Being an actor certainly isn’t an easy career path to take. There are many pitfalls and lots of financial difficulties, and in the end, plenty of people just give up altogether. There are countless talented actors out there who the world will never know about, simply because they had bad luck.
But others have just the right amount of luck. They can get right to the brink of failure and then suddenly be pulled back due to a TV show casting. And then, every once in a blue moon, that TV show turns into a phenomenon and makes an actor into a massive name.
10 Richard Madden Needed Game of Thrones to Pay His Rent
When Game of Thrones came to the small screen, no one knew for certain that it would be a hit. It did have a built-in fandom from the George R. R. Martin books, but it was still a gamble considering the amount of sex and violence in the show. Luckily, the show became absolutely huge right from the get-go. And this came as a huge relief to Robb Stark’s actor Richard Madden.
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“I got that phone call when I was on my last month’s rent,” he told Jimmy Fallon in 2019. “Got that phone call, which was great, and asked my agent for an advance, and that helped me get through the next little bit.” Fallon asked him what he would have done if he hadn’t got the role, and Madden said he would probably have moved back in with his parents.
Release Date April 17, 2011
Creator(s) David Benioff , D.B. Weiss
Cast Kit Harington , Isaac Hempstead Wright , Iain Glen , Peter Dinklage , Nikolaj Coster-Waldau , Emilia Clarke , Maisie Williams , Sophie Turner , John Bradley , Lena Headey , Liam Cunningham , Aidan Gillen , Alfie Allen , Conleth Hill , Rory McCann , Jerome Flynn , Jacob Anderson , Kristofer Hivju , Gwendoline Christie , Nathalie Emmanuel , Carice Van Houten , Natalie Dormer , Stephen Dillane , Charles Dance , charlotte hope , Michelle Fairley , Jack Gleeson , Richard Madden , Hannah Murray , Sibel Kekilli , Julian Glover , Brenock O’Connor , Rose Leslie , Michael McElhatton
Seasons 8
Creator
Production Company
Story By George R.R. Martin
Writers D.B. Weiss , George R.R. Martin , David Benioff
Number of Episodes
Franchise(s) Game of Thrones
Directors David Nutter , Alan Taylor , D.B. Weiss , David Benioff
Showrunner David Benioff , D.B. Weiss
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9 Laverne Cox Overcame the Odds and Booked Orange Is the New Black
Laverne Cox faced discrimination as a Black transgender actress, but she persevered no matter what. Times got hard. “I was in rent arrears on my apartment, I had rolled back rent and I was in all kinds of debt and I was going to give up acting actually, a few months before I booked Orange,” Cox told the Paley Center’s A Salute to LGBTQ+ Pride Achievements in Television in 2021.
“It changed everything,” she went on. “I have a career now that I always dreamed about because of that show, and what’s really beautiful about Orange is, I had writing and storylines that I had dreamed about.” Orange is the New Black is considered a trailblazer in LGBT+ representation.
Orange is The New Black
Release Date July 11, 2013
Cast Taylor Schilling , Laura Prepon , Kate Mulgrew , Natasha Lyonne , Taryn Manning , Jason Biggs , Uzo Aduba , Danielle Brooks
Seasons 7
Number of Episodes 91
8 Chrissy Metz Was Broke Before This Is Us
Chrissy Metz appeared in American Horror Story before getting a lead role in This Is Us. Nothing really came of that earlier role, though, and she started to despair. She told Glamour in 2017, “I kept auditioning, with no savings and no money, credit card debt gaining interest. I went on unemployment. I bought ramen noodles at dollar stores. I never had to—God forbid—live on the streets; I moved in with a roommate who told me, ‘Stay with me until you can afford rent. Don’t give up.'”
So she didn’t give up. And finally, the role of Kate on This Is Us came along. “I am so grateful that I had such an amazing support system, but when I booked This Is Us, I had 81 cents in my bank account. I could cry right now just thinking about it,” she said.
Release Date September 20, 2016
Cast Mandy Moore , Milo Ventimiglia , Sterling K. Brown , Chrissy Metz , Justin Hartley , Susan Kelechi Watson , Chris Sullivan , Eris Baker , Faithe Herman , Jon Huertas , Hannah Zeile , Niles Fitch , Lyric Ross
Creator Dan Fogelman
7 William Jackson Harper Was Thankful to Find The Good Place
In 2017, William Jackson Harper spoke to the Box Angeles podcast about how his career didn’t seem to pan out at first. “I was thinking, okay, I could give (acting) up, I could, you know, quit entirely, and I definitely had that thought,” he said. He planned to get a “real job” instead. “I had sort of come to be at peace with that,” he went on. “I was like, well, look, this will probably be my last pilot season.”
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But then he was cast as Chidi in The Good Place, a high-concept show about humankind’s relationship with the afterlife. It was thoughtful, creative, funny, and a huge hit. Harper’s career then went from strength to strength, and he even ended up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, winning a small role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 2023.
Release Date September 19, 2016
Cast Kristen Bell , William Jackson Harper , Jameela Jamil , D’Arcy Carden , Manny Jacinto , Ted Danson
Main Genre Comedy
Seasons 4
Creator Michael Schur
Production Company Fremulon, 3 Arts Entertainment, Universal Television
Number of Episodes 50
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6 Millie Bobby Brown Was Going to Give Up Before Stranger Things
Millie Bobby Brown was still a child when she decided to try and make it as an actress, but even back then she was thinking about her long-term career prospects. She told Jimmy Fallon in 2020 that after not getting a role on Game of Thrones, she was ready to quit the business. Luckily, she didn’t.
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Stranger Things was “one of her last goes” at acting. And it catapulted her to the sort of fame most people only dream of. Her face stared down from posters and billboards all over America as Stranger Things gained fans season after season. She also has films such as Enola Holmes and Damsel under her belt now.
Release Date July 15, 2016
Cast Winona Ryder , David Harbour , Cara Buono , FInn Wolfhard , Millie Bobby Brown
Seasons 5 Seasons
Creator Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
Production Company 21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre, Netflix
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5 Ashleigh Murray Couldn’t Pay the Rent Before Riverdale
Ashleigh Murray as Josie on “Riverdale”
Before winning the role of Josie on Riverdale, Ashleigh Murray was in financial trouble. She told Collider in 2017, “I was $4,700 behind in rent. I lived in New York City, so it was a lot of money. And I was just about to take a break from acting for about six months, until I could get myself back on my feet financially, and then hit the ground running. (Riverdale) was my last audition.”
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She went on, “I didn’t have money to do my laundry, so I was washing my clothes in my bathroom sink. And then, I ran up the street and begged the guy at the laundry mat that I go to, all the time, to please let me dry my clothes there because I had a big audition the next morning. So, he let me dry my clothes for free.” If not for the kindness of that guy, Murray might not have the great career she has now. Even the smallest of things can make a difference.
Release Date January 26, 2017
Cast Camila Mendes , Marisol Nichols , Ashleigh Murray , Cole Sprouse , Ross Butler , Madelaine Petsch , K.J. Apa , Luke Perry , Lili Reinhart , casey cott
Seasons 7
4 Melissa McCarthy Couldn’t Get a Job Before Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls was a savior for Melissa McCarthy. Before that, she was working in a Starbucks. She told the story to Heat magazine for their print edition back in 2016: “Acting wasn’t working out, I was getting rejection after rejection, I wasn’t even getting auditions – I couldn’t get a job to save my life. I always said if I don’t get anything substantial by the time I’m 30, I’m done. And a week before I turned 30, I got Gilmore Girls.”
And after that, the sky was the limit for McCarthy. She won a Primetime Emmy for Mike and Molly in 2011, and now she’s best known for comedies such as Ghostbusters and Spy. She was also the villain Ursula in Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, which was a huge hit.
Release Date October 5, 2000
Cast Lauren Graham , Scott Patterson , Sean Gunn , Keiko Agena , Matt Czuchry , Alexis Bledel , Yanic Truesdale , Kelly Bishop , Melissa McCarthy , Edward Herrmann , Liza Weil , Jared Padalecki , Milo Ventimiglia
Seasons 7
Story By amy sherman-palladino
Writers Amy Sherman-Palladino
Network The WB
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3 Jacob Elordi’s Euphoria Audition Was His Last Before Giving Up
Jacob Elordi was living in his car and on friends’ couches before he got the chance to audition for Euphoria. It was pretty much his last chance to make it big, and he knew it. He told GQ magazine in 2022, “I think I had – I don’t know, $400 or $800 left in my bank account – and Euphoria was my last audition before I went home for a little while to make some money and recuperate.”
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But it worked out very, very well for him in the end. Euphoria made him a star. After that came roles in Priscilla and Saltburn, among others, and now he’s one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. He said in the GQ interview that he got “really lucky.”
Release Date June 16, 2019
Cast Zendaya , Angus Cloud , Maude Apatow , Sydney Sweeney , Jacob Elordi
Seasons 3
Creator Sam Levinson
Number of Episodes 18
Network HBO Max
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2 John Krasinski Was Ready to Head Home Before The Office
Jim Halpert is a lot of people’s favorite character on The Office, andit’s impossible to imagine him being played by anyone else other than John Krasinski. But it might not have happened at all if Krasinski didn’t have a supportive mother. He remembered the story on a 2018 episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
“My mom said… The only thing I ask you is in two and half, three years, if you don’t have any sense this is going to happen… you pull yourself out.” Two and a half years passed, but his mother insisted on three. Three was the lucky number in this case because three weeks after that conversation, Krasinski booked The Office.
Release Date March 24, 2005
Cast Mindy Kaling , Jenna Fischer , Kate Flannery , Ed Helms , Craig Robinson , Paul Lieberstein , Ellie Kemper , B.J. Novak , Angela Kinsey , Oscar Nunez , Rainn Wilson , Brian Baumgartner , Phyllis Smith , Leslie David Baker , Creed Bratton , Steve Carell , John Krasinski
Rating
Seasons 9
Creator
Production Company
Story By Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Writers Mindy Kaling , Paul Lieberstein , Michael Schur , ricky gervais , Greg Daniels , B.J. Novak
Franchise(s) The Office
Directors Greg Daniels , Paul Lieberstein , Paul Feig , Randall Einhorn , Ken Kwapis
Showrunner Greg Daniels
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1 Matt LeBlanc Was Doing His Own Dental Before Friends
Matt LeBlanc really wasn’t doing great before he became Joey from Friends. “I had, I think, I was down to $11,” he told Conan in 2019. “That’s holding out too long because even if I’d said at that point, I’m gonna go get a waiter job, by the time that $11 ran out, it would’ve been before the first paycheck (and) I would’ve starved.” He couldn’t even afford a dentist and had to fix his teeth himself.
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But that all changed when Friends became one of the biggest hits in TV history. The cast jointly negotiated for equal salaries, and now Matt LeBlanc is extremely rich. He has a net worth of around $85 million and can now take any role he likes.
Release Date September 22, 1994
Cast David Schwimmer , Matthew Perry , Jennifer Aniston , Matt LeBlanc , Lisa Kudrow , Courtney Cox
Main Genre Comedy
Seasons 10 Seasons
Creator David Crane, Marta Kauffman
Production Company Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, Warner Bros. Television
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