The way the public conceives celebrities is beginning to change: increasingly, big celebrities, especially actors and actresses, choose to show their most intimate and even dark facets. This trend has become a publishing phenomenonand the autobiography format is one of the most chosen for this need (or strategy?) of the stars to show themselves “with an open heart.”
The most recent case is none other than that of the actor and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger with “The power of being valuable” (Ed. Active company). In November of last year, the protagonist of classics such as “Terminator” or “Predator”, published his new book, a mix of autobiography and motivational guide, which managed to reach number 1 on the list of best sellers in the world. New York Times. The bodybuilder also narrates the long process that has led him to achieve his goals, focusing on the phrase that his father told him one day: “you have to transform yourself into a valuable person, useful to others.” From that, the actor and politician gives his readers 7 keys to achieve what they set out to do. And, according to what he says in the book, after a personal crisis he became a “reference for self-help.”
“Suddenly, I was getting paid as much as former presidents for giving motivational talks to clients and their employees (…) People seemed to benefit from my teachings, in the same way that I had done early in my career by meeting my idols and reading about them,” says Schwarzenegger, who continues to promote the fitness lifestyle through his newsletter and bodybuilding festivals, in addition to committing to social causes such as the environment through different organizations.
Traumas
Last November this type of book had several exponents that generated controversy, as well as sales. In October, the pop singer’s fans of yesterday and today Britney Spears They were delirious when they saw their idol’s autobiography published, “The woman that I am” (Plaza & Janés), a best seller that will be translated into more than fifteen languages, including Bulgarian and Hungarian. Among the things that “the princess of pop” tells in her long-awaited book are her mental health problems, the efforts she made to free herself from her father’s guardianship, and her retention against her will in a psychiatric center, which led to the “Free Britney” global movement. She even says that her paternal grandmother was sent to an asylum by her grandfather, disturbed by her pain after the death of her three-day-old baby. Later, she shot herself on the boy’s grave. “Tragedy runs in the family,” Spears wrote. The book was a resounding commercial success worldwide, selling more than 400,000 copies by the end of the first day after its launch and more than a million, both in book and audiobook format, in the first month. According to People magazine, to date it has sold more than two million copies in the United States alone.
But although the singer celebrated that it was “the best-selling celebrity memoir in history” in a post on her Instagram account, the Guinness record for the best-selling non-fiction book is not held by her work, but by “In the shadow” (Plaza & Janés), the book written by none other than Prince Harry of England. The book, published on January 10, 2023, sold 1.6 million copies in the United States in its first week, and made more than $30 million according to Forbes. In it, Lady Di’s youngest son narrates the miseries of the royal family, the confrontations – even physical – between his father and his brother, Prince William (whom Harry leaves in a very bad light in the book). He also reveals the details of the fight between his wife, Meghan Markleand that of Guillermo, Kate Middleton. As stated at the time by the journalist Sunday Times, Roya Nikkham, the book left Guillermo “devastated”; As for Carlos, he was “deeply hurt,” according to the magazine Vanity Fair.
Policy
Politics is fertile ground for these almost confessional books. Both Barack and Michelle Obama, former president and former first lady of the United States, have joined the list of politicians writing about their lives. In 2020, the year of the pandemic, “A promised land“, of Barack Obama, It was the best-selling book in the United States with 2.5 million copies sold. A year earlier, in 2019, Michelle Obama’s memoirs “My story”, sold more than 1.4 million copies in its first week. In 2017, with astuteness and business vision, the Random House publishing house even offered the couple a $60 million contract to publish those memoirs.
In addition to Schwarzenegger’s book, there are many other cases of actors who one day decide to reveal the less sexy sides of being a celebrity. In the middle of last year Elliot Page(“The Umbrella Academy”) released his book “Pageboy”, where she told everything about her transition from being a woman to a man, how difficult the film industry is for trans people, and an episode she experienced in 2014, when at a party in Los Angeles a famous actor questioned her sexuality. “I’m not sharing his name on purpose. He will find out about this and know it is him,” Page comments in her book.
Of course, Schwarzenegger and Page are not the only actors to have autobiographies. Without going any further, in 2019, Demi Moore public “Inside Out”, where she talked about her addictions to alcohol and cocaine, about machismo in the film industry, and the shocking episode in which her mother, when she was 15, prostituted her with a 50-year-old man in exchange for $500. . And there are even more cases: Jane Fonda public “My life is so far” in 1985 and further back, in 1962, the legendary Bette Davis public “my lonely life” in 1962 (he also published “This and That” in 1982). But why did the trend re-emerge so strongly these days?
Causes
In an article recently published in NEWSthe marketing specialist and Co-Founder of Youniversal, Ximena Diaz Alarcón, explained the phenomenon that we are facing a transformation in the entertainment industry, a movement “towards authenticity and vulnerability, where the ‘human side’ fosters deeper connections between celebrities and their audiences.” The stars appear without filters, makeup or production or are exposed to talking about topics such as mental health or traumatic situations.
“Just as before they were the perfect, the controlled, the unattainable, today they are the imperfect, the failed, the dynamic, the vulnerable. In times of Artificial Intelligence (…) the human, the failed, the artisanal become aspirational.”
Contrary to mandates that impose being perfect and always being good, stars and famous people publish their stories showing their most genuine sides, to arrive, once again, at an obvious but eternally valid conclusion: famous people and stars are people, similar to those who open their books to find the b side of their success and everything that is close to them instead of exceptional.
