Yahoo Lifestyle Taylor Swift Reportedly Attended NFL Games "Privately" Before Making Her Relationship With Travis Kelce Public, And 14 Other Times Celebs Hid In Plain Sight
You may have fantasized about what it's like to be famous, but plenty of celebrities have fantasized about what it's like to not be famous. Some of them have even acted those daydreams out, whether it's in preparation for a role or for personal reasons.
Here are 15 times celebrities went undercover as "normal" people:
1.To prepare for the titular role in Bridget Jones's Diary, Renée Zellweger worked undercover at the publishing company Picador for "a month or two."
In 2025, she told British Vogue, "I was 'Bridget Cavendish' because Jonathan Cavendish, the film's producer, was very good friends with the gentleman who was the editor of Picador. Part of my job was to take the newspaper clippings from the daily papers and file them under Helen Fielding's file, as they represented her. And I started having to clip these articles about this 'crap American actor' who was set to play Bridget Jones."
She said that "nobody knew" it was her.
She continued, "Maybe I was out of context, or maybe it was having more chubby cheeks. It was odd. One of the ladies who worked in the office was reading the Anna Quindlen novel One True Thing, and they made a film out of it [that I starred in], so I'm on the cover of the book. And she's there telling me about having finished it on the Tube on the way to work and how marvelous it was."
2.In 2015, Aubrey Plaza played on the women's recreational basketball team the Pistol Shrimps (which is the focus of a documentary of the same name). However, when she tried to be traded to her sister Natalie's team, the Spice Sqirls, she was rejected, so she "decided to play in disguise as somebody else" and donned a blonde wig and goggles.
In 2024, she told the podcast A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe, Aubrey said, "I was like, ‘No one will know it’s me. It’s great.' And then, in the middle of the game, went up for a shot and tore my ACL on the court in a wig. It was kind of like the worst-case scenario because I was trying to go undercover, and then I just snapped my knee in half, basically. And I had to be carried off the court. Then all eyes were on me. People started to wonder, ‘Is that a wig? What’s going on over there?’ But then I traded myself to the Spice Sqirls, live on ESPN actually."
3.To get ready to play the stripper Destiny in Hustlers, Constance Wu went undercover working at a real strip club. She put fake tattoos on her neck and wore hair pieces.
In 2020, she told The Kelly Clarkson Show, "I gave lap dances to strangers. I'm not lying. I made $600 my first night."
4.To prepare to play Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tom Holland went undercover as a student at The Bronx High School of Science in 2016. He shadowed Arun Bishop, a real student who was a senior at the time, and pretended to be his cousin Ben.
Arun told Business Insider, "What Marvel wanted was just to get the experience of a typical STEM high schooler's life. They didn't want me to do anything special — just walk through the day as I would any other day."
In 2017, Tom told Jimmy Kimmel Live, "As a joke, I suggested to Marvel that I should go to a high school undercover. And it was completely a joke, and Marvel took it completely seriously. I guess they didn't get my British sarcasm...Bronx School of Science is a school for genius kids, and I am no genius."
He also said that the teachers didn't know he wasn't a real student, so it was "very embarrassing" when they'd bring him in front of the class and ask him questions.
Eventually, he did try to blow his own cover. He said, "I was sat at the back of a classroom next to quite a pretty girl, and eventually, she was like, 'So, dude, what's your deal, man?' I was like, 'Well, do you wanna know my secret?' She's like, 'Okay.' 'I'm actually Spider-Man.' She was like, 'Dude, you're nuts, bro. You're nuts.' I was like, 'No, seriously. I'm actually an actor. I'm British. I'm playing Spider-Man.' And she didn't believe me."
5.In 2024, Kevin Bacon told Vanity Fair that he once "went to a special effects makeup artist, had consultations, and asked him to make [him] a prosthetic disguise." Wearing glasses, a fake nose, and fake teeth, he went to The Grove, a mall in Los Angeles, where no one recognized him.
He said, "People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice. Nobody said, 'I love you.' I had to wait in line to, I don't know, buy a fucking coffee or whatever. I was like, 'This sucks. I want to go back to being famous.'"
6.But that's not the first time Kevin Bacon went undercover! To prepare for his role as Ren McCormack, a teenager who moves to a small town, in Footloose, he "went and had that same experience for a day" at a real high school. Only the principal and guidance counselor knew his true identity.
