5 Stars Who’ve Stuggled With Dyslexia

Struggling with dyslexia for their entire lives, these 5 stars have all opened up on how they cope. Fearing a read-through or finding a script difficult to read, these celebs have been through times when their dyslexia has affected them and even their careers negatively. Trying to get through their problem, they’ve developed their own methods for learning and reading, figuring out how to cope over the years. It may still be a persistent problem but luckily they’ve all conquered their issues each time they face them and still manage to learn their lines flawlessly and pull some amazing performances out of the bag regardless.

Keira Knightley

Keira found out she was dyslexic at a young age: “I’m dyslexic and when I was six my parents realised I couldn’t read and had been fooling everyone. The only way my mum could get me to work at my reading was if she promised to get me an agent. She said to me, ‘If you come to me with a book in your hand and a smile on your face every single day during the summer holidays, then at the end of it I will get you an agent.’ And she felt so guilty at having made her six-year-old daughter do this that she had to get me an agent at the end of it!”

Orlando Bloom

Orlando says it’s still a struggle to this day: “It’s still an ongoing struggle. I have more trouble studying scripts and memorising lines than most (other actors). My mum used to tell me, ‘If you read 50 books, I’ll get you a motorbike.’ So it inspired me to read a lot and work through (my dyslexia). But I never quite got to 50. And I never got that motorbike!”

Patrick Dempsey

Patrick would dread read-throughs: “If I couldn’t read a line, I had someone tell it to me. Once I had it, I could run with it. I still do that. What I don’t like about Grey’s Anatomy is they never give you the script until the last minute. I fight those anxieties every time I sit down for a table read-through.”

Tom Cruise

Tom is thankful his mother wouldn’t allow a doctor to give him drugs for his dyslexia: “I was diagnosed as dyslexic; I had a lot of energy as a child. They wanted to put me on drugs… Never did; my mother said no, absolutely not, no way and I’m thankful. Had I been put on those drugs, I never would be here today… I never would have had the career that I’m having. Am I making people aware of it by discussing it openly and saying what a fraud psychiatry is? You bet I am. I feel a responsibility because I care…”

Vince Vaughn

Vince found school incredibly hard: “When I was in school I was not a very good student and I had a lot of learning disabilities. I was recommended to be put on prescription drugs but I was very lucky that my dad said no and didn’t want me to go through life doped up. I learned differently than other kids did; I had dyslexia so it was very difficult for me and I didn’t have an attention span. Then you kind of act like you don’t care because it’s embarrassing to care and not do well. Sometimes it’s not even learning disabilities, it’s more emotional situations where I had to go to a special class once a day, which was really embarrassing when you’re younger.”