
Before they were the glamorous stars of Ocean’s 8, Sandra Bullock, Awkwafina, and Sarah Paulson had to earn their money the hard way. Specifically, in the case of Sandra Bullock, dancing for dollars at a North Carolina drag show.
The actors stopped by The Late Late Show on Thursday night, to share stories of their pre-fame lives and show off some of their secret skills to James Corden.
Rapper-turned-actress Awkwafina told him about the song she wrote that got her “immediately fired” from a publicity job in New York. While Paulson and Bullock tried to make her call out the publicist who canned her, Awkwafina refused to name names. As for Paulson, she has some sick mom dancing skills that rival those of Jimmy Fallon and Michelle Obama.
However, it was Bullock’s tale of how she earned spending money in college really stole the show. When she was a student at East Carolina University, she opened for a drag act at a club in North Carolina. “I would dance,” she said. “I don’t believe I was hired because I was good, I believe I was hired because I was very enthusiastic.” To get in the spirit of the show, she would hot glue sequins to her shirt and in turn, they would pay her in dollar bills. “They made it rain for me,” she said.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Meet the 2025 Women of the Year
- The Harsh Truth About Disability Inclusion
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Cecily Strong on Goober the Clown
- Column: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy
Contact us at letters@time.com