10 Celebrities Who Are Nothing Like They Seem

1. Jimmy Fallon

When NBC dumped Conan O'Brien as the host of The Tonight Show in favor of bringing back Jay Leno, it seemed the network was trying to play it safe and appeal to the biggest crowd. Leno's second successor, Jimmy Fallon, seems to have been the right move in keeping The Tonight Show as safe as possible. But when he's not hosting the late-night TV dynasty, Fallon seems to be not-so-safe after all. In autumn 2015, The New York Post revealed that Fallon is a pretty heavy drinker, and that fact is starting to become an open secret among those who know and work with him. He suffered alcohol-induced injuries three times in a four-month span—injuries that included needing to get his hand stitched up after falling on a broken bottle of Jägermeister. On the subject of his reputation for heavy drinking, an inside source was quoted as saying, "It's gone from being a whisper to a chatter."

2. Lena Headey

On the Emmy-winning Game of Thrones, Headey plays the ruthless, conniving, incestuous Cersei Lannister, Queen Regent of the Seven Kingdoms. Her character is so convincing, Thrones' fans recoil from her autograph at cast events. When Headey is out and about living her real life, strangers who are also out and about living their real lives (in fantasy land) will routinely cuss her out. Headey is truly a delightful lady. She's hilarious and humble. Her kids seem lovely too (and were not actually fathered by her brother.) If you need a reason to hate the real Headey, here's one: she told Conan O'Brien she has not read George R. R. Martin's books, on which the show is based.

3. Nolan Gould


His character on Modern Family is a few fries short of a Happy Meal, but in real life, Gould is a genius, literally. He's a member of Mensa, a society for people with high IQs. Gould is a kid that can talk nuclear fusion and string theory, but can also play the lovable, gullible Luke Dunphy on TV. He told Ellen DeGeneres the personality juxtaposition makes for awkward introductions. Strangers "always expect me to not be very smart. They talk slow." Gould finished high school at age 13 and his breezing his way through college and, oh yeah, still acting on that award-winning show. What are you doing with your life?

4. Carroll O'Connor

Television's most famous bigot has got to be Archie Bunker of All in the Family. Perhaps no single character has more convincingly sold the role of ignorant old windbag better than Carroll O'Connor, which never ceased to amaze those who knew him because the actor was considered a very kind and intelligent man.

In his memoir (via The Hollywood Reporter), showrunner Norman Lear writes about O'Connor's eternal struggle to play the abrasive role of Bunker. Lear recalls every script as a battle, with O'Connor threatening to quit repeatedly because he was so repulsed. "It was understandable to a degree," Lear writes. "He was, after all, at the beginning of a process where he was to shed the gentle Irish intellectual Carroll O'Connor to become the poorly educated, full-of-himself blowhard Archie Bunker, spewing a kind of rancid, lights-out conservatism for a television audience that grew quickly to more than 50 million people."

5. Steve Buscemi

As an actor, Buscemi's curriculum vitae includes murderer, gangster, addict, and bum, but off-screen, he's a stand-up, blue collar guy from Brooklyn. Before his acting career heated up, a young Buscemi worked as a firefighter for Little Italy's Engine 55. The day after the September 11 terror attacks, he went to Ground Zero in his old gear to join his former team. He worked long shifts with them for nearly a week, clearing rubble and searching for survivors. Buscemi never boasted about his volunteerism. It was fellow firefighters that revealed what he'd done. In 2014, he collaborated on an HBO documentary called A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY.

6. Andrew Lincoln

We've watched for years as sheriff deputy Rick Grimes battles zombies on The Walking Dead. Lincoln's character is tough, tormented, and decidedly Southern. So Southern that his pronunciation of "Carl," the name of his on-screen son, fueled a slew of memes. Perhaps that's why it still shocks us when we hear Lincoln's authentic British accent in interviews. Do you know the guy's last name isn't even Lincoln? It's Clutterbuck. Clutterbuck! That surname belongs at Hogwarts, not in a post-apocalyptic U. S. of A.

7. John Lennon


The Beatle who penned "All You Need is Love" and "Give Peace a Chance" didn't always practice what he preached. Behind the scenes, Lennon was abusive toward women, unfaithful to his first wife, and an absentee father to his first born. Later in life, after spending several years as a self-proclaimed "househusband" with second wife, Yoko Ono, Lennon addressed his ugly ways and talked about personal growth. "It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite," he told Playboy in September 1980. "But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence." Three months later on Dec. 8, 1980, Lennon was tragically murdered outside his New York City apartment.

8. Tim Allen

The star of sitcom Home Improvement and Disney's The Santa Clause film series seems like a good-natured, sometimes dopey man-child. Allen, who rose to fame as a stand-up comic, became a household name playing Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor on prime time, then went on to save Christmas a time or two. It's hard to fathom that back in 1978, Allen was arrested on drug trafficking charges—nabbed with more than 650 grams of cocaine—and served two years behind bars. He was arrested again in 1997 on a DUI charge. While he's kept himself away from legal trouble of late, he did make waves for defending celebrity chef Paula Deen's use of the "N-word" in casual conversation. Talk about "tool time."

9. Taylor Swift

She's written a song called "Innocent," but Taylor Swift may not be as sweet as she so often appears—at least according to Kim Kardashian, anyway. Throughout the summer of 2016, the reality TV star repeatedly alleged that Swift knew Kardashian's husband, Kanye West, would rap about her in his now-controversial song, "Famous," even though Swift publicly denounced the song multiple times after its release.

After accusing Swift of lying in a profile for GQ magazine and on a subsequent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kardashian released a series of videos to her Snapchat account that allegedly showed Swift happily giving West her approval of the song, just as West had claimed on Twitter many months before. Swift, however, stuck by her claim that West never actually told her about the lyric in which he referred to her as "that b****," which she claimed is something she'd never approve due to its misogynistic message. By then, though, the damage had already been done.

10. Ben Affleck

He's one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors and directors, but behind the scenes, Ben Affleck has battled substance abuse and gambling issues for well over a decade. He entered rehab in 2001, at the peak of his young fame, reportedly to deal with ongoing alcohol abuse. Alcohol and gambling were also said to be key factors in the downfall of his marriage to Jennifer Garner, according to TMZ; lest we forget the time he was allegedly removed from a casino for counting cards. Still, the most damning case against Affleck came in Garner's first post-divorce interview with Vanity Fair, during which she alluded to multiple issues throughout their marriage, including infidelity. "No one needs to hate him for me…Don't worry—my eyes were wide open during the marriage. I'm taking good care of myself." Yikes.