20 A-list celebrities who actually hate being in the public eye

Although she’s part of one of the most famous families in Hollywood, Kourtney Kardashian hates being in the spotlight. During later seasons of their family reality show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, the mother of four took a step back after revealing she was “miserable” with the amount of attention they get. “I don’t like being a celebrity,” she said. 

In 2012, George Clooney, known for his breakthrough role in the medical show ER, described fame as “very dangerous” because it can become enjoyable. “And that’s not the good part of what I do for a living. The good part is the making of films. The unpleasant part is the fame part if you’re not careful,” he said. 

“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” singer Billie Eilish is grateful for where her career is at today. However, she still regrets missing part of her younger years due to her music taking off. “There is no training, there’s no, like, let me go to a school that’s going to teach me how to be famous,” she said. 

Shia LaBeouf, who became a household name thanks to his roles in Even Stevens and Transformers, said that to be a star, you must become an “enslaved” person. “The requirements to being a star/celebrity are, namely, you must become an enslaved body.”

Megan Fox made it clear that just because fame can come with money, big houses, and fancy cars, she still experiences real feelings like everybody else. “What people don’t realize is that fame, whatever your worst experience in high school, when you were being bullied by those ten kids in high school, fame is that, but on a global scale, where you’re being bullied by millions of people constantly,” she told Esquire. 

Harrison Ford didn’t beat around the bush when talking about his disdain for fame. “There’s nothing good about being famous,” he said in a previous interview. “You always think, ‘If I’m successful, then I’ll have opportunities.’ You never figure the cost of fame will be a total loss of privacy. That’s incalculable.” 

He went on to call fame an unanticipated “burden” that he’s “never enjoyed.” 

Actress Selena Gomez has been vocal about how living in the public eye makes her uneasy. In the past, she’s deactivated her social media, and in 2020, she told Interview Magazine that although she’s “not really okay” with her platform, she plans on using it to help people because “it’s worth it.”

Twilight’s Robert Pattison called fame a “strange” thing when speaking with Spanish GQ. He went on to say that being in the public eye can also create loneliness. “I feel fortunate because success didn’t reach me very young; at least, I had the opportunity to have a life before,” he said. 

Shailene Woodley, known for her role in The Secret Life of the American Teenager, told AP that associating herself with the word “fame” has been “hard for me.” 

She added, “I feel like that word alone is so stigmatized and there are so many connotations associated with it that for a long time I refused to even acknowledge it.”

Another KarJenner who is not fond of living in front of so many people is Kylie, the youngest of them all. In 2015, she told Interview Magazine that she would wake up with the “worst anxiety” because she thought there was a “bad story about me.” 

“My worst fear is waking up and finding something bad about me on the Internet,” she added. 

After all of the drama Brad Pitt has had to endure, it makes sense why he’s not a big fan of fame. “It’s everything we didn’t sign up for,” he said. “There’s this whole other entity that you get sucked into. You have to go and sell your wares. Somehow, you’re not supporting your film if you don’t get out on a show and talk about your personal life. It has nothing to do with why I do this.”  

Julia Roberts was incredibly real about how “frustrating” living in the public eye can be. In 1991, she told Entertainment Weekly, “That’s why it’s so absurd and frustrating. Why should I have to explain something that’s never been an issue in my life? But I’m forced to because every paper in the country is writing that I’m a drug addict.”

Amanda Seyfried admitted that being famous can cause much anxiety, describing it as “life or death.” 

“Your body just goes into fight or flight. The endorphin rush and the dump that happens after the panic attack is so extraordinary. You just feel so relieved, and your body is just kind of recovered in a way. It’s so bizarre because it’s physiological, but it starts in your head,” she said. 

Another Twilight star also opened up about the downside of being famous. “Fame is the worst thing in the world. Especially if it’s pointless. When people say, ‘I want to be famous’ — why? You don’t do anything?” Kristen Stewart said. 

Movie star Chris Evans described what comes with fame as a “stressful environment.” 

“Just the life of doing what I do, being in the public eye, it’s a stressful environment … You feel strange, self-aware, very foolish. Your third eye clicks on, just to try to maintain a healthy sense of perspective, and you think, ‘What am I doing here? I’m just making a movie, and people want all these things from me,” he said. 

Gigi Hadid said she’s lost friends because of her famous status. “I’ve lost a lot of friends because I’ll get busy for a short period of time, and they’re not reaching out, but if I don’t reach out, then it’s like I’ve changed. I’m good with [the friends] I’ve got.”

Who would’ve thought this Harry Potter alum didn’t enjoy being famous? In 2019, he said one of the things that hurt him the most as a child star was getting booed. “If you just hear people booing and shouting stuff at you and about you, that, as a kid, sucked. I do remember that being very disheartening.”

The “Garden of Eden” singer told People magazine that one day, it finally clicked for her that she was a pop culture icon. “I became very depressed and sad, and I didn’t want to be myself. I felt threatened by the things my career brought into my life and the pace of my life,” she said. 

In 2007, after the first High School Musical movie became a pop culture phenomenon, Vanessa Hudgens said she “did not want to be a celebrity.” 

She added, “I think fame is just something that comes along when you are in something that is such a success.”

Johnny Depp likened life in the public eye to living as a “fugitive.” 

“If I want to take my kids to the mall or walk through Disneyland or … just walk the streets even, that’s out of the question,” he said. “And then you start to realize that for the past ten or 15 years, you’ve been going into restaurants through the back door, scurrying along greasy floors, trying to get to some private room. It’s not unlike living like a fugitive.”