Celebs like Chappell Roan are more than privileged. We’ve got to stop running to their defence

Chappell Roan is never far from the headlines, and often more for what’s happening offstage and outside of the recording studio.

You may have seen the “Chappell Roan says she doesn’t hate children” headlines and wondered if she had landed a role as Mrs Trunchbull.

The hoopla is something that seems to be not actually her fault, but it does raise a bigger question of just how much celebrities owe their fans, and what is a reasonable boundary to set.

First, the background.

Roan was in Sao Paulo to perform at Lollapalooza Brazil. According to her account, she didn’t know anything had happened until after footballer Jorginho posted on social media about an encounter between Roan and his stepdaughter, 11-year-old Ada Law, whose father is actor Jude Law.

Ada, a fan of Roan’s who was in town to attend the singer’s performance, was with her mother Catherine Harding at a hotel when the pair spotted Roan at breakfast.

Jorginho posted, “She simply walked past the singer’s table to confirm it was her, smiled, and went back to sit with her mum. She didn’t say anything, didn’t ask for anything.”

Next minute, a large security guard approached them and berated Ada and her mother for allegedly harassing behaviour. The young girl was left in tears.

After it blew up on social media, Roan responded by saying that the security guard in question was not part of her personal crew and that she saw never even saw Ada and her mother, let alone sent someone to intimidate them.

That guard, whose name is Pascal Duvier, has since issued an apology and clarified that he had been at the hotel as part of someone else’s team, not Roan’s, he wasn’t directed by anyone, and that he took full responsibility for what happened, although he claimed that the interaction had been “calm”.

So, in the end, not Roan’s fault, right?

You have to wonder if the whole thing would’ve reached the level it did because Roan has in the past been outspoken about setting clear boundaries between herself and her fans.

“I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions, and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you sh-t,” she said previously. “I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.”

She added that unless she is performing, doing press or in drag, she’s off the clock and she doesn’t owe her attention to anyone.

For many people, especially her ardent defenders, fair enough. Even celebrities are entitled to time off, and Roan is hardly the only famous person who doesn’t want to be approached just because they’ve dared to step outside their house.

But to others, it smacks of being ungrateful for all the privileges they’ve been afforded – the private jets, the mansions, the staff and all the designer gear.

Jorginho had ended his original missive to Roan with, in caps which is too aggressive to replicate, “Without your fans, you would be nothing, and to the fans, she does not deserve your affection”.

OK, the footballer was, perhaps, being a little hysterical, and a little unkind if you consider he had posted that without verifying what really happened, and given his own celebrity profile, would’ve been in a position to backchannel.

He’s not wrong in that without fans, celebrities wouldn’t be able to access the kind of life they live.

Brad Pitt wouldn’t be able to command a $US40 million cheque for the upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel, as reported by Puck today, if those paying him wasn’t confident that there are loads of people, fans, who are going to turn out to watch him.

But does that then entitle you to approach him if he’s out at a restaurant with his kids? Haha, jokes, that wouldn’t happen to Pitt now, because his children don’t talk to him, but you get the point.

Celebrities also leverage their popularity for big paydays outside of their work. Actors and sportspeople are paid millions to be brand ambassadors not just because they’re talented. Lots of people are talented but brainy scientists don’t get Dior contracts.

It’s because they’re popular and they have influence among their fans who will maybe go out and buy that perfume or those coffee pods. They literally monetise their fandom.

It’s a really difficult thing to negotiate, needing to sustain a sheen of approachability and relatability, and, let’s face it, aspiration because that’s what makes capitalism work, while still holding something back of yourself for yourself.

You only have to ask Harry and Meghan about the pitfalls of being asked to be left alone while detailing their traumas and gripes publicly on streaming shows, podcasts, magazine profiles and in memoirs.

It’s the balance that we have yet to strike because humans are unpredictable and can turn on a dime. That double-edged sword of admiration and resentment. We love you but how dare you if you don’t demonstrably love us back?

We’ve seen what happens when boundaries aren’t respected, and more often than not, it entangles younger women. The early 2000s which spawned online blogs and tabloids such as Perez Hilton and TMZ super charged this phenomenon, and it’s widely accepted the likes of Britney Spears were left worse off because of that level of intensity from paparazzi.

Or the phone hacking scandals in the UK that violated the privacy of the likes of Sienna Miller, Prince Harry, Hugh Grant and David Tennant.

And the stalkers that have besieged Madonna, Beyonce, Keira Knightley and more. John Lennon was killed by a stalker. Singer Selena was murdered by the former president of her fan club.

Generally speaking, Australians are relatively chill when it comes to celebrities in the wild. We’re too cool for school to make fools of ourselves. If you see someone famous at a café or out on the street, we tend to not approach them – we just unsubtly stare and gawp.

But I have also seen when a situation could easily get away from being under control. Years ago, Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish legged it down under to promote the release of The Secret Life of Pets 2.

The premiere was part of the Sydney Film Festival so the tickets were available to purchase for the general public. It was held at a cinema which means the celebrities have to enter and exit the room past seated attendees.

Haddish and Hart walked into the cinema, waved and smiled and said a few quick words at the front before they started to leave.

More than a dozen people who were near Hart and Haddish’s paths out of the cinema leapt from their seats and swarmed the pair while others further afield saw what was happening and moved to do the same (FOMO, you know).

Hart’s security swooped him out of there before you could blink, but Haddish was left to fend off all these people clamouring for selfies. It was quickly shut down, but you can see how it could’ve ended differently.

It was alarming (and embarrassing) to see a bunch of people rush towards one person, limbs flailing as they moved to get a “good” shot, disregarding Haddish’s personal space as well as others around them.

Not to mention the logistical challenge that if Haddish then took a selfie with every single person in that 300-seat theatre, that movie was going to start an hour late which bumps out the schedule for everyone for the rest of the day.

It’s one thing when fans are corralled behind barriers on the red carpet, it’s another when these encounters happen in a space, on stairs no less, that wasn’t designed for that.

Quite a few celebrities will take their time to give a moment to most fans who lined up and waited to see them at these premieres, within the protocols. The fans love it, the celeb is all smiles and engenders good will.

Paul Rudd, when he was in Sydney for the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania event, spent a lot of time on the barricades. Last year, Pedro Pascal gave extra time to the fans at the Fantastic Four premiere, to the chagrin of waiting media who then missed out on red carpet soundbites.

Austin Butler greeted a lot of fans at The Bikers premiere despite the downpour – he was visibly drenched when he came out on stage inside.

Those who have been in the game a long time, the likes of Oprah Winfrey, can automatically turn it on and will give their fans a moment to remember with a quick photo and a handshake.

But there is something to be said for someone like Roan, who’s a cuspy Gen Z/Gen Y. That whole generation is re-litigating social norms and expectations because they don’t accept a status quo that serves to entrench existing power. We don’t really know how that’s going to shake out yet.

The key is to do our best to find the balance, and it’s something we’re constantly negotiating especially in an age of the shifting dynamics of fame.