Everyone has a first apartment, and with that probably comes some type of roommate situation. And every now and then, both halves of a pair of roommates go on to become stars in their own right. Here’s a look at some of our favorite roommate pairs before they were famous. If you take anything from this article, just remember there are all kinds of roommate types, so that person holding a grudge against your cleaning habits might one day hold an Academy Award.
Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling
This is one of the less-traditional roommate scenarios on the list. Why? Because Gosling lived with Timberlake and his family while they were both filming the Mickey Mouse Club. Probably realizing he was a future star in the making, Gosling’s mother opted to stay back in his native Canada and work to support her son’s dream of stardom. It’s a bet that’s paid off handsomely (no pun intended) for both of them.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
Not too many roommates can say that an Oscar award-winning film came out of their living together, but these two can. They penned the screenplay for Goodwill Hunting while renting out a house on the beach in Venice, California, of which Affleck has said, “800 people came to party with us and get drunk. Then we ran out of money and had to get an apartment.”
Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler
The image of the struggling comic is a common one, and Sandler and Apatow fit the stereotype to a “T” when they shared a small apartment in the San Fernando Valley, just outside Los Angeles. In fact, for Apatow’s film Funny People, the opening credits feature old-school footage of a then-roommate Sandler making prank phone calls.
Jonah Hill and Justin Long
Living together in a Los Angeles house as they both got their careers started, the two often reminisce that they “began acting like an old married couple.” Eventually Long left — it’s reported that doing the dishes was a breaking point — and the pair went on to form their own enviable careers in the industry.
Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson
The actor and director lived together while studying at the University of Texas, where they co-wrote 1996’s cult hit Bottle Rocket. Since those student days, they’ve gone on to become long-time collaborators, filming Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Grand Budapest Hotel, among others.
Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore
A future Nobel Prize winner and a future Oscar winner together in the same dorm? It may seem unbelievable, but that’s just what happened when Gore and Jones were randomly paired as roommates while studying at Harvard. In fact, they enjoyed each other’s company so much that they requested to be roommates for the rest of their time at the venerable school. They remain close friends to this day and have taken up many of the same causes — such as environmentalism — to this day.
John Cusack and Jeremy Piven
Having grown up in the same hometown, the pair decided to become roommates when they first moved to Chicago to study acting. Once Cusack secured a starring spot in Grosse Pointe Blank, he helped his still-struggling pal with a role in the film. They’ve gone on to share the screen a stunning 10 times during their careers.
Danny DeVito and Michael Douglas
Though the pair shared an upper Manhattan pad in the ‘60s, they claim to have not spent all that much time together. DeVito was already pursuing his future wife Rita Perlman while Douglas was busy enjoying his early sex symbol status and all the benefits it had to offer. “We were ships passing in the night,” Douglas said.
Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall
The trifecta of celebrity roommates, these three only roomed together briefly while starting their careers in Los Angeles. Originally, Hoffman and Hackman roomed together before Hoffman grew weary of his pal and “lent” him to Duvall for a few days … which became weeks … and eventually years.