Matthew McConaughey
It wasn’t a film that changed McConaughey’s life, but a book. Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World convinced the University of Texas student that he could become an actor by pretending to be an actor. Starting off in small commercials, McConaughey eventually met Richard Linklater, who cast him in 1993’s Dazed and Confused.
Cameron Diaz
As is often the case with a lot of Hollywood sex symbols, Cameron Diaz started out in modeling. Photographer Jeff Dunas first discovered Diaz, encouraging her to get an agent so he could sign her to the Elite agency in New York. From there, she landed a few small roles before hitting the big time opposite Jim Carrey in The Mask.
Johnny Depp
You’ve probably seen pictures of Johnny Depp playing guitar in the past. That’s because it used to be his main passion. When he moved to California in the 1980s, it was to pursue a career in music. It was rotten luck that friend Nicholas Cage introduced Depp to his agent and got him a role as teen-eaten-by-own-bed in A Nightmare on Elm Street instead.
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise is arguably the biggest movie star on the planet, which is some feat for a guy who never trained to become so. Just six months after arriving in New York to give acting the old college try, he was cast as a military academy student in Taps. Five years later, he was acting opposite Paul Newman.
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix was never formally trained, but acting had been in his DNA long before he ever considered it to be a professional venture. While performing on the street to raise money with his siblings, an agent called Iris Burton swung by and secured most of the family, including brother River, work in television.
Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey only auditioned for small roles after dropping out of school so he could support his family, and nobody had any idea what a star he would become. Carrey managed to go from a part on TV’s In Living Colour to Dumb and Dumber, Liar Liar, Ace Ventura, The Mask, and The Truman Show – all without taking a single acting class.
Christian Bale
Christian Bale, consummate professional – when he’s not scolding the light department – and devoted method actor, never took any formal acting lessons. After leaving school he got work in commercials through natural talent alone. Shortly after that, he successfully made the jump from commercials to films, where he’s stayed happily ever since.
Meg Ryan
Here’s what’s interesting about Meg Ryan. Unlike most people who take up a day job while they’re waiting for their acting career to take off, she instead moved to New York to pursue journalism and did commercials and small roles in TV to pay the rent. She then blagged her way into When Harry Met Sally, in which she famously displays her ability to fake it til you make it. Meta!
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence was scouted on the streets of New York when she was only 14, much to her mother’s disapproval, who believed the scouts were lying about her talents. Through perseverance, Lawrence managed to convince her mother to let her drop out of school and pursue acting in LA. Within three years, she made her debut in the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show before going on to take over the world.
Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger’s biography reads like a Bruce Springsteen song. Cutting school as a teenager, he drove down to Sydney with his best bud, Trever DiCarlo, with only one objective: “Get rich or die trying.” Surprisingly – it actually worked! Ledger landed a spot on the TV series Clowning Around, which then inspired Hollywood to cast him in 10 Things I Hate About You.
Channing Tatum
We all know Channing Tatum spent time working as a dancer thanks to Magic Mike, but did you know he was also a construction worker, salesman, and mortgage broker? Essentially, Tatum had no plans to become an actor until he was discovered by a modeling agency in Miami, with exposure from that leading to several movie roles.
Rachel McAdams
If you asked actors about the biggest lie on their resume, most would point to horse riding. The great Rachel McAdams is no different. When she was asked if she had any problem with horses while being considered for a role in Terrence Malick’s 2012 flick To The Wonder, the actress said she loved them. In reality, she was both terrified of and partially allergic to horses. Thank God for antihistamines!
Ben Kingsley
A promising musician at the time, Ben Kingsley turned down the interest of Beatles mastermind Brian Epstein to audition for the Royal Shakespeare Company instead. Having joined at age 23, it wasn’t until 1982’s Gandhi that he really made a splash on the silver screen. And what a splash it was. Kingsley won an Academy Award for his portrayal of the pacifist revolutionary. And he did so without any advice or training.
Robert Pattinson
Being English may have its drawbacks on the world stage today, but the accent still has the ability to render people gullible. Nobody knows this better than Robert Pattinson, who used his plum voice to dupe a bunch of casting directors in LA. When asked why he had a large gap on his resume, the Batman star lied and said he was attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art of Oxford.
