The drama teacher who fumbled Kate Winslet probably had to eat alone in the teachers’ lounge for the rest of their career.
Salma Hayek
People who were definitely not sexists and racists told her she’d never get her big break due to sexism and racism: “They told me my career would die mid-30s. First of all, they told me a Mexican is never going to make it because at the time … it was impossible for a Mexican to have a leading role in Hollywood. I was told so many times it couldn’t happen, and I almost believed them, but I fought it and I won.”
Meryl Streep
An Italian producer once asked his son, in Italian, “Why do you bring me this ugly thing?” after she auditioned for King Kong. She responded, in Italian, “I’m sorry I’m not beautiful enough to be in King Kong,” and then won three Oscars.
Judi Dench
A director told the future Dame that “you’ll never make a film. You have the wrong face.”
Sally Field
When she felt like her career was floundering, she told her agent that she wanted to quit taking TV parts and focus on breaking into movies. She was told, “You can’t get into film. You’re not pretty enough. You’re not good enough.”
Sidney Poitier
A cofounder of the American Negro Theatre gave him a pretty devastating note: “Stop wasting people’s time. Why don’t you go out and get yourself a job as a dishwasher or something? You can’t read, you can’t talk, you’re no actor!”
Simu Liu
Before landing the role of Shang-Chi in the MCU, he lost a spot in Crazy Rich Asians and was told that a casting director had said, “Well, Simu doesn’t have the X factor, the ‘it’ factor.”
Nia Vardalos
Her agent once told her she split the middle in the worst possible way: “You are not fat enough to be a character actress, and you’re not pretty enough to be a leading lady.”
Shakira
Her music teacher once told her that she sounded like a goat (derogatory): “He thought it was too much. Some people still think that it’s too much.”
Reese Witherspoon
She says the industry appraised her like livestock, and found her wanting: “Not tall enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough.”
Winona Ryder
A casting director once cut her off mid-sentence to inform her that “you should not be an actress. You are not pretty enough.”
Oprah Winfrey
Early in her career, she was booted from a news anchor position because her boss thought she was “too emotionally invested,” making her “unfit for TV news.”
Mark Ruffalo
When he was auditioning for the acting program at SUNY Purchase, the department head asked him, “What are you going to do when you realize you’ll never make it as an actor?”
Kate Winslet
When she was 14 years old, her drama teacher’s words of encouragement were that she “might do okay if I was happy to settle for the fat girl parts.”
Adam Sandler
Just a few years before he landed a spot on SNL that would launch his improbable career, an NYU professor told him, “Think about something else. Listen, you got heart, but you don’t have it. Choose another path.”
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