When I first got out of drama school, my original manager tried to get me to change my name because people were having trouble spelling it and saying it.
‐‐ Joe Manganiello
When I first got out of school, I went on a children's theater tour, and I went around the country a little bit that fall, and it was the first time I went to Chicago. We spend a couple of days in Chicago, and I was really struck viscerally by the city.
‐‐ Allison Tolman
When I first got out to Hollywood, they were pushing me for sitcoms, and I didn't really have an interest in them. I wanted to do films and slowly worked that way. And then it became, I guess, this curse of the leading man.
‐‐ Brad Pitt
When I first got pregnant, I freaked out. Then I had to remind myself: I'm turning 30.
‐‐ Melissa Joan Hart
When I first got sick, they told me I had a year to live, and I was writing my memoir really fast. There were really weird things happening with my nervous system and my heart and stuff, and it didn't look like I was gonna make it, so I was writing really fast, and then I couldn't write anymore.
‐‐ John Lurie
When I first got signed, I bought a vintage guitar from the 1930s for £1000. I've bought a £400 SLR camera, too, which was quite extravagant.
‐‐ Gabrielle Aplin
When I first got started in the late '70s, early '80s, and first was thinking about the interactive world, I believed so fervently that it was the next big thing, I thought it would happen quickly.
‐‐ Steve Case
When I first got the audition for Shado, I went online and subscribed to DC Comics and read a bunch on Shado and the Yakuza, just to get to know her character better.
‐‐ Celina Jade
When I first got the call from my manager asking if I'd ever heard of Jesse Owens, I recognized the name, looked him up, and was blown away by his story.
‐‐ Stephan James
When I first got to Cannes, I was very insecure about everything, so I put on this extravagant facade. Can you blame me? I was 19.
‐‐ Xavier Dolan
When I first got to L.A., I was shocked at how business was done, and how people... it's like everything I was told not to fall for, I was surrounded by. And it was very difficult for me, because I just didn't like the industry at all.
‐‐ Missy Peregrym
When I first got to New York, all I did was musicals. After a few years I had to make a conscious choice to close the door on musicals, because I was getting pigeon-holed as a musical theater performer.
‐‐ Tamara Tunie
When I first got Yves Saint Laurent Couture, I didn't know how to take off a cape. I would ask Katoucha and Dalma - the real divas of the runway - 'Can you show me?' I've never been afraid to ask for help.
‐‐ Naomi Campbell
When I first had a child, I really had a hard time trying to figure out how it was all going to fit together. Because I felt like, when I was with him, I wanted to be writing and I should be writing. And when I was writing, I felt like I should be with him, and wanted to be with him. So I was unhappy a lot.
‐‐ Jennifer Egan
When I first had my eyebrows waxed, I was pretty disturbed.
‐‐ Chiwetel Ejiofor
When I first heard about Twittering, I thought it was the most disgusting thing I'd ever heard of in my life. It's like the devil: the idea that your personal life is there for everybody.
‐‐ Flea
When I first heard of it, I thought it was a horror film. 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' is such a strange name. I wasn't into the comic books at all.
‐‐ Judith Hoag
When I first heard rap, I wasn't quick to be critical. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I had a feeling it was a reflection of what's been happening in the ghetto.
‐‐ Casey Kasem
When I first heard Ray Charles, he was a flop artist on a small label in California. He hadn't sold any records. And I bought his contract for $2,500.
‐‐ Ahmet Ertegun
When I first heard 'Robocop' was going to be remade. I said, 'Yeah, that's interesting. I'll probably watch that at some point, but I'm not interested at all to be in it.'
‐‐ Joel Kinnaman
When I first heard that song, it was a ballad but it had a lot more. It felt like a gospel song when I first heard it and it just moved me.
‐‐ Deborah Cox
When I first heard that they were going to make 'Beauty and the Beast' at Disney, I was like, 'Oh, God, there's no way I'm going to see that movie,' because I knew what that movie was, was just two people sitting down to dinner over and over and over again. But then when I went to see it, it was like, 'Oh, they made it work.'
‐‐ Byron Howard
When I first heard Wallace Stevens' voice, it was by chance: a friend wanted to listen to the recording he had made for the Harvard Vocarium Series.
‐‐ Helen Vendler
When I first hit the scene, it was just a lot of go, go, go, go, go. I have a lot of natural energy anyway, but it was over the top.
‐‐ Dane Cook
When I first immigrated to the United States, there were not many jobs that stood out. So I worked at a gas station, cleaning.
‐‐ Do Won Chang
When I first joined 'Dancing with the Stars,' I did not want to do it. It's not what I like, it's not what I believe in... the judges are fake, this is fake, that is fake... there is not a lot of reality.
