Stars are just like Us. Most people have thought about giving up their jobs at one time or another, and some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities have almost turned their back on their acting careers.
Jennifer Aniston became one of the most recognizable names in the business after her starring role on Friends. In the years that followed, she landed prominent roles in films such as Horrible Bosses and We’re the Millers. However, in September 2020, she admitted that there was one acting job that led her to consider ending her career for good.
“I would have to say the last two years that has crossed my mind, which it never did before,” she said on Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett’s “SmartLess” podcast.
The Emmy winner refrained from naming the project that pushed her to her limits with its “lack of organization,” but she added, “It was after a job I had completed and I was like, ‘Whoa, that sucked the life out of me, and I don’t know if this is what interests me.’”
In a March 2019 Australian Men’s Health cover story, Chris Hemsworth admitted to feeling “a whole lot of doubt” early in his career in Hollywood. After not gaining traction following his role in 2009’s Star Trek, he considered leaving acting behind.
“I was about to quit,” he said at the time. “I got more and more anxious to the point where I couldn’t harness or use that energy. It was all to my detriment.”
The Australia native eventually found peace with the process. “I’ve stopped asking, ‘Who do I have to be? What personality do I have to shape in order to succeed in this business?’ And just going, ‘Truly be yourself,’” he explained. “That’s when things started to change. That’s when I felt happier.”
In addition to appearing in multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe films as Thor, Hemsworth has starred in high-profile movies such as the female-led Ghostbusters reboot in 2016 and Bad Times at the El Royale in 2018.
A few years after his role in 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Robert Pattinson contemplated exiting the entertainment business after his initial not-so-great audition for Twilight — the film franchise that catapulted his career.
“It was the scene when [my character Edward Cullen] had a guitar … my agent was like, ‘Take your guitar into the audition,’” he explained on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s podcast in 2019. “I just walked in and they were like, ‘Oh. You brought a guitar. Do you want to play us a song,’ and I was like, ‘No. This is the worst decision I ever made.’ I was saying, ‘No,’ and they were like, ‘You just brought a guitar just to hold it? Why did you bring a guitar in?’ My entire confidence just s–t the bed.”
The Good Time actor, who is taking over the role of Batman from Ben Affleck, added, “The audition was one of the worst auditions I did in my whole life. I remember calling my parents and saying, ‘I’m done, I can’t torture myself anymore.’ And the next day, I got a [follow-up] Twilight audition.”
Scroll down to read more actors’ stories about what led to them nearly quitting their careers as actors.
The Magic Mike star admitted that he contemplated leaving the acting world in 2018, the same year that he split from ex-wife Jenna Dewan. “Do I want to act anymore?” he told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2022, recalling what he asked himself at the time. “Was I going to direct? Do I want to be in the industry anymore? I got lucky. I won a creative lottery ticket. I made a little bit of money, so I could take a step back and figure out what life is.” He didn't go through with his plans to leave the film industry, but he did enjoy the self-imposed break. “I really took time off,” he explained. “I sculpted. I took pictures. I wrote my own stuff, not like a script or anything. Just creating on different levels. I wanted to take a breather.” Rob Latour/Shutterstock
The Golden Globe winner revealed that there was a point in her career where she didn't feel confident about the roles she was set to play. “So, I got Jane Austen’s Emma as a job, and that really panicked me, because it was a role that was supposed to be beautiful from the offset, and I hadn’t done that — I’d played creatures, outsiders, whatever,” she explained to The Hollywood Reporter in June 2021. Taylor-Joy revealed that this "triggered some childhood trauma," and she wasn't sure she could keep acting. The Florida native ended up working an entire year straight so she could star in Emma, Last Night in Soho and The Queen’s Gambit. “I had, collectively, a week off that entire year; it was crazy, and I was already starting off at an emotional space where I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can do this,’” she said at the time. “But it’s the year that has most changed me. I just fell in love with my job again.” Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
