Kristen Stewart is the queen of keeping it real at all times, especially since the Twilight Saga wrapped filming and she was caught in a cheating scandal with her Snow White and the Huntsmen director. Most fans have noticed a considerable change over the years in her attitude and appearance as she became more comfortable with being herself.
In May 2015, Stewart exposed the realities of fame to Harper's Bazaar UK, saying, "My palms sweat, my knees shake, I don't think I can stand in my heels, I'm breathing heavily, I feel nauseous. I'll be so nervous and then my body creates something to calm me down and I get so tired... Fame is the worst thing in the world. Especially if it's pointless. When people say, "I want to be famous" – why? You don't do anything?"
As one of the world's best-selling musicians, Stefani Germanotta AKA Lady Gaga has plenty to say in regard to being a celebrity. She skyrocketed to fame in 2007 after dropping her debut album The Fame, which included hit singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face." It's difficult to imagine that a pop star such as Lady Gaga would have regrets about her success, but the downsides of fame tend to outweigh the positives.
Lady Gaga told CBS This Morning about her difficult relationship with fame, saying, "As soon as I go out into the world, I belong, in a way, to everyone else. It's legal to follow me. It’s legal to stalk me at the beach. And I can't call the police or ask them to leave... I miss people. I miss, you know, going anywhere and meeting a random person and saying, 'Hi,' and having a conversation about life."
Longtime fans of Harrison Ford know that he's not one to sugarcoat his feelings or plaster a fake smile for the cameras. From Star Wars to Indiana Jones, this actor has a reputation for coming off as blunt and rugged because he realized how overrated fame was as the years whizzed by.
"You never figure the cost of fame will be a total loss of privacy... It was unanticipated, and I've never enjoyed it," Ford told WENN. "You can get the table you want in a restaurant. It gets you doctor's appointments. But what's that worth? Nothing." However, he does acknowledge the obvious benefit of fame. "I'm in it for the money. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. This is my job."
Teen musician Billie Eilish has found her place in the spotlight in recent years for the hit singles "Ocean Eyes" and Bad Guy." However, any amount of fame can be incredibly draining, especially for someone as young and vulnerable as Eilish, who was only 13 when she started her music career with the help of brother Finneas O'Connell.
A 2019 interview with 3voor12 Extra revealed Eilish's complex feeling regarding how quickly she rose to fame and the pressure that comes with it. "My life is not very peaceful. It's a lot of fun and it's a lot of excitement... but I sort of lost my teenage years, because this all started when I was 13. There is no training, there’s no, like, let me go to a school that’s going to teach me how to be famous."
Similar to Kristen Stewart's experience, Twilight co-star and ex-boyfriend Robert Pattinson has his own slew of issues associated with fame. While he's definitely more lowkey compared to Stewart, especially after the jaw-dropping cheating scandal, he isn't afraid to be honest about everything to do with fame and relationship during interviews.
"I don’t know how to wield [fame], really," Pattinson told FT in 2019, going on to clarify with IO Donna, "I feel like a fish in a glass bowl that doesn't quite know which way to go." He realizes that there's pretty much no going back to his life before the hoards of paparazzi and the pressure of being a celebrity, so he's committed to practicing gratitude and contentment in order to stay afloat.
Megan Fox is another A-list actress who tries to be realistic about fame when speaking with fans and major publications. The notoriously beautiful actress isn't trying to dupe anyone into thinking that having all eyes on you is easy, even with the implied perks of people fawning over your every move.
In 2013, Fox told Esquire the following: "I don't think people understand. They all think we should [shut up] and stop complaining because you live in a big house or you drive a Bentley. So your life must be so great. What people don't realize is that fame, whatever your worst experience in high school, when you were being bullied by those ten kids in high school, fame is that, but on a global scale, where you're being bullied by millions of people constantly."
The children's fantasy series following the orphan boy wizard Harry Potter and his journey learning the ropes at Hogwarts have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history as well as elevating the author J.K. Rowling to become the first billionaire author. Naturally, the film adaptation launched Daniel Radcliffe, who starred as the titular character, into an unprecedented level of international fame.
“A lot of drinking that happened towards the end of Potter and for a little bit after it finished, it was panic, a little bit not knowing what to do next — not being comfortable enough in who I was to remain sober [because there's] no blueprint for starting young and working stuff out,” Radcliffe told BBC Radio 4, similar to what he said in 2019 on Off Camera With Sam Jones. "In my case, the quickest way of forgetting about the fact that you were being watched was to get very drunk."
