Years before he was a Hollywood heartthrob, Brad Pitt was just another struggling actor in Los Angeles and was dressed in a giant yellow chicken suit. Yes, a chicken suit. The story of Pitt’s unusal gig rcently resurfaced on Instagram on an account named “Wealth.”
He Did What?
So what was his first gig? He reportedly waved a sign and danced outside of an El Pollo Loco location at Sunset and La Brea sometime in the 1980s.
El Pollo Loco was founded in 1975 in Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico, by Juan Francisco “Pancho” Ochoa. By the late 1970s, there were 85 El Pollo Loco locations across 20 cities in northern Mexico. In 1980, Ochoa opened the first U.S. location on South Alvarado Street in Los Angeles, and the brand has continued to grow over the years.
In a Sept. 13, 2019, appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Pitt recalled his job as a mascot for the chain’s grand opening in Hollywood, according to Business Insider. “Man’s gotta eat,” Pitt said. “No shame.” Though he couldn’t remember how much he was paid, he joked that he “got flipped off a lot.”
That wasn’t the most unusal job Pitt had before becoming famous. He was also a driver for strippers when he was in college at the University of Missouri, Paper reported.
When fist arriving in Hollywood, Pitt shared an apartment with eight other guys and did various odd jobs to pay rent. “I did all sorts of odd jobs, like dressing up as a chicken and being a delivery boy and driving strippers around. I did anything that was flexible, so I could figure out how to get into this frickin’ business. I started doing extra work the first week I was here. I mean, I didn’t even know you had to have a head shot.”
Of his jobs, Pitt once said, according to Paper, “I was driving strippers around on weekends to make extra money. I’d take them to bachelor parties. I did that for about two months and then I couldn’t hang with it. But then on the last night I drove, one of the new strippers told me about an acting class that her friend Charlie Sheen went to. I figured, if it’s good enough for Charlie, it’s good enough for me.”
He finally had his breakthrough role in 1991’s “Thelma & Louise.”
Today, Pitt’s estimated net worth is around $400 million. His latest film, “F1: The Movie,” has grossed $395 million worldwide.
