They Did What?! The Surprising Past Lives of Celebrities

Sometimes stars can surprise you when they talk about sex, but there are quite a few famous faces who also have shocking pasts! Before these folks got big, they occasionally had to delve into unwholesome professions in order to make ends meet. Stars like Channing Tatum and Cameron Diaz took on sexy jobs when they were struggling actors, and Jay Z used to deal drugs when he was growing up in the projects in Brooklyn. Keep scrolling to see those and many more!

Brad Pitt
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Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt revealed that he used to work as an escort (of sorts) for female strippers: "My job was to drive them to bachelor parties and things. I'd pick them up, and at the gig I'd collect the money, play the bad Prince tapes, and catch the girls' clothes. It was not a wholesome atmosphere, and it got very depressing." However, he did say that one girl introduced him to his future acting coach, so he credits her with changing his life.

Cameron Diaz
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Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz was a struggling actress when she agreed to make a soft-core sex film, She's No Angel, in 1992. Two years later, Cameron won the female lead in The Mask and started her journey to Hollywood stardom.

James Lipton
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James Lipton

James Lipton made headlines when he revealed to Parade magazine that he used to work as a pimp in the 1950s. He told the magazine, "It was only a few years after the war. Paris was different then — still poor. Men couldn’t get jobs and, in the male chauvinist Paris of that time, the women couldn't get work at all. It was perfectly respectable for them to go into le milieu."

Chris Pratt
Getty | Donna Ward

Chris Pratt

Chris Pratt admitted that he briefly worked as a stripper before he hit it big as an actor. He said, "I was always a very much naked person. I loved to always get naked. I was very free, so I thought, I may as well get paid."

Al Pacino
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Al Pacino

Al Pacino used to be a kept man in his younger days. He said, "At 20, I lived in Sicily by selling the only asset I had — my body. An older woman traded food and housing in return for sex. I woke mornings not really loving myself."

Marilyn Monroe
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Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe made ends meet before she hit it big by working as a nude model. Her past came to light in December 1953 when Playboy posted her nude photos in the inaugural issue of the magazine.

Channing Tatum
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Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum managed to turn his pre-Hollywood days as a male stripper into a hit movie, Magic Mike. He performed under the name "Chan Crawford" in various male revues in Florida. Check out Channing Tatum stripping before he became a movie star.

Jay Z
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Jay Z

Jay Z has never shied away from talking about his former drug-dealing past. In 2009, Jay told Oprah Winfrey, "You become addicted to the feeling, the uncertainty and adrenaline and danger of that lifestyle."

Javier Bardem
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Javier Bardem

Javier Bardem admitted to Marie Claire in 2008 that he worked as a male stripper "for a day." Despite his good looks, he admitted that his turn as an exotic dancer was "a disaster." He said, "You know who was there watching? My mum and my sister! It was kind of a thing — you go there and dance, they pay you some money. It wasn't like a Full Monty thing."

Snoop Lion
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Snoop Lion

Snoop Lion admitted that he used to work as a pimp, and this was after he had already become a celebrity. He told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this month that he would organize prostitutes for professional athletes during one of his tours in 2003. He said, "I did a Playboy tour, and I had a bus follow me with 10 b*tches on it." However, Snoop said that he would let the women who worked for him keep all of their money.

Lady Gaga
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Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga worked as a go-go dancer in NYC before she hit it big as a pop star. She shared on Twitter back in October 2012 that she once took home $400 in one night and left "feelin' like a baller."

Courtney Love
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Courtney Love

Before she became a rock star, Courtney Love worked as an exotic dancer at Jumbo's Clown Room, a topless bar in Hollywood, in the 1980s. After struggling with acting jobs and working with various bands, Courtney started Hole in 1989, and the rest is grunge rock history.

Mark Consuelos
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Mark Consuelos

Mark Consuelos got outed by his wife, Kelly Ripa, about his stripper past when she sat down for an interview with Vanity Fair. She told the magazine, "A lot of hot guys in Hollywood have done that. He was straight out of college, and he went to Notre Dame and finished his degree at the University of South Florida. So, there he was in South Florida, he's gorgeous, looking to break into show business, so he started off as a roadie to a group of these guys, and then they talked him into stripping."

Idris Elba
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Idris Elba

Idris Elba revealed in the October 2013 issue of GQ that he used to deal drugs when he was a struggling actor in NYC. He said, "I was running with cats. I mean, I was DJ'ing, but I was also pushing bags of weed; I was doing my work. I had to."

Diablo Cody
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Diablo Cody

Before she won a best original screenplay Oscar for Juno, screenwriter Diablo Cody worked as an exotic dancer. She documented her time during the profession in her 2006 memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper.