I’ve had a lot of opportunities but have turned them down as I was so afraid to lose my privacy so...no! I work professionally within the music and acting industries but tend to intentionally sabotage anything that could lead to something “Big”. I’ve played lead roles in musical theatre and get very uncomfortable at stage door. I love performing but hate the dealing with the attention side. Performing is my escape but I’d hate to have to deal with the public and press intrusion. It’s a fine balance.
Also, pretty much NO ONE within the industry shares this view and there’s always an idea that we are somehow all fame hungry and have that in common. I have to sit there quite bemused when people bang on at me for the fact they’ve rubbed shoulders with this one and that and how something big is round the corner. That stuff genuinely doesn’t interest me. I just want to do what I do, go home and have a normal life. I don’t care if (insert big name here) is in the audience, I’m going to give the best performance I possibly can in spite of that not because of that.
I went to LA in my twenties and that was a huge wake up call. I hated it there and realised I wouldn’t want the “Hollywood Life” for anything. As a child and teenager, I genuinely did want all of that...Oscars, Grammys etc lol. I could see how very fake it all was, the homes up in the hills like fortresses, the seedy side of everything, the soullessness. And I just didn’t want it. I realised that you can never get your privacy or anonymity back.
I’ve been at a few “celebrity” funerals, even singing solos at a few now, and the family of the deceased celebs, even if they are young children, have to come out after saying goodbye to a parent or spouse etc, and face a load of cameras flashing in their faces or be expected to give interviews to TV cameras straight after. It’s disgusting.
I also have to say, from personal experience, all the #MeToo stuff... ABSOLUTELY TRUE and something you have to deal with most days, especially in TV and Film and “straight” Theatre. Musical Theatre, for straight women at least, isn’t quite as predatory but then there are other pressures. But there’s a very seedy side to a lot of the industry and, especially as a young actress or singer, it’s hard to determine what’s legit and not and you are always told you are replaceable and your career can be ended in a blink of an eye - “I can make sure you never work again”. For me, my experiences of being made a sexual target started in my final year at drama school and high level female directors and casting directors, helped very sick men in their quest to groom and abuse young drama school students. All while giving articles in the Guardian and The Stage about feminism and being pioneers for women in the Arts and all sorts of other bullshit.
So...celebrity ain’t all that. If I ever have kids, I’d hope they choose a different line of work rather than experience the toxicity of the entertainment industries.