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Celebrities in the performing arts who have the most vexed relationships with fame

The only ones whom I think you can fairly say truly hated fame are the ones who genuinely walked away from it when they were young for ever, like Deanna Durbin and Virginia Weidler. If Jodie Foster [italic]really[/italic] hated fame as much as she says, for example, she could easily retire on her earnings and stop making movies altogether (and would have done so long ago). Even Greta Garbo kept acting until she hit middle age, and even in retirement enjoyed being friends with wealthy depople and celebrities in Manhattan (she did not retire to a small town in Sweden, for example, and only hang out with ordinary people).

But I still think you can say that certain celebrities have bigger love/hate relationships with fame than others, and Jodie Foster would top the list. I would also include:

*Daniel Day-Lewis (has "retired" from acting once, and came back to act again, and has said he has retired a second time--but only in later middle age, and who knows if it will stick)

*Agnetha Fältskog from ABBA

*George Clooney

by Anonymousreply 17September 20, 2019 8:26 PM

Anne Shirley was another— she walked away from Hollywood at 26.

by Anonymousreply 1August 19, 2019 3:02 AM

I don't think Dolores Hart counts since she had a "calling" to God and became a nun--she didn't leave because she hated the fame.

I think you CAN count Michael "Sixteen Candles" Schoeffling and Michael "Hairspray" St. Gerard, however, as true fame haters. They started as child actors, discovered they didn't like being famous, and left the profession as young adults to do other things with their lives.

Other people today who incessantly bitch about being famous:

Ricky Gervais (probably the phoniest complainer of all, since he does award show hosting!)

Jennifer Lawrence

Brad Pitt

Johnny Depp

by Anonymousreply 2August 19, 2019 3:12 AM

I can be needy and feel I would be content with being famous.

I've traveled with a celebrity acquaintance before, and I see the wretched downside, but I could make my peace with it.

by Anonymousreply 3August 19, 2019 4:04 AM

Deanna Durbin retired in 1950;

She lived in a farm in France until her death in 2013!

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by Anonymousreply 4September 19, 2019 7:34 AM

I think Leonardo DiCaprio genuinely struggles with being famous. In pap photos he always hides under hoodies, baseball caps and sunglasses. It's like it's still 1998 in his head and he expects to get chased down the street by screaming teen girls. The hype after Titanic did a number on him I think. His demeanor in interviews and on red carpets changed after that; he became much more guarded. He also started putting on weight and dressing like a slob, like he was (subconsciously) trying not to be hot anymore.

I remember an early interview where he said he liked being famous. But Titanic was too much for him to handle I think.

by Anonymousreply 5September 19, 2019 8:03 AM

Losing Michael Schoeffling was a goddamn tragedy

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by Anonymousreply 6September 19, 2019 8:20 AM

Julie Christie

When she arrived back in London having won The Oscar she looked freaked out by all the attention.

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by Anonymousreply 7September 19, 2019 8:25 AM

I was going to mention DiCaprio as well, R5. I don’t know *exactly* how “Titanic” affected him, but he seemed to become a completely different person publicly—including in pap photos and even his films themselves after that.

However I might feel about him as a person and actor (I’m not a huge fan, but think he did have a lot of raw talent pre-“Titanic”—a rare quality) I agree that the degree of fame after that film came out seemed to “do a number on him” as you put it...

At first I was thought that perhaps he had just started acting aloof and “uncooperative” with the “Hollywood machine”/paps and fans because huge fame also gave him a huge ego and made him an arrogant jerk.

He *may* actually be an arrogant jerk in real life (I have no idea or insider info) but the more time that goes on, the more his interactions with fame and the media seem more anxiety driven or something similar.

He seems genuinely stressed on red carpets and during press calls for films, uncomfortable during sit down interviews, freaked out when photographed by paps, and displays almost defensive looking body language during the various press events I mentioned above. He also seems extremely self-conscious during every interview; nothing seems relaxed or organic with him.

He also seems to purposely show no personality or sense of humor anymore during interviews (so different than when he first became famous—like with Romeo + Juliet” for instance—when he actually seemed like a young guy with a fun personality and goofy sense of humor and enthusiasm for film, etc.) since “Titanic”.

He comes across like an emotional cipher now in all press interactions and interviews, doesn’t interact with fans or the public, and is almost as distant in his interviews as he now is in his screen performances post-Titanic (with “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” being a huge and wonderful exception—he’s actually great in it...)

Even with the press tour for the movie though, he still seems ill at ease in his own skin, extremely self-aware, and excessively guarded.

I’m not a psychologist and don’t know anyone in his circle, but I wonder what the real deal is with him and fame.

Clearly something changed in him after “Titanic” in a major way that did not happen to someone similar like Brad Pitt after “Thelma and Louise”’and his huge fame breakthrough....

I think the unfortunate part of it is that DiCaprio seemed to stop developing emotionally after “Titanic” (like he’s forever 20 mentally), became withdrawn and overly guarded as a public figure, and even started giving emotionally guarded, self-conscious performances on screen (with a very few exceptions)—when before “major fame” had hit, he seemed like a kind of fun and funny young guy having a great time in Hollywood and giving very emotionally vulnerable, vital, and accessible performances (see: “Gilbert Grape” and “This Boy’s Life”) and still displaying what didn’t always look like pained and stressed out smiles and interactions with the press and the public (so unlike he is now).

You would have thought when he was this young, ambitious, outgoing actor (especially having been “in the business” since he was a toddler) that he’d be destined to have an easy relationship with fame (like someone like Brad Pitt seems to have) but I guess something after “Titanic” did “traumatize” him somehow because he seems like a totally different person now who is ill at ease with himself, the public, and his life in many ways....

by Anonymousreply 8September 19, 2019 8:43 AM

Bump!

by Anonymousreply 9September 20, 2019 2:14 PM

Fame did not do Michael Jackson one bit of good. It made him a fuck of a lot of money, but the cost of doing business was always far too high.

by Anonymousreply 10September 20, 2019 2:34 PM

[quote]Deanna Durbin retired in 1950

No, that's when I ran the bitch out of Hollywood

by Anonymousreply 11September 20, 2019 2:41 PM

r10

He's lucky, his pedophelic behavior would've killed him. Blacks don't mess around, you sexually assault their babies and they don't call the police, they whoop your ass till you walk like Jerry's Kids

By being rich, he was able to buy his way out of all his troubles.

by Anonymousreply 12September 20, 2019 2:43 PM

"If you don't like being a pop star, stop being one."

by Anonymousreply 13September 20, 2019 2:53 PM

Bobbie Gentry.

I think I read somewhere that she grew tired of fame and performing and simply dropped out of the scene.

by Anonymousreply 14September 20, 2019 2:55 PM

Something is definitely "off" with Leonardo Dicaprio.

by Anonymousreply 15September 20, 2019 3:03 PM

People who just drop out of the entertainment don't have a "vexed" relationship with fame, they've made up their minds. Like Jack Gleeson, who played Joffrey on "Game of Thrones" so brilliantly, he's left acting and gone off to college with a bit of Hollywood's money in his pocket, and plans for a career in academia. No vexation there!

Someone like Emma Watson, on the other hand, who tried to leave fame and acting and then came back and doesn't seem to be terribly happy with Hollywood or the state of her career... yeah, she's probably "vexed" with fame.

by Anonymousreply 16September 20, 2019 7:58 PM

The surgical masks. The drugs. The boys. The monkey. I don't think we can say that Jackson's fame and fortune bought him out of much. But it bought him into a world of craziness.

by Anonymousreply 17September 20, 2019 8:26 PM
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