Fry on Fame

A few days ago I told Rod I was bored with the internet. Just felt like I was surfing the same sites, reading the same news, etc etc.

One place that isn't boring is the comedian, actor, novellist, playwright, film director, and presenter Stephen Fry's website. What a hero that man is, just celebrated by the BBC's Fry at 50 last weekend.

His immensely long blog essay [a 'blessay', as he calls it] about fame is well worth a read. He discusses its effects on the famous and on the non-famous, the ettiquette of approaching 'Slebs, different types of fame.

Here's one interesting section of Stephen Fry's Fame essay:

"The Tom Cruise Eye-Contact Canard
"Poor old Tom Cruise. If only I had a euro for everyone who has said to me
in tones of wild, almost joyful disapproval, ‘apparently no one is allowed to look at him on the film set!’ (Actually the link I’ve embedded just there also shows how these ‘stories’ can be skewed for the purposes of some raving agenda, in this case a right-wing one). ‘Eye contact is
banned!! I’m not making it up!! How mad is that?! Extras and crew are actually
instructed not to stare at him!!’ In fact, a little imagination of the kind I
asked you to summon up earlier and you might be able to picture this scenario:
Tom Cruise (but you actually, because you’ve put yourself in his shoes) is about
to do an important scene which involves hundreds of extras. He has to break
down/shout/burst into tears/whatever. He comes on set to finish the camera
line-up and get ready to shoot. Wherever he tries to rest his eyes there is
someone staring at him. He is working, mind you, earning his fantastic salary
(or if not earning it in your opinion, complying at least with its contractual
imperatives), this is what he does, it takes concentration and skill, you may
not value it, but take it from me, it isn’t easy. He has to prepare himself for
whatever is required and then repeat the performance time after time for
different camera angles. Put yourself in his position: you’re going to have to
do something wild and daring in front of the camera and as you try to put
yourself in the correct frame of mind there is nowhere to rest your eyes. Is it
unreasonable to say to the Assistant Director, ‘would you mind asking all the
background artists if they wouldn’t stare at me? Actually, knowing Asst.
Directors, they would probably foresee the problem and make the announcement
without consulting him even before Cruise ever arrived: ‘no one to stare at Mr
Cruise when he’s on set.’ This gets repeated, comes to the ear of gossip
columnists, mad republicans and others and it soon sounds like insane vain
stardom all over again.

When I was playing Wilde I had the same problem getting
ready for the scene where Oscar comes out of the courtroom in handcuffs and is
jeered and spat at. As the scene was being lit I couldn’t look in any direction
without meeting the gaze of an extra, so I spent all the time staring at my
boots or into a corner, like a naughty boy at kindergarten. I didn’t ask the AD
if she’d put out a request for them not to look at me, but if I were in the same
position again I might. Or I would spend the whole time in my trailer until the
very, very last minute, which is bad for the director, the crew and the
performance, not to mention the reputation of the actor who is forever set down
in people’s minds as a Trailer Queen. But see how easily rumours of mad egoism
get round? I’m not saying there aren’t wild egos amongst the famous, but
sometimes it’s just a lack of imagination amongst the non-famous that sees
insanity where all that lies behind it is professionalism and self-preservation. "


Another is Fry's description of a typical interaction with a member of the general public:

You: I know you probably get really annoyed by people coming up to you.
Me: No, no. Not at all.
You: No, it must be really irritating.
Me: Oh, well. Goes with the job …
You: You probably just want to be left alone.
Me: Well, you know …
You: What makes people bother you all the time? Don’t they know you’ve got the right to a private life?
Me: Mm.
You: Makes you sick. Love your work, by the way.
Me: Thank you.You: I’m not like some mad fan, you know, but I used to watch that a Bit of Hugh and Laurie… and that IQ thing you do.
Me: … QI …
You: Right. That Alan Davies, what’s he like? No, really. What’s he like?
Me: He’s very nice.
You: Yeah, but is he that stupid?
Me: He’s not stupid at all.
You: No but he is, isn’t he?
Me: No, no, not at all. Quite the reverse.
You: Right, thought so. Do you remember your parents used to shop at a delicatessen in Norwich called Lambert’s?
Me: Er … yes, that rings a bell.
You: My girlfriend’s mum had a friend who worked there.
Me: Gosh, really?
You: Amazing, isn’t it?
Me: Astounding. Look, I really must …
You: Do you know what C. S. Lewis’s middle name was?
Me: Er, Staples I think.
You: Oh. Someone must have told you that.
Me: Well, yes, a biography of C. S. Lewis.
You: Most people don’t know that.
Me: Don’t they? Well, well. Gosh, I must be …
You: Must be very annoying having people just come up to you. Don’t know how you put up with it … have you got a pen?
Me: Excuse me?
You: Or a piece of paper? Tell you what, can you sign this pack of biscuits. Oi, darling, lend us a pen, see who I’m talking to? … Etc.


And another is Fry's plea:

"Your Friends
"If I were to ask one thing of people in their interaction with the famous
it is this: consider the companions. Imagine what it is like to be in the
company of a well-known person, a person who could be your brother, sister,
mother, life-partner, school-friend, client, patient. You’re chatting away and
someone barges in on your conversation. They completely ignore you, indeed often
literally elbow you out of the way, planting their back in your face. You
patiently stare into your soup and watch as your famous friend/lover deals with
them charmingly and eventually manages to end the exchange. Who has suffered
most? The famous person? No, he or she knows perfectly well how to deal with
this, has accustomed themselves to these encounters and is, after all, usually
the beneficiary, is made to feel important. But the companion! They are made to
feel the opposite of important. They are at best ignored and at worst resented
for taking up the time and conversation of the famous person in the first place.
“Who do you think you are, dining with them as if you owned them?” It is awful,
awful, awful having to accompany a well-known person in public. On the first few
occasions it might be instructive and interesting to a student of social
anthropology, but in the end it’s a pain, a real pain. So if you ever do go up
to someone well known, consider that point. "

Do read the whole essay. You will not regret it.