Today they are great established Hollywood stars, but their beginnings were not as brilliant as their present.
It's no secret that many Hollywood actors have dark pasts. But, to tell the truth, there are many stories that we have forgotten or perhaps archived over time.
In the modern digital age, it's almost impossible for a star to have an indiscretion without a reporter poking her lens where it's not wanted, but there are movie stars who have enjoyed dark pasts in their early years; backgrounds that they are not necessarily willing to recall.
1. Samuel L. Jackson was a troublesome student
As an actor, Samuel L. Jackson uses his intense gaze and persuasive manner to intimidate and threaten all manner of villains. As it turns out, these skills aren't just limited to his work life.
In 1969, Jackson and other students channeled great revenge and furious anger when they took faculty at Morehouse College hostage, demanding curriculum reform; it worked, but Jackson was convicted of unlawful confinement.
Sam started moving in the same circles as the Black Panther movement when he became militant. This is why his mother sent him to live in Los Angeles, where he was always confused with Laurence Fishburne.
2. Angelina Jolie before Brad Pitt
"You're young, you're drunk, you're in bed, you've got knives; sh*t happens." That's UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie commenting on the years before she became known as the most glamorous woman in Hollywood.
Actor Jon Voight's daughter, Jolie, who says she always considered herself "just a punk kid with tattoos," struggled in school and turned to self-harm and drugs before she was 20. She had tumultuous relationships with actor Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton (whom she married after two months) and became the face of the tabloids until Brad Pitt convinced her to settle down and start a family together.
3. Robert Downey Jr. had a life full of excess
Robert Downey Jr.'s rap sheet is uncomfortable reading, especially considering that he is now one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. He is amazing.
Marijuana? Cocaine? Heroin? It would probably be easier to list the drugs Downey Jr. didn't get in trouble for. In 1996, RDJ was arrested speeding down Sunset Boulevard with drugs and a gun. A month later, he was caught trespassing at his neighbor's house after falling asleep in a child's bed.
Even during his first career comeback, fresh out of jail, he was cast in the TV series 'Ally McBeal.' Downey Jr. was as high as a kite: "It was my lowest point regarding addictions. At that point, I didn't give a damn if he ever got back into acting."
Finally, after five years of rehabilitation, he managed to recover. It was a great help for him to have met the producer of 'Gothika', Susan Levin, who married him in 2005 and, according to Downey Jr, “saved my life”.