While speaking on a Paley Center panel in June 2021, Cox admitted being cast in Orange Is the New Black was a major turning point for her. "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," she recalled. "I had turned 40 that year and had a breakout moment and I was in debt and things weren't going the way I hoped they would." Before her big Netflix gig, her "dream of being a working actress" seemed out of reach. "I was just like, 'I've got to do something else. Who do I think I am? I'm a Black trans woman. No one's ever done this before, let me go and do something, have a real job or something.' ... I was studying for the GRE and then the audition for Orange happened and I didn’t go to grad school. Orange turned out to be my grad school." Kristina Bumphrey/StarPix/Shutterstock
Before winning an Academy Award for Room in 2016 and becoming Captain Marvel in 2019, Larson contemplated ending her years-long career. “It just wasn’t working the way I wanted it to,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2017. “All the kids I went to school with were going to college and I was still trying to do this thing called ‘acting’ and not going very far.” The Kong: Skull Island star added, “What’s weird about this profession is that no one can really tell you when you are delusional. I used to wish that I’d wanted to be an athlete, because it’s easy to quantify if that’s working — just measuring your speed!” John Salangsang/Shutterstock
The Men In Black: International actor admitted that he was “about to quit” acting after struggling to land roles following his appearance in Star Trek in 2009. “I got more and more anxious to the point where I couldn’t harness or use that energy,” he told Australian Men’s Health in 2019. “It was all to my detriment.” Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Very early in her career, the Happiest Season star pondered the possibility of life outside of acting. “I decided a year after not getting any commercials, ‘F--k it. I won’t make my mom drive around Los Angeles anymore,’” Stewart told Newsweek in 2012. “I also got so nervous for every single audition. I was just dying. I had one appointment left and my mom said, ‘Have a little integrity and go to your last one.’ And it was The Safety of Objects. If I hadn’t gotten that, I would have been done.” PICJER/imageSPACE/Shutterstock
The Morning Show star admitted in 2020 that there was one job that led her to contemplate ending her career. “It was after a job I had completed and I was like, ‘Whoa, that sucked the life out of me, and I don’t know if this is what interests me,’” she said on the “SmartLess” podcast, noting that she likely would have pursued a career in interior design. David Fisher/Shutterstock
It may be hard to imagine anyone else but Watson playing Hermione Granger, but the Perks of Being a Wallflower star nearly quit the Harry Potter franchise to pursue higher education. Harry Potter producer David Heyman told Glamour U.K. in 2013 that the actress “was quite academic and was very keen in pursuit of schooling and was wrestling a little bit more than the others.” The Brown University graduate also contemplated quitting acting altogether because she didn’t enjoy fame. “I’d walk down the red carpet and go into the bathroom. I had on so much makeup and these big, fluffy, full-on dresses. I’d put my hands on the sink and look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘Who is this?’” she recalled to Vanity Fair in 2017. “I didn’t connect with the person who was looking back at me, and that was a very unsettling feeling.” Gregory Pace/Shutterstock
Cavill will forever be known as Superman, but that might not have happened had he followed through with quitting acting. “Thankfully at this stage I’ve got my foot in the door enough that if someone tried to slam it shut, I could probably squeeze a little bit and keep the door open,” the Witcher star told Men’s Journal in 2016. “As far as a full back-up plan, it was the British Armed Forces. But being 33 years old I think I’m too old to join now.” Shutterstock
The Tenet actor wanted to quit acting after experiencing a bad audition for what would become his breakout role in Twilight. “The audition was one of the worst auditions I did in my whole life. I remember calling my parents and saying, ‘I’m done, I can’t torture myself anymore,’” he said on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s podcast in 2019. Michael Hurcomb/Shutterstock
The A Quiet Place filmmaker was waiting tables prior to landing his breakout role on The Office, and he had wanted to call it quits. When he initially decided to put his dreams to rest, his mother advised him to “wait it out” and “wait until the end of the year.” He did just that, later booking his part on the acclaimed NBC sitcom three weeks after the mother-son pair’s phone call. “I give her a lot of love and 10 percent,” he joked on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in 2018. “She deserves it.” Christopher Smith/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Days before landing her role on Gilmore Girls as Sookie St. James, McCarthy was very close to giving up her acting dreams. “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,” she told Heat magazine in 2016. “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.” The Oscar nominee continued, “Things weren’t ‘bad’ but I had been working two jobs and I got to a point where I thought, ‘Why am I doing this? Why am I beating myself up?’ Acting never would have left my life, I would've acted in some way, but I'm so fortunate that this is now my occupation.” Eric Charbonneau/Shutterstock
