Sitting down with talk show host Conan O'Brien, the 'Man with a Plan' actor recalls the one time had to file down his own tooth to even out his teeth before taking his first headshot.
- February 2, 2019
AceShowbiz - Actor Matt LeBlanc was so poor before landing his big break on "Friends", he once filed down his own tooth because he couldn't afford to go to a dentist.
The star's finances had dwindled down to just $11 (£8), so when the photographer he had hired to take his first headshot told him he had uneven teeth, LeBlanc had to take matters into his own hands.
"You know when you think, 'All right, I got a little money in the bank. I can hold out til the next gig'? I think I was down to $11," he confessed on U.S. talk show "CONAN". "Now that's holding out too long... I would have starved."
Luckily, unbeknownst to him, LeBlanc's career was about to skyrocket thanks to the classic sitcom, but first he had to take care of his headshot to take along to auditions.
"It's all set up (in the photographer's studio)," the 51-year-old recalled. "He has the cameras and the lights and everything and he says, 'Before we take this, you might want to go and get that tooth filed.' He goes, 'One tooth is a little longer than the other one.'"
LeBlanc found a dentist in the phone book but baulked at the $80 (£60) the medic wanted to charge to sort out his cosmetic dental issue - so he bought a "three-pack of emery boards" and did the job himself.
"I'm very frugal," he remarked.
His handiwork even earned the approval of the photographer, who had no idea what LeBlanc had done: "He goes, 'They did a nice job,'" the star smiled.
"Friends" ran for 10 seasons until 2004, and turned LeBlanc into a household name after playing struggling actor Joey Tribbiani onscreen. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer also shot to stardom thanks to the popular series.
