Yes, I know, another article about celebrity and modern culture. Zeitgeist in my sights; hit, sunk. And what’s this? A secondary narrative about celebrities being hypocritical? My god, I have my hand so firmly on the public’s pulse. But trust me, I’ve got something really interesting to say. Look, I’ve even made up a word: ‘anti-celebrity’.
Mystery has always captivated our imaginations, and there’s nothing so seemingly enigmatic as a celebrity who rejects their own fame. Marlon Brando epitomised this for the previous generation, what with his antics at the 1973 Oscars and his widespread reputation as an impossible person to interview. Taking an altogether more bellicose approach, Oliver Reed didn’t so much reject his fame, as maul it, chew it up and spit it back out, into the faces of interviewers and women’s liberation campaigners alike.
But at least Brando and Reed did that ‘Being famous is ridiculous’ shtick with an undeniable sense of cool and panache. Others have not fared nearly as well. Alec Baldwin’s relationship with celebrity can only be described as a car crash in very slow motion. Baldwin has repeatedly railed against being placed, he claims unwittingly, into the glaring public spotlight; that he never wanted his every move and word to be written down and reported on.
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I completely sympathise with that, because it’s not like he’s a world-famous actor, newspaper columnist, talk-show host, or author of his own upcoming memoirs and other books. How could he possibly have known that very restrained level of exposure would have meant he was recognised in the street? Although, he could probably have thought ahead about the impact of being arrested for riding his bike against the traffic on Fifth Avenue. Because that’s just silly.
I can’t sympathise with Shia LaBoeuf. His meltdown was as public as it comes, even including turning up to a film brief modelling a paper bag over his head, which had written on it, “I’m not famous anymore.” Which is oh so very meta. Am I meant to feel sympathetic that he became famous? What exactly did he think was going to happen by starring (I’m purposefully avoiding describing his role as acting) in the Transformers franchise? And for the record, Shia, trying to atone for your sins by doing a string of niche, hipster art projects doesn’t erase the fact you were in a film series that had to have a trademark symbol in the title.
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This outspoken dismissal of celebrity can be seen as a way of solving the paradox of being, simultaneously, an artist and a businessperson. Prior to the commercialised Disneyland that we now inhabit, it was far easier to maintain artistic endeavours for their own cultural ends. But now, artistic intent has to be balanced with economics. There’s no such thing as creating an album, or a film, for its own sake. There is always a financial corollary. Hence, ‘artists’ are now trapped in the purgatorial no man’s land of trying to appear genuine whilst also flogging their wares.
That paradox wouldn’t be so problematic if it weren’t carried out in such a disingenuous way. Kanye West has had innumerable fracas with paparazzi and journalists for invading his personal life to an excessive degree. Fair enough. But he doesn’t complain when that ‘unwanted’ exposure leads to massive boosts to his music and clothing-line sales. Banksy maintains his persona of a true ‘artiste’, by not gaining financially from the sale of his street art, and yet made a feature-length film in 2010. Are we meant to believe that wasn’t motivated by the brand value of labelling it a Banksy film?
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And let’s not forget the eminent hypocrisy of decrying fame and yet maintaining galling levels of exposure online. How can you complain about being too much in the public eye, and yet have your own website, Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram? That may be what’s needed to remain in the public consciousness, but it entirely blurs the line between necessary and excessive levels of celebrity.
Sia has trod the knife-edge routine of rejecting fame better than most. Despite writing a staggering number of the pop hits of the last five years and her most recent album debuting at No. 1 on the US charts, she has explicitly rejected her fame. She rarely performs live, hence why she doesn’t tour, and when she does, she does so with her back to the audience. She has spoken, in terms eerily reminiscent of dialogue from The Dark Knight, about creating a symbol in the blonde bob wig she, and the performers in her videos, don that means she doesn’t need to be recognised in person. As she said in an interview, all she wants to do is “get fat and pee on the side of the road”. Which is fine. But you really didn’t need to write six best-selling albums to do that, did you Sia?
