I have to imagine that imposter syndrome is common among celebrities, because of the incredibly low chances of making it big. (And, to be fair, many of them probably aren’t any better at their craft than tons of people who didn’t make it big, but it doesn’t mean they’re bad or undeserving necessarily)
Like happened with TLC after crazy, sexy, cool came out. I remember an interview with them where they said they were each getting about 50k a year. Not a bad income necessarily but hardly what you’d expect.
Reminds me of a story I heard from a co-worker a long time ago. An acquaintance of hers was in NYC and saw David Bowie shopping at a sidewalk fruit stand. She ran up to him, arms outstretched, squealing, “Oh my God! David Bowie! Can I have a hug?” He kept his cool, politely declined and walked away. She then told people how much of an asshole David Bowie was.
I’ve never understood the desire to be famous. Sounds like a miserable way to live.
I once saw a former celebrity complaining about what its like when they lose their fame and money and are back to being just “normal” again. People really rub it in sometimes.
And I think many celebrities always have that fear - of being out of the loop and having to go back to pumping their own gas.
For some. For others, you could be sitting right next to a celebrity and if they didn’t have their makeup on, I doubt most people would recognize them. Or they wear a hat or sunglasses or something.
You know, you and I both may have our moments where we don’t show the world our best.
We aren’t always that way though. We aren’t even often that way (I know I’m not).
Its funny what even normal mortals like us get remembered for.
Once when I was working retail, a local tv personality asked me and my coworker where something was. We both recognized him, but my coworker freaked out, all excited and started scaring the crap out of him. I quickly pointed to the aisle he wanted and gave him my best “I’m so sorry she’s nuts” face. I always felt terrible for him, that the poor guy couldn’t even pick up whatever small thing he needed without some moron embarrassing everyone.
You can never completely escape. I know someone who was a child actor but that
was almost 60 years ago. Even though he has been out of the movie business
for over a half century and had a regular sort of job as an adult, he still occasionally
has people come looking for him.
If you had a funny and/or memorable line in a film you will spend the rest of your
life having that line repeated to you by complete strangers who think this sort
of thing is fun. Lauren Bacall probably got tired of people asking her “Have you ever been bit by a dead bee?” Jerry Seinfeld has probably had more
than one waiter yell at him “No soup for you!”
I’m glad I’m not a celebrity. Yes, the money can be good but the rest of it is
a headache that I would rather not deal with.
I read somewhere that when you become a huge celebrity - not just well-known, but the level you’re talking about - your emotional development is often arrested at that age, because of that lack of checks and balances to behaviour and ego. So someone who becomes hugely famous at 35 is probably going to be as decent a human being as anyone else, because he’s already emotionally an adult - but someone who becomes a huge celebrity at sixteen is going to have a much harder time turning into a balanced adult.
It’s kind of like the Total Perspective Vortex. Most of us hit a point in our development where we come to terms with the fact that we aren’t the most important thing in the universe.
Many celebrities (especially young ones like Bieber and his ilk) seem to have been put into their own alternate universes, where the Total Perspective Vortex tells them they are the most important thing in the universe. And they act like it.