Earlier this week, Paper Towns star and internet darling Cara Delevingne had a particularly awkward interview with Good Morning Sacramento. Everyone had opinions about this particular stop on the press tour, some claiming that Delevingne was justifiably annoyed at the unprofessional nature of the interview, while others thought that she was just a brat. There was so much hullabaloo that Delevingne gave her side of the story on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Caradelevingne/status/626413539708809217
Paper Towns author John Green eventually grew so frustrated with the public outcry that he wrote an essay on Medium to defend Delevingne and to shed some light on the tedious and sexist nature of the average junket. One of the main issues he raised was that it was just assumed Delevingne’s male co-star, Nat Wolff, had actually read the book and that she had not.
“I am friends with Cara, and the author of the book in question. I spent more than a month with her on tour in Europe and the U.S., and I watched as again and again, she was asked this question. Cara has read the book (multiple times), but the question is annoying — not least because her male costar, Nat Wolff, was almost always asked when he’d read the book, while Cara was almost always asked if she’d read it.”
Green spoke of his own experience on press tours and how easy it is to fall into rote answers without really thinking after countless interviews packed into a short period of time. He explains that that is not Delevingne’s way at all.
“Cara, however, refuses to stick to the script. She refuses to indulge lazy questions and refuses to turn herself into an automaton to get through long days of junketry. I don’t find that behavior entitled or haughty. I find it admirable. Cara Delevingne doesn’t exist to feed your narrative or your news feed — and that’s precisely why she’s so f*cking interesting.”
Wherever you fall on this issue, the full essay is worth a read. People often think that celebrities exist merely for our consumption, but they’re just as human as the rest of us.
