12 Insane celebrity facts that will change the way you look at them forever

How much do you know about your favourite celebrities? With the universal prevalence of social media these days, some people arguably know far too much. Thanks to Twitter and Instagram stories, there's no reason why you can't know everything about them, down to what they were wearing last Tuesday night, and what they were eating for breakfast. But there's still lots of trivia out there that you may not be familiar with.

For example; what did Jennifer Lopez have to do with the creation of Google Images? Did Bryan Cranston once murder a chef? And has Khloe Kardashian been keeping quiet about a certain car accident? For the answers to these questions and many more, scroll down to check out our favourite insane celebrity facts.

1. Emily Blunt became an actress because of her stutter

In interviews, Blunt has stated that she was encouraged by a teacher who was concerned about her speech impediment and told her to try acting in her school play. To her surprise, the performing made her lose the stutter.  "It was really a miracle," she stated.

2. Leighton Meester was born behind bars

Leighton Meester's mother was serving a prison sentence on drug-related charges when the actress and songwriter was born. Her mother Constance Lynn gave birth to her in prison and was allowed to nurse her for three months in a halfway house. Leighton lived with her grandmother until her mother was released on parole.

3. Google Images was created because of Jennifer Lopez

When J-Lo wore her infamous green dress to the 2000 Grammys, "Jennifer Lopez, dress" quickly became the most popular search term on Google. However, at the time there wasn’t an option to narrow searches down to images, so engineers created Google images to solve the problem.

4. Leonardo DiCaprio was named after Da Vinci 

When Leo's mother, Irmelin DiCaprio, was visiting an art gallery in Florence, she came across a beautiful artwork by Renaissance genius Leonardo Da Vinci. When she looked at the artwork, the baby she was pregnant with gave a kick for the first time. She decided to name the baby Leonardo in honour of this moment, and the rest is history.

5. Beyoncé cried backstage after Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift

Taylor has also revealed that she framed a photograph of the incident in her house, captioned: "Life is full of little interruptions." It's good to know that she can laugh about it now.

6. Benedict Cumberbatch was once kidnapped

A kidnapping would be a routine case for Sherlock Holmes, but for the actor who played him in the BBC series, it was a terrifying nightmare. While filming in South Africa in 2006, the Doctor Strange actor was abducted by armed men, who threw him into the trunk of a car and drove him away to a secluded location. Amazingly, Cumberbatch was able to negotiate with them and convince his kidnappers to release him after a mere four hours.

7. Bryan Cranston was once a suspect in a murder case

Bryan Cranston was so good as chemistry-teacher-turned-kingpin Walter White that you could almost suspect that he actually had killed somebody. But did you know that he was once a prime suspect in a homicide? The misunderstanding began when Cranston was working in a restaurant where he had a feud with the head chef, even joking with other colleagues that he wanted to "kill him." However, when said chef ended up dead, and police suspected foul play, Cranston's joking comments ended up biting him in the ass. Luckily, Cranston was able to prove that he was out of town at the time of the chef's death. Phew!

8. Steve Buscemi was once a volunteer firefighter

As if that wasn't impressive enough, Buscemi returned to his post in the aftermath of 9/11 to volunteer, and worked intense twelve-hour shifts for a whole week, digging through the detritus, looking for missing victims. Not only that, but earlier that same year Buscemi was stabbed multiple times after intervening in a bar fight while filming Domestic Disturbance. 

9. Emma Stone is a natural blonde 

She also believes that the reason her voice is so husky is because she suffered from colic as a child, stating in a recent interview: "I don’t know that for a fact. That’s just what I attribute it to. Nobody’s ever really said I was getting a part because of my voice, but it’s the only one I’ve got so I’m sticking with it!"

10. Khloé Kardashian once suffered brain damage

Back in 2001, Khloé suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was involved in an automobile accident which was violent enough to send her smashing through a car windscreen, and left her with severe concussion, causing long-term memory loss.

11. Rebel Wilson's real name is Melanie Elizabeth Bownds

She also revealed in a recent interview that she decided to become an actor after she contracted malaria and ended up hallucinating that she’d won an Oscar. Man, I'm not sure I'd base my career decisions on a fever dream, would you?

12. Ellen Degeneres was offered the part of Phoebe in Friends

Here's another impressive fact about Ellen: with 71 million followers on Twitter she's officially the sixth most-followed user on the social network. That's damn impressive.

Pretty cool right? Well, if you liked our list then check out this article we penned recently all about 11 celebrities who you'd never guess actually have super-rich parents.