Layla Jamo-Cohen - Actors vs. Paparazzi

“Well the cat’s out of the back thanks to some paps in the bushes,” actress Sydney Sweeney wrote in an October 16th Instagram post, sharing “a little bts (behind-the-scenes)” of an untitled biopic, starring Sweeney as boxing world champion Christy Martin (Moreau, 2024, para.2). This post comes days after paparazzi released images of Sweeney on-set, revealing her drastic physical change for the role.The images went viral, and Sweeney wasn’t thrilled with the “paps in bushes” being the first to share information about the movie. I’m inclined to take Sweeney’s side in this situation. Movies released today have curated press tours and timelines for sharing any information about the movie to the public, including images of the film’s star. Paparazzi images–blurry and often taken out of context–feed the public's need for celebrity content, but aren’t authentic to the works they unintentionally promote. If Sweeney had not responded to the images, the paparazzi, instead of the movie studios or producers, would control the film’s narrative.

I was intrigued when the images of Sydney Sweeney were first released, but why? According to Graeme Turner, in her work "Approaching Celebrity Studies,” one of the ways we can define a celebrity, is “as representation,”(2010, p.13). Celebrity is “a genre of representation” that fuels a culture that consumes celebrity stories as a product (Turner, 2010, p.13). This works in tandem with Turner’s idea of the “rise of the image,” where the internet’s “capacities for copying, sharing, and networking,” paparazzi images have allowed them to become a product selling the commodity of the celebrity (2014, p.149). Let's look at the Wicked movie—another example of actors at odds with paparazzi. Ariana Grande recently stated that while filming Wicked, there were paparazzi on hang-gliders, willing to fly over the set to capture any sellable image of the Wicked actors (Sharf, 2024, para.4). However, I have yet to see these aerial shots taken by the modern-flying-monkeys because, like Sweeney, stars of the Wicked movie have taken to releasing their own content from set. These images have essentially replaced those of the paparazzi because myself, and others, would rather watch an unedited, behind-the-scenes, video of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande singing the musical’s most famous song, “Defying Gravity,” than try to find them in blurry aerial shots. As for Sweeney, the images she posted on Instagram were not only better quality than the sniped shots, but also more authentic to the movie, showing her transformation for the role, from her point of view. Sweeney’s images, since she’s shared them, have been used in articles referencing the movie, instead of the paparazzi images. When celebrities understand the need to feed into their “representation,” they can share their stories as commodity, avoiding the “grubby authenticity” that comes with paparazzi images (Turner, 2014, p.147). 

What shocked me about Sweeney’s images, at first, was her physical transformation to play Christy Martin. Sweeney’s past roles in the show Euphoria, the Rom-Com Anyone But You, and even the horror movie Immaculate, have showcased similar versions of her talents and looks; an attractive, slightly emotionally unstable, blonde. These roles have formed what Walter Benjamin would call Sweeney’s “Cult of Personality.” Movie studios, instead of promoting the film, focus on the “artificial build-up of the ‘personality’” of the movie-star, using “not the unique aura of the person, but… the phony spell of a commodity,”(Benjamin, 1936, p.57). Sweeney’s past roles were promoted by commodifying her curated celebrity persona. The new paparazzi photos focused on a shift in her “personality,” citing her drastic change in appearance to sell their images. However, Sweeney took control of this narrative with her Instagram post, writing she’d been “immersed in training to bring to life the story of an incredible woman…who fought battles both inside and outside the ring,” (Moreau, 2024, para.4). Instead of allowing the paparazzi to focus on the fact that she traded in her bombshell-blonde looks for the muscular physique of a brunette-boxer, she shared her own images, and redirected the public’s excitement to Christy Martin’s harrowing story. The Wicked movie did something similar. The Wicked team balances its promotions with aspects of its stars' “Cult of Personality,” by focusing on how Grande and Erivo transformed for their roles, while also sharing content discussing the production of the film with director Jon M. Chu, or the Broadway musical’s fans' appreciation of the film. Because of this controlled content, discussing the works instead of the celebrities, Sweeney and the cast of Wicked demonstrate methods of attracting audiences without relying on their “spell of personality,”(Benjamin, 1936, p.57). 

Some may say that these paparazzi images help the film, rather than damage its audience perception or demean the celebrities’ work. Paparazzi images could be viewed as bringing the audiences closer to the movies, as illustrated by Micheal Schudson’s idea of readers as “players,”(1987, p.531). Schudson writes that the meaning interpreted by the audience is more important than the work itself (1987, p.531). The images released by Sweeney showed the audience a part of the filmmaking process, possibly allowing them to “playfully” critique the work, without a concern of remaining authentic to it (Schudson, 1987, p.531). However, without some control from the studio or the actors, the audience is at risk of veering from the film’s intended meaning. Schudson writes that, while different interpretations of works are encouraged, not all interpretations are “valid” (1987, p.501). Audiences need the controlled media from celebrities like Sweeney and Grande to guide, not control, their interpretations. This allows audiences to focus on the work itself, rather than only critiquing a celebrity’s physical transformation, or misinterpreting the work. 

The rise of the paparazzi image opened the door for the public’s need for celebrity content, but promotion of a film is best when it is controlled by the producers, and not in the hands of paparazzi, whose only goal is to sell the celebrity commodity, instead of developing the authenticity of a work. 

Reference List:  

Benjamin, W. (1936). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.  https://canvas.upenn.edu/courses/1788301/files/135308035/download?download_frd=1  

Moreau, J. (2024). Sydney Sweeney shows off her mullet and muscles as boxer Christy Martin in   sports biopic: ‘I’ve been immersed in training’. Variety. https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sydney-sweeney-christy-martin-boxer-movie-1236179820/

Schudson, M. (1987). The new validation of popular culture. In J. Storey (Ed.) Cultural theory and popular culture, pp. 495-503. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

https://canvas.upenn.edu/courses/1788301/files/135307951/download?download_frd=1  

Turner, G. (2014). Is celebrity news, news? Journalism, 15(2) pp.144-152.https://canvas.upenn.edu/courses/1788301/files/135308051?wrap=1

Turner, G. (2010). Approaching celebrity studies. Celebrity Studies, 1(1), pp. 11-20. https://canvas.upenn.edu/courses/1788301/files/135308052?wrap=1

Sharf, Z. (2024). Ariana Grande says paparazzi used hang-gliders to fly over the ‘Wicked’ set and take videos: ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes’. Variety. https://variety.com/2024/film/news/ariana-grande-wicked-set-paparazzi-hang-gliders-1236114103/