Reddit Asks: People who knew celebrities before they were famous, how different do they act now?
every once in a while an Askreddit thread is actually interesting, like this one with ton of celeb stories:
This is real late and second hand but I knew someone who went to ACM with Ed Sheeran. He said he was lazy in class, skipped classes and just wanted to smoke weed, and my acquaintance was mad when Ed started getting more and more famous when Ed didn’t even bother with his music courses. I thought that was funny.
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Work in a restaurant about 15 years ago as a manager. Rachel McAdams walked in for an interview. She was still in acting school and serving table to pay for it. She worked at my restaurant over the course of the next 2 summers, serving on our patio. Still friends to this day. She hasnt changed a bit. Still bikes to get groceries.
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I went to college with Joe Keery aka Steve Harrington in Stranger Things. He was my college boyfriend’s suite mate and just the nicest guy. His hair has always been dreamy and amazing. Last time I saw him was at a viewing of the Hateful Eight after we graduated and he still made a point to come over and say hi!
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I went to high school with Dacre Montgomery. He was a dick with a huge ego in high school and I saw him recently when he came back to his home town and seems like hes still a dick with an even bigger ego now. I can't watch Stranger Things without rolling my eyes every time he comes on screen.
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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.
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I went to the same high school as Chris D’Elia. He was a dork, but still arrogant. He worked on the yearbook and gave himself like three or four pages so he could write his fatuous observations and pretend it was comedy. So that hasn’t changed.
But, in other ways I guess he has changed. He never had sex with high schoolers back then.
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I went to high school with Sandra Oh. She was funny, dynamic, smart, outgoing, and very into drama. In one school play, she played what I will call sort of a mime character - she didn’t have lines but was still a big part of the action, commenting on what was going on through her actions. Anyhow, in one scene as she was exiting the stage she banged her head on one of the props - you could hear the loud bang- but she was a pro and just carried on. It has been great to see her have such success, and I love that she has kept in touch with her close friends from high school (you can spot them at awards show sometimes).
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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.
Honestly, I think a lot of these answers boil down to if they want fame or not. Rupert loved what he was doing, but didn't care about being famous and having people kiss his arse. Just a nice normal kid.
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A friend of mine is buddies with Paul Rudd. Says he's exactly the same and a great human.
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I knew Robert Pattinson about 15 years ago. Nice guy, friendly, a lot of fun to be with. He lived by himself in the centre of Soho, London, in a tiny one-bed flat that I think he felt like the romantic vision of a starving artist, or at least wanted to.
He had a weird side. He'd say random, violent, depraved things. He was obsessed with Jack Nicholson. He never really gave a fuck, he had confidence and he was always himself, and he knew he could be deliberately contradictory and he used that as a personality trope. But he was a good guy, and I get the impression he's very comfortable with himself now that he has developed his career, that he acts very well, and that he can pick and choose his roles based upon what he wants to do and who he wants to work with.
Twilight for him was always a means to an end, and I think he worked it very much to his benefit, and didn't compromise himself.
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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.
(Queen Latifah, if this gets back to you, thanks for what you did for your friends in NJ. Phil’s a really cool guy.)
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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
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Jack Black is the same person he was as a teenager, funny, kind, caring, and spreading that joy of music.
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Chris Evans was really obnoxious as a popular local teenage actor. Imagine his character from Scott Pilgrim but as a kid. He grew up and grew out of being obnoxious and I’m happy for his absurdly successful career.
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Tyler the Creator - Exactly the same. We were all concerned at how bizarre he was. He would call people “a table” or something incredibly random and the sense of humor caught on in my high school. The fame did nothing, he’s still strange and a sweetheart.
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My aunt was best friends with madona in high school stayed friends until she got famous and she turned into a completely different person in the worst way possible.
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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.
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My best friend is cousins with Tyler Posey. She said he was a sweetheart before his Teen Wolf days and he still is now
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I went to high school with Emma Chamberlain. She was a huge bully in high school and pretty much a brat who thought she could get away with whatever she wanted (before she got famous). Her parents were divorced which led to them both always trying to be her friend and never actually parenting her, so they basically let her do whatever she wanted.
When she said that people from her high school made fun of her because she was “poor” and that the parking lot was all bmws and range rovers I lost my mind because SHE was the bully in high school, and while the school definitely had some wealthy students it was mostly a middle class crowd.
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Kesha.
Total nerd. 1600 on her SATs. Quiet. A bit of a social outcast. Nice, though. You could tell she cared about others and wouldn't ever hurt a flea.
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Mom knew Jeff Bezos' sister in high school, never really knew him all that well but she says he was well known to be a grade-A dickhead. Very full of himself and huge god complex even before he went to Princeton etc, so really not that much different from what I can tell
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Emma Watson went to school near me, was a pretty mean kid who used to sorta bully my mate in primary school, and in secondary school was pretty damn up herself with self-importance.
Then again, I’m pretty sure I probably wouldve been too if I’d been a main character in one of the most successful film franchises in history from the age of 12.
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Not me but my GCSE music teacher taught Emma Watson when she was about 10/ 11 years old at school in Oxford, before Harry Potter stardom she always said that she was very cliquey (not sure if that’s how you spell it) and was very judgemental and made fun of other girls that weren’t skinny or as “attractive” and ended up being quite a nasty bully to a few particular girls in her class, that this teacher had to speak to her about.
lots more at the source