08/03/2014 07:00AM
If you're a Hollywood star, your childhood friends usually have a limited number of roles available to play. They can be a loyal sidekick, your crew's comical mascot, or maybe the personal assistant who will eventually take you down in a bloodless celebrity coup.
But for a lucky few stars, the people they grew up with became celebrities themselves, with their own fans, their own love interests and their own trending topics.
It must be a welcome surprise. After all, it's lonely at the top, but it's a little less lonely when your childhood friends are there, too.
In honor of International Friendship Day – commonly celebrated on the first Sunday in August – we're rounding up the celeb pairs who have known each other since before they were famous.
Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake
Most celebs who knew each other as kids went to school together; Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake were co-workers. As cast members on the revamped Mickey Mouse Club, Gosling and Timberlake were self-confessed "partners in crime," hanging out between shoots and even living together for a spell after Gosling's mom moved back to Canada.
"We were crazy," Timberlake told The Jonathan Ross Show in 2013. "We, like, skipped tutoring. Going to the park, to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids set. We'd have milkshakes. Oh man, we were so gangster."
Gwyneth Paltrow and Maya Rudolph
Bruce Paltrow and Dick Rudolph became best friends as students at Tulane University; after graduation, they both moved to L.A., where they began successful careers in Hollywood and started families. Their daughters both attended the tony St. Augustine by the Sea School in Santa Monica and, either by coincidence or subtle parental nudging, became friends as well.
Decades later, when Bruce's daughter Gwyneth was hosting Saturday Night Live, she used her monologue to give a shout-out to Dick's daughter Maya, who had recently joined the cast.
"This week has been real extra-special to me because one of my best friends is on the show now, and I'm so proud of her," Gwyneth gushed. "She's super-funny and talented, and I'm so glad she's in the cast."
Jonah Hill and Adam Levine
This is another second generation friendship; as their fathers were best friends, the young Adam Levine and Jonah Hill knew each other almost from birth.
"Our dads met at the principal's office in junior high," Hill told Howard Stern. "We basically lived together – we were in carpool, sleepovers at each each other's houses, everything."
Hill's first concert was a show featuring Maroon 5 predecessor Kara's Flowers, which nabbed a record deal while Levine was still in high school. Still, the 21 Jump Street star swears that fame has not changed his old friend: "That is a guy who is exactly who he ever was, in a great way."
Besides those kind words, Hill was able to do PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive an even better favor, officiating Levine's wedding to model Behati Prinsloo in July.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire's friendship was already detailed in a lengthy Grantland profile, but we'll do our best to summarize.
The pair met as child actors in the late '80s, often auditioning for the same roles (which Leo almost always won). Both sons of divorced parents, the two bonded over what DiCaprio later called their "humble beginnings."
As the Aviator star later told the Associated Press, "We both were these young, very enthusiastic, ambitious young men that really wanted to get our foot in the door."
In the '90s, the pair collaborated to make (and then hide) the little-seen filmDon's Plum, before forming the center of a pack of young actors with an unprintable name that ran wild around New York City in the post-Titanic era. (Other members of the crew included Entourage's Kevin Connolly, magician David Blaine and Stan from Mad Men.)
"Every project we do, we talk about," DiCaprio told the AP. "Every single choice I've made, I've talked to Tobey about and vice versa. We've had endless conversations about certain projects and argued with one another and supported one another along the way."
In 2013, DiCaprio and Maguire teamed up to play one of literature's most famous best-friend duos: Glittering millionaire Jay Gatsby and his loyal sidekick Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby.
"I got to work on one of the great American novels with my best friend," Maguire told PEOPLE. "It was great!"
But for a lucky few stars, the people they grew up with became celebrities themselves, with their own fans, their own love interests and their own trending topics.
It must be a welcome surprise. After all, it's lonely at the top, but it's a little less lonely when your childhood friends are there, too.
In honor of International Friendship Day – commonly celebrated on the first Sunday in August – we're rounding up the celeb pairs who have known each other since before they were famous.
Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake
Most celebs who knew each other as kids went to school together; Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake were co-workers. As cast members on the revamped Mickey Mouse Club, Gosling and Timberlake were self-confessed "partners in crime," hanging out between shoots and even living together for a spell after Gosling's mom moved back to Canada.
"We were crazy," Timberlake told The Jonathan Ross Show in 2013. "We, like, skipped tutoring. Going to the park, to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids set. We'd have milkshakes. Oh man, we were so gangster."
Gwyneth Paltrow and Maya Rudolph
Gwyneth Paltrow (left) and Maya Rudolph
SETH POPPEL / YEARBOOK LIBRARY
Decades later, when Bruce's daughter Gwyneth was hosting Saturday Night Live, she used her monologue to give a shout-out to Dick's daughter Maya, who had recently joined the cast.
"This week has been real extra-special to me because one of my best friends is on the show now, and I'm so proud of her," Gwyneth gushed. "She's super-funny and talented, and I'm so glad she's in the cast."
Jonah Hill and Adam Levine
Adam Levine (left) and Jonah Hill
NOEL VASQUEZ / GETTY
"Our dads met at the principal's office in junior high," Hill told Howard Stern. "We basically lived together – we were in carpool, sleepovers at each each other's houses, everything."
Hill's first concert was a show featuring Maroon 5 predecessor Kara's Flowers, which nabbed a record deal while Levine was still in high school. Still, the 21 Jump Street star swears that fame has not changed his old friend: "That is a guy who is exactly who he ever was, in a great way."
Besides those kind words, Hill was able to do PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive an even better favor, officiating Levine's wedding to model Behati Prinsloo in July.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire
Tobey Maguire (left) and Leonardo DiCaprio
MARTHA NOBLE / GLOBE
The pair met as child actors in the late '80s, often auditioning for the same roles (which Leo almost always won). Both sons of divorced parents, the two bonded over what DiCaprio later called their "humble beginnings."
As the Aviator star later told the Associated Press, "We both were these young, very enthusiastic, ambitious young men that really wanted to get our foot in the door."
In the '90s, the pair collaborated to make (and then hide) the little-seen filmDon's Plum, before forming the center of a pack of young actors with an unprintable name that ran wild around New York City in the post-Titanic era. (Other members of the crew included Entourage's Kevin Connolly, magician David Blaine and Stan from Mad Men.)
"Every project we do, we talk about," DiCaprio told the AP. "Every single choice I've made, I've talked to Tobey about and vice versa. We've had endless conversations about certain projects and argued with one another and supported one another along the way."
In 2013, DiCaprio and Maguire teamed up to play one of literature's most famous best-friend duos: Glittering millionaire Jay Gatsby and his loyal sidekick Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby.
"I got to work on one of the great American novels with my best friend," Maguire told PEOPLE. "It was great!"
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