Some pop culture moments feel more and more like bouts of collective insanity as they age. Why did everyone hate Anne Hathaway all those years ago? Around 2013, it seemed like the actress couldn’t take a break, despite receiving a ton of accolades for her role in Les Miserables. Despite a lack of scandal or downright obnoxious behavior, she was “the star we love to loathe,” “the bad kind of theater kid,” “the kind of person who inexplicably annoys people.”
Since then, the criticism has all but faded from the public consciousness, a half-remembered Hollywood fever dream akin to the time everyone pissed off Taylor Swift for writing about her ex-boyfriends, or that one 2009 concert when everyone was Jessica Simpson shamed.
Hathaway hasn’t forgotten, though, and she’s not the only one reminding people that ruthless criticism of celebrities — a cherished and lucrative pastime in Hollywood — isn’t as fashionable as it used to be.
At Elle’s 2022 Women in Hollywood event this week, commented Hathway on the past “Hathahate” with painful intimacy, saying the outer hatred only increased her inner hatred for herself.
“If your self-inflicted pain suddenly comes back to you amplified, that’s one thing,” she said. Experience has taught her not to “make room” for such language, either for herself or for anyone else. She also urged others to do the same.
“You can judge behavior. You can forgive behavior or not,” she said. “But you don’t have the right to judge someone for their existence – and especially not to hate them.”
Hathaway’s discussion of mental health highlights a relatively recent addition to the conversation. Stars have spoken out against bullying for quite some time, but it’s only in the last few years that we’ve seen many conversations about how fame affects their mental health.
In her new memoir, Making a Scene, actress Constance Wu writes about struggling with her identity and how she reconciles who she is with who she thought she needed to be, to make it in the entertainment business.
“I write about wanting to be the cool girl in my 20s and not making a scene,” she told Shondaland. “Because I thought that would make me cool and loved and appreciated. But it doesn’t work because it’s not authentic.”
Wu also writes about the sexual harassment she endured on her sitcom Fresh Off the Boat.
“I endured all of this sexual harassment, intimidation and abuse for the first two years of the show, but then once it was a hit I stopped speaking to my abuser and was able to continue my job professionally and even happily,” she says . “So I thought I’d nailed it. But I realized that repressed abuse and feelings don’t go away just because you want them to.”
While the intricacies of being a celebrity may be distant to most people, processing trauma and confronting harmful expectations are universal experiences. By discussing these issues head-on, women like Hathaway and Wu point to a sea change in celebrity culture.
Of course, reckless celebrity gossip isn’t just a popular pastime of the masses. It’s a lucrative cog in the Hollywood machine. Entire franchises, like Bravo’s Real Housewives series, are built around the sport of pitting women against one another in real and imagined rivalries. But just as some stars pull back the curtain on the true ramifications of bullying and criticism, others are cutting those traditions closer to the root.
Social media recently had a bit of a meltdown when Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber posed together for the first time at the Academy Museum Gala. To those outside of the Hollywood gossip sphere, this means absolutely nothing. But for those in the know — those who know Gomez is Bieber’s husband Justin Bieber’s longtime ex, the moment was almost iconic.
The two women have long been pitted against each other by fans, with Gomez cast as the one who got away and Bieber as the usurping, second best wife. They’ve both used their platforms to warn about online hate and harassment, but the proxy feud fueled by their fans has been persistent.
So, seeing them together was as monumental as a photo op with, say, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie would have been in the early 2000s, when everyone was “Team Aniston” or “Team Jolie” after Brad Pitt divorced.
In the current media environment, it’s not necessarily uncommon for famous women to show solidarity or speak personally about the ill effects of fame. What’s remarkable is that the fans are so eager and receptive to these developments.
Comments on photographer Tyrell Hampton’s Instagram post of Gomez and Bieber paint a clear picture of this:
“Is this what world peace feels like?”
“Everyone wants them to hate each other so much, and for what?”
“I’m proud of her.”
They are not dissimilar the reactions on social media that followed Hathaway’s recent comments.
“Why did everyone hate Anne Hathaway for no reason?”
“They were just haters.”
It’s one thing for stars to reveal just how cruel celebrity gossip can be. More often we see fans listening and agreeing, questioning their own role in these obsessions. Together, both sides of the screen are looking for a more positive relationship with fame.