The latest episode of She-Hulk is making a splash as famed musician Megan Thee Stallion danced alongside Jennifer Walters in a light-hearted post-credits scene. Although the reactions have been polarizing to say the least, there is no doubt that Megan agreed to the cameo due to a genuine interest in “nerdy” stuff.
With all things geek accepted in the mainstream now, even celebrities have become much more open about their interests. After all, being a Hollywood celebrity or famous athlete doesn’t bar them from having nerdy interests. Still, it doesn’t make it any less surprising for fans.
Megan Thee Stallion
Although Megan is making rounds on the meme circuit because of that She-Hulk cameo, her nerdy side has actually shown itself multiple times on her Instagram. In particular, she is a huge fan of the shounen anime My Hero Academia, and has even cosplayed as Todoroki in a photoshoot for PAPER magazine.
This fan relationship is far from one-sided. One of Kohei Horikoshi’s assistants, Yoshinori, is a huge fan of the musician. So much so, in fact, that they’ve even used Megan as a reference for drawings of Pro Hero Miruko, as seen in this series of tweets.
Israel Adesanya
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Israel Adesanya is one of the world’s most dangerous MMA fighters. At an intimidating 6”4, 185 lbs, and a win-loss record of 23-1-0, Adesanya is not a man to be trifled with. And yet, one of his inspirations to become the strongest in the world came from the most unexpected of sources: anime.
Some of Israel Adesanya’s intimidating tattoos, when looked at closely, depict symbols from Naruto and The Last Airbender, as he explained to WIRED. Adesanya has always been open about his love for anime and comic books. His favorite character, unsurprisingly, is Rock Lee, the Taijutsu master of Naruto. Nothing says dedication to a character than applying their philosophy of strength to real life.
Samuel L. Jackson
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Samuel L. Jackson is one of the greatest actors of all time, and with all these movie roles he keeps taking, as well as his penchant for playing vulgar criminals, he wouldn’t have much time for anything else. However, he revealed to WIRED that he's a fan of video games, comic books, anime, and “hentai,” hilariously enough.
His hobbies aren’t just on the side too. He’s lent his voice to legitimate anime productions such as Afro Samurai and Astro Boy in the past. He even campaigned to be cast as Mace Windu, and is so far the only person to convince George Lucas to have his own custom-colored lightsaber for the role.
Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson might be an icon for book nerds in the late 2000s thanks to his much-maligned role as Edward Cullen in the Twilight saga, but that’s not at all what he wants to be remembered for. His interests lie more in graphic novels and JRPGs. For starters, he absolutely adores Final Fantasy VII and its remake, something he discussed in an interview with the French show Clique X during press for The Batman.
His nerdiness is jokingly prodded by The Batman co-star Zoë Kravitz during these interviews. On a more serious note, his love for graphic novels was a huge influence on the way Pattinson plays Batman in the new film. Instead of bringing up the usual suspects for Bruce’s characterization such as B: TAS or The Killing Joke, he brings up the relatively obscure Batman: Shaman.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an established actress, and arguably one of horror’s most iconic Scream Queens. Across her long career, she’s remained shockingly absent from drama as well. It’s likely because she spends most of her free time playing video games with her family. She is a famously huge fan of the Street Fighter franchise and even visited EVO in disguise as Vega.
She’s shared her nerdy interests with her family as well. She’s supportive of her children’s nerdy hobbies such as Warhammer 40k and World of Warcraft, showing her love on Twitter. Her biggest claim to nerd fame was officiating her own daughter’s wedding in full World of Warcraft cosplay (per GameRant). It doesn’t matter how old or famous someone is, their interests are their own, and Curtis embraces that.
Joe Manganiello
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Joe Manganiello has the looks and charisma of a leading man, so most people would assume his hobbies are more “typical” for a Hollywood celeb. As it turns out, the opposite is true. Manganiello likes to spend his time on nerdy hobbies like tabletop RPGs.
As a matter of fact, Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, canonizes his lawful evil Paladin Tiamat Arkhan The Cruel in the game, and he can even be called to for assistance (per D&D Beyond). He makes regular appearances on D&D series such as CelebriD&D with this character, and apparently, his wife is very supportive despite her confusion.
Michael B. Jordan
Michael B. Jordan first reached cinematic success with everyman athlete roles such as Steve Montgomery in Chronicle as well as Adonis Creed in Creed. With that sort of resume, it’s easy to make assumptions about an actors possible real-life hobbies, but that’s an outdated way of thinking. In fact, Michael B. Jordan is a huge anime fan, as he discussed with HIGHSNOBRIETY in 2019.
Well before he was Wallace from The Wire, Michael B. Jordan was watching tons of shounen and mecha anime. These interests have subtly leaked into his MCU portrayal of Killmonger. It's made pretty much blatant in an episode of What If?. There, his character directly states that the mecha designs he offers to Stark are inspired by anime (via YouTube).
Kanye West
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There’s no doubt that Kanye West's creative talents are heavily influenced by his hobbies. In particular, West has always been a huge fan of anime, particularly the 1987 classic Akira. Kanye is far from shy about sharing his love for this particular movie, and it shows in his work.
His music video, Stronger, famously takes inspiration from the film’s gorgeous visuals. He’s even gone as far as to visit the actual art exhibit for Akira and meet the creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, in person (via Reddit). Still, the most telling (and hilarious) moment of his Akira love was when he watched a random Top 10 Anime list on YouTube and vehemently disagreed with it on his Twitter (per Cartoon Brew).
Henry Cavill
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Henry Cavill is yet another leading man with a charmingly nerdy side, and to an extent that actually affects his career. Cavill is a well-known gamer and campaigned for himself to be cast as Geralt in The Witcher Netflix series. He once live-streamed himself building his new gaming rig on Instagram, and was hilariously dubbed the “the face of PC Master Race” thanks to his choices.
Famously, he once missed the audition for his role of Superman because he was in the middle of a World of Warcraft raid (per Game Informer). It’s an incredible level of dedication to raids to let Zack Snyder of all people go to voicemail. Still, fans are glad that he got the role anyway, though probably not as glad as he is.
Robin Williams
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Robin Williams remains one of the most influential stand-up comics of all time, and his skills as an actor will never be forgotten. His range was incredible and proved to the world that regardless of what they thought he was, they were probably wrong. In between his dramatic roles and hilarious stand-up, however, he spent his time playing video games and watching anime.
He was in love with Nintendo’s gallery of classics, and as most people know, named his daughter Zelda because of his love for the franchise, even appearing in an official commercial for it. He also had a great love for classic '90s anime, as he discussed in a Reddit AMA. In particular, he is a self-professed fan of the iconic Neon Genesis Evangelion, which probably explains the series’ weirdly specific appearance in One Hour Photo.