5 of the Most Impressive Celebrity Side Gigs
Being a world-class talent in one field is all well and good, but pulling it off more than once is just rude. It turns out, however, that people who are incredibly successful at one thing tend to be able to succeed across the board if they put their minds to it, leading us to believe those non-hyphenate geniuses are just lazy.
Anthony Hopkins’ Art Career
Art galleries are often happy to exhibit the finger paintings of celebrities for publicity, but Sir Hopkins is actually good. His art, which has been described by reviewers prone to this kind of language as “restless, melancholy, haunting,” has been exhibited in galleries around the world, and one painting was going for $80,000 in 2017. You can tell that’s based on quality, because if it were based on celebrity, it would be higher.
Gene Hackman’s Novels
As Hackman transitioned away from his acting career and toward watching a lot of sports, he embarked on a literary career spanning 14 years and five adventure novels and thrillers. His first book, Wake of the Perdido Star, commands a solid four stars on Goodreads, which is more than most BookTok drivel can say for itself.
Paris Hilton’s DJ Career
Hilton wrote the playbook on being famous for being famous, but in 2013, she actually found something she’s good at. After a rocky start the previous year, she was hailed as a master DJ, earning a four-year contract at an infamous Ibiza nightclub and winning multiple DJ awards. Did you know there were DJ awards?
Ashton Kutcher’s Venture Capital Firm
In 2010, Kutcher took his little Hollywood fortune and founded A-Grade Investments, which has made him arguably more successful as a venture capitalist than as an actor. Through the company, he provided start-up funds for Spotify, Uber, Shazam, SoundCloud and Airbnb, any one of which would set an investor up for life. It’s definitely more impressive than starring in My Boss’s Daughter.
Lou Reed’s Tai Chi
Reed was a guy who really needed to chill out, so he practiced tai chi for several decades. He published a book about the martial art, landed on the cover of Kung Fu Magazine, and eventually became better known in China as a martial artist than a musician. We live in a world where you can say to someone, “I love ‘Heroin’ by Lou Reed,” and they could reasonably respond, “Lou Reed? The tai chi master?”