The Wire alum admitted to Vanity Fair in 2018 that he almost quit the business early in his career, saying, “I remember when I first came to L.A. and me and my mom, we went to all these agencies trying to get representation and they passed on me — WME passed on me, CAA passed on me, Gersh, all these guys f--king passed on me.” David Dettmann/Shutterstock
In 2017, the Israeli actress admitted to being “as close as it gets” to ending her acting career prior to landing Wonder Woman. “There’s so much ‘no,’” she said of the auditioning process on Sunday Today. “There’s so much rejection in this world that I thought, ‘Maybe it’s not for me. …Maybe I should go back to law school instead of dragging my family with me.’” Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock
The Avengers: Endgame actor previously admitted to losing his love for acting in 2009, leading him to nearly pump the brakes for good. “I’d had it with L.A. And I really had it with the business side of acting, the machinery of it all. You’re an artist, but then all of a sudden you’re a product at the same time, and there’s this company that’s sprung up around you,” he told Details in 2011. “I got depressed. I was losing my love for it. So I said, ‘I’m done.’” Ruffalo added, “I fired everybody and moved my family to Callicoon, New York. I had to make a radical move. [My film] The Kids Are All Right was my swan song. I didn’t know what I was doing next.” Scott Gries/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Before landing her starring role on Homeland, Danes admitted to contemplating a career switch. “It was grim. I was very hurt. Two years of not working was brutal,” she told Vogue in 2013. “And a point came where I thought, ‘I really like interior design.’ Someone suggested, ‘Maybe your real success is in your personal life.’” Gregory Pace/Shutterstock
The Mad Men alum planned to return to teaching if he didn’t make it in Hollywood. “I had given myself five years to be self-sufficient as an actor. I was already self-sufficient as a waiter, but I knew a lot of 40-year-old waiters and I didn’t want to be one of those,” he told W magazine in 2010. “I had taught [at] school and I knew that I could always go back to teaching.” Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
The Orange Is the New Black alum, who is both an Emmy winner and Golden Globe nominee, revealed that she quit acting 45 minutes before learning she was cast on the Netflix dramedy. “There have been times in my life where I have doubted, questioned, felt tired, but I had never quit before in my core,” she told Essence in its September 2016 issue. “My heart never quit, and that was the first time I felt my heart give out on me.” Aduba then recalled what happened after she got the life-changing call about her new gig, adding, “I lost my mind. I’m running around my apartment crying. I was like, ‘You don’t understand. I just quit.’ And my agent quoted The Godfather line: ‘Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in.’” Greg Allen/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Greenfield nearly quit acting before landing his breakout role as Schmidt on New Girl. “Right before New Girl happened, there were definitely moments of, I probably shouldn’t do this anymore,” he told The Wrap in 2014. “I just had a kid and at one point was like, ‘At what point does this become selfish?’ You don’t want to become a dad who is running around and saying, ‘I just got a callback on a guest star on The Middle.’ I just didn’t want to be that guy.” The Neighborhood actor added, “Just before New Girl, I called a buddy of mine and asked for a job as a writing assistant. I thought, maybe I’ll start at the very lowest point for a writer and see what happens with that, because this doesn’t seem to be happening as an actor.” 20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock
The Academy Award winner cited sexism as what led to her almost quitting acting. “I literally went out into the world thinking there was no disparity, that everyone was equal, and I can do whatever a man can do,” she told USA Today in 2018. “It was hard for me because I walked with blinders on through life and got to where I [felt] like I was less than because I was a woman," she said. "And that was a hard pill to swallow. I had a lot of sadness from that.” Bullock didn’t list any specific examples, but she recalled having a “wake-up moment” where she thought: “Oh, my God. I’m being treated this way because I have a vagina.” Shutterstock
The This Is Us star considered putting her acting aspirations behind her before landing her big break on the acclaimed NBC drama. She nearly left Los Angeles for her Florida hometown, but her loved ones encouraged her to keep going. “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,” she told Glamour in 2017. “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,’” she continued. “People who supported me were like, ‘If you don't have money for food, I’ll cook you dinner. You don’t have money for acting class? Let’s get together and read lines.’” David Fisher/Shutterstock
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