In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, actress Jenna Ortega confessed that she believes celebrity, the condition of fame and broad public recognition, is ridiculous. “I remember feeling really wrong for resisting it,” she confessed to writer Michelle Ruiz. “I think if anybody were in my shoes and reacted to it in a welcoming manner, there’s something severely wrong with you.” Ruiz characterised Ortega’s confession as brave, asserting she is “unafraid to say the quiet part [of fame] out loud.” However, there have been a number of other celebrities who have recently come out to express similar disdain for life in the spotlight.
Recently, Paul Mescal, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist, and Zendaya have been vocal about how fame has negatively impacted their lives. In an interview with The Times, Mescal told the publication that if his celebrity was to increase further after the release of Gladiator II, he would get “profoundly depressed” and would have to “move on and do an obtuse play nobody wants to see.”
When Ortega’s interview was published on X, her comments were criticised by fans, as they believed she was being ungrateful for the privileges that her celebrity status has given her. One X user commented that “It‘s so funny to see famous millionaires sh*tting on their careers while so many people would die to have their opportunities. Like girl, maybe the grocery store around the corner needs a new cashier.” It’s understandable why celebrities are met with little compassion when they complain about their lives or the negative aspects of being globally recognised. While being interviewed by Alex Cooper, host of Call Her Daddy, Hunter Schafer – in a discussion about buying a house – remarked that she has “a lot of f*cking dough” and “no idea how to use it.” Similarly, Emma Chamberlain revealed on a different podcast that she does not look at her bank account because she doesn’t have to.
she’s kinda become insufferable since wednesday pic.twitter.com/QCkYJ06s3k https://t.co/M3sFfSrLeH
— lina (@evermoresivy) August 6, 2024
In the context of our ongoing cost-of-living crisis (which is so miserably boring to talk about), young people’s inability to even consider buying a house, the homelessness epidemic, and all of the suffering we see around the world, it is difficult to even feign empathy for celebrities, who flash their wealth in our faces even when they’re not purposefully trying to brag about it.But there is a difference between those desperate for fame and attention and those who just want to make good art. Actor Jacob Elordi attempted to make that distinction clear in his GQ Man of the Year interview, where he talked about how much he hated making the Kissing Booth movies: “I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies,” he says. “Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape.” He explained that he did it because he needed money but is happy that he can now be in movies and work with directors he truly adores. When the interview came out, Elordi, like Ortega, was labelled as “ungrateful” for not acknowledging the acclaim he achieved through the Kissing Booth and for stating that he wanted to make work that he was genuinely proud of.
While it’s easy to blame celebrities for their wealth, selfishness, and alliance with the political elite (and we should continue to blame and shame them), we seem to be in an endless cycle of hating celebrities and calling them selfish and ungrateful when they, too, hate celebrity culture. Even though the media plays a powerful role in creating celebrities — *cough, cough* Glen Powell — we have a significant part to play in their creation as well.
BeautyHas Botox killed eroticism?
Abolish celebrity right now! Divest from celebrity culture, seriously. If you are so invested in celebrity, that it has you compromising your own morals and principles, you need to back away. Being a fan doesn’t mean you owe these people 100% loyalty and can’t criticize them.
— AshleyStevens (@The_Acumen) December 2, 2023
In their latest podcast episode titled ‘The Kamala Harris Vibe Shift’, Critics at Large co-host Vinson Cunningham discussed the importance of not being “a fan” of people. While speaking directly about politicians, specifically Harris, he notes that people must “think about themselves as a [free] agent and the people you know as the real protagonists of your own reality.” He continues: “Recentre your ideas of the future in things you can feel and touch.”
Being a fan of people is fun. As a teenager, everything is so intense, including your love and hate for people in your life and those you admire on your phone screen. But fan worship can lead us to dehumanise people. We can stop them from living their lives freely and practising their craft on their own terms. This dehumanisation does not only affect them, but it affects us as well, as we become so focused on their lives rather than our own. While the concept of celebrity should be abolished, it won’t come to an end if we treat celebrities like they’re dancing monkeys who shouldn’t complain about how this toxic concept affects them.
