13 Celebrities Who Revealed The Moment They Knew They 'Made It'

“You get these goosebumps and they don’t go away the whole time you’re onstage.”

Making it big in Hollywood can have many different meanings and it all depends on who you ask. For some, it’s about landing their breakout feature film role -- and for others, it’s when their record goes gold or they walk their first red carpet. Regardless of how it happens, these major stars all remember the exact moment they realized they “made it” and how it changed their lives forever.

Find out exactly when these stars knew they made it…

Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina Carpenter has had quite a few “made it” moments in her career, but she says she recently realized she’d reached a new level of fame after Dan and Eugene Levy made a joke about her during their opening monologue at the 2024 Emmys. Reflecting on the moment, Sabrina said she was shocked and flattered they were making a joke about her even though she wasn’t even there.

“That was probably the first time I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not even there,’” Sabrina told Time magazine.

Miley Cyrus

It wasn’t the success of Hannah Montana that made Miley Cyrus realize she had truly made it -- it all went down during her Bangerz era in 2013. Miley explained that she truly felt like a star when iconic celebrities like Cher started noticing her.

“The amount of people that have talked s--t about my records or what I’m doing, you know, I had Cher come after me on Twitter, but that’s when I thought I had really made it. I’m like, ‘Oh, Cher gives a f–k about what I’m doing,’” she joked during SiriusXM’s Live Transmission Christmas.

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence jokingly shared that the moment she knew she made it big was when Paul Rudd wanted to be friends with her. She explained that she had always thought she would vibe well with Paul and the moment they met was a game changer for her.

“When Paul Rudd told me he thought we would always be friends. I was like, ‘When people look back and wonder what happened, when she changed, when it all got destroyed,’ it will be right here, at this moment. Because I have always looked at Paul Rudd and thought we’d be friends,” she said on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show Chelsea.

Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet says her life changed “overnight” after the release of Titanic and even though she had been warned, she admits she wasn’t prepared. With so much attention on her, she knew she had made it as an actress -- but it was still a shocking revelation.

“I remember people saying to me before the film came out, ‘How are you going to cope? Your life is going to be…how are you going to not change?’ And I would feel almost defensive and angry and think, ‘Well of course I’m not going to change. I’m not going to change, what are you talking about? My life’s not going to change,’” Kate recalled to the Belfast Telegraph.

She continued, “And it truly did, overnight. I remember one day being able to go and buy a newspaper and a pint of milk, no problem, and the next day I actually couldn’t get out of the house because of paparazzi. And that was a huge shock. And nothing really prepares you for that. No one really can tell you about what to expect because it’s so sort of unknowable. And so weird.”

Tiffany Haddish

For Tiffany Haddish, the moment she knew she made it was when she got to perform stand-up at The Arsenio Hall Show. She had watched the show growing up and being able to come full circle was a pivotal moment for her.

“The big moment for me was doing stand-up on The Arsenio Hall Show, to me, that was bigger than me doing Def Comedy Jam, that was bigger than me doing Live at Gotham, or The Tonight Show, or anything like that because I remember being a little girl watching [the original] Arsenio Hall Show, wishing I could hang out with Arsenio, be Arsenio’s friend, or something in some kind of way,” she told Vanity Fair.

She continued, “When [his show] came back, I was like, ‘Oh, this is my chance.’ And, when I finally got a chance to do stand-up on there, to me that was like, ‘I made it. Whatever comes after this is cake.’”

Lisa Kudrow

Lisa Kudrow knew she had made it big during an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show following the first season of Friends. Lisa says that sitting there with her castmates, Oprah told them they were famous -- and that’s when it finally all hit her.

“Oprah told me. The six of us were on her show right after our first season [of Friends], and she’s like, ‘This is big.’ We were like, ‘What?’ Not that she even had us on her show. That wasn’t my first clue!” Lisa shared with People.

Jeff Daniels

Jeff Daniels has been a successful actor for decades but it wasn’t until recently that he felt he’d made it as an actor. He explained that at the end of his Broadway run with To Kill a Mockingbird, he realized he had completed all of his career ambitions and felt that he had finally made it as an actor.