Charlize Theron
South African pin-up Charlize Theron attracted the attention of modeling agencies long before Hollywood came knocking. A keen ballet dancer on the side, Theron was forced to hang up her shoes after a string of knee injuries held her back. She upped sticks to LA, where she was discovered by an acting manager who witnessed her argument with a bank teller.
Russell Crowe
As surprising as it may sound, Kiwi hardman Russell Crowe is actually a nepo baby. Brought up in a showbiz family, he got given a line in the Australian TV series Spyforce opposite Jack Thompson at the age of just five. From then on, it was smooth sailing for Crowe, who eventually moved to Hollywood and became a household name with Gladiator without ever needing to train.
Anne Hathway
Anne Hathaway really wanted to be in Brokeback Mountain, so when she met up with director Ang Lee, she made up a whole spiel about how much she loved to ride horses. He fell for it hook, line, and sinker – or saw through the lie but really wanted to cast her anyway – and Hathaway had to undertake some private lessons to deliver on what she promised.
Henry Cavill
Henry Cavill had an interest in acting from afar, but never enough to pursue it seriously. His first gig, by chance, was as an extra in a boarding school production. His first film role, in an adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, came about when a casting group visited his school and took a shine to him.
Natalie Portman
Don’t you just hate it when a Revlon rep comes into the pizza place where you work and tells you to pursue modeling? That’s never happened to you? Well, it happened to Natalie Portman. Although it was a foot in the door, Portman found posing for cameras and not saying anything very boring. Instead, she pursued posing for cameras and saying something, and became an instant success.
Eddie Redmayne
Another day, another actor lying through their teeth about horses. This time it’s Eddie Redmayne. While auditioning for a role on the TV show Elizabeth I, the actor claimed horse riding was second nature to him. Then they put him on one. “They called action and I basically went ferociously down at 100 miles an hour. I almost killed myself, almost killed half of the crew,” Redmayne told Conan O’Brien years later.
Whoopi Goldberg
When Whoopi Goldberg was cutting her teeth in Hollywood she received the same dismissal every time: “You’re too young.” To combat this, she switched her year of birth from 1955 to 1949 and emphasized this to casting directors in order to get parts. It worked a treat!
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne loved the look of the Apocalypse Now script and was determined to be involved however possible. There was one problem, he was 14 and the role of Tyrone Miller was 17. The actor asked a secretary if she thought he could pass for 18 and she said yes. That was enough for Fishburne to dupe Francis Ford Coppola.
Chris Hemsworth
It seems strange that Aussie beefcake Chris Hemsworth would’ve ever had to downplay his height and build in order to land roles given that his stature was what made him so famous in the Marvel movies – but downplay he did. The Thor star would lie about his real height of six feet and three inches when auditioning for shorter roles.
Liam Hemsworth
It turns out, almost every actor has lied about their skills at one point. To bag a role in The Last Song opposite Miley Cyrus back in 2010, Liam Hemsworth didn’t hesitate one bit when boasting that he could play volleyball. “We had a day where we had 300 extras there, watching us play against professional volleyball players, and they made us look stupid,” the actor reflected.
Chloë Grace Moretz
Actors have been telling lies for decades, and not just on the big screen. Chloë Grace Moretz told a big fib about her nationality to the great Martin Scorsese when he was casting for his 2011 flick, Hugo. Moretz revealed she spoke in a British accent to land the role of Isabelle, which she did, even at the expense of pranking ole Marty.
Idris Elba
David Simon, the creator of The Wire only had one stipulation when casting his production: every actor must be American. This posed a problem for Idris Elba, a Brit, who really wanted to be in the show. In a Hot Ones interview, the actor admitted he’d pretended to be American during casting. He kept up the charade until his fourth audition when he was pressed about his background.
Gillian Anderson
Like many actors before her, Gillian Anderson felt it necessary to lie about her age in order to get ahead in Hollywood. When The X-Files came knocking, Anderson claimed she was 27. In truth, she was only 24. It didn’t matter; she landed the role of Dana Scully and blessed our screens for a whole decade in the role.
