10 Stars Who Have Opened Up About Living with a Stutter

President Joe Biden

President Biden frequently addresses the nation with ease, but he has struggled with a stutter since childhood. The president opened up about his history with the speech impediment during a CNN town hall in February 2020, revealing that he'd read poetry in front of a mirror for hours to improve his public speaking.

Biden said he still stutters "occasionally, when I find myself really tired" and keeps in contact with a few young people who stutter, serving as a mentor.

"The point I make to these young people that I still work with is that, in fact, it's critically important for them not to judge themselves by their speech — not let that define them," he told CNN.

He was similarly candid to PEOPLE in 2011, reflecting on painful childhood teasing because of his stutter. "You get so desperate; you're so embarrassed," Biden said.

Ed Sheeran

Sheeran had to work to get his words out as a kid, explaining that rapping along to an Eminem album helped him shed his stutter.

"I learned every word of it back to front by the age I was 10, and he raps very fast and very melodically, and very percussively, and it helped me get rid of the stutter," the "Shivers" singer said while accepting an award from the American Institute for Stuttering in June 2015. "And then from there, I just carried on."

In a word of advice to kids struggling with a stutter, he stressed that "stuttering is not a thing you have to be worried about at all."

More importantly, Sheeran added, "Just be yourself, 'cause there's no one in the world that can be a better you than you."

Emily Blunt

"I started noticing it at six or seven," Emily Blunt told PEOPLE in March 2020 of realizing she stuttered. "My grandfather, my uncle and my cousin all stutter. It feels like you've got this imposter living in your body."

A few years later, the actress was bit by the theater bug when a teacher encouraged her to try out for the play after noticing she didn't stutter when she launched into impersonations — and the rest is history.

Today, Blunt works closely with the American Institute for Stuttering, a cause she says will always be close to her heart.

"I know it in every nuance and so to be able to help and to be able to offer up any advice or assistance or emboldenment that I can, it just is the greatest pleasure for me because it's a very misunderstood, misrepresented disability, and … it's one that is very often bullied and laughed at because people look funny and sound funny when they stutter," she told PEOPLE.

Samuel L. Jackson

Though the steely star never skips a beat in his high-profile roles, Samuel L. Jackson kept quiet as a kid because he had a stutter.

"I stuttered really, really, really bad for a long time ... to the point that I stopped speaking for, like, almost a year in school," he said on The Howard Stern Show in January 2016.

In addition to breathing exercises and reading at the library, Jackson said that repeating a certain four-syllable expletive helped him crack the worst of the impediment. (Here’s a hint: He famously uses the curse word in one of his most iconic lines from Snakes on a Plane.)

"I have no idea," Jackson said when Stern asked why the word helped. "But it just does. It clicks a switch."

James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones, who iconically voiced Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and Mufasa in 1994's The Lion King and its 2019 live-action remake, developed a flair for theatrics while working through his boyhood stutter.

While appearing on The Dick Cavett Show in 1972, the legendary actor explained that he was a "very quiet" kid due to his impediment — until a caring teacher intervened.

"I had an English teacher in high school who discovered that when I read my own poetry, I didn't stutter because I wasn't in confrontation with other people's feelings or thoughts," he told the host. "I practiced reading poetry for awhile, and I think that's what got me into the feeling for reading dramatic things."

Bruce Willis

"The hardest thing I remember was being a kid stuttering. My advice to the young people in this room is to never let anyone make you feel like an outcast, because you will never be an outcast," Bruce Willis said while accepting an award from the American Institute for Stuttering in June 2016.

"It's easy to get frustrated with a child who stutters, but believe me, the one who stutters is much more frustrated," the Die Hard star continued. "To the parents of stutterers … be patient, always listen. Offer encouragement, give positive reinforcement always."

Tiger Woods

Woods, who himself stuttered as a child, reached out to a teenage fan who attempted suicide after struggling to fit in due to his stutter, CNN reported in 2015.

"I know what it's like to be different and sometimes not fit in. I also stuttered as a child and I would talk to my dog and he would sit there and listen until he fell asleep," the professional golfer wrote in a heartfelt letter.

He continued: "I was younger than most of the kids I competed against, and often I was the only minority player on the field. But I didn't let that stop me, and I think it even inspired me to work harder. I know you can do that too."

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman makes every role look effortless, but during Newsweek’s 2011 Oscar Roundtable, the Northman actress revealed she had a frustrating stutter as a child.

"I just remember everyone always saying to me, 'Calm down, think about what you're going to say,' " the Oscar winner told the outlet. "I remember when I was little, just being so excited to get it out, and I couldn't."

Kendrick Lamar

"As a kid, I used to stutter," Kendrick Lamar told The New York Times Magazine in June 2014.

"I think that's why I put my energy into making music. That’s how I get my thoughts out, instead of being crazy all the time," the 16-time Grammy-winning rapper added.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe’s breathy voice came about on advice from a speech therapist, who suggested the screen siren try the tone to beat an on-again, off-again stutter she had since childhood, Vanity Fair reported in 2008.

As an adult, the actress revealed she once stuttered through lines so severely while filming an unnamed movie that the director became livid, per The Washington Post.

"The director was furious. He said, 'You don't stutter,' " Monroe recalled. "I said, 'That's what you think!' "