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The floodgates have officially opened.
For years Hollywood’s biggest celebrities have been living a life that none of us could imagine, and it’s been easy to see them as simply luckier than the rest, or #blessed, or whatever word for damn I wish that were me you’d like to use. But nowadays the winds are blowing a bit differently, and there’s a noticeable change in the air. Celebrities are starting to realize that this Hollywood machine has become a bit of a monster, and thanks to seemingly wonderful inventions like Twitter and Instagram, there’s no such thing as privacy anymore.
But does this blowback go too far? When Justin Bieber announced yesterday that he’s officially building a proverbial brick wall between himself and the fans who gave him everything, it seemed to bookmark a period when everyone is setting boundaries—boundaries that we didn’t all agree to. At what point does a celebrity’s craving for respect and space become a scenario of biting the hand that feeds them?
It could be argued this all started with Jennifer Garner. It should be no surprise, of course, that the powerhouse in charge of the “He can cast quite a shadow” quote heard ’round the world also was one of the first actresses to take a stand against paparazzi. The supermom of three, alongside Halle Berry, helped shepherd through a California law back in 2013 that protected children of celebrities from lurking (and often aggressive) photographers. The actress was sick of being stalked down by paparazzi and wanted to put an end to the assumption that just because someone is famous, they want to be hounded all hours of the day.
“I think that there’s an idea that because our pictures are everywhere that we are complicit in it,” she told Today. “When what really happens is they’re waiting outside our door every single day. I can’t go to the mailbox without getting my picture taken. And so I don’t.”
Thanks to Garner’s hard work, celebrities started to realize that there was a world in which they didn’t have to accept an invasion of privacy as just a fact of life. Slowly but surely, they started fighting back—literally and figuratively. A middle finger here. A little shove there. And who could blame them, when the people on the receiving end were the dreaded paparazzi?
Like everything in life, this revelation had a ripple effect. It’s okay to admit how crappy it is to be photographed at all hours of the day? Great, because I also have some thoughts on other parts of the industry that I don’t really appreciate.
Next, take one Jennifer Lawrence. Consider her the poster child for outspoken women everywhere, which makes her the perfect person to bring to light some of the frustrations of the business. Like the pay gap, which she so eloquently spoke out against. But she has also been vocal about some of the less glamorous aspects of being one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actresses—telling of fighting fatigue and exhaustion, losing her ability to choose her own schedule and basically feeling like an object meant to be paraded around. But it’s better if she tells it in her own words.
“I don’t stop working, because I’m a show pony,” she told Stephen Colbert in December. “I don’t have a choice. So I just keep going until eventually my body’s like, if we don’t make her puke or pass out she won’t stop. I get, like, Lindsay Lohan-grade exhaustion.”
A month beforehand, she told Conan O’Brien that the Hunger Games press tour was “exhausting” and that “they pushed this show pony too far.” Jokes, sure, but they hint at a larger exasperation.
Those issues are pretty black-and-white. Innocent children versus paparazzi? America’s darling JLaw versus the big, bad, money-hungry studio? That’s an easy argument. But what happens when celebrities start to get fed up with us? Is it still okay to speak out when you’re doing so to the detriment of the very people who paid their own (much less plentiful) money to make you who you are?
By now we’re all familiar with Justin Bieber’s escalating frustration. Back in March he abruptly canceled all meet-and-greets during his Purpose World Tour, little girls’ dreams and four-figure price tags be damned. He cited the pressure of meeting people’s expectations as cause for making him “drained and unhappy,” before apologizing. As you can imagine, fans’ emotions were all over the map: Angry, disappointed, and mostly just incredibly flummoxed that no one was going to refund them the money they spent on the meet-and-greet in the first place.
And this week he took it a step further, announcing that he will no longer take pictures with fans…period. “If you happen to see me out somewhere know that I’m not gonna take a picture I’m done taking pictures,” he wrote. “It has gotten to the point that people won’t even say hi to me or recognize me as a human, I feel like a zoo animal, and I wanna be able to keep my sanity.”
If this sounds familiar, it’s because Amy Schumer made almost the same announcement recently, posting on Instagram about a bad run-in with a fan and claiming to be done taking pictures with them. It capped off a bit of a tumultuous period between the comedian and her formerly adoring public, as she’s also called out members of the public (civilians, if you will) on social media before, like the 17-year-old she ripped to shreds for making an admittedly lewd joke about spending the night with her.
In both of these cases there’s been a considerable backlash against Schumer and Bieber for being ungrateful or wanting the best of both worlds—to be rich and famous but also enjoy the comforts of a “normal” person. There are always two sides to every argument, so let’s dive in. First, the pro-celeb.
In Amy’s case, many fans seem to think that they can treat her the way she treats herself in her jokes. They dish out criticism about her looks or her body that are frankly none of their business, as is the case with the aforementioned teen with the dirty mouth. She also does reserve the right to decline interactions with people she sees on the street—the man who caused her to denounce all fan photos supposedly genuinely frightened her, and that’s not cool at all.
As for Bieber, it’s no secret that he’s struggled with the price of fame over his short life. He has had run-ins with the law and issues with partying that clearly belie a deeper issue, and just yesterday a source told E! that his negative concert reviews have been weighing on him and that he feels “like he has the weight on the world on his shoulders.” Those are big problems for a 22-year-old, and any claims to his mental well-being should not be taken lightly; no fan interaction is worth your own mental health.
Our society has become so obsessed with celebrity and social media has completely blurred the lines between public and private, and it truly has gotten out of hand. Gone are the days when a famous person could raise their children without an entire blogosphere chiming in on what they’re doing wrong, or step out after a family tragedy without every person they pass on the street wanting to know the gory details. But there’s a way to ask for some leeway with respect, here.
After all, when Amy called out the fan who yelled at her, she did so by posting his picture to her millions of followers, throwing him to the sharks in the court of public opinion without a way to stand up for himself. And when Justin cancelled his meet and greets, he did so without taking one second to think about the little girls who had been looking forward to that day for months, or the parents who had scrimped and saved to provide that opportunity. There’s a happy medium out there, and we’ve got to be able to find it—especially if this new normal means that A-listers and their fans are going to be interacting more than ever. Stars and their handlers will soon have to shift their strategies to accommodate this no-privacy environment, lest they risk backlash that may even affect their careers.
Should celebrities be able to share concern over their loss of privacy or overworked schedules or constant criticisms openly with the world? Of course. Should they also remember that they’re sharing those concerns with the very people who gave them everything they have; things that make them light years more fortunate than the average American? Most definitely. The term mutual respect comes to mind here—fans for the celebrities who, underneath it all are very real humans with very real feelings, and celebrities for the masses who are dedicated to their success.
Because even if you’re a show pony, it’s a heck of a lot better than being the rest of us.
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