In 2017, he told Variety's Actors on Actors, "It was terrifying. I got a real insight into literally how to play this part. It was exactly like the movie because some kids gave me a hard time, made fun of me, made fun of my hair, made fun of my clothing. I was dressed and looked like the character. Some of girls giggled and formed little groups and would whisper about me.”
7.In the early stages of her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift reportedly attended games "privately" without the public knowing.
In 2024, Coach Dave Merritt told the podcast The Best of Sports Shop, "When she started to come around, it was privately. She was coming into the stadiums without people really knowing until the camera put a big spotlight on her."
He also highlighted the positive impact Taylor had on the team.
He continued, "But upon meeting her, I felt like she actually added to what it was that we were trying to do. 'Cause there were so many people that hated the fact she was being shown on TV that, you know what, you're part of our family because you're now with Travis, so therefore, you're our little sister, or you're whatever it may be. You're part of the family. So, what happened was she actually affected the team in a positive way. It wasn't a negative way. Everybody was excited that Travis was happy."
8.Robert De Niro decided to go all-in on preparations to play Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. He got a real taxicab driver's license and worked as a NYC cabbie for about a week.
In 2022, he told The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, "I'm a New York driver, so, you know, I got along."
During a 2016 cast reunion on Today, director Martin Scorsese recalled, "A young actor got in the car one night, and he saw that it was [Robert] driving the car. And he said, 'You just won an Oscar.' He said, 'By God, is it that hard to get work?'"
You can see a picture of Robert's license here.
9.To play the hitman Vincent in Collateral, Tom Cruise needed to learn how to go about unnoticed. So, director Michael Mann challenged him to pose as a FedEx driver and deliver a package in a super busy Central Station without being recognized.
In a segment for the movie's special features, the director said, "So, we walk through Central Market, and Tom delivered a package, sat down, had a cup of coffee with somebody. They struck up this whole conversation as if Tom was a FedEx man. And nobody recognized Tom as Tom Cruise."
You can watch hidden camera footage of Tom going undercover in the clip below:
10.Hayden Christensen worked as a pizza delivery driver in Toronto to get in character as Leo Campoli in Little Italy.
In 2022, he told Toronto Life, "I play a character who works at a pizza shop, so I spent some time working at a pizza shop in the city — I forget the name of it now, but I did a few deliveries."
11.Ahead of filming The Bear, where they play chefs Sydney Adamu and Carmy Berzatto, Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White did kitchen training and worked in restaurants for several months.
In 2022, Ayo told Deadline, "People recognized Jeremy, but nobody knew who I was at all, which was good for research. It was kind of annoying when I was like 'Yeah, I stayed up late to clean until 12, and Jeremy was like 'I got to go home!'"
12.In 2015, Mark Ruffalo "got to hide out and enjoy" New York Comic-Con with his child by wearing a mask and baseball cap.
13.For her dual roles as actor Candy Black and her stand-in Paula in The Stand In, Drew Barrymore tested out her prosthetic nose and teeth in Times Square. She and director Jamie Babbit "actually went to Central Casting, and Drew auditioned in an open call for a random project."
In 2020, Jamie told Entertainment Weekly, "She got into the building with my driver's license, and she went in and interviewed. We wanted to see what the desperate life of a stand-in was like, someone who people don't give a shit about and who just wants to fit in with the theater crowd but really isn't welcome. I think it's been years since Drew has been treated like that in the business, so that was a fun acting rehearsal."
At one point, a fan recognized Drew's costar, Michael Zegen, from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and asked Drew to take a picture of her with the actor.
14.Judd Nelson got in character as John Bender in The Breakfast Club by posing as a student at a Chicago high school near set. Though he was 24, he managed to convince some of the real teens he was one of them. Pretending his real ID was fake, he bought them beer then asked them to drop him off at his hotel.
In 2010, he told the Wall Street Journal, "They would ask me why I was staying there, and I told them my dad was in jail. I'm staying at the Westin O'Hare while my dad's incarcerated."
15.And finally, two months before Good Time started filming, Robert Pattinson went to Queens to develop his character, Connie Nikas. He reportedly visited Manhattan prisons in character to speak with corrections officers and made friends with ex-convicts. He also staged fights with his costar Benny Safdie at a Dunkin Donuts and a car wash as a form of method acting.
In 2017, Robert told USA Today, "If someone sees two grown adults having a strange interaction with each other, people avoid it. There wasn't a single cellphone picture of me the whole time. I was so concerned about that happening because I loved [the idea] of the film world being blurred with reality and having people on the street react to you."
Which celebrities were you most surprised were able to stay undercover? Share your thoughts in the comments!
