NY Newsday
By Robert Kahn
July 2003

'You've gotta pay your dues," they told us.Nobody wakes up chairman of a gangbusters Internet business or winner of a Tony Award for lead actress in a musical. They start out small, grilling hot dogs, mopping floors and ... well, where a "Hairspray" star is concerned, let's not even get into it.Whatever egregious occupations those fine folks dabbled in early on, their jobs were just a means to an end, a stepping stone, the money for a coach-class ticket on the last train out of Dodge.

So, in honor of (or sympathy with) the world's laborers, we asked a few tireless talents to tell us about the most vicious vocations they endured on their paths to fortune and glory.

[...]

Hugo Weaving, 'The Matrix' "I packed coffee once when I lived in Australia, and I just remember going around every day with coffee up my nose and in my ears."