Yahoo Lifestyle A Lot Of Celebs "Hate" Being Famous, But These 14 Were Refreshingly Honest About Loving The Limelight
Plenty of celebs have been candid about how much they hate the spotlight, but most of them play coy when it comes to admitting they enjoy the attention.
Here are 14 celebs who were refreshingly honest about loving fame:
1.In 2024, Kevin Bacon told Vanity Fair that, to test out what it would be like to not be famous, he once "went to a special effects makeup artist, had consultations, and asked him to make [him] a prosthetic disguise." Then, sporting glasses, a fake nose, and fake teeth, he went to The Grove. He said, "Nobody recognized me...People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice. Nobody said, 'I love you.' I had to wait in line to, I don't know, buy a fucking coffee or whatever. I was like, 'This sucks. I want to go back to being famous.'"
He also said that, growing up with a father who was an important urban planner who was once on the cover of TIME, he knew he wanted to be famous "a hundred percent."
He said, "My father was famous in Philadelphia, which in some ways is a small pond, but for me, it was a big pond. I saw him get recognized by people when he would walk down the street, and seeing that was definitely a big driving force in my life. Frankly, I wanted to be more famous than him. And you can lay me down on the shrink's couch. We could talk about that for a while. But it was definitely a motivator."
2.Appearing on ABC News in 2022, Kim Kardashian told Robin Roberts, "If you were to ask me years ago, when I first started my career, I would have done anything to be famous. I'm so open and honest about the fact that I love being famous. Some people are made for it better than others. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel like I could handle it and if I didn't feel like I was made for it." She added that she "loves" her life and doesn't view fame as a "negative thing."
"Now it's definitely not my goal, but I don't mind it. I'm not one to say, like, 'Oh my God, it's so hard.' I knew what I was getting myself into," she said.
3.In 2016, Will Smith told Jimmy Kimmel Live, "I want people to recognize me. You know what, 'cause I've met a lot of people where fame can be a burden, and I just love it, man. Like, I really do, you know. You be pointing at people, and they scream. I had a thing the other day, like, the perfect example. It was probably about three weeks ago, and I was driving, and I realized I was on [empty]...I was like, 'Oh no!' So, I was about, you know, 30 minutes from my house, so I pulled into the gas station, and I didn't have my wallet. And I was like, 'Aww, tragedy.' Right? So, I'm looking, and I'm looking, and I was like, 'Well, can I call Jada [his wife]?' Then she gotta drive 30 minutes to come. And I looked over on the other side, and I saw a dude. He was like 36 years old. I was like, 'That dude's a Fresh Prince fan'..."
He continued, "So I kinda rolled the window down...After a couple minutes, he was like, 'Will?' I was like, 'Yeah, what's up, man? What's up?'
And he say, 'Hey, man, can I get a picture?' I say, 'Yeah, man, I need about $10.' And he was like, 'Really?'
And he was, like, really excited. We took the selfie. He lent me the $10. I was like, 'Give me your number. I'll send it back.' He was like, 'Dude, no way! No way! That's yours!'"
4.Speaking to media at the 2009 CMA Music Festival, Taylor Swift said, "I get tired a lot, but I never get tired of it. Because, for me, I remember when I was a little kid, and I used to sit there and think about how lucky I would be if someday people cared about the words that I wrote or how lucky I would be if someday, I was just walking through the mall and saw some little girl walking by with my face on her shirt. And when you spend so much time daydreaming about things like that, when that actually happens, you don’t ever complain about it, you know. It's like, when I go to a restaurant, yeah, I know that a line is probably gonna form in front of the table, but didn't I always used to wish for that? Yeah, I did."
"So, it's like, I never wanna be the girl who wanted something so bad her whole life, just wanted one thing, and then gets it and complains about it. I'm not gonna be that girl," she said.
5.In 2023, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson told Vanity Fair, "You'll never hear me complain about fame. I know what the alternative is to not being famous. Fame is a blessing." Sharing the interview clip on Facebook, he added, "You'll never hear me complain about fame. Ever. Because I've lived the alternative when I wasn't famous and no one gave a shit and I was broke. Fame is a blessing."
In the Vanity Fair video, he also said, "Hands down, without a shadow of a doubt, the best thing about being famous is making people happy."
6.Per Variety, in 2016, Henry Cavill told Man of the World, "I'm slightly wary of saying this, because it can be frowned upon, certainly by members of my community and people outside my community…but I'm not just doing this for the art. The money's fantastic, and that's something which I deem — and again, it is frowned upon — very important. You've got to enjoy life! I mean, you've got to. When I'm making money, I'm spending it on nice stuff, whether that be lavish holidays for me and my friends or just seeing something and going in a shop and saying, 'Yeah, I want that for the house,' and buying it. Spending money on my friends, buying dinner for everyone, drinks for everyone, it's a nice place to be, and I like people to feel cared for."
"People will be calling me a cock as they're reading this, but travel's great as long as you're going first class. I mean, traveling to New Zealand in economy, it sucks. Especially if you're over six feet. But first class? I'm not going to ever pretend to be coy about that. I love it," he said.