‐‐ Maksim Chmerkovskiy
When I first joined Google in October of 2005, I was warned that I shouldn't be offended if people were doing their e-mails while a meeting was going on.
‐‐ Vint Cerf
When I first joined SAG, there was another John Reilly. My dad was John Reilly, too, but growing up I was John John. Nobody in life calls me John C. It's more like, 'Hey you, Step Brother!'
‐‐ John C. Reilly
When I first joined the Irvine Company, I realized that less than 11,000 acres were designated as open space in the original master plan, and that just didn't seem adequate to me. So, I began the lengthy process working with public and community organizations to add more open space.
‐‐ Donald Bren
When I first joined the Secret Service in 1983, I was right out of college, having spent the last two or three years of my college experience working as a police officer for the city of Orlando, Florida.
‐‐ Julia Pierson
When I first knew I was having children, I thought I wanted boys, but then I thought I'd be better with girls. I'm quite sensitive, and you get more cuddles with girls. And they like their dads.
‐‐ Kelly Jones
When I first landed at Pixar, I felt like I found this creative oasis with John Lasseter... It's what you thought Hollywood was going to be.
‐‐ Bonnie Hunt
When I first left drama school, I was too posh for the working-class parts and not posh enough for the upper-class roles. You know what England is like: the gradations of accent and how you're judged by them are still there. I discovered that to get a break you have to lie about where you're from.
‐‐ Ben Chaplin
When I first left Iran at the age of 13, Iran had become such a shining star - it was the point to which all my desires and dreams returned.
‐‐ Azar Nafisi
When I first left university, I thought about going into the private sector. But I discovered when I went to interview that I could only have a career in the back office, or doing HR. The attitude was, 'My dear lady, you cannot possibly think about going on the board.'
‐‐ Pauline Neville-Jones
When I first lived in a model apartment... It was two bunk beds to a room, and the bathroom was constantly in use. I was bringing in Lucky Charms cereal, and one day an agent put a stop to that. She said, 'You're making all the girls fat.' They took it off our grocery order. That was the most dramatic thing that happened.
‐‐ Cameron Russell
When I first made a grid, I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees, and then a grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, 'This is my vision.'
‐‐ Agnes Martin
When I first meet a girl, I have some questions I go through if I'm interested in her. Like, if she's a good-looking girl, and I figure out right away that she doesn't read, that's a dealbreaker for me.
‐‐ Blair Redford
When I first met Aaliyah - it time for the world to hear this, I'm gonna give a little secret - I was in love with her.
‐‐ Timbaland
When I first met Alan, I was absolutely terrified. I was 19, he was Alan Rickman, and he's got that voice, and I remember meeting him in the hair and make-up trailer and thinking, 'I'm going to die. He thinks I'm rubbish. Why am I here?'
‐‐ Kate Winslet
When I first met Alan Parker, who directed 'Angel Heart,' he'd heard so many horror stories about me that he was literally scared to death of me. Right away, he sat me down and said, 'I'm very scared of you. I've heard you're a very bad boy.'
‐‐ Mickey Rourke
When I first met Big, we were both at a 'Bad Boy' family photo shoot. I was kind of familiar with the name Biggie Smalls, but I really wasn't that much into hip-hop at the time, so I really didn't know that was him. He said he didn't even know I was an artist on 'Bad Boy.'
‐‐ Faith Evans
When I first met Mandela, we did not discuss anything of substance; we just felt each other out. He spent a long time expressing his admiration for the Boer generals and how ingenious they were during the Anglo-Boer war.
‐‐ F. W. de Klerk
When I first met my agent, I said, If something comes up and it fits my age range and personality, I would like you to send me up for it, even if it specifies blonde or brunette.
‐‐ Tia Carrere
When I first met my girlfriend, Mercy Malick, she asked me if there was anything I should tell her that could put her off me if she found out later. So I told her that I was a total 'Star Wars' geek and had boxes of 'Star Wars' toys in storage.
‐‐ Joseph Gatt
When I first met my husband, he had a very good job - company car, pension plan, grudging respect from his staff - the lot. I, on the other hand, was badly paid and devoid of ambition. Then I had a couple of books published and confounded all expectations by starting to earn more than he did.
‐‐ Marian Keyes
When I first met my husband, he was sculpting Vilnius out of clay - a sort of Vilnius, anyhow: a map of an imaginary European city based on the Lithuanian capital - to illustrate his second novel.
‐‐ Elizabeth McCracken
When I first met my husband, I needed that helping hand to take the reins and look after me.
‐‐ Christina Aguilera
When I first met my wife, I really just settled down quite a bit and I started living a much cleaner lifestyle. I was able to concentrate on things that I neglected in the past a little more and I was spending a lot more time at home than I normally would.
‐‐ Randy Houser