Anne Hathaway has a complicated reputation. Half of the public thinks she's a spoiled diva while the other half praise her amazing performances in blockbusters like Les Miserables and The Devil Wears Prada. But before she became one of the world's highest-paid actresses, she starred in the cult-classic adaptation of The Princess Diaries at 18.
"This fame thing? F---ed me up for a really long time," Hathaway told Elle U.K. in 2014 about her sudden rise to fame as a teenager. "I didn't know how to do it; I didn't know how to engage with it; it stressed me out. And people would say, 'You just have to be yourself,' and I was like, 'But I don't know who that is yet!'"
The U.K. Royal Family has dominated headlines for months now mostly in part because of Prince Harry and his controversial wife Meghan Markle. While Harry definitely doesn't regret his marriage to the former actress, he made clear through bombshell statements he made to Oprah that Buckingham Palace isn't the most nurturing environment for most people part of or associated with the family.
Prince Harry opened up about being "trapped within the system” to interviewer Oprah Winfrey during an early 2021 interview alongside wife Megha. He clarified, “My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don’t get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that.” The very fact that the couple decided to leave the Royal Family proves that they weren't comfortable with the suffocating fame that comes with living in the palace.
Actor and comedian Zach Galifianakis has been famous since 2001 when he appeared in a wildly successful Comedy Central Presents special that launched his Hollywood career. Between filming and cracking jokes, he finds time to wind down at his farm in North Carolina with his family, which he claimed to Vanity Fair is "a place that I get to think clearly and pretend to know what I am doing."
During an after-screening press conference at New York Film Festival, he elaborated on what makes fame so unappealing and stressful. "It’s dumb. I’m not interested in it. I like to be an actor and that’s it. I think celebrity is a man-made thing. It’s not innate in us. We have people telling us we should pay attention to these people for the wrong reasons — their personal lives and that stuff.”
Secret Life of an American Teenager and Big Little Lies star Shailene Woodley treats fame almost like a taboo. For someone who made their big break in their mid-teens and has maintained her fame since then, Woodley makes sure that terms like "famous" and "celebrity" don't give her a big head or massive ego.
In 2011, she explained that these words made her super uncomfortable, telling Paper magazine, "I'm fine with saying the normal 'F' and 'C' words, but famous and celebrity are off-limits in my book, I just think they are nasty words." She then went on to tell E! News that she tries to keep TV and technology at arms reach. "But I haven't had a TV since I moved out of my parents' house at 18!"
Britney Spears is known around the world as the Princess of Pop, which implies a level of fame within the music industry that's equal to royalty. With fame comes power and influence, but Spears famously kept a down-to-earth reputation even as the media relentlessly attacked her appearance, sensuality, and mental health.
During a 2016 interview on The Cooper Lawrence Show, Spears made it clear that fame isn't for everyone., including her two sons. "I think the magnitude of it and the fame thing – I don't think they've really comprehended what that would even be like. Hopefully, they never will, because it's kind of much."
Dave Chapelle is a leading American stand-up comedian, best known for his bluntness and unapologetic nature on the sketch show Chapelle's Show as well as in real life. On top of comedy specials, Chapelle has experience acting for the silver screen, starring in films including You've Got Mail and the 2018 adaptation of A Star is Born. But how does he really feel about the constant scrunity?
He told CBS This Morning in 2017, “Fame [is scary], yeah, but not so much that I get on a plane to Africa. Fame is not that kind of scary. But it is – fame is a horrifying concept when it’s aimed at you, you know? At the end of the day, it’s so – you don’t have that much control over it. You just try to conduct yourself as best you can.”
Popularly known as Marvel's patriotic superhero Captain America, actor Chris Evans has had trouble grappling with the concept of fame once he found himself smack in the middle of it after the Fantastic Four released in the early 2000s. There are lots of appealing aspects associated with being a celebrity but Evans claims that the glamour wears off quickly.
He told Reuters during the press tour for Captain America: Winter Soldier, "Enjoying acting is different than navigating fame. At times, it can be a bit of a challenge. It’s very tedious. It’s a real chore... They are waiting for you to slip up. They want a headline. You make some foolish statements, then there’s a headline they can sell."
Renowned actor Daniel Day-Lewis announced his retirement from the film industry back in 2017, and age didn't have much sway over his decision. BBC reported the statement issued by his management team, "Daniel Day-Lewis will no longer be working as an actor. He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years. This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject."
