The celebrity interview has been on a steady wane, at least in India. Call it the LinkedIn influence or the way interactions are ‘managed’ in the media today. Or just the fact that engagement, content creation and commerce are tied in such an inextricable fashion that those in the spotlight grow exhausted to the point of being left with nothing to say. But it’s tiring to see a glut of the same old hashed in culture all around us. So, we dug around for a few things that celebrities say that really get our goat now—and here are the results.
That your fashion sense depends on ‘comfort’
Fashion cannot be comfortable. Period. Not always, at least. It’s pathetic to see those in the limelight resort to the old crutch of ‘comfort’. If you’ve been asked that question, the world wants to know what it is that inspired that silky kimono you wore at the airport. Or the bagpiper skirt you attended your podcast-host cousin’s wedding in? We really don’t want to learn why sweats and a white tee are your ultimate go-to. It’s lazy. How else would have the world known Mads Mikkelsen doesn’t use perfume (he is into deodorants)?
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The word ‘craft’
If I had a penny for the number of times I’ve been force-fed this term without any relevance or significance to the ongoing conversation, I wouldn’t still be writing this. Someone could be describing how they stirred their morning coffee and still manage to say, ‘It’s part of my craft’. It’s such an overused and vacuous term today that the annoyance it causes has overshadowed even the vexation associated with the word ‘iconic’.
And the word ‘humbled’
If you were to only choose one between ‘craft’ and ‘humbled’, I’d rather you make it this. A lot of celebs often find themselves ‘humbled’ by an award they won or something else. Why should it humble you? Do you mean that you know you need to stay humble even after such a monumental accomplishment? If that’s the case, then you haven’t been humbled at all.
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That you ‘followed your instincts’
What did you do that worked for you in a film? ‘I followed my instincts’. How do you design for the modern man? ‘I just trust my instinct’. What’s the secret to great bowel movement? ‘Instinct, simple.’ Tell us what those instincts were. What did they exactly say to you? What’s your instinct like—that’s what we actually want to know. Your response is going to take print real estate, don’t be lazy. Imagine if Jeremy Strong hadn’t told the New Yorker about shadowing a real handyman to play a plumber in the film Armageddon Time.
Don’t give us that low-effort basic skincare ritual
You really haven’t just been slapping on any moisturiser once a day. Don’t regurgitate the 10-step BS that you read last week and were so smitten by. And about sunscreen—the whole world knows about it now. If you’ve learnt some tricks of the trade along the way, don’t gatekeep. You’re not fooling anyone—we know there’s a €700 serum involved somewhere. Or, at least smile and say, ‘I don’t share my secrets’.