27 Celebrities Who Are Either Nothing Like They Seem Or Exactly As You’d Expect

Last month, we posted about celebrities who are wildly different from their public personas.

So many of you shared other celebrities in the comments that we decided to round those up, too.

Here are 27 of them:

Some entries have been edited for length and clarity.

BuzzFeed cannot confirm the validity of these stories.

1.“I’ve met both Harry Styles and Jennifer Aniston and both were super chill and down-to-earth. I ran into Aniston in a woman’s lounge in a restaurant where she complimented me on my top. We ended up talking so long about shopping and such that her friend came in to find her and make sure she was okay. I met Styles twice backstage with my daughter. The first time was years ago, and we ended up hanging out with him and his bandmates for quite a while. We saw him again last year, and he remembered everything we had spoken about initially. He talked to my daughter about school and friends and all sorts of stuff and made sure I was doing alright after the concert.”

Bruce Glikas / Bruce Glikas / WireImage, Samir Hussein / WireImage

—lunallee212

2.“I don’t know if it’s different from his public persona, but Leonardo DiCaprio is super down-to-earth. I was a server at a very trendy NYC restaurant, and he showed up and asked for a table for two. We were on an hour-and-a-half wait, even for lunch. That’s how popular the restaurant was. He was wearing board shorts, sunglasses, and a backward baseball cap. The hostess informed him of the wait but gave him the option of a table that wasn’t the best seat. He said that was great until the manager realized who he was and whisked him into my section with a corner booth. Super chill, incredibly polite, and much taller than I thought he would be.”

3.“I met Travis Barker when I worked at Whole Foods. He asked about something at the deli counter where I worked, and he was kind and a pretty sweet guy.”

4.“My fiancé would occasionally have beers with Nick Lachey at a local bar and says he was a really chill guy who always wore his motorcycle jacket and never used his fame for anything. He was just super down-to-earth and would occasionally buy rounds.”

5.“I’m not sure if this counts as being ‘different’ since I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything bad about Jamie Foxx, but my best friend’s daughter attends school with Jamie Foxx’s daughter, and she runs into him occasionally in the line at Starbucks after drop off. She says he is always incredibly friendly and gracious, and they always chat while waiting for their orders.”

6.“I met Renée Zellweger in a restaurant bathroom in DC once. I was sitting at the bar with a friend, and she and Bradley Cooper were at the table directly behind us (we arrived first, so it’s not like we chose that spot). I had to use the bathroom, and Renée walked in as I was washing my hands. I said something like, ‘Oh I’m so sorry. Please excuse me, I will be out in just a moment,’ as I was frantically drying my hands, and she laughed and said, ‘Oh gosh, don’t rush on my behalf. By the way, I’ve been admiring your dress as you’re seated at the bar in front of my table — that is a beautiful color on you!'”

7.“I talked to Michael Madsen on the phone when I worked at a phone company. He was so easy to talk to! I couldn’t believe what a nice man he was.”

8.“T-Pain!!!! That man is adorable and can SING for real. Absolutely love him.”

9.“I met Angela Kinsey (from The Office) at CatCon before the pandemic. She is truly a tiny ball of sweet energy!”

10.“Ashton Kutcher is a great guy as well. My cousins grew up living by him in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They played with him and his siblings a lot and grew up knowing the family. Even now, one cousin still keeps somewhat in contact (or claims to). He says Ashton is a funny, down-to-earth guy, and a great dad.”

11.“Robbie Williams. He did a film where I was an extra as a child. We were always told to never approach the stars under any circumstance. He came up to us six kids and said, ‘Hi, I’m Rob.’ He was so kind and friendly. The wardrobe department all said the same. Couldn’t have been nicer. Not the ‘bad boy’ image at all. Also praise for Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. They were funny and kind to us, too. Joking and even sharing food. Major respect for them. They were all on the same set (De-Lovely), too. Clearly whoever did the casting knew who the skilled but genuinely lovely performers were. Fantastic memory.”

Marc Piasecki / FilmMagic, Dia Dipasupil / WireImage, Arturo Holmes / Getty Images

—anonymous

12.“I was at a celebrity charity event years back and had to spend the day with Daryl Hannah and Melanie Griffith who are both friends. The two of them are nothing like they appear to the public and turned on the charm when needed like a light switch! Daryl was rude, stuck up and ordered people around. Melanie acted angry, pouting, yelling and swearing up a storm the whole day!”

Lester Cohen / Getty Images for The Recording Academy, Paul Archuleta / FilmMagic

—youngsquid41

13.“I work in film/TV and journalism so I meet a ton of celebs. Most are cool. But the one that sticks out is Salman Rushdie, of all people. I produced a TV interview with him. Ultimately, he and I ended up in the studio alone, together, and we just shot the shit for quite a while. He was also really funny, too. Who’d have guessed?”