7.In 2019, Billie Eilish told Vanity Fair, "I like this life that I have. I like being famous. It's very weird, but it's very cool. I feel like I can say that now because 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 fucking gross and horrible and just miserable, but I'm very grateful for it, and it's really rare. I'm very lucky, so I'm done with complaining about it I complained about it for so long."
She also said, "[Last year] I thought it was the biggest it was ever going to be. I thought it was the most I was ever going to be recognized, and it's the most anyone is going to know me, and it was the most money that I would have, the most clothes I'd have, the most shoes I'd have. And what's crazy is, it wasn't. I genuinely did not think people would care. I can't believe people care so much."
8.In 2024, Trisha Paytas told Rolling Stone that, despite her lack of singing or acting talents, she loved auditioning for her high school plays. She said, "I loved the attention, feeling like a star. [But] I was always extra and background." So, when she became an influencer, she recreated a lot of music videos "because [she] always wanted to be the lead." She also lied for attention. She said, "I don't know why I did it. Either to make myself more interesting, or to distract from the fact that my life wasn't interesting. I just wanted people to be interested in me. And it kind of manifested into actual crazy shit happening to me."
She also discovered that the secret to attracting attention on social media was "pissing people off."
She said, "I wanted to be Howard Stern so bad. I wanted to be Andy Kaufman so bad. There's times where I truly did not mean to offend, and there's times where I was just trying to be offensive. And I kind of just regret…all of it."
Also in 2024, Trisha told the podcast Call Her Daddy, "I was voted most likely to be famous in, I think, two of my yearbooks...I feel like I always stood out. You know, I feel like you just kinda know if you have, like, a little 'it' factor, you know. So I knew I had something, but it wasn't talent."
9.In 2007, Chris Rock told the New York Times, "Yeah, I love being famous. It’s almost like being white, you know?" He also said he doesn't mind touring as a working stand-up comedian for six months. He said, "It's a great life. I wouldn't trade it with anybody. Except maybe Will Smith."
10.In 2015, Noel Gallagher told Esquire, "The fame thing, some people, it hits them hard. I flourished. I love it. I've never gone out of my way to be famous, and I don't go to the opening of a fucking envelope, but if somebody wants to lend me their superyacht just because I'm famous, 'Thanks very much, man.' I do enjoy that side of it, and you should fucking enjoy it. The longer that it went on, the stronger I felt, because nobody else was responsible for my success: not a producer, not a fucking A&R guy, not a guy who did these videos, because they were all shit. I wrote the songs, I wrote the lyrics, I came up with the parts, I did the interviews. I felt so bulletproof because I did it all. I fucking hate whingeing rock stars."
He continued, "And I hate pop stars who are just… neh. Just nothing, you know? 'Oh, yeah, my last selfie got 47 thousand million likes on Instagram.' Yeah, why don't you go fuck off and get a drug habit, you penis? Fame was not wasted on anybody in Oasis. It certainly wasn't wasted on me and Liam. And wealth, notoriety and all that, wasn't wasted on us."
11.Per the Indian Express, during a 2023 virtual roundtable, Paul Rudd said, "It's a very weird thing to be famous. I have been working as an actor for a long time now. So I've known different levels of it. I always think it's boring when actors complain about how famous they are, because there are some things that are kind of nice about it. You get to see lots of different things and you're awarded many opportunities, that’s for sure....I probably have become a bit more reclusive [since becoming famous]. I think my world, strangely, has gotten a little smaller. But I love what I do, and it's an honor to be an actor. It was my goal, and that is what I wanted. It's an honor to work with Marvel."
However, the Ant-Man actor also acknowledged how his fame impacted his children.
He said, "Marvel is such a visible thing, and it's worldwide. My life changed, and my visibility and fame really jumped. I would feel very differently, and I think I did, because I only view it through my kids. And when they were really little, I got nervous about it, because I just want my children to have a normal life. I would think it would be hard having famous parents. I never knew what that's like. So, my main concerns about it are really just how does it affect them?"
12.Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan told India Today Conclave that he doesn't miss his anonymity "at all." He said, "I said this in one interview in my documentary that all my life I have worked so that I can be recognized. I want thousands of people to scream my name out when I get off the airport. I want girls and little children to tear my clothes off. I've worked very hard for this. And then I find it very stupid when I see stars wear dark glasses to hide their faces. I think I want to be recognized. Given a chance, I'd give my left arm and right arm to be recognized and have no privacy. I want to be known. I want to be disturbed. I want to be troubled by as many people for as many years possible."
13.In 2016, David Spade told the Observer, "About six months ago, a reporter asked me when I thought I was the most famous, and I said, 'I don't know, I guess right now because it seems like a cumulative thing, right?' I was sort of insulted by the question in a way, but not really. So, to give a good answer, I said, 'Maybe it was the year I was on the cover of both Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone. That was a pretty good year for me.' I don't necessarily have to be super famous. I just want to keep doing things I like to do, and if that stuff makes me famous, then that's how it goes."
14.And finally, in 2022, John Stamos told CBS Sunday Morning, "I wanted to be famous; I wanted to be famous so bad. And once I got it, I loved it. I still do. You know, these people go, 'Oh, I hate being famous.' …If you see me somewhere, ask for a picture. I'm happy to do it because it's what I wanted my whole life."
What do you think would be the best — or worst! — thing about fame? Share your thoughts in the comments!
