He came to Paris from Benin at the age of 13 to live with his two brothers. He got tired of school and left. "My brothers basically couldn't take care of me anymore and told me to get out and go do my own thing," he recalls.

Going out and doing his own thing it was hard finding a job and Djimon ended up as a vagrant. He was sleeping under bridges and rummaging in trash cans for food. Young and alone, Hounsou lived homeless in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower for a year. He was never quite sure when his next meal would come or where he would sleep each night. "I didn't have working papers," he says in a husky, resonant voice. "It was a very hard time. It was difficult to see a way out."