Treating a Celebrity Like a "Normal" Person

[McCutieBelle]

There are some celebs and actors that I heard that are okay with it, but I have seen pictures on twitter when people have asked actors to take pics at stores or restaurants and they look annoyed in the pictures, so they seem to do it begrudgingly, the thing with people in high profile careers is, any bad day they may have may be plastered in magazines or on the internet. You or I have a bad day, and we don't really want to talk to people...meh no big deal, an actor may not want to deal with a fan and may be short or abrupt and they are being a "diva" it's sad.

[Carnation]

that, as much as possible she wants to experience a 'normal' college life by living in a dorm?

Exactly, she considers herself just another student.


By the way, I was out walking my dog a few years ago and a local news anchor person came jogging by.   Since nobody else was around, I just said *"Lori Smith!!" in a tone that I hope conveyed I didn't expect her to stop and chat with me.  She smiled at me so  warmly, it makes my day to think of it, even years later.

*Fake name.

[DoubleTrouble]

I think it would depend on what was going on when you saw said celebrity.

The other day when my boys & I were leaving a class, one other the other mothers noticed a very famous celebrity outside on his phone. The only reason he would have been at our location would be to spend time with his grandchild so other then looking at him out the window (and a few surreptitious pictures of him to prove to my husband I actually saw the celebrity LOL), none of us approached him.

Now, if I had been in the same class that he attended I would have probably would have introduced myself if my kids & his grandkid were playing together But the parents/visitors/caregivers always chat during classes while the kiddos are playing so it wouldn't be out of line.

[hellgirl]

I've seen a few celebrities around at different events, and unless they are there as 'a celebrity' we don't ask for autographs. So, milling around after a comedy festival you've performed in - fair game. Seeing Sir Ian McKellen at the cricket in the box next to us? We tried a little to catch his eye and smile afterwards, but he was there as a private person to enjoy the game and it would have been rude to infringe on that (as much as we would have loved to). Someone out for lunch with their family - we wouldn't even consider it.

[JacklynHyde]

I went through summer camp and youth group with a minor child actor who became a fairly well-known celebrity (we'll just call him Sam, which is not his name).  Sam was in and out of school as a kid because of his career, and he was teased a lot for this.  He usually didn't work during the summer so he could have a few weeks to be normal, and youth group was mostly the same people as from there.  His acting rarely came up in conversation, mostly because he was too much fun in person to be bothered about anything else. 

The only time there was ever a problem was, as Sam became more famous, that I didn't think about adding his email to a mass email (NOT a forward, just letting people know I was moving).  Honestly, I had forgotten that he was a celebrity!  He forgave me and changed his email address, but that was the moment that I realized how much he valued the separation of his personal and public faces.

[cnhartman2]

I tend to agree with the OP a little. 

If she wants to move past her role in HP and be a normal student, she should start acting like one.  The next step to not acting like a celebrity would be to not do interviews.  I think she's perfectly justified in telling people, "I want to be a normal student, please don't ask me for my autograph."  But if she's going to go to the media and complain about it afterward, she's almost contradicting what she told the students.  I say she should be firm in her decision to be a normal person and cut every aspect of her previous life as a celebrity out of her world.

[Onyx_TKD]

I tend to agree with the OP a little. 

If she wants to move past her role in HP and be a normal student, she should start acting like one.  The next step to not acting like a celebrity would be to not do interviews.  I think she's perfectly justified in telling people, "I want to be a normal student, please don't ask me for my autograph."  But if she's going to go to the media and complain about it afterward, she's almost contradicting what she told the students.  I say she should be firm in her decision to be a normal person and cut every aspect of her previous life as a celebrity out of her world.

Considering that she has one movie currently in the theaters and another yet to be released, I doubt she can stop giving interviews just yet without doing serious damage to her future acting career (she might even have contractual obligations to help advertise the movies; I don't know how that works). If she were a "normal" student, her parents or other adults would probably be reminding her not to do anything stupid that would risk her future career, so I don't think skipping out on her acting obligations is really the best way to be "normal". 

[MaggieB]

I tend to agree with the OP a little. 

If she wants to move past her role in HP and be a normal student, she should start acting like one.  The next step to not acting like a celebrity would be to not do interviews.  I think she's perfectly justified in telling people, "I want to be a normal student, please don't ask me for my autograph."  But if she's going to go to the media and complain about it afterward, she's almost contradicting what she told the students.  I say she should be firm in her decision to be a normal person and cut every aspect of her previous life as a celebrity out of her world.

This is like saying if you don't want to live at your office job, you should just quit.  People are entitled to leave work at work.  Emma Watson lives at her university and wants to be able to have downtime in her home environment.  That seems like such a reasonable request that I think it should be a given.  Also, she wants to cultivate real relationships with her classmates and dormmates.  You can't do that with people fawning over you and asking for autographs and snapping pictures everywhere you go.  You do it by striking up conversations, attending classes and parties together, etc.  She didn't say that she wants people to stay away from her.  She just said she doesn't want to be on the job 24/7.

[Wendy Moira Angela Pan]

I tend to agree with the OP a little. 

If she wants to move past her role in HP and be a normal student, she should start acting like one.  The next step to not acting like a celebrity would be to not do interviews.  I think she's perfectly justified in telling people, "I want to be a normal student, please don't ask me for my autograph."  But if she's going to go to the media and complain about it afterward, she's almost contradicting what she told the students.  I say she should be firm in her decision to be a normal person and cut every aspect of her previous life as a celebrity out of her world.

That's pretty drastic. She's not just a celebrity; she's an actress. That's her career. She should give it up entirely, if she wants to have a normal life? That seems completely unfair.

[POF]

I live in a town with lots of NFL players and their families. Some of their children attend school with my kids, a few big names go to our church and we see them at the market, the video store ( before they all closed ) and 2 players go to my hairdressers.

The general rule is that hey, they are living their lives - leave them alone.  I've always reenforced this with my son who is an avid sports fan. He has a football he collects signatures on that he keeps in the car ( players do occasionally have a charity event, school event where they sign ). But he has never been allowed to ask anyone for an autograph outside of an event speically for that.


Except for once - he was about 6 - we were at the outlets and we came out of Reebok and there was a guy in a knee brace on the bench. DS said to me MOM that's so and so, I said - no hun it isn;t... he said yes it is.... and proceeded to rattle off this guys career ans stats and how he got injured etc. I told DS that's nice - but you can't bother him ... he's shopping.  The guy called out to us, laughing and said - my wife is shopping - I'm waiting around - and proceeded to talk to DS for a little while.  DS said - I have my football in the car - I have lots of names ,but  not yours but I maybe I'll get yours one day - are you going to be at X event ( local charity softball game ). I explained the no asking for autographs rule and the guy insisted we go get football so he could sign it.  Very nice guy.

[Dindrane]

I tend to agree with the OP a little. 

If she wants to move past her role in HP and be a normal student, she should start acting like one.  The next step to not acting like a celebrity would be to not do interviews.  I think she's perfectly justified in telling people, "I want to be a normal student, please don't ask me for my autograph."  But if she's going to go to the media and complain about it afterward, she's almost contradicting what she told the students.  I say she should be firm in her decision to be a normal person and cut every aspect of her previous life as a celebrity out of her world.

This is like saying if you don't want to live at your office job, you should just quit.  People are entitled to leave work at work.  Emma Watson lives at her university and wants to be able to have downtime in her home environment.  That seems like such a reasonable request that I think it should be a given.  Also, she wants to cultivate real rel@tionships with her classmates and dormmates.  You can't do that with people fawning over you and asking for autographs and snapping pictures everywhere you go.  You do it by striking up conversations, attending classes and parties together, etc.  She didn't say that she wants people to stay away from her.  She just said she doesn't want to be on the job 24/7.

Not to mention, it didn't sound like she'd actually complained about anything.

[Carnation]

I live in a town with lots of NFL players and their families. Some of their children attend school with my kids, a few big names go to our church and we see them at the market, the video store ( before they all closed ) and 2 players go to my hairdressers.

The general rule is that hey, they are living their lives - leave them alone.  I've always reenforced this with my son who is an avid sports fan. He has a football he collects signatures on that he keeps in the car ( players do occasionally have a charity event, school event where they sign ). But he has never been allowed to ask anyone for an autograph outside of an event speically for that.


Except for once - he was about 6 - we were at the outlets and we came out of Reebok and there was a guy in a knee brace on the bench. DS said to me MOM that's so and so, I said - no hun it isn;t... he said yes it is.... and proceeded to rattle off this guys career ans stats and how he got injured etc. I told DS that's nice - but you can't bother him ... he's shopping.  The guy called out to us, laughing and said - my wife is shopping - I'm waiting around - and proceeded to talk to DS for a little while.  DS said - I have my football in the car - I have lots of names ,but  not yours but I maybe I'll get yours one day - are you going to be at X event ( local charity softball game ). I explained the no asking for autographs rule and the guy insisted we go get football so he could sign it.  Very nice guy.

What a lovely story.

I'll bet it made the player's day just as much as your son's.

[Winterlight]

I tend to agree with the OP a little. 

If she wants to move past her role in HP and be a normal student, she should start acting like one.  The next step to not acting like a celebrity would be to not do interviews.  I think she's perfectly justified in telling people, "I want to be a normal student, please don't ask me for my autograph."  But if she's going to go to the media and complain about it afterward, she's almost contradicting what she told the students.  I say she should be firm in her decision to be a normal person and cut every aspect of her previous life as a celebrity out of her world.

Considering that she has one movie currently in the theaters and another yet to be released, I doubt she can stop giving interviews just yet without doing serious damage to her future acting career (she might even have contractual obligations to help advertise the movies; I don't know how that works). If she were a "normal" student, her parents or other adults would probably be reminding her not to do anything stupid that would risk her future career, so I don't think skipping out on her acting obligations is really the best way to be "normal". 

I believe that actors are normally required to do some publicity for their movies- it's written into the contracts.