Our New Year’s Resolution in 2020 was to make being smart great again. To make intelligence an important characteristic and not a source of mockery. To finally admit that intellect and ingenuity were humanity’s keys to overcoming the problems and challenges marching its way.
Well, after one global pandemic, an absurdly contested U.S. election (that included a riot to overthrow the American government) and a couple continents worth of assorted natural disasters, we can safely say that resolution didn’t age well. In fact, we’d like to forget we even suggested it.
But what about 2021? What should we spend the next twelve months trying to improve? Something that, unlike asking people to use their grey matter a little more, we can actually pull off.
Here’s one-how about we lay off the celebrity bashing a little?
Because while 2020 revealed plenty of warts on humanity’s collective character (like, a lot), it revealed how much we passionately (and needlessly) hate celebrities.
One popular topic of online discussion last year was the fate of movie theatres. With the pandemic forcing many of their doors closed (and forcing many others to operate at a fraction of their break-even capacity), the very real possibility that the world’s largest movie chains could go bankrupt has been a hot topic in the nerd community.
And while it wasn’t uncommon to see a lot of people rooting for theatres to fail (they’re over-priced, they’re dirty, other movie-goers are inconsiderate jerks, etc.), it was a little surprising to see how quickly the artists who make the movies found themselves in the cross hairs.
In fact, the body Internet was soon revelling in the possibility that Hollywood’s elite could soon be on the unemployment line. It was like watching a pack of ravenous cannibals descend on an all-you-can eat buffet.
Here’s a quick example; do you recognize the name Geoffrey Owens? A twenty year TV veteran, Owens is most famous for playing Elvin Tibideux on the 80’s sitcom The Cosby Show. Owens was photographed working at a Trader Joe’s in 2018 and the tsunami of gleeful job-shaming that followed was eye-opening. “Look at the loser!” the Internet sneered. “How the mighty have fallen! He’ just like us. Let’s make him feel ashamed of all of his life choices!” And that’s being charitable to the treatment he received.
The contempt for celebrities springs from two chief complaints; first they are all snobbish elites obsessed with with shoving their pretentious politics down our throats. Second, they make millions of dollars doing virtually nothing while living depraved lifestyles and refusing to use their influence and wealth to help “the little people.”
First let’s address the politics one. This contentious bone is usually on full display during award season. When some began musing that there may be no Oscars this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire Internet was doing back flips of joy. But here’s the truth about Hollywood and politics; people only hate it when a celebrity’s politics don’t match their own. If Meryl Streep or Denzel Washington or Jennifer Lawrence echoed the political viewpoints of their John Q public critics, said critics would applaud heir refreshing perspective on complicated subjects. But if a celebrity dares to disagree in the slightest, well then said celebrities are out of touch sycophants who live in ivory towers and need to “stay in their lane.”
Remember when Brie Larson said she wanted to leverage her growing fame to help under represented-demographics in entertainment journalism? And how that declaration somehow morphed into “she hates white men and wants to destroy them!” Good times.
(While we’re dissecting that particular piece of nonsense pie, can we please retire the stupid “stay in your lane” argument? According to this deeply flawed logic, people can only comment on subjects that are in their professional neighbourhood. That means only politicians would be able to voice political opinions. Only sociologists and historians would be able to comment on race relations. And only economists could make arguments on tax rates and government spending. Even sports fans would have to zip it since only professional athletes drive on that particular street. Fans determined to dutifully “stay in their lane” would quietly watch after they’ve obediently purchased their tickets and merchandise. See how stupid that is?)
But the second reason for the celebrity bashing is even more absurd. Before the majority of actors, musicians, directors or anyone else in the entertainment business became famous, they worked dozens of dead end jobs in between auditions and gigs.
Ryan Reynolds couldn’t afford to fix his car door when he lived in Los Angeles, so for months he drove around physically holding the driver’s side door closed with one hand while he drove with the other. Dennis Miller loves to joke that he lived the classic Bohemian lifestyle before landing a job on Saturday Night Live, constantly scrounging for laundromat money and occasionally splurging on ramen noodles. Quentin Tarantino worked at a video store before he began his career as an Oscar winning movie maker. And Drew Carrey often talks about how hard and thankless it was being a waiter before his career took off.
Plenty of successful celebrities worked in the service industry before catching their big break. Rachel McAdams peddled french fries at McDonald’s and Gwen Stefani served ice cream at Dairy Queen. Megan Fox and Brad Pitt wore mascots to promote fast food joints. Harrison Ford was a carpenter while he was auditioning for Star Wars and Indiana Jones. The late James Gandolfini worked as both a bouncer and a bartender while studying acting. Hugh Jackman was a gym teacher before he was an X-Man and Adam Driver was a marine before he was a Sith lord. Channing Tatum was a stripper, Tommy Lee Jones worked on an oil rig and Stephen King was a teacher who couldn’t afford a phone before he sold his first book.
And these examples are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Many worked thankless jobs, sometimes picking up extra shifts instead of sleeping so they could make rent while attending auditions or working on screenplays. Isn’t that how we insist people make their bones? That their success be built on sleepless nights and hard knocks? So why do we hold celebrities success against them?
That is to say nothing of the work and dedication the most successful invest in their craft after they’ve made it. Tom Cruise is notorious for risking life and limb doing his own stunts. Keanu Reeves underwent military combat training several times over to play John Wick and studied martial arts with a broken neck for The Matrix films. Daniel Day Lewis has mastered a thousand trades and learned how to live in a wheel chair to bring his roles to award winning life.
Ask any actor who has ever starred in an MCU movie how many hours they spent in the gym before cameras even rolled? Christian Bale bulked up to don the cape and cowl in Batman Begins, lost an incredible amount of weight to play an emaciated insomniac in The Machinist and then packed it all on again for the The Dark Knight. Gal Gadot shot some of the most action filled scenes for Wonder Woman while she as pregnant.
Yes, she crossed No Man’s Land while she was carrying another human being inside her.
And it isn’t like celebrities don’t do their fair share. Chris Hemsworth donated a million dollars to relief efforts when Australia was at the mercy of endless wildfires. That’s also how much John Cena and K-pop supergroup BTS donated to Black Lives Matter during the global movements protesting police brutality. Jon Bon Jovi owns a handful of restaurants in that serve the hungry and homeless s well as paying customers. Charlize Theron spearheaded a movement that assisted women trapped in violent domestic situations during quarantine. Neil Gaiman made his books public domain so they could be publicly read without having to pay a royalty. Tom Hardy and Sir Patrick Stewart spent many of their nights reading everything from fairy tales to Shakespeare for free online and Dolly Parton has spent years buying books for under privileged children across the globe.
Remember when we talked about Ryan Reynolds earlier? He has been knee deep in charitable work well before he became a household name. 2020 was no exception, with Reynolds and wife Blake Lively donating a million dollars to food banks across Canada and the United States. He even donated to the Distress Centre here in Ottawa.
All told, celebrities donated tens of millions of dollars to various relief efforts in 2020 and raised an unlimited amount of awareness. In comparison, Google how much money massive evangelical churches have donated. We’ll wait.
Yes, celebrities often lead very questionable lifestyles (Hollywood is indeed the capital of vices and addictions). They say and do stupid things and there’s no denying tinsel town has had it’s fair share of criminals (here’s hoping both Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby join Phil Spectre in hell soon). But nearly all of the artists people love to hate earned their success through relentless hard work and countless sleepless nights. And they have often given back a hundred times fold.
So maybe its time to quit the rampant bashing and focus more of our energy on enjoying the fruits of their labour. We’ll all be a lot happier in the long run.
