Lady Gaga sat down with Jamie Lee Curtis for a segment of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series. (Rather an odd pairing, one might think, until you realize they are both Ryan Murphy starlets). Conversation eventually rolled around to the price of fame, as it so often does.
“I can’t imagine there is someone more famous than you and you’ve been famous now for a long time,” Curtis said. “Is fame isolating for you?”
Gaga answered with a resounding yes. “I don’t think I could think of a single thing that’s more isolating than being famous,” she said.
She told the “Halloween” actress that she had never wanted to be famous in the first place. “It’s almost impossible for people even to probably look at my career and the things I’ve done and think, ‘Oh, she didn’t want [that] — of course she wanted to be famous, of course she wanted all that attention,” the “Applause” singer said. “It’s just, creative expression is what I am and I would’ve been doing this whether I became famous or not … I wanted to get a job being creative and I did.’’
Hmmmm. Gaga never wanted to be famous? And just dressed the way she did for no reason other than her own personal expression? I love her, but that sounds sliiiiiiightly revisionist.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Gaga went on to say the hardest part of fame for Gaga has been the disconnect between herself and the people she interacts with who hold unrealistic, if not false, expectations. She assured Curtis that she’s not extraordinary.
“It is very hard to not be able to engage with people in a real and honest way because they either want something from me or they see me as something that I simply am not,” she said. “I am not some goddess that dropped down from the sky to sing pop music, I am not some extra-incredible human person that needs to be told how wonderful they are all day and kissed.”
It’s not the first time Gaga has spoken about the downside of fame. In 2013, she told The Guardian that when she first became famous
“I hid a lot in my house to preserve my image as a superstar to my fans, and it really drove me crazy.” The singer has even said that she previously considered quitting music, as she was tired of the commodification of celebrity culture.
But Gaga is still hopeful that she can bring positive change to celebrity culture. She told Curtis,
“I hope through, you know, the more work that I do and the more that I create that I can, you know, be a part of changing that not just for myself but for other artists.”
(via HuffPo; Photos: Pacific Coast News)