Rebel Wilson looks like she’s the life of the party these days, with starring roles in Pitch Perfect, A Night at the Museum and her own show on ABC.

But things weren’t always so rosy, the 29-year-old actress recently revealed to Elle magazine.

“When I was a girl at high school, I was so unpopular. I had no friends because I was so shy, I was just shunned. I’ve learned now to compensate, especially in work situations. But then I was so painfully shy, my face would go all red when I spoke to people. Just embarrassingly shy.

“And when you’re shy like that you tend to watch people a lot because you’re not participating in the fun, normally you’re just watching other people having fun. You’re at the disco sitting by yourself on the side watching other people and you think, ‘Why are they popular? Why are they having so much fun?”

Eventually the actress grew tired of sitting on the sidelines, deciding to turn her life around and force herself to make friends.

“It sounds sad now but I made a conscious decision in high school and I thought, ‘There’s nothing wrong with me, I can be someone who has friends, I just need to have confidence and be true to myself.

I thought I could be like that forever, I could be the shy girl who never talks up or never stand up for herself but I knew I was so much better than that, so I could do it. And I was like, ‘There’s a way to stay true to yourself and become popular and be a nice person.”