This recent retirement wasn't the first time that he stepped away from the spotlight but this time he's serious about staying away, telling W Magazine, "I knew it was uncharacteristic to put out a statement. But I did want to draw a line. I didn’t want to get sucked back into another project. All my life, I’ve mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don’t know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion. It was something I had to do.”
Gigi Hadid is one of the most successful supermodels on the runway right now. From catwalk to delivery room, her personal life is as much on display as the clothes she models. After years of tabloids reporting on her on-off relationship with baby daddy Zayn Malik, it's only natural that she's started having some doubts about fame since the birth of Khai.
On top of everything it takes to be a celebrity, she admitted to Elle that losing friends is the hardest part. "So in a way it's good because you learn that it's better to have a few really good friends than tons of friends you aren't really sure about... I've lost a lot of friends because I'll get busy for a short period of time, and they're not reaching out, but if I don't reach out, then it's like I've changed."
Believe it or not, Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt also has regrets about becoming famous. If you're already a dedicated watcher of E! News, then you know the ins and outs of every one of Pitt's dramatic romances. We bet if he had another choice, then the "Braniston" and "Brangelina" fiasco wouldn't have been broadcast to the world, especially when he's on a movie tour.
"It's everything we didn't sign up for," he complained to Newsweek. "There's this whole other entity that you get sucked into. You have to go and sell your wares. Somehow you're not supporting your film if you don't get out on a show and talk about your personal life. It has nothing to do with why I do this."
After four decades of acting, George Clooney's secured his place as a household name all over the world. From ER to Ocean's Eleven, he obviously knows what he's doing in the acting biz, and enjoys it, too. But what if he got to perform without the pitfalls of being a celebrity? According to Omega's Lifetime Magazine, Clooney isn't afraid of speaking up about the dangers of fame:
“Fame can be very dangerous, because you can start to enjoy that part of it. And that’s not the good part of what I do for a living. The good part is the making of films. The unpleasant part is the fame part, if you’re not careful.” Wise words.
Johnny Depp's been dissing fame since 2014! During an interview with Randee Dawn on theToday Show regarding his film Transcendence, Depp admitted that he's hated (and continues to hate) being a celebrity for a long time. In fact, it sounded like he's never gotten used to it despite all the movies and premieres he's been part of.
"It's a little bit like living like a fugitive," he noted without missing a beat. "Everything has to be some sort of strategy. To get you into the hotel, to get you out of the hotel, to get you into the restaurant, to get you out of the restaurant." And while he holds major respect and gratitude for his fans, Depp would "easily" give up his celebrity status to make movies in peace.
Shia LeBeouf is one of the most outspoken celebrities when it comes to hating fame. By famously wearing a bag over his head at a red carpet event with the words "I am not famous anymore" plastered across the front, he made it clear to the world that fame is not the heavenly life everyone expects it to be.
Despite claims that he's "retiring from public life," he manages to scrape his way to movie premieres, parties, award shows, and conferences. But don't look at him! He hates that... But what he hates most of all is being asked questions. During a 2014 panel before the premiere of his movie Nymphomaniac, the actor stormed out of the conference after interviewers questioned him about the film's content.
Mark Whalberg isn't necessarily upset with being famous in the present moment, but he still feels shame regarding how he got famous in the first place. Most people know him as an amazing A-list actor or the former frontman of the '90s rap group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. What you might not know is that he was a drug dealer and committed many racially-charged assaults as a teenager before his music career even began!
That's right -- Whalberg was a criminal! No wonder he regrets how he got famous. In a 2017 interview with Boston.com, he commented on the bad press surrounding Justin Bieber: “People give him flak for growing up in the spotlight, and they say he has a bit of an attitude. But you look at the look on my face [in the Calvin Klein ad]. I mean, I was the biggest punk in the world. He’s very nice, young, and polite compared to what I was.”
Poor guy... Jack Gleeson's entire reputation was tainted by the bloodthirsty image of Joffrey Baratheon in HBO's hit fantasy Game of Thrones. His character is one of the most hated in the world; unfortunately, that same energy extended to his real life. Playing the villain in any series gets you plenty of attention, but not the good kind...
At the Oxford Union in 2014, Gleeson opened up about his retirement from acting, which had a lot to do with fans' warped perceptions of his true character. "When you make a living from something, it changes your relationship with it. It’s not like I hate it, it’s just not what I want to do. Being a faceless member of a mob, I soon realized, is far more comforting than teetering on a brittle pedestal one inch off the ground."
Kylie Jenner holds a special place in this conversation. As a golden member of the Kardashians, it's hard to fathom that any of them actually regret becoming famous. The youngest member of the clan, she's been surprisingly outspoken about her regrets, which include missing out on a "normal" childhood.
She revealed most of her feelings in the E! miniseries Life of Kylie: “I don’t know what it’s like to live a normal... I’m getting the bug again, where I just want to run away. I just don’t know who I’m doing it for... Sometimes I wish I could do what [other celebrities] do. But that’s not me. I don’t want my picture taken. I don’t want people to see what outfit I’m wearing. Every time there’s paparazzi, I cover my face."
Macaulay Culkin's entire life changed when Home Alone was released in 1990 just in time for Christmas. Like many other child stars, he's practically never known what it's like to be a normal person. Heck, he didn't even get to be a normal kid! As a result, he chose the life of a father and husband instead of a Hollywood star. In fact, he gladly admits he utterly resents the spotlight.
E! News reports that Culkin had distinct memories of being overworked as a kid. "I just remember the exact point when I was growing a little more tired... I just said to [my father], 'Listen, I'm really getting tired and I'm not at school as much as I'd like to be; I really need some time off..." Now, he'll "take walks at two or four in the morning because there’s nobody out on the streets and it’s easy for me to go unnoticed. [But] even if I don’t get bugged, it’s looming, it’s there."
James Bond -- um, we mean, Daniel Craig is best known for his role as the international super spy... well... James Bond, as you already know. Craig doesn't detest fame for any reason that we haven't already heard, but he holds a particular disdain for smartphones and random people snapping photos with them in public.
He told The Sun all about his sudden transition from a semi-normal life to superstar when he landed the Bond role. " My personal life was affected by being that famous all of a sudden. I used to lock myself in and close the curtains, I was in cloud cuckoo land. I was physically and mentally under siege. I didn’t like the newfound level of fame. It was Hugh Jackman who helped me to come to terms with it and appreciate it.”
Justin Bieber was once every teenage girl's dream guy... and everyone else's most hated pop singer. At barely 16-years-old, Bieber released his first single "Baby," which notoriously became one of the most disliked YouTube videos of all time. That's got to mess with your head, especially at that age.
When asked if he regrets his fame by NME, he replied, "All the time. And I feel isolated. You’re in your hotel room and there are fans all around, paparazzi following you everywhere, and it gets intense. When you can’t go anywhere or do anything alone you get depressed.”
Katy Perry didn't mince words when Teen Vogue asked her what it's like to be famous. Most publications targeted to teens probably expect celebrities to say something encouraging and motivational... This popstar had a different idea. She'd rather tell the truth about her experience than lead people astray with tales of fancy.
“I’m tired of being famous, but I’m not tired of creating," Perry told the magazine. "Fame is just a disgusting by-product of what I do. But I stopped focusing on what other people think a while ago. It’s a delicate creature – a wild animal of sorts. It can love you, and then it can attack you."
What does Idris Elba regret the most about being famous? Losing friends. In fact, he thinks that it complicates all of your personal relationships. Because fame is rarely reversible, he mourns the fact that he'll never be able to shake the paranoia that comes with choosing who he can trust.
“Sometimes you’re not sure what’s real or not, especially when it comes to relationships,” Elba told Loaded in 2014. “If you’re adored by millions -- sometimes even on your own front doorstep! -- you can become paranoid and constantly question, ‘Who is he? Who is she?’ I know I’ve been guilty of it in the past.”
Former Disney star Selena Gomez is known for her courage and transparency in terms of discussing her mental health. Over the years, she admits that it's been a struggle to keep up appearances in front of audiences and screens alike. She describes fame as a source of constant, unbearable pressure, which led her to resent fame.
In an interview with Vogue, Gomez revealed, "I’ve cried onstage more times than I can count, and I’m not a cute crier." And to Business of Fashion, “I see a disconnect from real life connections to people, and that makes me a little worried. I do think social media is an amazing way to stay connected, to learn more things about what’s going on outside your little bubble, but sometimes I think it’s too much information.”
Ricky Gervais can't get over the fact that people know who he is. Like, millions of people. If you hate when people are up in your business, getting famous is definitely not the best path for you... No wonder he's so resentful! As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side.
During an interview with Newsweek, Gervais quipped, “I've learnt what I knew before I went into it: It's meaningless. Fame per se is nothing. It's not to be looked up to, it's not to be worshipped. There should be no privilege that comes with being famous. I feared it at first because I didn't want to be lumped in with those people that were famous for doing anything."
