The 'Life of the Party' star covers 'Glamour' magazine's May issue.
Melissa McCarthy has a "very, very high level of gratitude" after struggling for so long before finding success in Hollywood.
The Life of the Party star covers the May issue of Glamour magazine and opens up about about what she's learned about being good with money while coming up in the entertainment industry.
"If you’re handed everything you want at 19 or 20, you may actually believe all of the people who are like, ‘You’re amazing.’ I think I would have been probably cuckoo [if I’d been successful] at 18," she shares. "I think the best thing I could have done was struggle until I was 30. I always assume every job is my last. Twenty years of desperately trying to get a single job gets deep in your DNA."
The 47-year-old actress admits that she has not always been paid what she felt she was worth. "There were some jobs when I was paid what most [of my co-stars were]. And then people who climbed the ladder with me were suddenly making 15 times what I made," she recalls. "I was like, 'Wait, wait, wait.' I thought, 'This is based on bulls**t.' This is not based on anything factual to me. I hated that feeling of not being in control and not being able to do anything about it. I think that feeling is what keeps the fight in me."
McCarthy credits the hard times in Hollywood for helping her appreciate what she has now. "There is not a single day that goes by that I don’t think, 'I can’t believe I’m doing this,'" she notes. "And there is no world where I confuse the fact that I’ve gotten lucky with the idea that there’s something special about me. I think entitlement is a really, really scary thing to possess. For me, it’s like, ‘No. I’ve gotten lucky, and I’ve worked hard.’”
The actress also answers fans' questions in a video for Glamour, and reveals what she would "never" pay money for. "I would never spend money on reptiles," she quips. "I have one in my backyard, and I don't love it."
In another recent interview with AARP, McCarthy also shared how her mother, Sandra, impacted her career early on when she only had $45 in her pocket. Check it out:
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