Remembering her roots! Oscar winner Brie Larson reminisced about struggling to pay the bills as a young actor in Hollywood, giving a shout-out to strivers still waiting for their big break. “I’m grateful for where I am now,” the 27-year-old Kong: Skull Island star captioned a March 31 Instagram. “But want to give a toast to the life I lived before.”
The best actress winner for 2015’s Room posted a #FBF shot of herself behind a pair of turntables. “I used to DJ,” she revealed. “It was the ‘real’ job that floated me while I auditioned for the movies I never got.” Once she started landing roles, she was still reluctant to give up her gig: “Even during the filming of Short Term 12 I spun records at magazine parties and hotel bars on weekends, because I couldn’t survive off of SAG minimum.”
Not that she has bad memories of her time before stardom. “I loved rare foreign covers of Beatles songs, Ye-Ye girls, and soul,” she recalled. “Drunk dudes would request trap, and I’d tell them, ‘Sorry, I only play vinyl.’ I was hustling, but I got people dancing and hung with my other DJ friends.”
The actress — set to produce and direct her first feature film, Unicorn Store, in October — ended her message on an inspirational note. “To all the dreamers with day jobs, I see you, don’t give up. There is beauty in your journey.”