My First Job: Tom Hollander May 23, 2012, 9:00 AM ETBy Alexandra Cheney (WALL STREET JOURNAL)

Technically, Tom Hollander’s very first paid job was a one-off acting gig in a Victorian BBC drama when he was only 14 years old.

While it was good costume practice for his later roles as Cutler Beckett in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise and a hefty sum for a teenager (he was paid 600 British pounds, with which he bought a stereo system), he next acting job wouldn’t come for another 12 years.

In the meantime, Hollander passed the time and paid the bills as a toy demonstrator, touring London stores like Harrods and Hamley’s Top Shop selling the Magic Rainbow Drawing Board.

“It was a job that young out of work actors did,” said Hollander, much like bartending or waiting tables, as many American hopefuls often do. In fact, Hollander worked alongside Lloyd Owen, otherwise known as the man who played the young Indiana Jones.

The job was simple, the manufacturers even taught Hollander and his colleagues to draw stock images — a fish, a desert island and a boat.

“You had to have a very even temperament. That I didn’t really have. I often got frustrated,” Hollander remembered.

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