In every parent-child relationship, there are clashes when our choices depart from those our parents would have chosen for us. Many young adults decide to follow a career course that goes against the wishes of their parents. If you were in the above dilemma, how would you make the decision? Will you keep following your dreams or listen to your parents?
Well, the same thing goes for celebrities. Many celebrities have also struggled to make the decision to pursue a dream in Hollywood, despite objections from their families. While becoming famous can give them a life of wealth and fame that everyone admires, it is also fraught with challenges and risks that they must face before they get it. And the truth is that not everyone is successful on this path. Today we will share with you a list of celebrities who ignored their family objections followed their dreams and finally succeeded. From Marilyn Monroe to Dwayne Johnson and Katy Perry, scroll down for more details!
#1 Marilyn Monroe
Source: Stuff Nobody Cares About & NinjaJournalist
Despite the fact that she is no longer with us, Marilyn Monroe remains one of Hollywood’s most recognizable figures. This blonde singer, model, and actress nearly never made it to the big screen, even though she stood out within a generation and an industry. In order to avoid moving around foster homes, Marilyn got married at the age of 16, and after meeting a well-known photographer, she finally started modeling.
#2 Kris Kristofferson
Source: The Boot & news.sky.com
The successful singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson has written songs that have been performed by celebrities including Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. But before that, he earned a master’s in literature, graduated, and enlisted in the military. After being released from service, Kristofferson was given the chance to teach literature at West Point, but he turned it down to focus on his career as a singer. His parents disowned him because they believed he was wasting his potential.
#3 Megan Fox
Source: Instagram
Megan enjoyed performing in stage plays and dancing. At the age of thirteen, she even started modeling. However, Megan’s mother and stepfather opposed her acting ambitions. It didn’t seem to stop her from attempting to break out of her parents’ control as soon as possible in order to truly establish herself. When Megan was seventeen, she left her hometown after accumulating enough money to leave for California and escape her life of isolation, harassment, and strict rules.
#4 Drew Barrymore
Source: Instagram
Drew was taken to Hollywood parties and at age nine, the precocious youngster began a descent into alcohol and drug-related problems. Her mother put her into rehab, and after a suicide attempt, Drew emerged sober at age 14. She somehow maintained her now-famous optimism and chronicled the tale in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost.
Drew returned to acting, despite resistance from Hollywood’s power players; but then acting was in her blood, she was born into the Barrymore acting dynasty. “This is my soul, my calling, my family… And it’s everything I wanted to do,” she says of her profession.
#5 Madonna
Source: Instagram
A pop icon, Madonna was always a rebel. Dreaming of becoming a dancer, she didn’t get the support from her father, who opposed the idea. He made her go to college, which she eventually dropped to dance in New York.
#6 Mayim Bialik
Source: Perez Hilton & Comedy Central
Raised in a very strict immigrant family, Mayim did not receive the support of her family over her acting career. Her family always urged her to do housework and get good grades. Even though Mayim liked performing and participated in plays as a child, her studies came first. She actually completed shooting Blossom after high school, all before receiving her PhD in neuroscience at UCLA, with minors in Hebrew and Jewish studies, and acting in between her semesters. In reality, her parents just saw it as a “hobby,” given that she had done it all before.
#7 Dwayne Johnson
Source: Perez Hilton & Entertainment Weekly
Dwayne Johnson was raised in a wrestling-centric household as the son of Canadian professional wrestler Rocky Johnson, who is from Nova Scotia, and the grandson of Peter Maivia. And he made the decision to pursue wrestling in the same manner as his father and grandpa. His father resisted his son’s new interest in a job and advised him against it since he didn’t want Dwayne to experience that difficult life. Rocky had no idea that Dwayne would go on to become one of the most popular wrestlers in the WWE, earning him his first part in a feature film in 2001’s The Mummy Returns.
#8 Jennifer Lopez
Source: Viral Gasp & Movie Pilot
Known for her success in dancing, singing, and acting, the A-lister’s parents initially gave her a hard time about her pursuits of stardom. They told her that Latinos often faced racism and stereotypes, and that her background wouldn’t get her anywhere.
#9 Steve Martin
Source: banjo.stevemartin.com & Twitter
When Steve first forayed into comedy and started making appearances on TV, his dad actually wrote a bad review about him which he published in his local newsletter. He was very uncomplimentary about Steve’s comedy and was even said to be embarrassed by his son. It’s amazing to see how Steve has succeed despite having such a father figure – if you can call his dad that.
#10 Demi Moore
Source: E! Online & Hello Magazine
Growing up in a literal trailer park in Roswell, New Mexico didn’t scream potential in her early childhood. She was raised by an alcoholic mother and stepfather, who moved around a lot before settling down in Los Angeles. Taking it upon herself to earn money and a life for herself, Demi (born Demetria) dropped out of high school, left her family at the age of sixteen, worked as a debt collector, and eventually signed on for a few modeling gigs with Elite Modeling Agency. Her natural beauty and social energy is what first landed her a role on General Hospital, which was only the beginning of a long, successful career in film.
#11 Tom Cruise
Source: Facebook
Tom Cruise faced a lot of obstacles growing up, mainly from his father, who often abused him. He didn’t support any of his passions and encouraged Cruise to pursue a career as a Catholic priest.
#12 Shania Twain
Source: Instagram
It was difficult for this CMA icon to say the least while growing up in Timmins, Ontario. She admitted that her family frequently went without food in the bitterly cold Northern Canadian town where she grew up in an abusive home with her parents and three younger brothers. But apart from the difficulties her parents caused, it was their passing that actually prepared her for a life of hardship.
However, it did not stop her from becoming a country music artist.
#13 Heather Graham
Source: Instagram
Heather Graham has been in scores of films over the years, but she has never had a family with whom she could share her achievement, like she did in La La Land. Aside from growing up with super strict, Catholic parents, Heather says that her dreams would not have become reality if her parents had any say in the matter.
After high school, Graham enrolled in extension classes at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied English for two years. Against her parents’ wishes, Graham withdrew from UCLA to pursue acting full time.
#14 Jennifer Lawrence
Source: Los Angeles Times & Pinterest
Jennifer Lawrence had a humble, religious upbringing in a small Kansas town. Becoming a movie star wasn’t seen by her parents as an attainable dream. However, at 14, she got the support from her mother and went to New York to visit talent agencies.
#15 Katy Perry
Source: Instagram
The daughter of two pastors, Katy Perry was raised as a strict evangelical Christian. At 16, she released her first album with religious songs. But as she moved on to pop, her parent disapproved of her new sound and image.
