Celebrities Who Seem Shocked By Their Own Success

Shocked By Their Own Success
Actress Jessica Chastain poses with the award for best performance by an actress in a motion picture - drama for "Zero Dark Thirty" backstage at the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday Jan. 13, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Actress Jessica Chastain poses with the award for best performance by an actress in a motion picture - drama for "Zero Dark Thirty" backstage at the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday Jan. 13, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Certain stars -- most, in fact -- are notorious for unabashedly flaunting their celebrity status. They demand immediate service upon arriving at restaurants, make increasingly lofty requests on their concert riders and find any opportunity they can to brag about their success.

Then there's that small, select group of stars whose humility never wavers. They seem surprisingly aware that they, too, are -- gasp! -- normal people. (Say it isn't so!) Anytime the glaring lights of a talk-show set or award-show stage are beaming down on them, these stars are bastions of likability. So now we honor those famous faces who seem genuinely floored by their own success, never forgetting how fortunate they are to have gotten the lucky break that so many pine after. Often self-deprecating, sometimes overly humble and always utterly beguiling, these stars never lose sight of the amazing windfalls that have greeted them, and we love them all the more for it.

Jessica Chastain
celebrities shocked by their success
Chastain is to 2013 what Julia Roberts was to 1990. Her classic beauty and glowing smile never betray her immeasurable talent. She was an "it" girl of 2011, starring in a plethora of movies that evidenced her far-reaching talents, including "The Tree of Life" and "The Help," for which she received an Oscar nomination. Now she's back in the awards-season limelight with her acclaimed role in "Zero Dark Thirty," and her humility hasn't vacillated one bit. She works incredibly hard (seven films in 2011, five in 2012 and three in the works for 2013) and never loses her graciousness when discussing her newfound fame. Her teary speech at this year's Golden Globes emphasized that. Discussing the long road it took to make it to the Globes stage, she said, "I've wanted to be an actor since I was a little girl, and I've worked a really long time. I've auditioned and struggled and fought and been on the sidelines for years, and to be here now in this moment -- it's a beautiful feeling to receive this encouragement and support, and thank you so much." No, Jessica, thank YOU.

Chris Pratt
celebrities shocked by their success
Chris Pratt always seems unashamed of his lack of filter, as if he lives in a state of total awe. If he seems charmingly lacking in anyone to prep him for interviews, that may be because his fame essentially came out of nowhere. Pratt was discovered unexpectedly when he served actress Rae Dawn Chong while working as a waiter in Hawaii. His career gained slow momentum with recurring roles on "Everwood" and "The O.C.," but he didn't become a true breakout star until "Parks and Recreation" debuted in 2009. Since then, he's gushed about his newborn baby with actress Anna Faris, talked about having lived in a van for a year and told Ellen DeGeneres that, "On a scale of 1 to 10, I kind of hit 10 when I stopped having to serve people food, so I've been riding 10 ever since and this is like a really nice part of that."

Jennifer Lawrence
celebrities shocked by their success
Jennifer Lawrence has become known for her self-deprecating "who, me?" spirit -- oh, and her immense, award-winning talent. Vulture named Lawrence the celebrity BFF of the year, topping the list of stars whose likability and charm make them our most desirable lunch date. And it's for precisely that reason that America has fallen head over heels for Lawrence -- she seems like the perfect person to split a pizza with, someone who's more interested in finding friends than admirers. But don't count on Lawrence to acknowledge her beauty or talent. "I'm a troll," she told David Letterman shortly before "The Hunger Games" came out last year. "I hate myself whenever I watch. Don't go see the movie; I'm a troll. I think the movie is great, but their biggest mistake is me." Wrong, J-Law, wrong.

Chris Colfer
celebrities shocked by their success
As Chris Colfer walked onto the set of "Live With Kelly and Michael" last week, he gazed around the room with large eyes, appearing awestruck by the size of the audience and the affectionate outpour he was receiving. "Wow," he said as he sat down, maintaining the soft and earnest smile that's always plastered across his face. It's remarkable that his smile has remained so steady, considering how substantially his stature has proliferated over the past three years. The shock on Colfer's face was palpable when he won the Golden Globe in 2011 for his role on "Glee," and it hasn't left him since, even as he's become a best-selling author, screenwriter, producer and one of TIME's most influential people. Colfer often speaks of the troubles he experienced in high school, when he was often bullied for being gay. It's his ability to remain candid and upbeat that makes you want to squeeze him. Just recall this moment from his Golden Globe acceptance-speech thanks as proof: "Most importantly, to all the amazing kids that watch our show and the kids that our show celebrates who are constantly told no by the people in their environments, by bullies at school, that they can't be who they are or have what they want because of who they are, well, screw that, kids."

Emma Stone
celebrities shocked by their success
Who in this great wide world doesn't love Emma Stone? Jim Carrey certain does. She's hilarious, relatable, beautiful and bewitching. Every talk-show appearance, awards announcement and Ryan Gosling duo inches her closer and closer to becoming America's sweetheart. But through it all, she's a rare star who seems like the perfect coffee date, someone whose fame isn't even the most interesting thing about her. Stone seems like the type of person who, if it weren't for the paparazzi that have taken an intense liking to her in the wake of her relationship with Andrew Garfield, probably wouldn't even know how to assess her own celebrity status. She's also probably the only person on the planet who doesn't recognize her beauty. "The pretty thing … it was never a value to me growing up,” she told New York magazine last year. “I always thought I was like the goofy, wonky one.”

Before You Go

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot