Celebrity and personal growth - Jimmy Smits and others on fame

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Celebrity and personal growth – Jimmy Smits and others on fame

“Celebrity hits like a bomb. So you have to find what makes you stable in the storm.”

Jimmy Smits adds, “Then, no matter what’s happening around you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.” [imdb.com]

In my article The Dark Side of Fame, I note that many talented actors have an ambivalent attitude about gaining or pursuing celebrity status, or just high visibility with the public, and with the decision makers such as film studios which can help their careers grow.

Winona Ryder commented about being relatively out of the spotlight the past couple of years, “Hollywood people associate movies solely with fame and I didn’t enjoy working in that way anymore. I am so much happier now.”

And there are a number of ways fame can make people emotionally unstable.

For example, psychiatrist Robert B. Millman developed the concept of acquired situational narcissism to explain some of the grandiose fantasies and other distortions people can be prey to after gaining high levels of fame.

One of the problems is being surrounded by people assuring the famed one that they are worthy of it. But as Millman noted in a NY Times article, the famous really are different: ”They’re not normal. And why would they feel normal when every person in the world who deals with them treats them as if they’re not?”

Fame can also assault sensitive people. Johnny Depp said he felt so intimidated by his celebrity status during his early career that he “had to be drunk to be able to speak and get through it. I guess I was trying not to feel anything.”

But it can also be strengthening, as Kim Basinger noted: “Because I’m such a shy person, having to live it out loud in front of everyone has made me a stronger woman, so much stronger, that it’s been a gift to me in a way.”
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