When it comes to the glittering world of fame, the line between eccentric and downright bizarre can be razor‑thin. Even the busiest A‑list stars need a way to unwind, and sometimes their off‑screen hobbies are stranger than fiction. In this roundup we’ve gathered the 10 weirdest celebrity pastimes that prove Hollywood’s talent pool is as quirky as its red‑carpet looks. From cobbling shoes to collecting prosthetic limbs, these celebs keep the weirdness meter turned up to eleven.

Why These 10 Weirdest Celebrity Pastimes Matter

10 George Clooney Makes Shoes

Back in 2014, a flood of eager fans descended on Reddit for George Clooney’s AMA, peppering the Oscar‑winning actor with everything from basketball anecdotes involving Leonardo DiCaprio to prank stories with Brad Pitt. Amid the barrage of questions, Clooney dropped a bombshell about his favorite way to spend downtime.

He answered a query about his hobby with a dead‑pan, “I’m a cobbler. I like to make shoes.” The suave star even hinted that his shoe‑making chops might outshine Daniel Day‑Lewis, who also dabbles in cobbling. How Clooney got into the trade remains a mystery, but it’s comforting to know that if acting ever takes a back seat, he can always fall back on his handcrafted footwear.

9 Jared Leto Dresses In Drag

Jared Leto, the sultry musician‑actor who routinely tops lists of Hollywood’s sexiest men, discovered a surprising talent for donning women’s apparel while filming the gritty drama Dallas Buyers Club, where he portrayed a transgender woman. The role sparked an unexpected fascination with feminine fashion.

He became so enamored with the experience that fishnets, high heels, and even full‑on women’s ensembles became part of his everyday wardrobe, sometimes appearing in public while grocery shopping. Leto even toyed with the idea of debuting at the Oscars in drag. After the film wrapped, he kept the momentum alive with a daring photoshoot for Candy magazine, proving that his flair for gender‑bending style is as bold as his Joker look.

8 Hunter S. Thompson Built Bombs And Shot Guns

Hunter S. Thompson, the gonzo‑journalist known for his wildly unpredictable behavior and penchant for excess, was equally at home with a firearm in hand and a stick of dynamite on the table. A self‑declared gun enthusiast, he often spent his leisure hours at his Woody Creek farm firing pistols and detonating explosives.

Friends and biographers recall scenes of him surrounded by an alarming arsenal, with explosions described as his signature pastime. Johnny Depp, who first met Thompson during a shooting session, recounted that the two built a makeshift bomb out of propane tanks and set it off by blasting it with a rifle. Thompson’s love of loud, explosive entertainment perfectly encapsulated his philosophy of living life with a literal bang.

7 Bill Murray Shows Up Everywhere

Bill Murray, the comedy legend whose career is built on making audiences laugh, has turned his off‑screen antics into a full‑blown hobby of surprise appearances. From bartending incognito at an Austin bar during SXSW in 2010—where he handed out tequila shots regardless of the order—to slipping a lucky stranger a ticket for the seat next to him at the 2017 World Series Game 6, Murray’s spontaneity knows no bounds.

He’s also been spotted crashing fan‑hosted “Bill Murray Ice Cream Socials,” bachelor parties, engagement photo shoots, and even a house party where he graciously washed dishes. The frequency of his unannounced visits spawned a dedicated website chronicling his escapades, cementing Murray’s reputation as the ultimate celebrity party‑crasher.

6 Nicolas Cage Collects Just About Everything

Nicolas Cage, famed for his eclectic roles and love of comic‑book lore, harbors a hobby that goes far beyond paper‑back treasures. The Oscar winner is a serial collector, amassing an astonishing array of oddities that would make even the most seasoned hoarder blush.

His inventory reads like a bizarre museum catalog: shrunken pygmy heads, a pet octopus, a dinosaur skull, and a legion of exotic pets ranging from alligators to king cobras. He also owns a lavish pyramid‑shaped tomb in New Orleans, nine Rolls‑Royces, thirty motorcycles, a castle, a haunted mansion, and even a private island. While these extravagant purchases have occasionally led to financial strain, they underscore Cage’s insatiable appetite for the extraordinary.

5 Drake Is A Basketball Star

Drake, the chart‑topping rapper, may not be a professional athlete, but his devotion to basketball borders on the theatrical. The music mogul has cultivated deep friendships with numerous NBA players and is a regular fixture at games, often seen courtside with his crew.

In a candid interview, Ninja from Die Antwoord recounted a night when he and Kanye West ended up at Drake’s house for an impromptu pick‑up game. Drake took the match seriously, donning a full NBA uniform—including a headband—while filming the action. He then spent hours in the editing suite, stitching together highlight reels of his own moves, a testament to his competitive spirit and love for the sport.

4 James Franco Is An Artist, Writer, Director, Pilot, And … Teacher?

James Franco’s résumé reads like a Swiss‑army knife of creative pursuits. Beyond his acting chops, the multi‑talented star paints, performs avant‑garde art, has published a short‑story collection, directed two indie films, and holds a private pilot’s license. Yet, even that wasn’t enough to satiate his curiosity.

