Celebrities Who Have Been Friends Since Childhood
The world of celebrity can be a place where genuine friends are few and far between which is why most celebrities stick closely to those who were with them before success came their way. With that being said, some stars met when they were jobbing child actors while a few even went to school together.
Here are some famous examples.
1. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire
Leonardo DiCaprio is arguably the most famous man alive, and the Oscar winner knows to maintain a healthy distance from the press and certain players in the industry. In fact, Leo’s entourage is one the most exclusive in Hollywood, with that actor seemingly aware of the fake friends that come with being a megastar.
But one person who will always remain in his close circle is fellow Hollywood star, Tobey Maguire. Having both met aged 13. the two forged a strong friendship after continually bumping into each other at casting sessions and it is even rumoured that Leonardo DiCaprio is the godfather to Tobey’s children.
2. Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling
After being cast in Disney’s The Micky Mouse Club, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling formed a solid friendship, with Ryan living with Justin and his mother at one point because his own mother was unable to leave her job in Canada.
Now megastars, Justin and Ryan remain in close contact but are not as close with fellow Micky Mouse Club alumni members Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
3. Mike Posner and Big Sean
The two musicans are childhood friends and in 2014 collaborated together on the 2014 song, Top of the World.
Speaking about their seasoned friendship, Big Sean said, ““Me and him been friends way before we blew up. so its so tight to just be homies and be in the position [we’re] both in.” He explained. “It’s crazy man, we use to be in his mom basement, working on music. Me and him. Crazy.”
4. Ben Affleck and Mat Damon
If you want to make great art, it’s sometimes best to collaborate with someone you know, something Ben Affleck and Matt Damon proved when their screenplay for Good Will Hunting won Best Orginal Screenplay at the Oscars.
Now Hollywood royalty, the Bostonian actors have been friends since meeting at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Massachusetts.
5. Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts
The phenomenally talented actresses first met when attending high school together in Australia and have remained close.
Arguably the most successful Australian actresses to grace Hollywood, Kidman values the importance of their friendship and has never taken it for granted. “Naomi Watts and I are very, very good friends and have maintained that through so many things,” she said. “I think that’s really rare, particularly for actresses, and I take a lot of pride in that.”
6. Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson
After meeting at the University of Texas during a class on screenwriting, Anderson and Owen forged a close bond and even shared a room together. A room which the two were eventually kicked out of following a lengthy dispute with their scrupulous landlord over several broken windows.
Having remained friends, and with a mutual hatred towards their ex-landlord very much intact, Wilson and Anderson’s success in Hollywood allowed them to work on the same projects, and with the exception of 2012’s “Moonrise Kingdom” and 1998’s “Rushmore,” which Wilson co-wrote, the duo have been inseparable.
7. Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin
With both experiencing success earlier on in their careers, Wood and Culkin related to being in the public eye at a young age and struck up a strong friendship when meeting on the set of their 1993 movie, The Good Son.
While both have seen their careers go in drastically different ways since adulthood, the two remain in touch.
8. Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez
Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez were no more than aspiring child actresses when they met on the set of Barney and Friends at just 10-years-old.
Of course, since their careers have taken off, the famous stars don’t spend as much time with each other as they once did but they are still very much BFF’s, with both keen to preserve a friendship that, according to Gomez in an interview with People magazine in 2009, saw them do everything together.
9. Lauryn Hill And Zach Braff
It may seem like a random friendship, but singer Lauryn Hill attended Zach’s Bar Mitzvah during their time at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Whether they are still on speaking terms in unknown, but we can hazard a guess that Zach already has a singer in mind the moment his future son turns 14.
10. Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton
Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton may be known as talentless reality stars but that hasn’t stopped them becoming household names across the world. And while Kim is now very much the queen of reality TV, that wasn’t always the case.
At the height of Paris Hilton’s fame, for instance, she hired a young and jobbing Kim Kardashian as her assistant, and despite a publicised spat, the two reconciled their differences and remain close.
