Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and More Who Didn’t Let Lacking a High School Diploma Derail Their Success

These celebs didn’t let getting a high school diploma stop them from finding success!

Jeremy Allen White

The Bear star recently shared a sweet surprise he received from an old teacher who joined him for the NYC premiere of his new movie Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. “I wasn’t a good student because I didn’t go to school enough,” he said on the Oct. 23 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark of his time at the city’s Professional Performing Arts School, explaining that he never graduated. After the film, his teacher presented him with a gift, he said. “And I was like, ‘Ah, you don’t have to do this, this is crazy, what are you giving me a gift for?’ And I open it up, and it is my high school diploma. So… at 34 years old, I graduated high school!”

Hilary Swank

She may have two Oscars, but the 51-year-old regrets leaving school before graduation. “I’m a high school dropout, which I’m not proud to say,” she explained on 60 Minutes. “I had some teachers that I still think of fondly and were amazing to me.” By 15, however, she was determined to become an actress and moved to L.A. with her mom. After some lean years — they famously lived in their car — Hilary made her film debut in 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Jennifer Lawrence

She didn’t even make it to high school! “I dropped out of middle school,” the 35-year-old told 60 Minutes. “I don’t technically have a GED or a diploma. I am self-educated.” By 2006, she was a working actress and chafed at the idea of going to school. “It’s just this overwhelming feeling of, ‘I get this. This is what I was meant to do,’” she said of acting. It paid off: In 2013, she became the second-youngest Best Actress winner at the Oscars!

Ryan Gosling

The former child star struggled with academics until his mom began homeschooling him during his time on The Mickey Mouse Club. Ryan gave up his studies at 17, however, when he was cast in the TV series Young Hercules. He later said he was glad he got an early start in Hollywood. “I didn’t know any better,” the 44-year-old explained. “And I didn’t realize how much of an opportunity of failure there was. I think if I just started later on, I might not have taken the risk.”

Nicole Kidman

“I didn’t finish year 11,” the 58-year-old told KIIS FM radio host Kyle Sandilands of her failure to gradate from North Sydney Girls’ High School. A shy teen, she sought refuge at the Australian Theater for Young People, where she was encouraged to try acting full-time. By 16, she was cast in her first film, Bush Christmas, followed by a role on the Aussie TV series Five Mile Creek.

Jude Law

“I liked the accumulated knowledge and the minds of good teachers,” the 52-year-old said of attending class in Lewisham, England. “But I hated rules and regulations, and the sheep-like qualities school bred.’’ After apprenticing at the National Youth Music Theater, he dropped out at 16 to take a role in the British soap Families and never looked back. “I was just a big-headed, precocious little git.”