Franco turned his attention to teaching, stepping into classrooms at NYU in 2011 and USC in 2013 to share his film‑making expertise. Students on Rate My Professor praised his approachable style, describing him as caring, inspirational, and even “one of the best professors at NYU.” He later taught a semester‑long film course at Palo Alto High School in 2015, proving that his passion for mentorship matches his artistic ambitions.

3 Tom DeLonge Is A UFO Researcher

Tom DeLonge, the punk‑rock pioneer behind Blink‑182, has swapped guitar riffs for extraterrestrial intrigue. After the band’s breakup, he channeled his fascination with the unknown into a full‑blown career as a UFO researcher, earning the moniker “UFO Researcher of the Year” in 2017.

DeLonge founded the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science, assembling a team that includes former CIA operatives and leading scientists to investigate anomalous aerial phenomena. Whether his efforts will crack the cosmic code or simply keep him busy in the twilight zone, his dedication to the alien frontier remains undeniably captivating.

2 Norman Reedus Collects Breast Implants

Norman Reedus, the rugged star of The Walking Dead, found himself at the center of a bizarre fandom‑driven exchange when a devoted admirer mailed him a breast‑implant. The unconventional gift was received with a mix of surprise and humor, quickly becoming a prized token in his collection.

Reedus, playing along with the joke, later acquired the matching implant, declaring in jest, “I just want to collect more breast implants. So, yeah—send more breast implants.” While the comment was tongue‑in‑cheek, the episode highlights the strange ways fans sometimes interact with their idols.

1 Marilyn Manson Collects Prosthetic Limbs And Makes Absinthe

Marilyn Manson, the shock‑rock icon whose image is synonymous with the macabre, has taken his love of the bizarre to the next level by crafting his own absinthe—dubbed “Mansinthe.” He launched the green spirit after a friend suggested he bottle his own brand, given his reputation for sipping the potent liquor.

Beyond the drink, Manson’s home décor draws inspiration from the TV series Hannibal, resulting in a collection of unsettling artifacts: a painting by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a gas canister once used in Holocaust chambers, and a taxidermied fish with horns and chicken feet (a gift from Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt). His mansion also houses two human skeletons, African masks fashioned from real human skin, and a shelf of outdated prosthetic limbs, making his residence a true museum of the grotesque.

I am a 21‑year‑old marketing student and part‑time artist and writer. Instagram: KimberlynRenee

Welcome to our roundup of 10 strange forgotten pastimes, where we dive into the oddball amusements that once thrilled crowds before modern entertainment took over. With all of the seemingly endless options for amusement we have today, it’s easy to forget that this hasn’t been the case for very long. Before the Internet gave us immediate access to whatever we feel like watching, listening to, or reading at the moment, those who came before us could get up to some pretty weird things in pursuit of a good time.

10 Strange Forgotten Pastimes Of Decades Past

10 Telegraph Sports

Practically as soon as the telegraph enabled instantaneous communication over hundreds of miles, local sports clubs in several major cities began using it to organize competitions with clubs in other states. For years, citizens could see scores posted in their local newspapers for the most recent telegraph sports matches.

The idea appears to have originated with bowling clubs and soon caught on, spreading to other sports. A 1905 issue of Shooting and Fishing magazine reported on the results of a telegraph shooting match between the Washington, D.C. Revolver Association and the Smith and Wesson Revolver Club of Springfield, Massachusetts. Telegraph bowling leagues in particular were very popular in the first two decades of the 20th century but largely died down by the 1920s.

9 Wax Bullet Dueling

Dueling with pistols was still a popular, if prideful and lethal, pastime in America in the early 1900s. Especially in the South, taking up arms over petty slights was still seen as a way to potentially elevate one’s social status, and refusing a challenge to duel could make one a social pariah. But for a brief time, dueling became a spectator sport. Participants faced off wearing black robes and face masks, and used wax bullets.

The sport originated in France, with a “School of Dueling” being established in Paris. Wax bullet dueling was even featured in the 1908 Summer Olympics, with rules based on the honor codes of classic dueling. The duels were not completely without danger. The wax bullets could still cause some damage without proper protection, and spectators had to be wary of their eyes, as a stray hunk of wax could put one out.

8 Staged Train Crashes

Humans have always been suckers for spectacle, from the Roman Colosseum to the latest Marvel film in IMAX 3‑D. But in years past, spectacle could be hard to come by without putting oneself in danger. Enter “Head‑On” Joe Connolly, perhaps the most famous promoter of the biggest events of their day: staged, head‑on crashes between two locomotives.

Between 1896 and 1932, Connolly staged no less than 73 of these events, sending 146 trains to their fiery deaths. The first, and most infamous, of these staged wrecks ended in catastrophe. William George Crush, an executive with the Texas Railway Company, proposed the idea as a way to drum up ticket sales, and it took place outside a makeshift temporary city—“Crush, Texas”—in September 1896. Over 40,000 spectators showed up to watch, but the impact caused both trains’ boilers to explode, sending flaming debris raining down on the crowd. At least three died, and many more were injured.

