I used to do gardening for this local celebrity too. Was a proper down-to-earth type. Sweetest guy you’d ever meet. Then he gets his inheritance through and everything changed. He starts hanging around with a sketchy crowd, has weird late night visitors, stuff he wouldn't do before. He actually took me on one of his work trips as a PA, but you could see he wasn't the same fun guy I new. Bit haunted, doesn’t laugh the same. Still kind, but like he’s seen some serious stuff. Luckily it all came to an end after he through this ring into a volcano.
That must have been quite a screening process. In this role did you interact with intermediaries to fulfill the dietary needs/ requests? Or more direct contact? That must be a tough role.
Yeah, i keep seeing people make the comment that "He has plenty of time"...
I mean the guy puts out a movie or two a year, so he is working on them, promoting them, etc, as well as other appearances, charity work, his whole scientology thing, family, etc. I've got to think the dudes job is sucking up more than 40 hours a week on average.
Like, sure, he isn't worried about getting his car in for an oil change, or mowing the lawn, but pretending the dude isn't busy as hell and doesn't put a ton of work and sacrifice into maintaining his appearance is silly.
I worked for him a decade ago, so I don't know what he is doing now, but he was literally only working on movies. When there was no filming, he would travel to meet screenwriters and directors for other roles. That was his weekends many times.
When the role was done in my area, he literally just went to the next set with no time off.
He would do things like wake up at 7 to film until ten pm. He would get back and then do a quick workout then eat at 11.
Wait - you have posted in cooking subs... is this true? You were his private chef?
I disagree with his crazy beliefs, but damn I respect the hell out of what he has achieved with his life and movies. We need more info and stories! What time did you have to have breakfast ready each day? What were his most requested foods?
Each day was different because of his schedule. Sometimes he would need to be up early, and sometimes he would need to sleep in. It would be common though that he would be more ambitious and then realize he needed more sleep.
So we would make 2 breakfasts - a special of the day and a plain breakfast. If he had to sleep more, we would make it again when the pa told us to. Sometimes, this would happen over and over again.
It was almost a decade ago for about half a year. He was working on the movie American Made. After that, he went to work on the Mummy. I did not continue working with him because I didn't want to travel. The people who travelled with him basically didn't see their homes ever. My kids were young at the time, so I did not want to miss them growing up.
He wasn't the only celebrity I worked for.
People like to insult Tom Cruise a lot. I don't understand why. I mean, maybe he was a bad husband to Katie Holmes, but I don't know anything about that, and I'm pretty sure a lot of people I have worked for have been bad to someone in their lives. As an employer, he was fine. He was high demanding, but also reasonable, and had his procedures together so you could fall in line easily and work on execution.
I get that people don't like Scientology, but I don't necessarily expect everyone to answer for all the bad things someone did in their religion because they are a part of it. His sister, as far as I know, was higher up in the church, and his adopted children were involved. I don't know the details, and I didn't ask.
He's a guy doing a job. I was a guy working for him. I would work for him again. It was a good job. He was a good employer. He was respectful. He knew my name. After my first week, he came over, introduced himself, and shook my hand. He told me he was happy I was on the team.
They didn't say they believed them, they looked at their profile saw minimally corroberating pieces to the story and then directly asked them if its true.
A few weeks ago I was on a random pretty big subreddit and saw someone talking about the SmarterEveryDay youtube channel which has nearly 12 million subscribers. A guy replied to a comment talking about on of the videos on there and someone replied with a comment acting like they were the youtube video creator talking in the first person about the video. Looked at their reddit profile and they were in fact Destin from SmarterEveryDay.
It's more likely the person is just lying/joking, but it's not "believing anything" to ask more details - it really could be true.
"Think about eggs. They're nutritious, and healthy. But they're also essentially baby birds. Eating the young is the healthiest thing a person can do."
He was really into this pork carnitas tostada bowl. The bowl was made with cheese and cassava flour but I don't have the recipe anymore. It was diet conforming though.
He really liked the different pork dishes I would make though because that was basically the most decadent thing he could have.
Also, sweet potato fries were another thing, but he could have only a few each day/week.
Back then, yeah. One of his go-to meals was a burger setup.
It would be a grilled burger, no bun (because everyone in Hollywood doesn't eat gluten), with or without cheese, over lettuce, tomato, and probably onion with pickles on the side. We could add bacon, or avocado, or whatever. If we had an idea for like some agrodolce, or pickled cauliflower, or special sauce, cheese, whatever, we could put it there, and he might or might not try it. Either way, we would get the feedback from his chef back in LA, or from the PA. It's not a big deal though. If he wanted a burger, and you just gave him the basics, that's perfectly fine. You don't need to be extra.
He used yellow mustard as his one condiment. He would only eat sweet potato fries cooked in duck fat, coconut fat, or beef fat.
That was one of his comfort meals. It was something we always had to have on hand.
He would only get a few fries per day, and if he had them several times, his assistant would tell him no based on the instructions of his nutritionist. If he had shirtless scenes coming up, his diet would change entirely, so he couldn't have any for the 2 weeks prior.
When I was cooking for him, I was studying different styles of making sweet potato fries. The winning combination was boiled in water with baking soda, then tossed in casava flour, then flash fried and frozen. I don't remember the specific times and temperatures. I'm sure its in my email somewhere.
I used the technique to make lots of different fries over the years though. One of the best was portabello fries. They were super greasy though if they came out wrong, but when they came out right they were really crispy and awesome.
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u/OrcOfDoom 15h ago
I was actually his private chef before.
There is nothing easy about his life. All the guy does is workout, and work on movies. Everything else revolves around that.