“That quest to be the biggest star in the history of stars…That’s gone, and that kind of ended for me at the end of the one-year run of To Kill A Mockingbird. After Atticus Finch, I can’t top that experience,” Jeff told People. “[My agent] goes, ‘What do you want to do?’ It had taken 44 years for me to hear that, but that’s when I knew I’d made it.”

Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams says the moment she knew she had become successful in Hollywood had to do with feeling financially secure. She explained that she felt that she made it when she didn’t have to debate spending money on taking a cab ride instead of the subway.

“When you stop debating the $2.50 for the subway versus the $20 for the cab and you don’t have a whole involved thought process with yourself about if you can or if you should,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “The moment where I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even think about it, I was just like, ‘Taxi!'”

Brie Larson

Brie Larson knew she had made it leading up to the 2016 Oscars when she was in the midst of a publicity tour with a group of nominated A-list actresses. At the time, Brie says that being grouped with such successful women, she felt like she was “hallucinating.”

“It was crazy. It was pretty much, like, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan, and me. Then Jennifer Lawrence came in for a little bit, and Kate Winslet, Carey Mulligan … But it was kind of all that group, with all of these different press things that we had to do. You’re having meals together, and doing these roundtables -- I felt like I was hallucinating,” she told Elle.

Brie continued, “Most of those people I’d never met before, so it was like the moment when you’re not at the kid’s table anymore: Wow, not only am I sitting with these legends, but Kate Winslet saw me and ran across the room and grabbed me and with such a beautiful intensity said, ‘I am so f--king excited for you!’ I love her.”

Lance Bass

Lance Bass was once a member of the most popular boy band in the world and looking back, he says he knew the group had made it amid their gig as openers on Janet Jackson’s 1999 Velvet Rope Tour. During a performance in Detroit, Lance says the crowd was deafening and he was completely in shock.

“I’ve never heard a noise like that before,” he said on BuzzFeed News’ Facebook Watch show, That Literally Happened. “You get these goosebumps and they don’t go away the whole time you’re onstage.”

Awkwafina

Awkwafina’s career came full circle for her while she was in the midst of filming Ocean’s 8. At one point, from where she was standing on set, she could see her old office where she worked until she was fired.

“We were shooting this glamorous scene and I looked up and saw the office I got fired from. I thought: ‘Oh my God, everything has come full circle.’ I left that job in pursuit of Awkwafina. And here I was shooting a scene with Rihanna. Getting fired from that job really hurt my feelings. Now I could just look up and say, ‘F--k y’all,’” she told The Guardian.

Emilia Clarke

Emilia Clarke’s moment of making it big happened during a gala that was hosting an auction where people ended up bidding on the opportunity to spend time with her. Looking back, she says she was shocked anyone even bid -- including Brad Pitt.

“I was at a gala event where I’d been asked to auction something, so I was like, ‘I don’t know, come watch your favorite [Game of Thrones] episode with me and we’ll eat a horse’s heart or something,’” Emilia told The Hollywood Reporter

She continued, “I don’t think about what it is until I get there and then I’m sitting in a room with, like, every celebrity on the planet. And I thought it would be a private thing where they wouldn’t say [the item] out loud, but then I have to stand up and it turns into a thing. The room goes completely silent and I’m going to die and then one of my friends puts his paddle up. Suddenly, some other people start to put their paddles up and one of those people was Brad Pitt…It was the most ridiculous experience of my entire existence.”

Patricia Arquette

Patricia Arquette felt like she made it when she received a phone call from Bruce Willis. Reflecting on the moment, she says she was so shocked that she actually thought it was a prank call -- but then realized that this might be what her life was going to be like going forward.

“After I did True Romance, I got a message from Bruce Willis. I call back, like, ‘Shut up, who is this really?’ I thought my friend was pranking me. And he’s like, ‘This is Bruce Willis.’ It was surreal. Like, is this how this world works? Do people just call you?” Patricia shared with The Hollywood Reporter.