James Earl Jones was an absolute hunk when he was younger

Believe it or not, James Earl Jones — with the comforting, powerful voice perfect for narration — had a prominent stutter as a child. It was so intense, in fact, that Jones barely spoke for years. “I didn’t want to talk — bad enough that I just gave up,” he told NPR. “…it was too painful.”

What he could do, however, was help others. “There was another pupil who sat behind me who was also a stutterer and the teacher, who was young, would shake him, and I’d say, ‘L-l-lll-l-let me teach him’ and I took over his studies, or when he had to talk,” Jones recalled, per the Daily Mail. “I understood him. I understood that shaking him was not going to help.”

It took a passionate high school teacher, and the act of writing and reciting poetry, for Jones to find his own voice. His teacher “insisted that I read [my poetry] out loud. … That sort of gave me some confidence in uttering words,” he told MLive.

To this day, Jones said his stutter is still part of his life. “I don’t say I was ‘cured,'” he told NPR. “I just work with it.”

Written by: Nicki