Ricki Lake Says She Was Homeless After Hit Movie ‘Hairspray’

HAIRSPRAY, Ricki Lake, Divine, 1988
Everett Collection

Ricki Lake, who became a breakout star at 18 after landing the lead role in Hairspray, the 1988 John Waters film, was homeless in her early twenties, she recently shared on the I Choose Me With Jennie Garth podcast.

EMBRACE, Ricki Lake, 2016.

© Transmission Films /Courtesy Everett Collection

“It was only when my career stopped when I was about 21, 22, and I didn’t get this big part that I wanted,” Lake, 56, said. “I was really devastated. I went from like making all this money to making nothing and had to give up my house. And I was homeless for a short time. I had to move, but it was the most humbling experience that I’m so grateful for.”

Lake lost between $200,000 and $300,000 after the release of Hairspray, a film that revolves around optimistic, self-proclaimed “pleasantly plump” teenager Tracy Turnblad (Lake) as she pursues stardom as a dancer on a local TV show and rallies against segregation in 1962 Baltimore.

“But it taught me so much about the value of a dollar,” Lake noted. “And thankfully, I didn’t have a family to support at that time.”

THE RICKI LAKE SHOW, Ricki Lake, 1993-

Everett Collection

Luckily, Lake’s popular daytime talk show, Ricki Lake, began not long after in 1993 (and she scored a role in Waters’ 1990 film Cry Baby before that), which lifted the actress out of poverty. The show ran for 11 years, until 2004. In late 2012, Lake began hosting another syndicated talk show, The Ricki Lake Show, but it was canceled in 2013 after a single season; Lake won her first Daytime Emmy Award for the project. More recently, she’s been a host on several game and reality shows, such as 2017’s Unexpected and 2021’s Pictionary.

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