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As an audience, people might wonder that celebrities who are comfortable under the spotlight are used to being famous and getting their pictures clicked or articles written by them every day but we might have got this fact wrong.
There are a few celebrities who because of their hard work and dedication deserve the spotlight and all the attention but sometimes, the same spotlight and attention crawl back to their mind and scares them away. With so many perks of being a celebrity that comes along for them, dealing with fame in a certain way or adjusting to it accordingly takes time and maybe a thick skin.
Here are a few celebrities who have struggled with fame:
George and Amal Clooney. Image Source: New York Post
Known as one of the most acclaimed and popular actors in the industry, George Clooney aspired to live a simple secluded life out of the spotlight with his family. In his interview with Omega’s Lifetime magazine in 2012, the actor said, "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."
One of the greatest singers we have right now, Billie Eilish has been vocal about how much she tries to stay away from the limelight as she has faced a lot of scrutiny for an 18-year-old kid. In 2019, in her interview with Vanity Fair, she said, "I like being famous, but I used to hate it. I hated doing press and I hated being recognized and I hated kind of everything that had to do with it. There's a lot in fame that's … gross and horrible and just miserable. I'm very grateful for it, and it's really rare and I'm very lucky, so I'm done with complaining about it."
One of the legendary actors who we all know has been scrutinized a lot by the media and the people is Johnny Depp. In one of his interviews with Today, the actor said, "[Being famous] is a little bit like living like a fugitive. 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."
Labeled as a sex symbol at a very young age, Megan Fox has faced a lot of bullying and somewhere still does and has tried to explain how brutal the attention of the audience could be at times. In her interview with Esquire, Megan said, "I don't think people understand. They all think we should shut the f--- 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 10 kids in high school, fame is that, but on a global scale, where you're being bullied by millions of people constantly."
There is no doubt that she was going to be one of the celebrities who have had to deal with the negative aspect of attention or fame because the singer-actress has been vocal about her challenges for the past few years. She entered a treatment facility for depression and anxiety and decided to cancel a part of her Revival World Tour. She later revealed how hard it has been for her, "I've cried onstage more times than I can count, and I'm not a cute crier. My self-esteem was shot. I was depressed, anxious. I started to have panic attacks right before getting onstage, or right after leaving the stage. Basically, I felt I wasn't good enough, wasn't capable. I felt I wasn't giving my fans anything, and they could see it — which, I think, was a complete distortion. … What I wanted to say is that life is so stressful, and I get the desire to just escape it. But I wasn't figuring my own stuff out, so I felt I had no wisdom to share. And so maybe I thought everybody out there was thinking, This is a waste of time." She has also mentioned, "Sometimes, I'll be honest, I don't handle [fame] as well as people, So, it's been important to really figure out what makes me feel grounded." Selena Gomez does not have any social media applications installed on her phone and tries to be with herself as much as she can but right now she is in a better space.
As much as the singer-actress is confident and powerful, Lady Gaga has her days when she feels low. In one of her interviews with CBS Sunday Morning, she shared, "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, I can't call the police or ask them to leave. And I took a long hard look at that property line and I said well, you know, if I can't be free out there, I'm going to be free in here [pointing to her heart]. I miss people. I miss, you know, going anywhere and meeting a random person and saying 'hi' and having a conversation about life. I love people.”
In an Instagram post of 2019, the singer wrote, “I went from a 13-year-old boy from a small town to being praised left and right by the world with millions saying how much they loved me and how great I was. Everyone did everything for me so I never even learned the fundamentals of responsibility. So by this point, I was 18 with no skills in the real world, with millions of dollars and access to whatever I wanted. This is a very scary concept for anyone." Justin Bieber has been extremely vocal about his challenges with being famous at a very young age, his legal issues, substance abuse, and unhealthy relationships but now the singer has managed to turn the whole thing around with the help of his life partner Hailey Bieber and is doing great.
