Kerem Bürsin Opens Up About His Tough Life Before Fame: I Was Unemployed, I Survived on One Sandwich a Day

Kerem Bürsin, one of Turkey’s most famous actors, opened up about his struggles before fame on ABTalks, one of the world’s most-watched YouTube shows. Sharing that he worked various jobs before starting his acting career, Bürsin said, “I was unemployed for a long time. I survived on one sandwich a day. I did things like social media campaigns. There was no Instagram, so I was emailing mom bloggers.”

Kerem Bürsin appeared as a guest on ABTalks, hosted by Anas Bukhash. Joining a roster that has included Will Smith, Priyanka Chopra, Lewis Hamilton, Zinedine Zidane, and Jessica Alba, the actor answered candidly and shared an unforgettable memory from his university years: “I finished college with a broken jaw. I broke it on graduation day and had a screw in it. At that time, my blood sugar dropped; I was hypoglycemic. I was working out a lot and not using my body properly for the effort I was putting in. It was a terrible experience. In the end, you realize everything is connected to food. It was a really interesting experience.”

“I Fed Myself with One Sandwich a Day”

Explaining that he worked many jobs before acting, Bürsin said there was a period when he emailed mom bloggers: “I was unemployed for a long time. I fed myself with one sandwich a day. I did something like a social media campaign. I was looking at blogs because blogs were very popular. My thing was mom bloggers. I spent seven months emailing mom bloggers. Then I got lucky and landed my first acting gig. It was a commercial—an El Pollo Loco ad—and all I did was take a bite of a sandwich. I don’t remember exactly how much I made, but I think it was a thousand dollars. I was like, ‘Wow, I just bit a sandwich and made a thousand dollars.’ I lost my mind. I was so happy. I remember talking to my dad. After that, I got a real acting job with Roger Corman. He makes low-budget but cult-status films. I did a movie with him called ‘Kanlı Sahil’ (‘Bloody Shore’). Because of that, I had to quit the social media job. I thought, ‘Now I might start getting acting offers,’ but they didn’t come. That’s when I thought, ‘Okay, this isn’t easy at all.’ After that, I started driving. I’d take actors who came from abroad and didn’t have licenses to the set. You realize that you actually want to be the one in that seat, but they’re the ones sitting there. I did that for a while. I also worked the front desk at a gym for a while—welcoming people. And I kept driving on the side. Then I even became a trainer for a bit.”

“I Don’t Live Life Like a Celebrity”

Bürsin said he doesn’t live like a famous person and prefers places where nobody knows him: “I don’t live life like a celebrity. I wake up every morning and forget who I am. I’m like, ‘What difference does it make?’ But do I miss a lot of things? Yes. That’s why I go where people don’t know me and live my life.”

“If You’re Lucky, You Can Find Love”

Bürsin also spoke about love: “I don’t think love has a single meaning for me or for others. If you look at it that way, love is going to look like a postcard. I think love is something fluid. And something fluid changes shape and form a lot. If I say, ‘This is what love is for me,’ then I’ll only expect this—just this—from different people. That’s not fair at all. Then you can never be happy. Or you can never fall in love. Because you’ll never find it. Then you think you’ve found it, but it turns out to be something toxic. Love is a great stroke of luck. I don’t think everyone falls in love. Imagine if we all fell in love and we all had that capacity. No—if you’re truly lucky, I think you can find love.”