Anghus Houvouras asks why we want our celebrities to suffer…
Matthew McConaughey had an enviable 2013. The kind of career reinvention that is so rare I’m hard pressed to find a modern comparison. He was always a likable guy. Since he first rolled up in movies like Dazed and Confused audiences were drawn to this good old boy from Texas who had the looks and the charm of a leading man with swagger to spare. Hollywood tried him as a leading man and major box office draw to mixed results. They never found a real vehicle that would propel him to international super stardom, though they tried. Junk like Sahara was the kind of mainstream movie designed to turn him into a major star, but none of them ever took.
Most of his early success came in the form of the most reprehensible form of movie: The romantic comedy. McConaughey was dealing with all kinds of formulaic garbage. Failing to launch the ghosts of girlfriend’s past and losing them in 10 days. This was not a career of envy. This was the subject of much ridicule and scorn. Everybody liked McConaughey and his easy going ways, but he was an easy target.
Then, last year, he started this amazing ascension wowing audiences in Mud and gaining major kudos for Dallas Buyers Club. He had an amazing cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street and is headlining one of the most talked about new series on HBO in True Detective. Then this past week he went and won himself an Oscar for his amazing, transformative work. Then, he went on stage and talked about how important it is to inspire yourself and keep improving. Matthew McConaughey has cruised into middle age with grace, dignity, and has proven the power of believing in yourself.
So of course the reaction this week from the internet has been “Go fuck yourself.”
Issac Guzman from Time magazine led the charge with some snarky comments like: “After winning for his role as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey launched into a semi-bizarre tale about his inner life. ”
Or Brie Haramine who asserted “the fact that McConaughey’s place in our culture affords him the privilege of having a slightly off-kilter personality, almost without criticism.”
The media sites are downright pleasant compares to what you read on Twitter and various comments sections online. The perception of McConaughey as a ‘stoner’ and an ‘idiot’ are so rampant that people seem to have a hard time taking him seriously. He’s successfully altered his career trajectory but not people’s perceptions. But I think it goes a little deeper than just people’s inability to deal with sudden credibility.
There’s this strange phenomenon associated with celebrity. There are people who seem to hate the idea that successful entertainers have a career path that avoids ruin. No one minds seeing the young actor out gallivanting with attractive women and drinking heavily. They enjoy the immature exploits that is so commonplace with celebrity. When famous people are painting the town red and travelling the world in various states of undress, they are perfect. However, when they transition into middle age with any degree of dignity, they are met with a puzzling level of disdain.
The truth is, there are a lot of people out there who want their celebrities to overdose or die in a flaming car wreck. Growing old gracefully isn’t sexy. It’s this weird, romanticized ideal that famous people are better served by a tragic end striking them down before their prime. You hear that quote every so often: die young and leave a beautiful corpse. I heard that quote used in reference to James Dean, which seemed odd since he died in a horrible car wreck. I doubt his corpse was all that beautiful.
People seem to prefer the more morbid ending. The kind of sad fates that befall people like Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Even though they are far more gruesome fates and hardly befitting of someone you claimed to like. Happy endings don’t make for great stories. The media seems weirdly incredulous about McConaughey and his positive life lessons because seeing, fulfilled people doesn’t generate a lot of page views.
The entertainment media would rather churn out non-stories like ‘Is Leo ever going to win an Oscar?” than focus on a well adjusted talent. We should be celebrating McConaughey who has proven that you can not only reinvent yourself, but do so gloriously. Living well may be the best reward, but its not the ending people want to see for famous people.
I don’t know where this sentiment stems from. Is it because deep down people don’t want celebrities to have it all? That they want to believe there’s a price to pay for all this avarice? That there are consequences for the high life. It’s certainly a theme you see in literature, film and awful reality shows. The myth is constantly perpetuated, that the rich and famous live insular and often unhappy lives. Bereft of real connections and lasting relationships with disaffected children who will one day write tell-all books about the awful household they grew up in. Society has a hard time believing that someone talented and successful is able to live a normal life. We want them to have demons. We expect it. And many seem strangely ambivalent towards those who manage to achieve normalcy and success in a town where celebrities not descending into darkness is the exception.
Happiness is an anomaly. That’s a sobering thought.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon.
Originally published March 5, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
