13 Times Celebrities Surprised Us With Their Unusual Skills

Most of us would love to have a secret superpower or skill. There’s a reason why superhero movies about Superman, X-Men, and others do so well because they allow us to fly on flights of fancy. While we cannot melt steel with just a look or control the weather, some of us do possess hidden talents. As do some of the people we idolize.

Bright Side found out some hidden talents of popular celebrities that make them a little less ordinary and a whole lot more interesting.

1. Meghan Markle has serious calligraphy skills.

Meghan Markle has stunning calligraphy skills, and they seemed to be on-point when she became a Duchess as well. She said in an interview that she turned to calligraphy to earn some rent money.

Markle said, “I went to an all-girls Catholic school for like 6 years, where kids had handwriting class. I’ve always had a propensity for getting the cursive down pretty well. What it evolved into was my pseudo-waitressing job when I was auditioning. I didn’t wait tables. I did calligraphy for the invitations for, like, Robin Thicke and Paula Patton’s wedding. I also used to do it for Dolce & Gabbana’s celebrity correspondence over the holidays.”

Not only this, but Markle also used to teach bookbinding. For now, here’s an example of her calligraphy during the time she was the Duchess of Sussex.

2. Susan Sarandon is a table tennis champ.

In the 2014 film Ping Pong Summer, Susan Sarandon is shown to be pretty handy with the game, so you know that she has some serious skills. And not just that, she has also co-founded a chain of ping pong clubs in 2009, called SPiN, where you can play, hang out, and socialize.

And the Oscar winner loves table tennis. She said so an interview, “I love the whole idea that it crosses all gender and age barriers. You can have little girls beating muscly 35-year-old men. And you can play it [till the end]. We have members that are really, really good that are in their 80s, and little tiny 7-year-olds that come in and [destroy] everybody. It’s one of the few sports I can think of where girls and boys and men and women are on the same plane.”

3. Keira Knightley can play music with her teeth.

Keira Knightley has essayed different roles, from period movies to more modern ones. Underneath all that acting talent lies an unusual skill, which she revealed during an episode of The Graham Norton Show. While other celebrities can play instruments like the guitar, violin, or even the harmonica, Knightley can play her teeth.

She can tap out any tune on her teeth, using her fingernails, and on the show, she played the song “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.” And then, on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, she did “Despacito” as well.

4. Angelina Jolie is a master knife-thrower and pilot.

We all know of Angelina Jolie as the great humanitarian, who uses her celebrity status to help people all over the world? But do you know Angelina Jolie, the master knife thrower? Jolie has had a fascination with blades since she was a little girl, and she said so on an episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, where she even twirled around a butterfly knife rather expertly.

She’s also known to be a master knife thrower, something she honed on the sets of Lara Croft — Tomb Raider. Jolie is also a certified pilot and, allegedly, loves to fly.

5. Neil Patrick Harris can do magic tricks.

Neil Patrick Harris is best known for his long-standing role in the TV series, How I Met Your Mother. While he has been on TV, in films, and in the theater, magic has become a passion of his. He said so in an interview as well, “I love magic because it provides an opportunity to do something that people feel is otherworldly, something that they don’t normally see, or can’t normally figure out in their own life.”

He has shown off his magician’s prowess on TV many a time, but his time on The Ellen Show with Ellen DeGeneres was something special. After deliberately fumbling a card trick, Harris then proceeded to blow Ellen’s mind, by reading her mind.

6. Harrison Ford is a rescue pilot.

Harrison Ford is almost a real-life Indiana Jones, and he embodies the movie character he is most famous for. He has been a pilot for over 40 years now, and although he’s been in trouble with the FAA a few times, he has not only managed to emergency crash land more than once, successfully, he has even participated in rescue missions.

Ford has put his flying skills to good use and even volunteered to fight wildfires. In 2001, he even found and rescued a 13-year-old boy scout missing in Yellowstone National Park. At the time, Cody Clawson had been missing for 19 hours, and Ford flew to join the rescue operation to find him. It was Ford who spotted the teen and landed the helicopter on a nearby hill to rescue him.

7. Mark Ruffalo can ride a unicycle.

Mark Ruffalo, best known for playing Hulk in the MCU Avengers franchise, has a hidden talent that best belongs in the circus.

Apparently, Ruffalo can unicycle, and he learned to do so when he was 12, as he stated on The Graham Norton Show. And it’s not just all talk because this genial actor then went on to prove he could truly do so by riding not one, but 2 unicycles, although to be fair, he did fall off the second one.

8. Conan O’Brien can tap dance.

Conan O’Brien is best known for being a great talk show host, but when he was a young boy, he had some big dreams. He wanted to be in showbiz, and allegedly, believed that tap dancing was the way to the spotlight.

O’Brien found common ground with Sean Giambrone over their love of tap dancing, on his show, although he admitted he left it 2 years later.

9. Taylor Lautner is a black belt in karate.

Taylor Lautner is best known for playing shape-shifter Jacob Black in the Twilight franchise, but not all of his moves in the movie are CGI.

Lautner has been into martial arts since he was a child. The actor played the role of a youth football coach in the Netflix family comedy Home Team, but has plenty of youth sports experience of his own. Lautner started doing extreme martial arts when he was just 6 years old, which, as he explained in 2018 on The Jonathan Ross Show, is a combination of traditional karate and gymnastics. Lautner proved this by doing a standing backflip on the show, and he was more worried about his trouser seams than he was about hurting himself.

10. Bruce Willis can play the harmonica.

Bruce Willis is quite the performer and when he’s not saving damsels in distress in actions movies, he can play a mean harmonica. Not just that, when Willis’ most famous franchise Die Hard was still some years away, he released a music album called The Return Of Bruno, where he sang his heart out.

Willis started out trying to be famous by playing the harmonica for an R&B band called Loose Goose and even now tours with bands, playing the harmonica.

11. Pierce Brosnan paints and was also a fire-eater.

Former James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, seems to have many hidden talents. He is an avid painter, and one of his paintings, of Bob Dylan, sold at a charity auction for a whopping $1.4 million.

Of course, a long time ago, just after GoldenEye, Brosnan also showed off his fire-eating skills on The Muppet Show. Since it left him with blisters in his mouth, he decided to quit and concentrate on the canvas instead.

12. Seth Rogen does pottery in his free time.

Seth Rogen wears many hats. Along with being an actor, he’s also a comedian, writer, director, and producer, but when he’s not doing any of this, he dabbles in ceramics.

Rogen loves to make pottery, and many of his pieces are for sale as well.

13. Jason Lee skateboards and is a photographer.

Jason Lee, famous for My Name is Earl and for playing Dave in the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies, is an excellent skateboarder, even if he did stop skating for years in between.

His latest passion is photography, and he’s combined the love of both these arts into one, by selling limited edition skateboards that have his photographs on them.

Have you come across any hidden talents like these in your favorite celebrities? What is the most unusual skill that you possess? Surprise us with your stories.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children, despite being homeschooled and away from social media, are growing into their own unique personalities, with Maddox studying in South Korea and others exploring arts and modeling.