7 Bed Pushing

One strange campus craze, originating at the University of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and quickly migrating to Canada, was reported on by Time in February 1961: bed pushing. That is, pushing full‑size beds mounted on wheels over long distances and difficult terrain.

Canadian students “from Nova Scotia to British Columbia” could be seen pushing beds anywhere and everywhere, “over highways, prairies and frozen lakes.” At the time, the record for distance was an incredible 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi), set by an Ontario University team that “kept its Simmons rolling night and day for a week.” But the standing world record was set in 1979, years after the craze peaked, by students at Pennsylvania’s St. Vincent College. The team pushed their bed in circles around a shopping center for 3,000 kilometers (1,980 mi).

6 Truckin’

The phrase “Keep On Truckin’ ” originated with a Blind Boy Fuller blues song in the 1930s but seemed to really catch on the ’70s, when it seemed to appear on every other shirt practically overnight. It appears to simply be an innocent way to express that one should keep going no matter how difficult things become, but American college students—with some inspiration from artist Robert Crumb—turned the phrase into a strange and pointless activity.

Crumb’s comic strip, “Keep On Truckin’,” featured caricatures of men walking with a pronounced, exaggerated strut, leaning back while making wide, swooping leg motions. College kids—the strip’s target audience—took this immediately to heart, and began copying the cartoonish walk in real life. The phenomenon was first documented in campus newspapers in 1970 but died out by the mid‑’70s. Perhaps this was because Crumb was finally granted a copyright for his original image, used without license on merchandise for years, in 1977.

5 X‑Ray Shoe Fittings

In the 1920s, X‑Rays were a strange and wonderful invention with a futuristic name. Scientists could hardly conceive of the potential; they could also hardly conceive of the potential dangers. This explains why, during that decade, X‑Ray shoe fitting machines became all the rage in shoe stores across America—though they contained radioactive material, with no protection in place to keep this radiation from leaking into the atmosphere.

They were called “Shoe Fitting Flouroscopes,” and kids and adults alike loved them. By the early 1950s, there were over 10,000 of these extremely hazardous radioactive devices in department stores throughout the land. They were banned in the 1970s once the dangers became known, and while a few scattered cases of foot cancer in older patients have been linked to the machines, exactly how many may have been sickened will probably never be known.

4 Balloon Jumping

Yes, the 1920s loved futurism, and nothing was more futuristic than flight. Science fiction of the time was packed with flying cars and bizarre airships, and some rich sportsmen thought of a way to bring the future into the present: balloon jumping.

The jumper was attached by a harness to a large balloon, large enough to provide some lift but not so large (ideally) that the jumper would drift off into the sky. Participants could achieve a kind of moonwalk‑type bounce, flying up over trees, fences, and even houses. Sports publications throughout the 1920s fawned over this new sport, calling it safe, easy, and fun, but it never quite caught on among the public at large—perhaps due to a 1927 balloon jumping death in the UK, in which an experienced parachute jumper died while partaking in the activity.

3 Fox Tossing

Going back much further, one can imagine that the opportunities for amusement were even more scarce in the 18th century. One forgotten sport, described in a German hunting manual from 1720, was known as “Fuchsprellen”—roughly translated, “Fox Tossing.”

The idea was to lay a series of tarps over a large outdoor playing area. Then, several foxes—along with badgers and small wildcats—would be let loose. Participants would chase them around, waiting for the moment when a hapless animal was positioned perfectly on one of the tarps; two players would then grab the tarp at either end and quickly pull it taut, launching the animal as high into the air as possible.

While one might think that such ridiculous activities involving cruelty to animals are a thing of the distant past, this is not necessarily so.

2 Octopus Wrestling

In the 1950s and ’60s, skin diving was a popular pastime. It was quite competitive, with divers vying to see who could dive the deepest or stay submerged the longest, but soon enough a new element was added to the competition: how large an octopus could be wrangled to the surface.

While incredibly illegal today, octopus wrestling became a popular spectator sport in the Pacific Northwest. Competitors had to find and extract an octopus from its lair and wrestle it to the surface of the water; they were judged on the weight of the animal, with extra points awarded for forgoing any breathing equipment. In 1963, over 5,000 spectators showed up to Puget Sound in Washington State for the World Octopus Wrestling Championships. Organizers guaranteed action by placing a few octopi in strategic locations along the beach, as they had to ensure an exciting match; the event was being televised.

1 Auto Polo

In 1912, a Kansas Ford dealer held what he hoped would be the first of many sporting matches with an eye toward generating business. It was held between the two inaugural teams, the Grey Ghosts and the Red Devils, of America’s newest sport: Auto Polo.

It was played pretty much exactly as one might expect, like traditional polo but with cars instead of horses. As cars were initially marketed as a replacement for horses, this makes a strange sort of sense. In this first match, held in a Kansas alfalfa field, two teams of three men competed: two men to drive the car and one to swing a giant mallet at a basketball‑sized rubber ball. Despite (or perhaps because of) the likelihood of crashes, injuries and deaths, the sport skyrocketed in popularity for the next several decades, with the last matches taking place in the mid‑1950s.