Stars remember their first jobs

From Brad Pitt dressing up as a chicken to Sir Ian McKellen dabbling in journalism

Brad Pitt
“I dressed up as a fluffy chicken for $7 an hour at El Pollo Loco [The Crazy Chicken], a fast-food joint. I was also a driver for strippergram girls and one of them told me how to find a drama coach.”

Sir Ian McKellen
“I first worked as an aspiring journalist and would write little bits for a column for [seven shillings and six pence] on my local newspaper in Bolton. When I asked the editor for a proper job he told me he had as many jobs going in a year as he had people asking for them in a week – and why not go off and try something else, like acting. So I became an actor.”

Julie Walters
“It was much to nursing’s relief when I left the hospital service as I had been a bit of a rackety nurse. I think I got it wrong from the start. Everybody else I knew had got married and had kids, but I wanted freedom so I went and trained as a nurse. I only made Educating Rita at 33, so I had knocked around for a while before I got into acting.”

Dame Judi Dench
“I did not start off being an actor. I started as a theatre designer, that is what I was trained to do. However, I had an extraordinary road-to-Damascus moment when I saw a production at Stratford-upon-Avon. The design was absolutely supreme, and I realised I would never do anything as good as that. That was the kind of designer I wanted to be but never could be. My brother, who is older than me, wanted to be an actor so I thought I’d give it a try.”

Quentin Tarantino
“My whole film background goes back to my years working as a video store assistant, where I learnt everything I know.”

Kristin Scott Thomas
“I trained in drama in London. But my teachers took me into an office and told me, in lowered voices, that I should stick to teaching drama. I was devastated. I fled to Paris on New Year’s Day in 1980 and became an au pair – and I stayed there until I found my way back into acting.”

Meryl Streep
“My original training was as a costume designer. I think clothes tell so much about a character, especially for women in the audience. For them the costumes are about personal taste: what handbag? what shoes? They read the character by their clothes. For the men in the audience, like my husband, I think it is a bit different. If a female is bra-less, they notice her! In my next life I will be a costume designer again.”

Michelle Pfeiffer
“I was a checkout girl in a supermarket in Orange County [California]. It drove me crazy.”

Harrison Ford
“For years I worked as a carpenter in Hollywood. I was actually working on director George Lucas’s office door when I was offered the chance to audition for the part of Han Solo in Star Wars.”

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