Years before making his NCIS debut, Michael Weatherly was living a vastly different life as he resorted to busking in the subway after getting fired twice from his job as a waiter.
Michael Weatherly skyrocketed to fame in 2003 when he joined the original cast of NCIS as Special Agent Anthony Dinozzo and continued his streak of sensational roles when he left the show to lead CBS’ Bull in 2016.
However, before he was on television screens across the globe, Michael was a struggling actor in New York working a slew of jobs to make ends meet while trying to break into the entertainment industry.
Early on, the actor was almost tempted to follow in his father’s footsteps as the avid entrepreneur started his first business in school, reselling the Swiss army knives his father imported to other students, which landed him in some trouble.
After deciding on a career in performing arts, the soon-to-be A-lister ended up living in a “storage closet” in a Chelsea apartment with two other roommates and admitted on LIVE! with Kelly that the housing situation mostly interfered with his dating life.
In the early 1990’s Michael initially tried to get by using the traditional route of working as a waiter in between auditions but he seemingly wasn’t cut out for the restaurant business.
He quickly got fired from not one but two jobs waiting tables and found his only course of action was to head down to the subway with his guitar.
The NCIS star became a busker on the subway platforms, which offered a surprisingly steady income as he recalled to Entertainment Weekly that the Paul Simon hit Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard would earn him “about $30 in about 15 minutes.”
Speaking to the Columbus Dispatch in 2016 ahead of Bull’s premiere, the actor returned to his roots on the subway with his guitar, revealing that the hardest part of busking was opening the guitar case to his unknowing audience.
He explained: “It’s the admission that you are, in fact, about to play guitar.”
Michael did find some success in the music business when he eventually ventured onto the stage with a band of his own but saw “nothing ahead in the world of music for myself but deep pain” as he told the Pepsi Music Blog, and kept pursuing his acting dreams.
While he did land some roles in the late 1990s, many never made it past the piloting phase and he found himself at the age of 27 with a wife and child but barely able to care for himself let alone his family.
Recalling the “difficult” time with People, the Hollywood star claimed the financial strain and his time-consuming search to find a livable income played a part in his divorce, and just six years later he landed the role of special agent Dizzo despite almost turning it down at first.