Here we are talking about Melissa McCarthy, the two-time Oscar nominee worth a reported $33 million. But let's be real, her path to mega Hollywood success wasn't exactly a walk in the park. As Melissa herself said in Closer Weekly's newest cover story, “It can all go away as fast as it came.” That’s why this 48-year-old powerhouse gives “500 percent on everything.” And who can blame her? The road wasn’t easy.
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Let’s rewind to Melissa’s childhood in rural Plainfield, Illinois. "I’m from a small farm, and I didn’t see much of the world or have experiences until I was 20 and moved to New York,” Melissa once said. Interestingly, Melissa didn’t initially dream of being an actress. “I wanted to do fashion. My grandmother was a seamstress, and I get that from her,” she explained. And if you didn’t know already, Melissa launched her own clothing line for plus-size women called Seven7 in 2015. But it wasn’t until high school that Melissa stepped onto the stage for the first time, playing a cheerleader in a school production. Although comedy was always her passion, not everyone agreed that she was funny. “My first acting teacher said, ‘Oof, I don’t see you being funny,’ because we only did dramatic plays,” Melissa recalled. But hey, we all know how that turned out.
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Melissa followed her dreams to Los Angeles after struggling to land dramatic roles for seven years. Thankfully, it was in LA that she met her now-husband, Ben Falcone. “Our plans when we moved to LA were very similar, which was, ‘If I can make any kind of a living doing something I really enjoy, then, hooray,’” Ben, 45, has said of the two performing with the improv-sketch troupe the Groundlings. But it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Melissa spent years calling her sister, Margie, and her parents for financial help. “It was hard to keep it together when you’re not making a living wage,” Melissa admitted. She almost gave up on her acting dreams before landing her breakout role. “I was starting to work production jobs, and then a week or two before my 30th birthday, I got Gilmore Girls,” she recalled of playing Sookie St. James on all seven seasons of the beloved show. “That was the first time I ever said, ‘I’m an actor.’”
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After being cast as Molly Flynn on the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly, Melissa landed her biggest movie role yet with the 2011 blockbuster Bridesmaids. And guess what? She almost skipped the audition! “It was just such a crazy big deal. I was like, ‘I don’t want to blow this,’” she recalled. Now, Melissa is just happy to have made it after years of struggling. “I like not having to worry about my phone bill or insurance. I’m glad we make a steady living. I just want to take care of my kids,” she said. Melissa and Ben, who got married in October 2005, are parents to two daughters, Vivian Falcone, 11, and Georgette Falcone, 8. “They go to a tiny school — we drop them off and pick them up,” Melissa has said. “We’re not, like, clubbing or going to fancy restaurants — I go to bed every night at 8:30, and I’m up at 4. I’m like an old man.” As for her marriage, Melissa gushed, “He’s a much better human than I am. When people say, ‘Relationships are so hard,’ I’m like, ‘No.’”
