We all probably need something a little light to read at this point of the week. Being a Sydneysider it comes as no surprise that Rebel Wilson went to Uni of Sydney and read Arts Law, it’s a rite of passage for most intelligent young women in Sydney.. we have to say we’re glad she went to Hollywood rather than become yet another dull Sydney solicitor.
Order in the court! Rebel Wilson, Gerard Butler and more stars tried their hand at studying and practicing law before they made it big in Hollywood.
Before solidifying his place among some of the hottest names in the movie industry, Butler held a high position in the law society at his Scottish university. After graduating from the University of Glasgow with honors in 1992, he fell into a fellowship with a prestigious law firm in Edinburgh before eventually following his heart and pursuing an acting career.
In October 2018, the Angel Has Fallen star revealed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that he spent a combined seven years preparing to become a lawyer. “Just the right amount of time to mess it all up,” Butler joked at the time.
Wilson, for her part, attempted to balance out the two pathways she dreamed of following while studying at the University of New South Wales in Australia. The Isn’t It Romantic actress reflected on her experience studying law while also being a working actor during a May 2019 appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden .
“I’ve never practiced [law] for money,” Wilson explained at the time. “A law degree is five years total and I was already on Australian television by, like, year two. I play a lot of dumb characters so people were very confused about what I was doing in the contract law exam … But it took me so long to get into law school, you have to study really hard, so I thought I may as well finish it even though I was already kind of famous.”
While some stars followed through on their extensive studies until the very end, others found the study a little too challenging. Rashida Jones had lofty ambitions of becoming a lawyer while she was a student at Harvard University, but admitted to The Independent several years later that she lost faith in the law. during the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial in the 1990s.
“He got off and I couldn’t believe it,” the Angie Tribeca star explained in February 2014. “I thought what’s the point of spending the next eight years in school if the justice system is that broken?”
Scroll down to see which celebrities have pursued and obtained law degrees!
Gerard Butler
Before earning the role of King Leonidas of Sparta, Butler was the president of the law society at the University of Glasgow. After graduating with honors in 1992, the Scotsman secured a spot at a top law firm in Edinburgh until he finally decided to chase his Hollywood dreams.
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Jerry Springer
In 1965 he graduated from Tulane University with a political science degree, and three years later he earned a law degree from Northwestern University’s School of Law. Springer’s political studies led him to complete a brief stint as mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, before becoming a staple of daytime talk TV in 1991.
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Rebel Wilson
Long before becoming a beloved starlet of the big screen, Wilson graduated from the University of New South Wales with a B.A. in theatre and performance studies and a Bachelor of Laws. The Australian native told USA Today in 2015 that she made her pivot to acting “after hallucinating she won an Oscar during a bout of malaria in Africa.”
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Andrea Bocelli
While he was studying at the University of Pisa, Bocelli’s parents wanted him to pursue the field of law. Bocelli performed in local piano bars to earn a little extra cash before graduating and becoming a court-appointed lawyer. When he got his big break in the music industry in the early 1990s, Bocelli left the law — and never looked back.