14.“I cannot believe Freddie Mercury wasn’t featured in the original post! His stage persona and genuine self could not have been more drastically different. Love and miss you, sweet boy. ♥️”

15.“Keegan-Michael Key might seem like a sweet, friendly, soft-spoken man, but let me tell you… He totally is. Such a friendly, welcoming, and lovely person. I’m glad his public persona matches the real one.”

16.“I met Mickey Rourke in Joplin, MO, when he came there for a fight. He was so beautiful, he reminded me of a god. I tried to talk to him, but I was so star-struck that no words could come out. Still, he was very nice.”

17.“I go to school with Dave Bautista’s son and have had a few classes with him. I think it’s a really good sign of his parenting that his son is super well-adjusted and normal. He goes to open house at the beginning of the school year with his kid and just keeps his head down and minds his business. I noticed he wears long sleeves whenever I see him around town (which is rare, but I’ve seen him at this one restaurant and at his son’s basketball games at school) I think because his tattoos are so recognizable. And yes, he’s absolutely massive in real life.”

18.“Peter Mullan. He’s a Scottish actor with a gruff voice. He often plays bad guys in movies, like in Harry Potter and Children of Men. I met him in Glasgow, and he was the nicest man. Super friendly and smiley. It was a long time ago when I was working in a toy shop. We chatted about Doctor Who. And then a couple of weeks later, we passed each other in the street, and he waved at me. I recognized him immediately but didn’t say anything because I was shy. Wish I’d told him how much I love his work!”

19.“We have a family friend (Blake Clark) who is a friend of Adam Sandler’s, and he said Adam is super-nice and very down-to-earth. Another friend of the family is Kevin Costner, and they said he’s super kind and always gracious with the cast and crew on sets.”

Michael Loccisano / Getty Images, Dominik Bindl / Getty Images

—clairefreeman

20.“I used to live in Santa Rosa, CA, and Charles M. Schulz had an ice skating rink there. He would be there all the time. My friend’s father worked for him and introduced me to him. The next thing I knew, he was asking me to hold his hand and go skate with him. I didn’t do it because I was too shy. But he still would invite my friend and me to his movie previews and other stuff. Later on, I realized he had named Peppermint Patty [a character from his comic Peanuts] after me, but made her look like my friend. He made another character look like me. True story.”

21.“Matt Berry is an absolute honey in person. I met him a few times, and he really is very quiet and dry-humored. He used to go into a record shop next door to where I worked and spend ages in there. Obviously, I know this because me and the rest of the female staff would be staring at the record shop entrance, salivating. 😂”

22.“Dana Ivey usually plays a character who is ‘better than others,’ rude, arrogant, and snooty. I did a show once, and she was friends with the director and came for a visit. She was super nice and down-to-earth and easy to talk to. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with her.”

23.“In the very early ’60s, a cousin who was in the business took my family to see a filming of the TV western Rawhide. At that time, I was a very bored 16-year-old girl who didn’t know the show or any of the characters and couldn’t have cared less. I sat in a corner and wrote a letter to my boyfriend during the taping. Afterward, everyone on the set scattered, but a man who had acted in the scene came over to me and asked how I enjoyed the experience. I said, ‘It was OK, I guess.’ He said, ‘Maybe it would be more interesting to you if you knew a little about the process. Let me show you.’ And while my family watched, he took me over to a camera and let me look through it. He took his time showing me how the scene was framed. He was right. It was interesting and intriguing and when I thanked him, I meant it. He just smiled and said that he hoped when I watched the episode on TV I’d remember what I learned. I had just met Clint Eastwood.”

24.“Gerard Way used to act very differently on stage than off, especially during the early 2000s. He definitely used a lot of stage persona in My Chemical Romance.”

25.“I ran into Terry Pratchett when he was browsing in a bookshop prior to a signing and didn’t even recognize him. He was very nice and intelligent. We had a lovely chat about the fantasy genre and favorite authors before he was called away to start the signing. He even gave me some excellent book recommendations! Just a lovely man.”

26.“I was working as a server at a restaurant at the Mall of America in Minnesota and Russell Hitchcock from Air Supply was there for a concert at a local casino. I had waited on other celebrities and knew that they liked to be recognized, but weren’t much interested in visiting. He and a date were sat in my section, and I recognized him instantly and said it was an honor to be his server (I was a teenager when Air Supply was popular). The guy was so chill and down-to-earth. We chatted for a while, and it was so fun to just have a normal conversation with him. He invited me to attend his concert with complimentary tickets, but, unfortunately, I had to work. I’ll always remember his kindness, hospitality, and just genuinely nice demeanor. A true gentleman!”

27.And finally, “I was in a wheelchair for about five years. During this time, I attended a music festival where Coolio was performing. After his set, he caught eyes with me, made his way through the crowd, and took pictures with me. He noticed the flash didn’t work, came back, told my baby sister to join, and we took pictures and visited for five minutes or so. He was so chill and down-to-earth and absolutely gracious to everyone. It literally made our year coming from a podunk town in Arkansas. RIP Coolio.”

Have you ever met a celebrity? What was it like? Tell us in the comments below or through this form if you’d like to remain anonymous.