Some people are made for fame, and some people are made for complaining about it. While it’s never been exactly cool “to be cool,” you can’t be a celebrity in 2014 without downplaying your celebrity-ness. So in a recent interview with Elle UK, Anne Hathaway – who pretty much dropkicked the spotlight after 2012’s Les Mis – said:
“This fame thing? F*cked me up for a long time. 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!”
Even though Hathaway’s answer reeks a little of Eat, Pray, Love, I actually have sincere respect for grown adults who admit they’re still coming-of-age. I say this with a degree of bias, both because I respect Hathaway as an actress and remember her from my college days where she had a NOTORIOUS reputation as “nice.” And while I’m not sure how or when she became herself (ugh, did it involve yoga?), it’s always good to see actors take time to reflect and grow up.
Hathaway earlier revealed to The Huffington Post that people “needed a break from her.” In her most recent interview, she added:
“I’ve realized that I don’t need validation from anybody. At all. I’m not sitting here now worrying, ‘What do you think of me?’ With all due respect, you seem like a lovely lady, but I don’t need you, or anyone else, to like me.”
That sounds empowering! But maybe . . . incorrect? I’m always a little suspicious of people who says they “don’t care what other people have to say,” or that they’re “above fame,” both because: (1) fame is great. I can’t even imagine what her benefits package looks like! And (2)We all love to judge, and be judged. Favorably. Sure, our culture chews, spits, and throws celebrities out to the dogs, but it also pays them pretty damn well. I empathize, but in ten point font with one hundred footnotes and twenty thousand exceptions.
Hathaway co-stars in Interstellar, coming out November 7th to make most of us (Vince!) super happy.