From Jennifer Lopez to Sylvester Stallone: 12 celebrities who were homeless before becoming famous

Before he became a Hollywood star, a class friend encouraged Chris Pratt to live with him on a beach in Maui, Hawaii. The ‘Jurassic Park’ star accepted the offer. He got a job at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, but slept on the beach. He spent a full year living outdoors. "We were just a bunch of kids camping on the beach for a year," Pratt explained on the SmartLess podcast. Eventually, he was offered a movie role and flew to Los Angeles. Today he lives with his second wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, in a luxurious mansion, as seen in the second season of the Netflix show 'The Home Edit.'

Jennifer Lopez left home at the age of 18 and began spending her nights at the dance studio where she trained. Months later, her career took off, and she landed work in Europe. "My mom and I butted heads. I didn't want to go to college. I wanted to try dance full-time. So she and I had a break. I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. I was homeless, but I told her, 'This is what I have to do'," she told ‘W’ magazine. "A few months later, I landed a job dancing in Europe," she said. "When I got back, I booked [sketch show] ‘In Living Color.’ I became a fly girl and moved to Los Angeles. It all happened in a year.”

Before landing one of the leading roles in the hit series 'Euphoria' (HBO), Jacob Elordi found himself penniless and on the street. “I think I had — I don't know, $400 or $800 left in my bank account,” the Australian actor told 'GQ' magazine. When he moved to Los Angeles, he stayed at a friend's house and ended up sleeping in his car. During the filming of the pilot episode, one of the producers realized he was homeless and got him a room in a hotel.

Before his acting career took off, ‘James Bond’ star Daniel Craig was forced to sleep on park benches. He also worked odd jobs to pay for his theater classes.

After earning some money working as a model, Halle Berry moved to New York. But within three months, she had no savings left and had to turn to her mother, who refused to help. The actress, who won an Oscar for 'Monster's Ball' (2001), began living in a homeless shelter. "That's probably one of the best things she did for me because it taught me,” she told ‘Hello’ magazine.

Before rising to fame as Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone barely made $50 a week. The situation became so bad, he had to see his dog Butkus for $50, because he could afford food for the animal. During this period, he slept in places like bus stops or outside post offices in the dead of winter. Stallone wrote the script for the movie 'Rocky,' and sold it for $35,000. The movie turned the actor into the star. The first thing he did once he had money was to buy back his dog, which cost him $15,000.

Hilary Swank is now an Oscar-winning actress, but she grew up in a trailer park. As a teenager, she moved with her mother to California, where they lived in a car for a couple of weeks. She and her mother then stayed in an empty house for two months. “We had a friend who was selling their house. And so they said, ‘You know, there's no furniture, but you can stay there at night. And then, during the day, you have to leave so we can try and sell it,’” she told CBS News.

Before becoming a star, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain slept on sofas, cardboard boxes and even under bridges. When the band’s second album 'Nevermind' (1991) was released, the singer was sleeping in his car. As a teenager, he was also repeatedly getting kicked out, because he couldn't pay the bills. When the singer died in 1994, he had an estimated net value of $100 million.

Before her big break on 'American Idol,' Kelly Clarkson had nowhere to live. The singer was forced to live in her car after her apartment burned down in a fire. She eventually returned to her family and auditioned for the first season of the show that launched her to fame.

When Jim Carrey was 12 years old, his family became homeless after his father was fired from his job. He lived in a tent in a park in Ontario, Canada, with his two brothers and parents for eight months. Eventually, they got jobs as janitors and security guards in exchange for a house to sleep in. Carrey, meanwhile, dropped out of school to take a job as a janitor as well. It was during this time, he said, that he began to develop his sense of humor.

Dwayne Johnson – better known as The Rock – did not have an easy childhood. He and his family were evicted from their home and had to leave Honolulu, Hawaii, where they had been lived. The family ended up moving into a small hotel on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. Last February, he was named the highest paid actor in the world by 'Forbes' magazine, commanding more than $270 million per movie.

James Cameron was living in his car before he sold the film rights to ‘Terminator.’ Despite living on the street, he was determined to get his script off the ground. He eventually sold the rights for $1 to Gale Anne Hurd in exchange for being hired as the director. The film went on to gross more than $75 million at the box office worldwide. He followed the hit with other blockbusters such as ‘Titanic,’ which was the highest grossing film in history until it was unseated by ‘Avatar,’ another of his films.