11. Gwyneth Paltrow and Maya Rudolph
Gwyneth Paltrow was born into a wealthy family growing up, and as well as being well acquainted with family friend Steven Spielberg, she also went to school with the Bridesmaids actress, Maya Rudolph.
Attending the prestigious St. Augustine by the Sea School, they would reunite in the 2000 film, Duets.
12. Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg
While the two weren’t exactly friends, Cameron Diaz did have the honour of asking the rapper for some weed when the two were students at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles.
Speaking about the incident years later, Diaz, who admitted to being a couple of years below the hip-hop icon, said, “‘Im pretty sure I bought weed from him,” to which Snoop replied, “I might have sold her some of that white-girl weed.”
13. Brad Pitt and Christina Applegate
More lovers than friends, Brad Pitt and Christina Applegate shared a whirlwind romance before either was famous which was probably why Applegate had little qualms when leaving Brad!
Doing what would now be unthinkable (unless your Angelina Jolie, of course), Applegate ran away with another guy but has never revealed who it was.
14. Kate Hudson and Liv Tyler
Growing up with superstar parents, it’s hardly surprising these two ended up being friends when attending the Crossroads School for Arts & Science together in the ’90s.
But Kate and Liv are now stars themselves, and the actresses even starred alongside one another in Dr. T & the Women.
15. Tommy Lee Jones And Al Gore
When Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore shared a room together at Havard Univeristy, the two became the best of friends, and they remain close.
Reciting their College days, Jones, who was on the Harvard football team spoke with fondness about their nights chasing lose cows across the fields and was even the muse behind the classic Havard-set tearjerker, Love Story, penned by the third and lesser-known roommate, Erich Segal.
16. Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams
These two actors are no longer with us, but they will nonetheless stay long in our memories, something neither would have likely imagined when they were drama students at the prestigious performing arts school, Julliard.
Rooming it together in New York City, the two aspiring actors quickly became friends, with a relative of Reed’s widow claiming they were ‘closer than brothers.’
Reeve, who was a paraplegic for the remaining 9 years of his life, admitted in a heartfelt recount that his best friend was the first person to make him laugh following the accident.
“In hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a yellow surgical gown and glasses, speaking in a Russian accent,” recalled Reeve, when explaining the moment Williams dressed up as a proctologist and told him he was there to perform a rectal exam. “For the first time since the accident, I laughed. My old friend had helped me know that somehow I was going to be okay.”
17. Chaz Bono and Jennifer Aniston
While Chaz Bono is now a transgender man, this photo with childhood friend Jennifer Aniston shows him in his more formative days as Chastity, a 13-year-old performing arts student at New York’s High School of Performing Arts.
Coming out as a lesbian in 1995, the then-daughter of Cher and Sonny Bono eventually transitioned into a man, with the last major operation completed in 2010.
18. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Madonna
Jean- Michel Basquiat was a big deal in the 1980s and was one of the most celebrated artists of his time, but before he hit it big he socialized with an array of aspiring artists in New York including Madonna, who was working in a Dunkin’ Donuts just off Times Square when she began seeing Basquiat.
Sadly, the multi-talented artist, whose neo-expressionist paintings would be sold around the world, died of a heroin overdose when he was only 27 and it is widely thought the two shared a brief on/off romance.
19. Eddie Redmayne and Prince William
Eddie Redmayne shared a classroom with Prince William during their time at Eton, one of Britain’s most exclusive private schools.
The two are still in contact, and as well as once sharing many classes, they also competed on the same rugby team, which according to Eddie, was easier for him than it was for William. “I always felt slightly sorry for Will because everyone wanted to tackle the future King of England. He took all the hits,” he told OK! magazine.
20. Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler
Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler are two of the biggest names in comedy, but at one time they were merely two goofballs living in a rundown Los Angeles apartment. Having met at an improv class, Sandler asked Judd Apatow if he had a spare room going after he had dropped out of college to pursue a career in standup.
Admittedly the two weren’t broke, and before they hit it big they managed to pay the bills doing various gigs but even then, their modest income could only afford them one Red Lobster meal a month, a time Sandler remembers with fondness. “We could eat at Red Lobster once every month. That was a big night out,” he said.
