7 Celebrities That Are Smarter Than You
Some celebrities who are not typically viewed as intelligent are actually a lot smarter than you think.
Actors and actresses aren't typically thought of as the brightest of the bunch (*cough*Lindsay Lohan *cough*), and it's easy to judge celebrities' smarts based on the suckiness of their acting skills and movie choices. Well wouldn't you know it, although many actors seem dumb based on their resumes, a lot of them are smarter than you think. Below are 7 actors you probably think you're smarter than when, in actuality, they're a lot more intelligent than you're led to believe.
Kate Beckinsale
Why You Think She's Dumb
Ms. Beckinsale's acting resume has some definite highs and lows. Her accent in Van Helsing sounded like a female Count Chocula, and you wonder about the smarts of a girl who thought it was a good idea to bore audiences to death in not one, but two Underworld movies (maybe she's got a thing for bloodsuckers?).
Why She's Smarter Than You
Actually, Kate is actually a talented writer who's won the British bookseller W.H. Smith Young Writers' competition twice. She also attended Oxford University and studied French and Russian literature, but left during her final year of school to focus on acting/pretend she's a vampire. Kate also speaks French, Russian and German fluently and can say "Believe it or not, Pearl Harbor was one of the good Michael Bay movies" in at least 4 languages.
Dolph Lundgren
Why You Think He's Dumb
Although Dolph shone as Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, he followed the memorable role up by prancing around in a loincloth as He-Man in the laughably bad Masters of the Universe. His decent roles have denigrated throughout the years, culminating in numerous direct-to-DVD duds that nobody would want to watch unironically or while sober.
Why He's Smarter Than You
Dolph has an engineering degree from Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology, furthered his studies at Washington State University and Clemson University, and earned a Master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in Australia. Not only that, he earned a Fulbright scholarship to MIT but ultimately decided to pursue an acting career. He's studied at more universities than most people were probably accepted at, and he's one of the few actors on this planet who could actually feasibly develop a formula for the power of Greyskull.
Sharon Stone
Why You Think She's Dumb
Sharon stole the show in Basic Instinct, but we all know it wasn't because of her stellar acting skills (and her follow up of Basic Instinct 2 proves that). You also wonder how smart a woman is when she thinks that playing a villain in Catwoman whose superpower is having a cosmetics-hardened face is a great career move.
Why She's Smarter Than You
Believe it or not, Sharon graduated from Pennsylvania's Edinboro University with a degree in fine arts and creative writing when she was just 15 years old. Who'd have thought that a gifted child like herself would be best remembered for uncrossing her legs in an erotic thriller?
James Franco
Why You Think He's Dumb
James' soap operatic acting in Spider-Man must have caught the attention of General Hospital, who reportedly hired him on to join the cast. A serious A-list actor starring in a cheesy daytime soap opera? Maybe he was hitting the bong a little too hard in The Pineapple Express…
Why He's Smarter Than You
James actually worked on his English degree from UCLA while acting in blockbusters like Spider-Man, and once he graduated he enrolled in Columbia University's MFA Writing Program and began studying filmmaking at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He's also an avid painter whose works have been displayed publicly in various art galleries. He's said to be approaching his upcoming General Hospital stint as "performance art," so maybe the joke's on us.
Cindy Crawford
Why You Think She's Dumb
Aside from the whole "supermodels are vapid morons" stereotype, Cindy was dim enough to star in Fair Game, a turd of an "action" movie that scored an impressively low 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. As if that's not bad enough, she also guest starred on an episode of According to Jim, quite possibly because she mistakenly told her agent that she was a huge fan of the Blues Brothers and Animal House.
Why She's Smarter Than You
Surprisingly enough, Cindy was the valedictorian of her high school, proving that some women have beauty and brains. She also received a scholarship to Northwestern University and was in pursuit of a chemical engineering degree before deciding to focus on modeling full-time. Although she's not the best actor in the world, the mole on her lip is probably smarter than the average high school dropout.
Adam Sandler
Why You Think He's Dumb
Well, for starters, Adam's first starring movie role was as a guy who finds out his rich dad bribed his way through high school because he was too dumb to advance on his own. He then followed up Billy Madison by playing a dumb hockey player who learns to golf, a dumb waterboy who learns to play football, a dumb guy who's also the son of Satan, and whatever the hell Zohan is supposed to be. We're starting to sense a pattern here…
Why He's Smarter Than You
Adam Sandler's not as dumb as his most memorable roles dictate. He had surprisingly well received dramatic turns in Punch-Drunk Love and Reign Over Me, and he also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NYU. Adam is also a talented singer/songwriter, having composed songs that aren't always about Chanukah that have numerously graced the Billboard charts.
Mira Sorvino
Why You Think She's Dumb
Ms. Sorvino is perhaps a little too well-known as an airhead, having won an Academy Award for playing one in Mighty Aphrodite and starring as another dimwit in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. When she tries to play smart in her often forgettable career (for example, as a scientist in Mimic), she's often met with mediocre reviews and disappointing box office returns. Hollywood must like her better as a dumb blond.
Why She's Smarter Than You
Mira may be a Jersey girl, but she's a damn smart Jersey girl. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1989 with a degree in Chinese, and she's written a Hoopes Prize-winning thesis about the racial conflict in China. She's also fluent in Mandarin, one of the more difficult languages to master (and arguably a more useful one than, like, Valley-speak).
Sources
- http://entertainment.ivillage.com/slideshow/entertainment/star_students/cindy_crawfordthe_valedictoria/
- http://www.onlinebestcolleges.com/blog/2009/10-hot-celebrities-who-are-actually-incredibly-smart/
- http://www.imdb.com
