Why Early Celebrity Retirement May Become a Trend
By Isabella Kelly–Goss
In the age of digital media, sophisticated cellphone cameras, and instant messaging technology, privacy can become scarce. Add in celebrity fame and fans, and personal life becomes a privilege. While some celebrities don’t mind or don’t experience invasion to the same degree of their colleagues, many people of fame experience a disrespectful lack of privacy in their day-to-day lives. As a result, many stars have begun an attempt to reclaim their personal lives. Over the past decade, it has become the norm to hide children away from prying eyes. Some have even begun stepping back, themselves, from social media and limiting fans' access to them. While many critics believe A-listers should give up their right to a private life, citing it as the cost of success in major entertainment industries, it isn’t hard to see how much things have changed surrounding social boundaries for celebrities.
In the late 90s/early 00s, a large majority of big names grew a rightful grudge and disdain towards paparazzi and their invasive tactics to get a story. Then came the popularity of cellphone cameras. Once your everyday fan gained immediate access to photography and social media, paired off with anti-paparazzi laws put into effect by California legislature in 2010 and 2013, paparazzi’s aggressive tactics somewhat died out. However, this was not the end to the parasocial ‘Celebrities are just like us’ culture. Everyone having access to a camera/communication hybrid in their pocket gave way to a staggering loss of practical anonymity.
In a recent interview with the Skip Intro podcast, Cameron Diaz shared the moment she knew cellphone cameras would be everywhere and how it would mean the end of a semblance of privacy for famous faces in public.
“We were in Tokyo.. The three of us just walked out and there was a whole wall of fans who were waiting for us…They’re all holding something over their heads,” she said, “we’re like ‘what is that? What are they doing?’ and the woman who was our host there said, ‘They’re filming you…they’re taking pictures of you [on] their phones.’”
In the interview, she was referring to the red carpet for the Japan premiere of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, with Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu.
“The wind was knocked out of us,” she continued, “Drew and Lucy and I, we looked at each other and almost started crying… It just flooded us. We were like ‘Oh my God, It’s going to be everywhere, we’re not going to be able to do anything. If everybody has a camera on their phone, and everybody has phones, it’s over.’”
The premiere she speaks of was in 2003, almost 22 years ago. Since then, technology has drastically advanced, and their prediction has come to life. The decline of celebrity privacy is largely at the fault of many fans having an incredibly loose grip on personal boundaries and being overly invested in parasocial relationships. While plenty of celebrities stay in the spotlight most of their lives, it is not unheard of for people to step away from Hollywood.
Names like Rick Moranis, who stepped away from his notable sci-fi comedy fame to raise his children after the tragic death of his wife in 1991, or Mara Wilson, who mostly sticks to voice acting and writing after leaving her behind her whirlwind childhood stardom, are often brought up in conversations surrounding quitting Hollywood. While most examples tend to come from the 80s and 90s, there are newer stars that often go undiscussed. For example, Jennifer Stone, who many Gen Z may remember from her Disney career, is now a registered nurse. Another great example is Bridgit Mendler, also a notable player on Disney Channel, who has gone on to pursue many academic achievements. In addition to her Ph.D. and JD, Mendler got married in 2019, adopted a son in 2022, and has a space station start-up business. While this is public knowledge, it only became so at Mendler’s control via social media. The idea of fading from the spotlight is not yet a popular trend among the A-List crowd; though a few current household names are strongly considering it.
Tom Holland, who made his film debut at age 14 with The Impossible, is considered one of the most popular actors at the moment. Between his upcoming role in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and his fourth Spider-Man movie with Marvel filming this summer, it’s hard to imagine a Hollywood future without Holland. However, with the recent announcement of his engagement to Emmy award-winning actress Zendaya, that future may come sooner than originally thought. In his cover interview for Men’s Health’s January/February issue, he explains how fame affects him and that settling down will likely be the end of his career.
“It’s booked in advance, we sort it all out, we call ahead to the theater and make sure we can get somewhere private,” he says, explaining how he is able to go see a play without interference from crowds like the one that surrounded the interview.
While there are ways to deal with the exorbitant amounts of attention he gets, he has no plans to deal once he has kids.
“When I have kids, you will not see me in movies anymore.” Explaining his life will just be, “Golf and dad. And I will just disappear off the face of the earth.”
And he’s not the only one. Spider-man/Odyssey Co-star Zendaya has matched the actor’s sentiment. During British Vogue’s May 2024 cover shoot she expressed an uncertainty for raising her kids in the life in which she grew up.
“I have complicated feelings about kids and fame and being in the public eye, or being a child actor.” She said, “We’ve seen a lot of cases of it being detrimental.”
While their decision may be based around their future children, some celebrities may soon be choosing to step away for their own sake. Singer/songwriter SZA, opened up about fame during an interview with British Vogue for their December 2023 issue.
“Every day I grapple with, ‘Am I done with music?’ Maybe I’m just not meant to be famous…” She told Amel Mukhtar of Vogue, “I just keep trying to rise to the occasion. But I’m also just like, ‘Please, the occasion is beating my ass.’”
The Grammy award-winning artist took to X on Jan. 4th to express her future plans.
“To fulfill my last 2 album requirements I think I just wanna make peaceful children’s music [and] get outta here.” she posts, speaking of finishing her contract with RCA records.
After the fact, her desire is to, “go be a farmer [and] donate the produce to underserved communities.”
With other names like Bella Hadid, Iggy Azalea, and Jessica Lange all announcing a retirement in the last two years, citing issues with the industry or fans, it’s not unlikely we may start to see more stars choose this route. While many celebs may change their minds, stick to retirement, tough it out, or a combination of all three, we will just have to wait and see how popular this trend becomes.
