ahead of her time as far as sound goes. She was writing a lot of her stuff at the time, and she was talented. She was too talented to be pigeon-holed in such a strange genre. When her album flopped, she moved back to California and would return on occasion, but she changed a lot, and you could see it in her. I think the last time I saw her was 2002.
Next time I heard from her was ‘When I Kissed A Girl’ came out. I remember sitting at work, and it came on the radio and instantly recognized the voice. They said her name after the song was over and I looked her up and made the connection. It was probably one of the strangest moments of my life. To think at one point in time I ate pizza in a closet with her. She’s good people and I tell everyone that.”
Larry the Cable Guy
“Danny Whitney, aka ‘Larry the Cable Guy,’ graduated from our small Christian school. I always thought he was a goofball who wasn’t that funny. I’m the ‘serious type,’ and he was NEVER serious. It got old fast with me. I tried to avoid him.
He made a couple of cable specials, and I still didn’t think he was funny, but he was getting funny. Then he invented ‘Larry the Cable Guy’ and the rest is history. Since then, we’ve crossed paths occasionally, and he’s very centered and a nice person. He has a child with issues, and that has made him compassionate.
Just for the record — the ‘country thing’ his just his schtick. He grew up in South Florida and was not country at all. He’s still a bit crude for my taste, but I feel a lot better about him now. He’s one of those who doesn’t seem to have become a worse person the more fame he has acquired. I’m happy for his success.”
Channing Tatum
“I had a Spanish class in high school with Channing Tatum. I was a stereotypical nerd in high school: band, computers, somewhat spazzy, the whole nine yards. But when football-jock Channing talked to me, I felt for those couple minutes like I was just another one of his cool friends. He was warm and welcoming and rather goofy.
It helped me see that everyone’s just another person who’s unsure of their place in the world, even if they’re cool or successful or whatever. So all you can do is try to understand everyone else’s journey through their narrative of life.
It turned out most of the football team was pretty cool like that also. I wasn’t exactly getting invited to their parties, but at the same, they’d have a nice chat with anyone else who was nice. Not the soccer team though. They were jerks.
Anyway, he allegedly copied my Spanish homework at least once. Don’t tell Ms. Frye.”
Ronda Rousey
“I went to middle school with Ronda Rousey. She was pretty quiet in school and introverted.
I have not seen her in over ten years, but it’s amazing to see her now, she’s a total outspoken fighter who scares the crap out of me.”
Natalie Portman
“I went to middle and high school with Natalie Portman. Nothing changed when she started getting famous.
If you didn’t know she was famous, you wouldn’t know it from how she acted. She kept the same friends, the same boyfriend, stayed the same tiny, reserved smart girl, or so it seemed. She was just in class less.”
Chris Evans
“Chris Evans lived down the street from me and was my babysitter. His mom directs the plays at my town’s high school. I haven’t seen him since I was little, but when he was in high school, he was just a normal dude. Nothing about him screamed, ‘I’m going to be famous one day.’ It was just, ‘I’m good at this acting thing and it just so happens that people who are good at acting get famous.’
Also, my mom used to be a casting director for Tim Burton and lived next door to George Clooney back in like 1989. We went back to her old house when we were visiting LA and saw him with his entourage. My mom said that the only difference is the people who hang around him, and that other than the fact that he has an entourage now he’s the same.”
Chris Pratt
“I went to middle and high school with Chris Pratt. He was the same kind of character he plays on ‘Parks and Recreation.’
He was popular, but always nice to everyone, even the non-popular kids, and he was hilarious too. I haven’t seen him in years, but I assume he’s still pretty cool. All in all, fame couldn’t have happened to a cooler person.”
Bille Joe Armstrong
“Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day is pretty down to Earth. I didn’t know him in the olden days, he was already famous in the punk scene, but we chatted a couple of times, and he was always cool. One time I had to ask him to leave an all-ages club because he was drinking from a bottle in a paper bag, and he was like ‘Uh…’ and took the bottle out of the bag to reveal it was an Arizona Ice Tea. We had a laugh over that.
Post-fame, he lived in my friend’s neighborhood in Oakland, and my friend’s neighbor strung like 20 extension cords together, and he and his friend started playing Green Day songs on electric guitar outside the gate to his driveway. Billie came out and was like ‘Guys this is super cool, but I’m eating dinner, and you’re going to bug everyone else in the neighborhood Just come over sometime.’
Later he moved to a new neighborhood so his kids could go to a better school. Also apparently he has saved all his money. He had a BMW, and his wife had some nice SUV, but in the four years I drove past his house almost every day to get to my friend’s, they never got a new car.”
Chloe Grace Moretz
“I knew Chloe Grace Moretz. Her family lived in my hometown until she was about 8 years old. They were wealthy and lived in probably the biggest house in town. She was best friends with a girl who went to my ballet school and hung around there a good bit. She was shy and quiet, but always very polite.
Weirdly enough, her friend who went to my ballet school was prettier and more outgoing and tried to get into acting first. We all thought she’d be the one to get famous. Chloe always kind of just sat around. I don’t know how she’s changed, haven’t seen her since they moved.”