14 Movie Stars That Didn’t Get an Acting Education, but it Didn’t Stop Them From Winning Lots of Awards

Millions of young people dream of movie careers. In order to become actors, many walk a difficult path: from entering theater school to attending countless auditions. And it’s not a guarantee for success. But there’s another way. You may just walk outside or be on the subway and destiny will find you. On one condition, though: you have to have a true and an undeniable talent.

We at CHEERY think that it’s not enough to be in the right place at the right time. These 14 actors with an undeniable talent definitely prove it.

Aaron Paul

Aaron Paul grew up in a rural area in a poor family. At the age of 11, he started saving money for a trip to Hollywood. He worked 5 jobs, and by the end of school, he managed to save $6,000 to go to Los Angeles with his mom. Like many beginner actors, Aaron attended many auditions and in order to earn some money, he worked as a model.

At the end of the 90s, he played small part in series, such as Beverly Hills, 90210, and Melrose Place, and did commercials. By the time he visited the audition for the role of Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad, he wasn’t doing very well. During the audition, he was nervous, and he forgot his lines. But Paul still got the part, which earned him dozens of awards and nominations and became the breakthrough of his career.

Helena Bonham Carter

When Helena was a teenager, her father was paralyzed after a bad surgery. Trying to handle the misfortune, Helena found comfort in acting, even though she had never visited an acting class.

In 1979, 13-year-old Helena won in a national poetry writing competition. She used the winnings to place her photo in the casting directory “Spotlight.” At the age of 16, she appeared in a commercial. And 4 years later, the young actress got her breakthrough role in A Room With a View, that got 8 Oscar nominations.

Vinnie Jones

Before the age of 33, Vinnie Jones was a soccer player with a reputation of a very harsh player that often broke the rules. When Guy Ritchie wrote the script for Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and was looking for an actor to portray Big Chris, Vinnie Jones was the first person he thought of. This is how the soccer player became an actor and had a lot of similar roles in Guy Ritchie’s and other characters’ films.

He worked with such stars as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, John Travolta, Halle Berry, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and many others. So, without a day of acting classes, a former soccer player became the winner of many prestigious awards, including one for the best debut.

Lisa Kudrow

At school, Lisa Kudrow was a tennis player, and wanted to become a biologist when she was attending college. After studies, she planned to follow in her father’s footsteps, who was a doctor and studied headaches. But her brother’s friend said that she needed to perform. While still working with her father, she started going to auditions, mostly fruitless, until she became a part of an improv comedy troupe group, The Groundlings.

In 1992, she got the part of Ursula in Mad About You, and in 1994, she started working on Friends. The role of Phoebe Buffay won Lisa an Emmy and many other awards.

Joaquin Phoenix

From early childhood, Phoenix appeared on talent shows with his siblings, and when he grew up, he decided to become an actor, like his older brother River. He did commercials and sometimes appeared in tv-series episodes, until he got his first role in a movie, in 1986.

His first work that was critically acclaimed was a role in To Die For. After that, he played Commodus in Gladiator and become a big star. The absence of acting education is not a problem for him. He says, “Just be in the moment. Don’t overthink it, let it be what it is. If you keep trying to find what’s unique at the moment, then the danger is that you miss that very thing.”

Lucy Liu

Lucy didn’t plan to become a professional actress. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Asian languages and cultures and was into martial arts. When she was 19, an agent noticed her on the subway and offered her a role in a commercial. This is how her career started: first, in a commercial, and then in the theater and movies.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Jonathan had a difficult childhood. The father left the family (his mother and 3 brothers) when the future actor was just 3 years old. At the age of 16, he was expelled from school for being truant too often, and he started working in pool halls in Dublin. At the time, casting agents were looking for an Irish teenager for a role in War of the Buttons, and Jonathan was their choice.

He didn’t get the role, but the casting managers recommended him not to stop acting, and soon after that, he got his first role. And later, he got the Golden Globe, the Palme d’Or, and several nominations for other awards.

Robin Wright

Robin Wright started a model career at the age of 14. She liked dancing more than photo shoots, but the work of a model gave her an opportunity to travel and work in Paris. So, at the age of 18, she was invited for an audition, and she got the role in Santa Barbara.

Sometimes, the shooting took 18 hours a day, and the young actress had to spend the night in the dressing room. She didn’t have time to study acting or enter a college. Robin learned acting from her colleagues on the set. For this role, she was nominated for an Emmy 3 times. The character of Kelly Capwell was a great boost for her career. Now, she is a winner of the Golden Globe and many other awards.

Dev Patel

Dev Patel was born and raised in London by a family with Indian roots. He was a very active teenager, and he often got in trouble, so his parents decided he needed to do taekwondo. He became a professional athlete and won prizes in many international competitions.

He got into the world of cinema by accident: in 2006, his mother saw an ad about a casting in a newspaper and after 2 auditions, Patel got a role in Skins. He had no acting experience at all. 1 year later, he got a role in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. He was nominated for BAFTA, and awarded “Black Reel Awards”, “British Independent Film Award”, “Critics Choice Award”, “CFCA Award”, “NBR Award”, and “PFCS Award.”

Kelly Macdonald

Kelly Macdonald was born and raised in Glasgow. When she was young, she worked as a waitress and acted in an amateur theatrical club. She saw a leaflet for an open casting call for a film. She went along and was assigned the role of Diane in Trainspotting. For this breakout role, she was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland Award.

Her career was very successful after that. She was in Gosford Park, Elizabeth, No Country for Old Men. And she got an Emmy Award for the role in The Girl in the Café.

Jason Momoa

In his youth, Jason Momoa dreamed of becoming a biologist and study sea creatures, and he even started college with that goal in mind, but he shifted gears. He was discovered by fashion designer Takeo Kobayashi who helped Momoa began a modeling career. Jason was a successful model, working in a surf shop in Hawaii.

He once decided to have an audition for Baywatch Hawaii and got the part, beating around 1,000 competitors. His breakthrough role was Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones that got him nominations for many awards.

Evangeline Lilly

Evangeline Lilly had nothing to do with the show business. She was doing volunteering since the age of 14 and then worked as a flight attendant to earn money to study international relations. She was once noticed by a manager of a model agency. She signed a contract with the agency and started doing commercials, earning money to pay for her studies.

Her friend recommended her to attend the casting for Lost, and she got the role of Kate Austen. She talked about her first experience, “I feel like I’m in boot camp. My first year was baptism by fire. I just was thrown in. And I had no idea what I was doing, not just on set, and not just as an actor, but as a public figure. I had no idea what I was doing.” For this role, she got a lot of awards and in 2006, she got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Matt LeBlanc

Matt LeBlanc came to New York at the age of 17, dreaming of becoming a model. But he got rejected because he wasn’t tall enough. He became an actor accidentally, when he went to an audition with his friend. Her manager signed a contract with him, and Matt started doing commercials, music videos, and episodes in tv-series.

When in 1994, Matt was offered the role of Joey Tribbiani in Friends, he only had 11 dollars in his pocket. But everything changed very soon. The actors who played the main characters in Friends were record-holders in the amounts of money they got per episode. Matt played his character for 12 years and got a lot of awards.

Sophie Marceau

When Sophie Marceau was offered a part in La Boum, she was only 13 years old. The girl worked as a model in an agency, focusing on teenagers. The movie was a huge success in France and Europe, so 2 years later, in 1982, a sequel was made. Sophie won the César award for Best First Feature Film and for Most Promising Actress.

Do you think that these actors and actresses deserved their fame? In your opinion, what is more important — talent or academic education?