Mila Kunis
Anyone who’s ever seen an interview with Mila Kunis can tell she’s smart as a whip, but the loophole she used to get hired on That ’70s Show is downright ingenious. Here’s how it went down: the casting directors wanted an 18-year-old but Kunis was 14, so she told them she “was gonna be 18” and they hired her. Technically, it wasn’t a lie, so how could they be mad when they found out?
Daniel Craig
Just one look at Daniel Craig is enough to tell you the guy is not an equestrian. Casting directors felt differently. When the Bond star told them he could ride a horse with the best of them, they believed him. After being cast in 2011’s Cowboys & Aliens, however, Craig had to actually learn to back his lie.
George Lazenby
The name’s liar. Complete and utter liar. George Lazenby fabricated an entire acting history when he took over Sean Connery’s iconic portrayal of James Bond in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Lazenby didn’t fess up until his audition with director Peter Hunt, who was so impressed by his courage that he made him 007 on the spot.
Paul Mescal
If you’ve seen the BBC adaptation of Normal People you’ll know that Connell likes to drive a fair bit. In real life, Mescal couldn’t drive at all. “My agent was like, ‘We are not losing this job over you not being able to drive so I’ll tell production that you can and in the meantime, you go off and rattle through as many lessons as you can,'” the actor told Entertainment Weekly.
George Clooney
George Clooney, despite having Hollywood ties through his aunt, initially struggled to get his foot in the door. To become a member of the Screen Actors Guild, he lied in an audition that he’d been in a movie called Cat People in 1982. Unfortunately, the casting director was also the casting director for Cat People. His charm prevailed and she helped him join SAG.
Laura Fraser
Breaking Bad wouldn’t be the same without Lydia Rodarte Quayle, so it’s a good job Laura Fraser lied about being able to speak German in her audition. While she knew the basics from childhood, the “corporate-speak in German” was a “nightmare” to master for her.
Lisanne Falk
In an interview with Fox News, Lisanne Falk, pictured second to left, revealed that she had told the casting directors of 1989’s Heathers that she was 23 when in actual fact she was only 19. The lie went uncontested until she spoke about living with her boyfriend on set and people began asking her if her mother approved of the relationship.
Jameela Jamil
Afterlife-comedy The Good Place was one of the most original TV shows to come out of the 2010s, but one of its stars – Jameela Jamil – would have lost out on the part were it not for a white lie. Jamil had told the casting directors that she’d been on the stage but didn’t clarify that she meant in school productions. She also claimed to have done improv in England.
Sadie Sink
When casting for Stranger Things, the director wanted someone to have skateboarding or rollerblading experience in order to play Max convincingly. Sadie Sink had none of those things, but that didn’t matter. She lied and said she loved rollerblading when she had only done it once or twice in childhood.
Carla Gugino
In the days before the internet, actors could lie about their age and not get themselves into bother. Carla Gugino was only 14, for example, when she landed the role of 16-year-old Chica Barnfell in 1989’s Troop Beverly Hills. She only admitted her real age after they’d shot enough footage that it would be a nuisance to recast her.
Phoebe Dynevor
Bridgerton is one of Netflix’s biggest shows ever, and that was partly thanks to the acting talents of one Phoebe Dynevor. In an interview with Glamour, however, the actor revealed that she’d lied about her love of horses and her experience with horseriding. In reality, Dyenvor hated horses and had never gotten on one.
Ben Hardy
When Bryan Singer was casting for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, he wanted someone who actually knew their way around a kit to play drummer Roger Taylor. Ben Hardy, who would later be cast in the role, lied to Singer and said he could play the drums like there was no tomorrow. Hardy then sought the help of a teacher who could teach him as fast as possible.
Ceyair Wright
If you’re playing the son of basketball veteran LeBron James, you’re gonna have to possess some natural ball skills. Ceyair Wright, who was cast as James’ son in Space Jam: A New Legacy, didn’t. After telling the casting director he had played varsity basketball, he enlisted the help of a real coach just in time for production.
